Centenary of Point Pearce Aboriginal ReservePrint Page

The plaque commemorates the centenary of the founding of the Point Pearce Aboriginal Reserve in February 1868 and the original inhabitants of the Reserve.

The Yorke Peninsula Aboriginal Mission committee was established in Moonta in the early 1860’s and Reverend W. Julius Kuhn, a Moravian missionary began teaching Nharangga children in a wool shed near town. The committee began petitioning the government for a more permanent settlement and in 1868 the Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission was established. The settlement measured some 639 acres and was covered by thick scrub of tea tree, mallee and sheoak. Many of the Nharangga people were assembled at the mission and set about erecting the first buildings. A limestone quarry provided building material and a schoolroom and house for the Missionary were soon built.

By 1878, ten years after the establishment of the Point Pearce Mission, it’s acreage had been increased, the population had grown considerably and crops were being harvested. The settlement was like a small township with cottages and houses, wool sheds, workshops, a church and large underground stone tanks. A stone-walled garden supplied the kitchens with vegetables while water was carted from the Willows, where a series of windmills pumped spring water to the surface. Later, piping was laid to large storage tanks within the settlement itself.

When Poonindie Mission, on Eyre Peninsula, closed in 1894, Point Pearce became home to many of its people and new cottages were erected. The mission continued to expand and in late 1935 the hall was built. Other buildings included a meat shop, blacksmith’s, wheat barn, piggery, shearing sheds and chaff house.

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