Peterborough, South Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peterborough () is a town in the mid north of South Australia, in wheat country, just off the Barrier Highway. It was originally named Petersburg after the landowner, Peter Doecke, who sold land to create the town. It was one of 69 places in South Australia renamed in 1917 due to anti-German sentiments during World War I.
[edit] Government
Peterborough is the seat of the District Council of Peterborough. It is the largest town in the council area. It is bounded by the District Council of Orroroo Carrieton in the northwest, Northern Areas Council to the southwest, and the Regional Council of Goyder to the south, with unincorporated areas to the north and east.
Peterborough is in the state electorate of Stuart and federal Division of Grey.
[edit] Railways
Peterborough was originally sited at the intersection of an East-West railway linking Port Pirie and Broken Hill, and a North-South railway linking Adelaide eventually to Alice Springs via Quorn, both narrow gauge (3' 6") lines.
The line from Port Pirie and Jamestown arrived in 1881, followed shortly after by the line from Terowie in the south. The line to Broken Hill was completed in 1887.
In 1970, the East-West line was converted to standard gauge (4' 8½"), and the line south of Peterborough to Terowie to broad gauge (5' 3"). Thus Peterborough became a rare 3-gauge break-of-gauge junction. The broad gauge line was closed in the early 1980s, and the narrow gauge line was only used by tourist trains from Steamtown Peterborough. Their rail operations closed in 2002. The roundhouse is still open for inspection with a number of locomotives.
[edit] External links
- Steamtown
- Walkabout - Peterborough
- District Council of Peterborough
- Peterborough Tourist Promotion Association Inc.
