Snowtown. A blade from a wind power generator for the tourists to look at.
Snowtown.
Captain John Ellis leased the land where Snowtown now stands from the early 1840s. His Bumbunga and Barunga runs made him wealthy. He built a large 8 room stone house on Barunga Run in the Hummock Ranges. The Hundred of Boucaut (named after a state Premier) was proclaimed in 1867 and land sold in 1872 and 1875. The town of Snowtown was established in 1878 being named after Mr. Thomas Snow, the secretary of the Governor of the day, Sir William Jervois. The town site was selected to be at the end of the railway being built from Kadina through Bute and Barunga Gap. The railway line reached Snowtown in 1879 providing a great stimulus to development. A flour mill was built almost immediately in Snowtown. The railway meant passengers could travel to Adelaide via Kadina and Port Wakefield. The town’s role as a transport hub was further strengthened when the railway was extended across the plains to the east, through the small settlement of Condowie to the newly created town of Brinkworth. This line was completed in 1894. Next the town of Snowtown got a direct broad gauge connection north to Redhill and south to Bowmans and Adelaide in 1925.
Given the transport links into Snowtown it grew quickly with the usual buildings of a government town – police station, post office, and school. The community erected an institute which opened in 1881 and the churches were all quickly built- the Bible Christian in 1879, the Anglican in 1880, the first Catholic 1882, the first Methodist in 1909, and another community facility, the hospital was built in 1902. (The Lutherans of Snowtown worshiped at Condowie where a Lutheran Church had been built in 1878. A Lutheran Church was not built in Snowtown until 1966). Local businessmen established general stores, the flour mill, a saddler, a hotel, a bakery, a boot maker, and an agricultural implement foundry. City firms established the banks. One more recent bank reached national infamy for being the site of gruesome murders. The population is now around 400. Like many SA towns it has a Goyder designed plan of a town grid, surrounded by parklands, and beyond that suburban lands. Some of the government buildings like the school, the hospital and public facilities like the oval are in the so called parklands belt. The town centre is surrounded by North, South, East and West Terraces. A railway reserve runs through the middle of the town centre.
Snowtown has reliable and reasonable rainfall except in severe drought years. The agriculture of the area was further boosted after World War One when the last part of the Barr Smith Barunga Run was resumed by the state government. This covered all of the hilly parts of the ranges. Returning soldiers were given soldier settler blocks along the top of the ranges. Now these areas are the site of a major wind farm operation. Also after World War One the rail service improved with the opening of the broad gauge line from Redhill via Bowmans to Salisbury and Adelaide. Snowtown then had a direct rail service to Adelaide.
Once this line was completed all the way to Port Pirie in 1937 the interstate trains to Perth started using this route. Snowtown then had several trains daily to and from Adelaide, as well as a daily rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth. This rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth ceased in 1968. Passenger trains to Port Pirie ceased in the early 1980s after the SA government sold South Australian Railways to the Commonwealth Railways. They rationalised services by stopping all passenger services. Rail freight services had already almost ceased once the SA government passed an act in 1963 removing the necessity for freight to be carried by rail if a rail line existed in a town.
One of the last death knolls for Snowtown as a busy town (but a blessing to many residents) was the opening of the Highway One bypass in 1976. Prior to that time all transport and traffic passed through the middle of the town. More recently the town has become a wind power generator. A New Zealand Company, Trust Power set up the wind farm in 2008. Stage one consists of 47 turbines. When all stages are finished there will be 150 turbines along the Barunga Ranges.
In 1976 a local farmer named Brackstone declared his four hectare property independent of Australia and named it the Province of Bumbunga. This move was in response to the Governor General’s sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The province issued its own stamps up to 1987 and then Brackstone returned to live in the United Kingdom in 1999.
Snowtown. A blade from a wind power generator for the tourists to look at.
Snowtown.
Captain John Ellis leased the land where Snowtown now stands from the early 1840s. His Bumbunga and Barunga runs made him wealthy. He built a large 8 room stone house on Barunga Run in the Hummock Ranges. The Hundred of Boucaut (named after a state Premier) was proclaimed in 1867 and land sold in 1872 and 1875. The town of Snowtown was established in 1878 being named after Mr. Thomas Snow, the secretary of the Governor of the day, Sir William Jervois. The town site was selected to be at the end of the railway being built from Kadina through Bute and Barunga Gap. The railway line reached Snowtown in 1879 providing a great stimulus to development. A flour mill was built almost immediately in Snowtown. The railway meant passengers could travel to Adelaide via Kadina and Port Wakefield. The town’s role as a transport hub was further strengthened when the railway was extended across the plains to the east, through the small settlement of Condowie to the newly created town of Brinkworth. This line was completed in 1894. Next the town of Snowtown got a direct broad gauge connection north to Redhill and south to Bowmans and Adelaide in 1925.
Given the transport links into Snowtown it grew quickly with the usual buildings of a government town – police station, post office, and school. The community erected an institute which opened in 1881 and the churches were all quickly built- the Bible Christian in 1879, the Anglican in 1880, the first Catholic 1882, the first Methodist in 1909, and another community facility, the hospital was built in 1902. (The Lutherans of Snowtown worshiped at Condowie where a Lutheran Church had been built in 1878. A Lutheran Church was not built in Snowtown until 1966). Local businessmen established general stores, the flour mill, a saddler, a hotel, a bakery, a boot maker, and an agricultural implement foundry. City firms established the banks. One more recent bank reached national infamy for being the site of gruesome murders. The population is now around 400. Like many SA towns it has a Goyder designed plan of a town grid, surrounded by parklands, and beyond that suburban lands. Some of the government buildings like the school, the hospital and public facilities like the oval are in the so called parklands belt. The town centre is surrounded by North, South, East and West Terraces. A railway reserve runs through the middle of the town centre.
Snowtown has reliable and reasonable rainfall except in severe drought years. The agriculture of the area was further boosted after World War One when the last part of the Barr Smith Barunga Run was resumed by the state government. This covered all of the hilly parts of the ranges. Returning soldiers were given soldier settler blocks along the top of the ranges. Now these areas are the site of a major wind farm operation. Also after World War One the rail service improved with the opening of the broad gauge line from Redhill via Bowmans to Salisbury and Adelaide. Snowtown then had a direct rail service to Adelaide.
Once this line was completed all the way to Port Pirie in 1937 the interstate trains to Perth started using this route. Snowtown then had several trains daily to and from Adelaide, as well as a daily rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth. This rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth ceased in 1968. Passenger trains to Port Pirie ceased in the early 1980s after the SA government sold South Australian Railways to the Commonwealth Railways. They rationalised services by stopping all passenger services. Rail freight services had already almost ceased once the SA government passed an act in 1963 removing the necessity for freight to be carried by rail if a rail line existed in a town.
One of the last death knolls for Snowtown as a busy town (but a blessing to many residents) was the opening of the Highway One bypass in 1976. Prior to that time all transport and traffic passed through the middle of the town. More recently the town has become a wind power generator. A New Zealand Company, Trust Power set up the wind farm in 2008. Stage one consists of 47 turbines. When all stages are finished there will be 150 turbines along the Barunga Ranges.
In 1976 a local farmer named Brackstone declared his four hectare property independent of Australia and named it the Province of Bumbunga. This move was in response to the Governor General’s sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The province issued its own stamps up to 1987 and then Brackstone returned to live in the United Kingdom in 1999.