Talk:Port Germein, South Australia

Rollbacks - Hummock Harbour and Melrose District Council

I have rolled back two edits by @101.166.230.234:. Thank you for trying to help.

• The reference for Hummock Harbour does indeed say that was a previous name for Port Germein. However the passage presumably refers to the body of water, not to a town that had not been established in 1854. What is less-clear to me is the relationship between "Germein Bay" and "Port Pirie" as bodies of water, rather than as towns and wharves. Could all three names actually refer to the same (or overlapping) things? A Google search for "Hummock Harbour" shows that Port Germein Heritage Arts and Tourism believed Wikipedia.
• I can't find any proof that Port Germein District Council became part of Melrose District Council. It seems that Melrose held the council chamber for the District Council of Port Germein.

--Scott Davis ^Talk 07:10, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

There was no "District Council of Melrose": the District Council of Port Germein (1888-1980) merged into the District Council of Mount Remarkable. The Drover's Wife (talk) 12:18, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

@Louisenord: has removed the sentence again, with edit summary Port Germein was not known as Hummock Harbour "Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 19 April 1851, page 7", "South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Thursday 14 December 1871, page 5"

these references appear to be to articles:

• "PORT GERMAIN". Adelaide Observer. Vol. IX, , no. 408. South Australia. 19 April 1851. p. 7. Retrieved 14 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia. ...a rough survey of Port Pirie, now more generally-known as "Hummock Harbour," ...{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• "PORT PIRIE OR PORT PERI?". South Australian Register. Vol. XXXVI, , no. 7826. South Australia. 14 December 1871. p. 5. Retrieved 14 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia. Port Pirie was discovered by Captain John Germein... in the year 1840 (I speak from memory)...he discovered what is now known as Port Pirie, but which he called Hummock Harbour{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

Both of these references pre-date any settlement at the towns now known as Port Germein and Port Pirie, so "Hummock Harbour" must have referred to a body of water, not a settlement.

• "PORT PIRIE". The Advertiser. Vol. XXXV, , no. 10739. South Australia. 20 March 1893. p. 7. Retrieved 14 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

This description of the development of the town and wharves now known as Port Pirie does not mention the name "Hummock Harbour", but also does not have a positive description of a harbour in the creek that now hosts the wharves, before it was dredged deeper. It first mentions Port Germein in 1856, and Germein Bay some time later.

The question (to me) then remains what names have been applied in whole or in part to the water enclosed between Ward Spit (west of the current town of Port Germein) and Point Jarrold (southwest of Port Davis/Port Pirie). My guess is that Hummock Harbour referred loosely to the whole of that expanse, which seems to now be known as Germein Bay, and I have found no indication of where a ketch might have loaded wool before either the wharves at Port Pirie or the jetty at Port Germein were built.

Looking at the gazetteer layers in the LocationSA Map Viewer:

• SA0010015 Bay Turenne and SA0025871 Germein Bay are bounded by a straight line from Ward Point to Fifth Creek.
• SA0055715 Port Pirie is an odd shape that includes the Port Pirie Creek and the southern side of Ward Spit (but not the coast of the present Port Germein, South Australia township or Germein Bay, South Australia locality)
• SA0007031 Harbor of Port Pirie includes Port Pirie, the coast all the way round to Ward Spit, and an expanse of water out to a point in the middle of the gulf, but not quite as far southwest as the end of Germein Bay (the bay).

I wonder (but have not found any reference yet) if this largest boundary is the modern interpretation of "Hummock Harbour". --Scott Davis ^Talk 13:28, 14 February 2017 (UTC)