Cleve, South Australia

Cleve has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• Cleve-Cowell Road: Sims Farm Homstead[10]
• off Cleve Road: Yeldulknie Cottage[11]
• off Cleve Road: Yeldulknie Weir[12]

The town of Cleve lies on an ancient bedrock that has undergone high grade metamorphism, with the area characterised by schists, gneisses and granites in a formation known as the Hutchison Group. These strata were laid down in the Proterozoic, some 600-2300 million years ago. The area underwent deformation during the orogeny events that shaped Australia. Just south of Cleve marks an unconformity with recent Quaternary alluvial and colluvial sediments of the Piedmont Group which were deposited less than 1 million years ago.[13]

The soils around Cleve are heavily tied to the geology of the area, with Cleve having a clay overlain by sandy loam soils in the hills and on most slopes in the area. This soil is often referred to as 'Cleve soil' or 'Nobby's Hill's soil'. The soils are highly productive when they are deep enough to hold enough moisture, but are particularly susceptible to erosion, especially in steeper inclines. There is also a strong calcareous component to much of the areas soils, especially away from the slopes.[13]

Cleve experiences a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa, Trewartha: Csbl); with warm, dry summers; mild to warm, relatively dry springs and autumns; and mild, moderately rainy winters. The rainfall is generally not enough to cause any flooding, and certainly not within the bounds of the town. The Cleve hills, however are the catchment areas for Salt Creek, and localised flooding in the valleys has been reported.

The most common vegetation association in the area is classified as Open Scrub (Mallee/Broombush), which is typical of most of the mid eastern Eyre Peninsula, consisting of Eucalyptus socialis (summer red mallee), Eucalyptus incrassata (ridge fruited mallee) and Eucalyptus leptophylla (narrow-leafed mallee), with a Melaleuca uncinata (broombush) understorey.

The southern Cleve hills show a greater variety of vegetation, with Open Scrub (Mallee/Saltbush), typically containing Eucalyptus porosa (mallee box), Eucalyptus gracilis and Eucalyptus oleosa with an understorey of Atriplex vesicaria (bladder saltbush).

Low Open Forest associations of sheoaks (Allocasuarina verticillata) with a varied understorey of Acacia species, native grasses and heath species are also found in the hills, as are the Blue gum woodlands which occur predominantly in the valleys of the Cleve Hills and along creeklines on the adjacent plains.[13]

The native fauna associated with the region consisted of euros and western grey kangaroos which were commonplace until land clearing and the introduction of pest species such as rabbits and foxes.[16]

The area's regional newspaper, the Eyre Peninsula Tribune, has its headquarters on Main Street in Cleve. It has been published weekly since March 1911, and services the surrounding region.

The town is well served in education, with childcare, an area school and TAFE campus (a tiny room on main street). Cleve Area School is a major agricultural school in South Australia, specialising in dry land agriculture. In 2005, some students scored 20/20 in agricultural subjects.[18] The school won the South Australian Westpac Landcare Education Award in 2005 for its exemplary integration of good land management practices into its Agriculture curriculum.[19] Cleve Area School was an Australian finalist in the Westpac Landcare Education Awards for 2006.[20]

Cleve has a wide array of sporting facilities and clubs with basketball, lawn bowls, cricket, football, golf - scrapes, netball, pistol, pony & hunt club, softball, swimming pool and tennis all provided for as well as a dartboard in the drop in centre. A number of these sports compete in local leagues as well.[17]

In the 2006 Census, there were 738 persons usually resident in Cleve: 49.6% of which were males and 50.4% were females. Of the total population in Cleve 0.4% were Indigenous persons. It was found that 19.3% of the population usually resident in the town were children aged between 0–14 years, and 33.1% were persons aged 55 years and over. The median age of persons in Cleve was 41 years, compared with 37 years for persons in Australia[1]

In the 2006 census, 93.5% of people were Australian citizens, 3.6% were born overseas. 90.8% of people stated they were born in Australia. Other common responses within Cleve were: England 1.9%, Zimbabwe 0.5%, Scotland 0.5%, Italy 0.5% and Ethiopia 0.4% (3 people).[1] Update: The 3 Ethiopians have since moved to Cowell. Further Update: The 3 Ethiopians have now moved back.

The most common responses for religious affiliation were Uniting Church 26.0%, No Religion 15.9%, Catholic 15.1%, Anglican 13.1% and Lutheran 9.6%.[1]

Cleve is today the base of the District Council of Cleve under the mayorship of Roger Nield. It is in the state electoral district of Flinders and the federal Division of Grey.