Lost in time
South Australia has many thriving towns, but sometimes circumstances lead a community to disband and move on.
Here are four abandoned South Australian towns that provide a window to our past.
1. Radium Hill
Well before the advent of nuclear power and alarmingly destructive weapons, South Australia was a miner of uranium and radium. The Radium Hill mine, 40km south-west of the SA and New South Wales border town of Cockburn, began operation in 1909 and was worked intermittently until 1931.
Radium was used mainly for medical research, while the uranium provided yellow pigment for glass making and ceramics.
The mine reopened in 1952 in response to our allies’ growing need for uranium, and a town was built to support more than 1000 people. Facilities included a drive-in cinema, swimming pool, schools and a hospital.
When the mine closed again in 1961, Radium Hill was dismantled and much of the infrastructure was either demolished or relocated.
The townsite is on a pastoral lease and there’s no public access, but its imprint on the landscape can be seen on Google Earth.
The Radium Hill Heritage Museum is located at the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre in Peterborough.
2. Farina
The original route of the rail service now known as The Ghan was once located much further east. Construction along this earlier alignment began in Port Augusta in 1878, and headed towards the tiny settlement of Government Gums, 27km north of present-day Lyndhurst.
By the time the rail line reached the town in 1882, its name had been changed to Farina, the Latin word for flour. Tricked by several seasons of good cereal-crop weather, European settlers had planned to establish wheat and barley farms, but the desert climate soon returned to parch the land.
Livestock farming became the main industry, and Farina served as a busy railhead for supplying remote outback graziers, and for moving cattle, sheep and wool to southern markets. Afghan cameleers carried out transport duties beyond the town.
Farina’s heyday was during the late 1800s when the population peaked at about 600. Town facilities included pubs, stores, a bakery, post office, school, church and blacksmith shops.
By 1884, the rail line had been extended to Marree, and eventually on to Alice Springs, and over time the townsfolk began moving away.
Lengthy train delays caused by flash flooding saw the rail service moved west in 1980. This was the final blow for the outback town, and when the last residents departed, Farina fell into ruin.
The Farina Restoration Project Group has since spent years restoring buildings and providing information signs for travellers. They even reopen the old bakery and fire up its oven between May and July.
The nearby Farina Station operates a creek-side camping ground.
3. Cook
Cook was built in 1917 to service steam trains chugging across the Nullarbor Plain on the newly constructed Trans-Australian Railway. The town was also home to rail maintenance gangs.
Named in honour of the nation’s sixth Prime Minister Sir Joseph Cook, this cluster of buildings sits beside the longest stretch of straight railway in the world, at 478km.
There were once several rail service centres across the Nullarbor, which were supplied by the ‘Tea and Sugar’ train; a mobile butcher, mail service, bank and general store that trundled along the line once a week.
A change from steam to diesel, followed by improvements in engine efficiency and the replacement of wooden sleepers with concrete, reduced the need for these settlements. When Australian National Railway’s assets were privatised in 1997, the new train owners only needed Cook for refuelling and driver changeover, and most of the residents left.
While Cook isn’t completely abandoned – there are a couple of caretakers on-site – it’s a far cry from the 200-odd people that once lived here.
Cook is a scheduled stop on the Indian Pacific’s journey across the country. Like a set for a Mad Max-esque dystopian movie, many the town’s buildings remain largely intact, and it’s good fun taking a leg-stretching stroll around town.
4. Inneston
Tucked away in bushland near the southern tip of Yorke Peninsula lie the remains of the former mining town of Inneston. The settlement took its name from William Innes, who discovered gypsum at the site.
The Permasite Company, run by Innes and his partners Andrew Stenhouse and Graham Bell, established a mine at Inneston Lake in 1913. The gypsum, used for plaster and cement manufacturing, was transported by horse-drawn tram to the purpose-built Stenhouse Bay Jetty 5km away, before being shipped to other parts of the country.
In time, building plaster and Bellco school chalk (named after Graham Bell) was manufactured on-site. The local schoolteacher was often asked to review the quality of the chalk before it left the area.
Town facilities included a store, bakery, school, hall, post office, cricket oval and tennis court. The Great Depression in the 1930s severely affected the building industry, and when mining and manufacturing ceased at Inneston, the town was abandoned.
Visitors can follow information signs around town and there are several walking trails leading further afield.
If you’re keen to spend a few nights in a ghost town, there are seven restored cottages available for rent through National Parks and Wildlife.