I would class this site as South Australia's, and possibly
Australia's, original desalination plant. Due to the absence of
potable water in the area, Mac set up a distillery to distil sea
water for domestic and live stock use.
William McKenzie was known as the father of the district, as it
was he who encouraged many farmers to come here to start a new
life.
In 1877 William moved to Yorke Peninsula from Adelaide. After 10
- 11 years of farming there, crop yields dropped dramatically
because there were no fertilisers used.
William aged 45, decided to look further a field, went to Denial
Bay and selected 16,280 ha of land on Section 1, Hd of Moule, on 1
July 1889.
He employed a large number of men and women on his farm and his
farming example created a pilgrimage to Denial Bay and districts.
It was not unusual to see up to 20 four-foot strippers reaping in
his paddocks. His home was described as a "collection of cream
coloured buildings, with the architecture as primitive as anything
in South Australia." The dining room of his home could seat 50
people and he often held dances and wedding ceremonies in this
room.
There was also a store, slaughterhouse, butchering business,
saddlery, Post Office, blacksmith shop and (now situated across the
road), a Police Station. Mac was Harbour Master and a Justice of
the Peace. He was also a stone mason and built his own home, sheds
and tanks as well as many other buildings around Denial Bay. His
own house was added to as required. He built at great speed and
used a shovel as a trowel. William's bed was an empty galvanised
iron case on stumps, with a cocky chaff mattress. Most building
materials were obtained locally, except for the iron. Limestone
rocks were burnt to create lime, and mixed with water to make
mortar for the building of stone walls.
Police Station
He learnt a lot from the Aborigines and watched what they did -
get water from mallee roots, where to find a rockhole, what they
ate. He would eat witchetty grubs, snakes and goannas and make a
flour from the inside bark of Mallee trees. He treated the
Aborigines very well and would often have groups of up to 150
camping a kilometre from his homestead. Mac also distributed
Government rations to the Aborigines of the district before
Koonibba Mission was established. It is believed that William was
the first to condense sea water in the area, but later carted water
from Charra Well. Mac knew the value of water and on his farm there
were many tanks, holding around 4,550,000 lts of water, the largest
with a capacity of 59,000 lts.
Before the landing was built, McKenzie and his Aboriginal
helpers, along with Mr Oliver Haseldine, built a large wagon and
called it Big Ben. Mac would drive out into the water close enough
for the sailing boats to be able to unload their goods into the
wagon.
Later, before the establishment of the Denial Bay jetty, when
McKenzies Landing was built by the Government in 1892, goods were
unloaded onto that.
Sailing ships would anchor in the bay and using lighters, (small
rowboats) would ferry incoming stores and passengers to the Landing
stage. At low tide, horse drawn wagons, following a pathway of
posts to the Landing, would collect stores and passengers.
For many years McKenzie was in charge of this Landing, acting as
haulage contractor with a five horse team. In his later years, he
was not a well man and after eleven weeks suffering from diabetes,
he passed away in the Adelaide Hospital, aged 63, on 30 November
1906. He was buried in the North Road Cemetery in Adelaide.
Descendants paid Mr Wally Moreland to erect a cairn at the
ruins.
McKenzies Landing is now on the Heritage Listing.
At the given coordinates you will find a cairn. At its base you
will find an inscription on who and when it was erected. Using the
date it was erected being AB-C-DEFG the GZ for the cache
is:
S32 05.(B-D)(B+C)(A-G)
E133 32.(E-B)(C-D)(A+G)
After you have found the cache you can view two more very large
square tanks if you wish to take a short walk. They are located
approxiamtely 200 metres south west of the cache.
