Oodla Wirra, South Australia
| Oodla Wirra South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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_(20579884012).jpg) Halfway Hotel at Oodla Wirra | |||||||||||||||
  Oodla Wirra | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 32°52′59″S 139°03′47″E / 32.883°S 139.063°ECoordinates: 32°52′59″S 139°03′47″E / 32.883°S 139.063°E | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1889 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 505 m (1,657 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 259 km (161 mi) N of Adelaide | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | District Council of Peterborough | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Stuart | ||||||||||||||
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Oodla Wirra (formerly Penn) is a small town in the upper Mid North of South Australia. It is on the Barrier Highway approximately halfway from Adelaide to Broken Hill.
When the railway was built in 1880, a siding was provided, named Oodla Wirra. Soon after, a town was surveyed near the siding, but it was named Penn. This naming conflict continued until 1940, when the town was renamed Oodla Wirra, to match the railway station.[1][2]
Railway
Oodla Wirra is a former railway town, as it was on the narrow-gauge railway between Port Pirie and Cockburn (where it connected to the Silverton Tramway to Broken Hill). When the Commonwealth Government replaced the narrow gauge line with a standard gauge line, the revised route passed south and east of the town.
A railway guard was killed in a shunting accident in the Oodla Wirra railyards in 1909.[3]
In 1889, ironstone flux was mined from a failed silver mine a few miles away, and carted to Oodla Wirra to be transported by rail to the smelters at Port Pirie.[4]
References
- ↑ "Placename Details: Penn". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. 12 May 2011. SA0054343. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- ↑ "NEW TOWN NAMES APPROVED". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 26 July 1940. p. 10. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "RAILWAY ACCIDENT.". The Register (Adelaide). LXXIV, (19,434). South Australia. 25 February 1909. p. 5. Retrieved 23 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "A New Local Industry.". Petersburg Times. II, (102). South Australia. 19 July 1889. p. 4. Retrieved 23 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.