Kingoonya, South Australia

Kingoonya is a small settlement in the far north of the Australian state of South Australia. It was established in the early 1900s as a railway support town on the line extending west and played a significant role in the construction of the Trans-Australian Railway. A Kingoonya Post Office first opened around 1884, closed in 1892, reopened in 1915 after the arrival of the railway and closed again in 1982.^[1] When railway services were rationalised in the early 1990s, Kingoonya was almost abandoned. The houses in the township are only intermittently occupied by people involved in mining exploration and kangaroo shooting.

The town relied on the Tea and Sugar Train for the provision of supplies. The Indian Pacific (running between Sydney and Perth) and Ghan (running between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin) trains still call at Kingoonya on request, and to do the twice-weekly mail run; both trains service the town twice a week in each direction.

The township is reputed to have the widest main street in Australia and cricket matches have been played on it.The town's hotel is still running.^[2] The town was featured on Australia Live, a four hour broadcast on 1 January 1988 to celebrate Australia's bicentennial year.

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