Prior to European settlement of the area commencing around 1840, following the British colonisation of South Australia, Yorke Peninsula was the home to the Narungga people.

This Aboriginal Australian nation are the traditional owners of the land, and comprised four clans sharing the peninsula, known as Guuranda: Kurnara in the north, Dilpa in the south, Wari in the west, and Windarra in the east.

[7][8] Today the descendants of these people still live on Yorke Peninsula, supported by the Narungga Aboriginal Progress Association in Maitland, and in the community at Point Pearce.

[citation needed] Most of Yorke Peninsula is prime agricultural land, with mostly small rolling hills and flat plains.

[citation needed] The southern tip, sometimes termed the "foot", is surrounded on three sides by the ocean, and forms a 170,000-hectare (420,000-acre) isolated "mainland island", with large tracts of excellent native vegetation.

Along with most of southern Australia, monsoonal lows from the north occasionally bring heavy storm events during spring and summer; rainfall is otherwise light and unreliable due to high pressure systems dominating the area.

The only other ports with bulk-handling facilities are Wallaroo at the north-western side, and Ardrossan at the top of Gulf St Vincent, also used to ship dolomite from a nearby mine for OneSteel.

[citation needed] Wine production commenced on the Peninsula during the 1990s, taking advantage of the rich grey, limestone-based soil.

[17][18] In 2003, the Monarto Zoo temporarily housed 85 mainland tammar wallaby from New Zealand, awaiting reintroduction to the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park,[19] after they had been locally extinct there for some time.

The 25-kilometre (16 mi) fence across the peninsula, isolating a 170,000-hectare (420,000-acre) "mainland island", will limit predation of both native species and livestock such as lambs by feral cats and red foxes.

[11][28][29] The geography of the southern tip of the peninsula makes it an excellent location for species reintroduction, as it is surrounded by the ocean on three sides.

[11] Twenty woylies, or brush-tailed bettongs, were the first species reintroduced in the area, translocated from Wedge Island in June 2021,[30][11][31] with another 80 to follow over time.