Agriculturally rich – naturally beautiful
The District Council of Yorke Peninsula was formed on 10 February 1997 as a result of the voluntary amalgamation of the Warooka, Yorketown, Minlaton and Central Yorke Peninsula district councils. A permanent workforce of 130 supports, via a budget of $17 million, the vision of ‘Building a quality future for our communities’. The Council covers an area of 5,834 square kilometres, with a distance of approximately 175 kilometres between its northern and southern boundaries. Being a peninsula, it has a varying width east to west averaging approximately 30 kilometres.
Yorke Peninsula has long been recognised as one of the most reliable, best quality grain growing regions in Australia. Indeed, the Minlaton community markets itself as the ‘Barley Capital of the World’. Council is unique in comparison to other Local Government authorities in Australia in that it is bordered by the sea on three sides and has some 485 kilometres of coastline. This distance represents approximately one twelfth of the coastline of South Australia and also results in Council having one fifth of the boat ramps in the State.
With a permanent population of only 11,720, but with the northern boundary of Council less than 90 minutes by car from Adelaide, Yorke Peninsula is an extremely popular holiday home and tourist region. This statistic supports the fact that the area contains 45 townships and holiday settlements, ranging in size from 50 permanent residents in several coastal settlements to the largest town of Ardrossan with a population of 1,100 people.
During 2003, the Yorke Peninsula region had some 523,000 visitors who spent a total of 1.9 million nights in the area. These figures represent an increase of 25 per cent over previous year figures and highlight the increasing popularity of the region for domestic and intra state tourism.
Quality Assurance
Following an independent audit conducted in June 2001 under ISO 9001:2000 standards, Council had the honour of becoming the first council in South Australia, and only the second in Australia, to become a Quality Assurance organisation across the full scope of its operations. While this result was achieved through much hard work and by engaging all staff, Council is proud of the achievement and has continued over the last three years to work diligently at ensuring that this level of customer service is maintained and that, as an organisation, it continues to strive for excellence.
Holiday destination
Yorke Peninsula is blessed with a magnificent, interesting coastline and excellent fishing in the gulfs. Naturally, this has resulted in many initial holiday experiences being dedicated to beach and boat fishing, with King George Whiting, one of the best eating fish in Australia, being a local delicacy. Within the Council area are some 15 caravan parks, all operated on Council land and run via the option of lease to private operator, contract managers of Council or contract managers for community controlled progress associations. These caravan parks have a combined 350,000 site night occupations per year, inject some $30 million into the local economy each year, and offer a variety of facilities covering the needs of all visitors from tent sites, to caravan sites to spa cabin accommodation.
Port Vincent – Australia’s Tidiest Town
After nearly 25 years of being involved in the Keep South Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns program, Port Vincent, a small community of 400 people on the east coast of Yorke Peninsula, was announced in early April 2004 at the national Keep Australia Beautiful Awards presentation in Fremantle as Australia’s Tidiest Town. Port Vincent Tidy Towns is currently made up of 37 predominantly retired, but very dedicated, volunteers who meet 40 weeks per year on Tuesday mornings to carry out township improvement projects.
They take on amazing projects and have been very active in tree propagation and planting, glass recycling, constructing walking trails, retention of natural vegetation and protecting the environment. After being selected in 2000 and 2003 as South Australia’s Tidiest Town, the period between the national judging on 24 February and the announcement of Australia’s Tidiest Town on 4 April was a nervous wait for all involved.
In keeping with the emphasis of community partnerships at work, a community celebration recognising this magnificent achievement was held on 16 April at which the formal presentation of the three national awards was made by John Gazzola MLC, representing Premier Mike Rann, to the Port Vincent community.
These were:
- the Outdoor Advertising Association of Australia – Community Action Award
- the inaugural Dame Phyllis Frost Award for Outstanding Achievement
- Australia’s Tidiest Town.
An important part in this achievement was the aspect of community partnerships involving all sections and age groups. Port Vincent Primary School, which only has 20 students but has been the recipient of several nation awards for marine studies, is a significant partner in the programs.
Community involvement
Being a Council area made up of 45 communities creates considerable difficulties in engaging and informing residents. Luckily, the people who reside in Yorke Peninsula are particularly interested in contributing to the betterment of the region in which they live by being prepared to get involved in progress associations within their local township. Council provides financial and in kind support to each of the 29 progress associations that exist and consults with them regularly so as to ensure that the best possible decisions are made. Each progress association has been encouraged to develop and document its vision for the next five years so as to allow Council to place these initiatives into its own Strategic Plan and forward budget estimates.
Regional Indigenous Land Use Agreement
Over the last two years, the Narungga people, as the traditional owners of Yorke Peninsula, have been engaged in ongoing discussions with the Yorke Peninsula, Copper Coast, Barunga West and Wakefield Regional Councils to develop a Regional Indigenous Land Use Agreement. This agreement, which is anticipated to be finalised soon and represents a historic step forward, will be the first to be developed in South Australia. It will give surety to all parties on how native title, Indigenous culture and development proposals are to be considered.
Development potential
In each of the last four years, Council has approved between 160 and 200 new homes to be built in the area. 2004 has started off in a similar vein with $4 million worth of approvals issued for the month of April. Providing opportunities for this sort of growth via the development of appropriate subdivisions has been a challenge to Council. While a real growth area of South Australia, the region also faces the difficulty of being frustrated by a lack of basic infrastructure such as reticulated water that is not available in 16 of our 45 communities. In spite of having to rely on rainwater collection and storage, significant growth has still been experienced in many of these communities.
2003 witnessed the official opening of Yorke Peninsula’s first marina, at Port Vincent, which was built entirely on reclaimed land. While only relatively small in size, with 70 residential allotments, one commercial site which will have 15 serviced apartments and a tavern, plus a 85 marina berths and a public boat ramp area, land sales have occurred at a rapid pace. The first few very up-market homes have already been built.
Further information contact Steven Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer, on (08) 8832 0000, email steven.griffiths@yorke.sa.gov.au or visit www.yorke.sa.gov.au
