After leaving the Minlacowie Conservation Park (Monday 6th February 2023), we drove down to the town of Yorketown. We need to purchase some bottles of red wine for our trip to Troubridge Island.

Prior to European settlement, the aboriginal people called the area around Yorketown, karinja – kari meaning ‘emu’ and nja – ‘place’. The original plan of the town shows Yorke Town, but it was advertised as ‘The Town of Yorke’, taking its name from Yorke Peninsula.

Whilst in Yorketown we visited the water tower mural which was painted by Jasmine Crisp in March 2021. The work took Crip a total of 37 days to complete. The mural includes the Royal Flying Doctor Service, canola crops, the pink lake and historic buildings. 

We then headed for Port Giles to activate the silo for the Silos On The Air (SiOTA) program.

Port Giles was named after Thomas Giles (b. 1820. d. 1899), a partner with George Anstey in the Penton Vale sheep station. Giles was the third of 15 sons and 6 daughters of William Giles, the Colonial Manager of the South Australian Company.

Above:- Thomas Giles. Image c/o Wikipedia.

In 1967, construction of a deep sea jetty commenced at Port Giles and on the 23rd day of May 1970 was opened by the South Australian Premier, Hon. Steele Hall. The opening of the jetty and the large grains storage facility led to the closure of many of the smaller ports on the Yorke Peninsula.

Above:- Former SA Premier Steele Hall. Image c/o Wikipedia.

Port Giles was specifically constructed to be able to handle bulk grain and load it onto larger modern ships. Port Giles can handle Panamax-size ships or larger. Panamax is a term for the size limit of ships travelling through the Panama Canal. Many of the other Yorke Peninsula ports were not deep enough for larger ships, and they could only be serviced by small sketches and coastal steamships and could only handle grain in bags and not in bulk.

We operated from the 4WD on Hickey Drive, a short distance from the silos. We ran the Icom IC-7000, 100 watts, and the Codan antenna for this activation.

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK1CHW/p (Black Mountain Nature Reserve VKFF-0834 & SOTA VK1/ AC-042)
2. VK5MOS
3. VK3PF
4. VK5FANA
5. VK5BJE

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK1CHW/p (Black Mountain Nature Reserve VKFF-0834 & SOTA VK1/ AC-042)
2. VK5MOS
3. VK3PF
4. VK5FANA
5. VK5BJE
6. VK5HS
7. VK5FR
8. VK2YK
9. VK5GA
10. VK5LA
11. VK3LVH
12. VK2RO
13. VK5CZ
14. VK2NP
15. VK5GY
16. VK3GJG
17. VK5TN
18. VK3SMW
19. VK2IO

It was time for us to head back to Stansbury, where that night we met up with Ivan VK5HS, Andy VK5LA, Adam VK2YK, and Chris VK5TR, our other team members of VK5TIL and the Troubridge Island trip. We had a great night out and a meal at the Stansbury Hotel.

References.

1. A Compendium of the Place Names of South Australia, 2023, <https://published.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/placenamesofsouthaustralia/>, viewed 23rd February 2023.
2. Australian Silo Art Trail, 2023, <https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/yorketown>, viewed 23rd February 2023.
3. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Giles_(pastoralist)>, viewed 23rd February 2023.
4. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Giles,_South_Australia>, viewed 23rd February 2023.
5. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax>, viewed 23rd February 2023.