The town of Meningie was surveyed in 1866 on Lake Albert

Meningie developed as a service centre for the surrounding pastoral properties. It was also a staging post on the main route to Melbourne, which included a steamer trip across the lakes.

The settlement began as an outstation of the South Australian Company, which took up a country around Lake Albert for sheep and cattle in 1843. The head-station was at Bonney Well, with outstations near Point Malcolm and at Warrengee. These isolated stations and other lakeside holdings depended on sailing and steam vessels for transportation and communication.

The town of Meningie was surveyed in 1866 and, within a year, two accommodation houses were established.

Cargo traffic across the lakes increased as the town and surrounding properties prospered. Paddle steamers (see Riverboat Trail) travelled between Milang and Meningie carrying passengers, mail and suppliers as well as the wool and other produce of the pastoral stations. By the early twentieth century the Jupiter, the Milang and the Murray steamed up to three times a week between the two ports, as well as to Narrung and other landing places on the Lakes.

The Jupiter was originally built as an iron barge and shipped in sections from Scotland. It was assembled at Port Adelaide in 1866, with the intention of trading through the Murray Mouth. When this venture failed, an engine was installed and it was converted to a paddle steamer at Goolwa. For more than 30 years the Jupiter worked on the Murray and Darling Rivers transporting bales of wool, as well as carrying passengers, shearers and sheep.

In 1903 the Jupiter became the only steamer on Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, trading across the waterways between Milang, Narrung and Meningie. The steamer's last visit to Meningie was in March 1914, but it continued to trade to other landings for a few years and in 1923 was altered in the hope of establishing an excursion trade. In 1930, when the vessel was laid up at the Milang wharf, it was the last regular trader on the Lakes.