Hallett. The Railway Station is now a weekender.
The high altitude, between 1,000 and 2,000 feet in the district means that it can claim with good reason to grow the best and finest Merino wool in Australia. (Hallett is one of the highest railway stations in South Australia at 600 metres.) Most people have heard of Collinsville Stud, but there are many others in the district too. One of the oldest was Canowie Stud, founded by the early pastoralists, J and W Browne, the two medical brothers who started out in this district in 1839 and started the first pastoral runs in the early 1840s. They also established Booborowie run. Over the years these early pastoral leases were sold and changed many times. Daniel Cudmore played an important role as a pastoralist in the 1850s too as he improved and extended Canowie and Yongala runs parts of which he had acquired from the Brownes. This stud was finally sold up and dispersed in 1925 for closer settlement by the government. Just outside the town is Willogoleche homestead which was established by the Hallett brothers. This homestead and run was eventually taken over by Joseph Gilbert (of Gilberton) and Pewsey Vale in the Barossa Valley. The township of Hallett was declared and surveyed in the early 1870s after the passing of the Strangways Act of 1869. The push for farmers to be able to grow crops in these pastoral areas grew unabated at this time. Hallett was a suitable area, within Goyder’s Line, with plentiful supplies of underground water as well as rainfall. The town prospered once the railway from Burra arrived in 1878.
A recent development for Hallett has been the wind farm. It consists of 160 wind turbine generators, together with an underground electrical cable network, access tracks, crane hard standings and several wind monitoring masts. In November 2004, the Northern Areas Council and Regional Council of Goyder carried motions to grant Provisional Development Plan Consent for 130 of the proposed turbines. These turbines are part of the Brown Hill Range Wind Farm, The Bluff Range Wind Farm, Willogoleche Hill Wind Farm and Hallett Hill Wind Farm. The energy supplied by the turbines will enable around 130,000 houses to have their domestic power needs sourced from clean green electricity. Approval was given in January 2005 for the project to proceed and turbines now dot the landscape west of Hallett.
Slightly further north is the relatively new TRUenergy’s Hallett Power Station located at Canowie. Built in 2001, Hallett Power Station has an installed capacity of 180MW. Hallett Power Station consists of 11 highly flexible gas-turbine generators that deliver electricity to the National Electricity Market. It can provide approximately 5% of South Australia’s electricity needs. The power station generates electricity by using natural gas to power its eleven turbine units. Gas is supplied to the station from the Moomba pipeline. Diesel fuel oil can also be used as a back-up fuel in the event of a gas supply shortfall. The units are controlled either locally from the Hallett control room or remotely from TRUenergy’s Trading room and Yallourn Power Station. The Station employs 7 multi-skilled personnel.
Hallett. The Railway Station is now a weekender.
The high altitude, between 1,000 and 2,000 feet in the district means that it can claim with good reason to grow the best and finest Merino wool in Australia. (Hallett is one of the highest railway stations in South Australia at 600 metres.) Most people have heard of Collinsville Stud, but there are many others in the district too. One of the oldest was Canowie Stud, founded by the early pastoralists, J and W Browne, the two medical brothers who started out in this district in 1839 and started the first pastoral runs in the early 1840s. They also established Booborowie run. Over the years these early pastoral leases were sold and changed many times. Daniel Cudmore played an important role as a pastoralist in the 1850s too as he improved and extended Canowie and Yongala runs parts of which he had acquired from the Brownes. This stud was finally sold up and dispersed in 1925 for closer settlement by the government. Just outside the town is Willogoleche homestead which was established by the Hallett brothers. This homestead and run was eventually taken over by Joseph Gilbert (of Gilberton) and Pewsey Vale in the Barossa Valley. The township of Hallett was declared and surveyed in the early 1870s after the passing of the Strangways Act of 1869. The push for farmers to be able to grow crops in these pastoral areas grew unabated at this time. Hallett was a suitable area, within Goyder’s Line, with plentiful supplies of underground water as well as rainfall. The town prospered once the railway from Burra arrived in 1878.
A recent development for Hallett has been the wind farm. It consists of 160 wind turbine generators, together with an underground electrical cable network, access tracks, crane hard standings and several wind monitoring masts. In November 2004, the Northern Areas Council and Regional Council of Goyder carried motions to grant Provisional Development Plan Consent for 130 of the proposed turbines. These turbines are part of the Brown Hill Range Wind Farm, The Bluff Range Wind Farm, Willogoleche Hill Wind Farm and Hallett Hill Wind Farm. The energy supplied by the turbines will enable around 130,000 houses to have their domestic power needs sourced from clean green electricity. Approval was given in January 2005 for the project to proceed and turbines now dot the landscape west of Hallett.
Slightly further north is the relatively new TRUenergy’s Hallett Power Station located at Canowie. Built in 2001, Hallett Power Station has an installed capacity of 180MW. Hallett Power Station consists of 11 highly flexible gas-turbine generators that deliver electricity to the National Electricity Market. It can provide approximately 5% of South Australia’s electricity needs. The power station generates electricity by using natural gas to power its eleven turbine units. Gas is supplied to the station from the Moomba pipeline. Diesel fuel oil can also be used as a back-up fuel in the event of a gas supply shortfall. The units are controlled either locally from the Hallett control room or remotely from TRUenergy’s Trading room and Yallourn Power Station. The Station employs 7 multi-skilled personnel.