Mission Station, Point Pearce, c. 1890, courtesy of State Library of South Australia.
Details
The Point Pearce Mission Station was established 35 miles south of Wallaroo in 1868. It was run by the Yorke Peninsula Aboriginal Mission committee to assist the Narungga people living on the outskirts of copper mining towns in the area. Moravian Missionary Julius Kuhn was the first superintendent. Initially 70 Narrungga people came to the Mission but poor conditions and illness led to deaths in 1872. By 1874 the population had dropped to 28. In 1894 families from the closed Poonindie Mission were moved to Point Pearce. A school was operated in the Mission House at the Station until 1906 when a school house was first commissioned. In 1915, the Mission was taken over by the State Government and became known as the Point Pearce Aboriginal Station.
1868 - 1915 Point Pearce Mission Station
1915 - 1972 Point Pearce Aboriginal Station
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Point Pearce - South Australia, past and present, for the future', in SA Memory, 2009, http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1241; 'Indigenous History of the Yorke Peninsula', in Discover the Yorke Peninsula, 2010, https://yorke.sa.gov.au/discover/local-history-and-heritage/indigenous-culture/the-nharangga/.
Prepared by: Gary George
Created: 19 May 2014, Last modified: 5 December 2017
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE01331b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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