The town of Clare is located in South Australia in the Mid North region, 136 km north of Adelaide.
The town of Clare is located in South Australia in the Mid North region, 136 km north of Adelaide. It gives its name to the Clare Valley wine and tourist region.At the 2016 census, Clare itself had a population of 3160 as part of an urban area with 3327 people.
History
The first European to explore the district was John Hill, who in April 1839 discovered and named the Wakefield River and Hutt River. In early 1840 the first European settlers arrived in the district, led by John Horrocks. The town itself was established in 1842 by Edward Burton Gleeson, and named after his ancestral home of County Clare in Ireland, although the town was first named Inchiquin after Gleeson's property. Lake Inchiquin is now the name of a reservoir located to the north of the town, near the golf club. The layout of the town's road system was apparently designed by a draughtsman in Adelaide, without any knowledge of the local geography. There are several roads in Clare that end abruptly at a cliff face, only to continue again at the top of the cliff.
The District Council of Clare was established in 1853 and was joined in 1868 by a corporate municipality, the Corporation of Clare. The corporate town seceded from the district council to provide dedicated local government to the township but re-amalgamated with the district council in 1969.
A railway line was built from Riverton to Clare in 1918 and on to Spalding in 1922. It closed in 1984 and the tracks were removed in the following years after damage caused by the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983. The alignment now carries the Riesling Trail walking and cycling trail from Auburn to Barinia.
In 1997 Clare and the surrounding district became a part of the much larger District Council of Clare and Gilbert Valleys for the purpose of local governance.
Clare is the original location of the Stanley Wine Company, founded in 1894 by Joseph Herman Knappstein; the brand is now owned by Accolade Wines for cask wine packaged for the "drink now" market. Local winery "Mr. Mick” is named for Stanley Wine's Managing Director (1962-1976) Carl Knappstein, known as "Mick", the legendary Stanley Wine Maker.
Weather
Things to do
The township of Clare is home to two wineries at opposite ends of the town:
The Knappstein Enterprise Winery, 2 Pioneer Ave, Clare SA
Mr. Mick Cellar Door and Restaurant, 7 Dominic St, Clare SAand book-ended by Jim Barry winery in the north and Tim Adams winery to the south. A half-dozen restaurants are situated in and around Clare, counting Cellar Door Restaurants at surrounding wineries.
A further dozen or more wineries surround the town: including Taylors, Kirrihill, Kilikanoon, and Shut The Gate Wines. The Clare Valley contains over forty cellar doors and wineries in all.
A third Clare Winery was The Clarevale Cooperative Winery, the buildings of which still survive in Lennon Street Clare across from the Clarevale Cottage, the Manager's home. This winery was founded in 1930, with a loan of 8,000 pounds from the State Government, but started crushing wine in 1929. It was later taken over by Kaiser Stuhl.
The Clare Valley Visitor Information Centre is incorporated within the Clare Valley Wine, Food and Tourism Centre, located 3 km south of Clare on the Horrocks Highway, at 8 Spring Gully Rd, Clare SA.
The Clare Museum of the National Trust of SA is at the Corner, Neagles Rock Road and Victoria Road Clare 5453 SA, about 1 km South of Main Street
The popular Clare Regional History Group has a large collection of historical books, newspapers and memorabilia at the Clare Town Hall.
The Monthly Clare Market is held on the first Saturday of the Month at Ennis Park, alongside the Clare Town Hall.
The Clare Mini-railway at the "Lakeside Railway": The Clare Valley Model Engineers have a railway with over one kilometre of track that features several bridges and a tunnel in a 10 hectare park. and the train operates every second and fourth weekend of each month at Melrose Park, Phoenix Ave, Clare SA.
The Gleeson Wetlands, including Lake Inchiquin, has a flat easy walking path, with the opportunity to view many native birds in their natural habitat. There are two picnic shelters, and a bird hide. Further along there is a pathway through Melrose Park which links to the Riesling Trail.
Clare Valley Art Gallery has an extensive range of contemporary Utopian Indigenous Art, with regular visiting artists, at 28 Horrocks Highway, Clare
The Clare Art House has exhibits, presentations, art and craft workshops and lessons, 8 Mill Street Clare
The Riesling Trail runs past the location of the old Clare Railway Station, and extends up the valley to Auburn.
The great Hill River Stone Wall,estimated to contain 7,040.000 stones, commences about 11 miles South of the Farrell Flat road East of Clare.
It continues Northwards to Gum Creek and Leighton, up big hills and down dales to Spalding and Booborowie on a level with Jamestown, finally ending at the top end of Canowie.It seems fairly certain the Hill River wall was built in the 1860s by tradesmen of the celebrated pioneering pastoralist, C. B. Fisher, principally to keep sheep within bounds.
Also known as “The "Camel Hump Wall", it is a drystone wall which runs over 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Booborowie to Farrell Flat, and another equal distance further south to the former farm of Mr. David Ashby, totalling 65 kilometres. “Camel Hump Wall” is said to be the longest continuous dry stone wall in Australia.
Bungaree Station, 12 km north of Clare has a sandstone Woolshed (one of Australia’s oldest working woolsheds, constructed from 1842), Shearers Quarters, Stable Yard, Station Store, Managers House, staff cottages and B&B accommodation,and even the old District Council Chambers and a Church. It is still a working farm, run by the 4th, 5th and 6th generations of the Hawker family. Bungaree was established like a small English village with the manor house, police station, St Michaels Anglican Church in the Gothic style (1864), and also has a thriving tourism business, created after the wool crash of 1985.
"Australia was Riding on the Sheep's Back" meaning that, for much of Australia's recent history wool has been the basis of the national economy and the country's major export. Those graziers who grew the wool had come to symbolise and epitomise what it was to be Australian.
These 1906 photographs shows a mob of 1,960 sheep which had just walked to Bungaree from Paralana Station in the Northern Flinders Ranges (also run by the Hawker Family).
The particular interest of this photo of Bungaree is that it later became famous, when an engraving was made of it and it was used on both the £50 and £1000 Australian banknotes (The £1000 note was used for inter-bank transactions).