Sheringa, South Australia

In August 1843, Joseph Cummings, aged 16, born in England, and Samuel Harris, aged 14, born in the United States, became only the second westerners to trek through the Eyre Peninsula, following in explorer Edward John Eyre's footsteps, and using a coastal map prepared by Matthew Flinders from his circumnavigation of Australia in 1802. They had left the Fowlers Bay whaling station to walk to civilisation, because of the torrid conditions in which they found themselves. They walked {{convert|650|km|miles}} to Point Drummond where a ship was seen, and took them to Port Lincoln. A local magistrate heard their story, and freed them on the condition that they guided a survey party to the region of good farming land they described, at what became Sheringa. He also granted them parcels of land there, that they farmed.[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-25/solo-trekker-follows-cummings-harris-eyre-peninsula-trek/11536908 Solo trekker Steve Woore follows runaway teen whalers' 500km pioneering trek across Eyre Peninsula], Jodie Hamilton and Emma Pedler, ABC News Online, 2019-09-25

The town of Sheringa was surveyed in October 1882. It was initially proclaimed as Holsworthy on 19 April 1883, then revoked and proclaimed as Sheringa on 23 August 1883. Its name is derived from Tjeiringa, a local Aboriginal name for a yam-like root that grew in the area.{{cite web |url=http://maps.sa.gov.au/plb/# |title=Placename Details: Sheringa (LOCB) |id=SA0061410 |date=31 March 2010 |work=Property Location Browser |publisher=Land Services, Government of South Australia |accessdate=14 February 2016}} The former Sheringa Post Office opened on 1 September 1891 and closed on 28 September 1984.{{cite web | url=https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/viewpodet.w?cdpo=16942 | title=Sheringa | publisher=Premier Postal | work=Post Office Finder | accessdate=14 February 2016}}

The Wesleyan Methodist church granted permission to construct a church building at Sheringa at its district meeting in 1886.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37161067 |title=WESLEYAN DISTRICT MEETING. |newspaper=The South Australian Advertiser |location=Adelaide, SA |date=25 October 1886 |accessdate=14 February 2016 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} In 1898, the town consisted "...of a temperance hotel, a general store, and blacksmith's shop under one roof, and a public building, which is used as a Church, a school, and a dancing-room."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56539400 |title=A TRIP TO THE WEST COAST. |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide, SA |date=24 December 1898 |accessdate=14 February 2016 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} St. John's Anglican Church opened in 1910.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214048101 |title=OPENING OF NEW CHURCH AT SHERINGA. |newspaper=Australian Christian Commonwealth (SA : 1901 - 1940) |location=SA |date=8 July 1910 |accessdate=14 February 2016 |page=11 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

The historic Round Lake Washing Pool, a former sheep wash located near Sheringa, is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.{{cite web | url=http://apps.planning.sa.gov.au/HeritageSearch/HeritageItem.aspx?p_heritageno=16659 | title=Round Lake Washing Pool | publisher=Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources | work=South Australian Heritage Register | accessdate=13 February 2016}} Washing pools were used before 1870 to wash sheep prior to shearing. This wash pond was built in the 1840s and used by several adjacent sheep runs to clean the sheep before shearing. After about 1870, fleece did not need to be cleaned by the farmers before sale, as manufacturers could produce lanolin as a by-product of cleaning the fleece themselves.{{citation |url=http://www.sahistorians.org.au/175/bm.doc/heritage-of-eyre-peninsula-ps.doc |page=4 |title=Heritage of Eyre Peninsula: a short history |author=Patricia Sumerling |publisher=Professional Historians Association (SA) |accessdate=14 February 2016}}

The one road sign in Sheringa "Nowhere Else road", has attracted attention for its unusual name.{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-29/nowhere-else-sign-target-thieves/4100650 |title=Nowhere Else a steal for tourists |publisher=Australian Broadcast Commission |website=ABC.news.com |date=29 June 2012 |accessdate=6 March 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://travel.cnn.com/sydney/visit/10-most-ridiculous-place-names-australia-515758/ |url-status=dead |title=10 most ridiculous Australian place names |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714080039/http://travel.cnn.com/sydney/visit/10-most-ridiculous-place-names-australia-515758 |archive-date=14 July 2015 |date=13 December 2011 |work=Travel |publisher=CNN}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Citation | author1=Nosworthy, William | author2=Nosworthy, Maureen | author3=Sheringa History Committee | title=Tjeiringa : the story of the Sheringa district | date=1988 | publisher=Sheringa History Committee | isbn=978-0-7316-4187-1 }}
• {{Citation | author1=Watson, Dianne | title=St. John's Anglican Church, Sheringa : celebrating 100 years in 2010 | date=2010 | publisher=D. Watson | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/38368397 | accessdate=14 February 2016 }}

{{District Council of Elliston localities}}

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Category:Towns in South Australia