Moorook on the Murray. This former Anglican Church opened in 1933. Services began 1908 in the school then later in the Institute. Closed in 2018.
Moorook another Village Settlement in the 1890s.
Thomas Wigley was granted a pastoral lease in this area in 1851 which he called Thurk covering the area from Moorook to Kingston-on-Murray. John Whyte took this lease over in the early 1860s. In 1868 part of Thurk was re-subdivided and the area round Moorook was leased to W and W Shephard. The Hundred of Moorook was declared in 1893 along with other hundreds facing the River Murray. Moorook had sand hills on one bank and a lagoon on the other so it was an attractive site to the local Aboriginal people for burials, stone axe production and fishing and ceremonies. But by the time the Hundred of Moorook was declared in 1893 there few Aboriginal people anywhere in the district. Moorook became another communistic village settlement in 1894. Twenty families, mainly from Port Adelaide settled at Moorook after disembarking there from the paddle steamer Gem. The government provided initial supplies, pumping equipment for irrigation etc but the clay soils of the flats near the River Murray emerged as a great problem. Once wet it stuck to everything. The first pumps were operational by 1896. The settlers soon produced onions and potatoes for sale despite the conflicts and hardships and the rising debts to the government. The first stone house was built at Moorook in 1896. Many had left the struggling village settlement by 1900 and in 1905 Moorook settlement and others were wound up with no leases continuing. New leased blocks covering 3,000 acres were then issued to ten settlers and individualism returned to Moorook. The government declared Moorook and Irrigation Area in 1914 and a large new pumping station was installed. This was partly to provide an income for returning soldiers from World War One. By 1918 Moorook was becoming a major soldier settler district and the town blossomed. Twenty soldier settlers and their families had arrived in 1917 and further 19 soldiers and their families arrived in 1918. By 1922 more 30 soldier settlers were allocated blocks. In 1921 the government erected the Woolpunda Water Tower west of Moorook on Koop Road to help service the irrigation area. At that time it was the highest water tower in Australia being 101 feet from the foundations and 122 feet above the ground. It held 250,000 gallons of water pumped to it from Kingston-on-Murray. Pipelines were built from the water tower to surrounding towns and districts including Moorook, Wunkar and Mantung etc. It has since been replaced by a modern space mushroom tower and the original tower was demolished in 1979.
In 1919 the government began surveying a formal settlement with quarter acre town blocks along the river frontage thus creating the township of Moorook. The first government school in Moorook was built in stone in 1896 and served as the first institute or public hall. It is now the rear section of the 1933 Moorook Institute. In 1923 when two new school rooms were built by the government the old 1896 school became the public hall. In 1933 a major stone front extension was opened. A new stone and red brick school was built on another site in 1923 to provide sufficient accommodation for the influx of children of soldier settlers. It remains as the Moorook School. Some town buildings preceded the formal town. The first store and Post Office opened in 1910. A prefabricated hall was moved after World War One from Colonel Light Gardens military camp to Moorook to be used as a R.S.L. hall and Church of Christ. It was named the McIntosh Hall. In 1956 it became the Moorook Co-operative building and general store. Moorook Co-operative was formed in 1921 as the soldier settlers arrived. It began by opening a general store and large packing shed for dried fruit processing and handling. They also installed a grape crusher and distillery in 1921 for distilling their Doradillo gapes. The distillery operated for many years until 1943 when World War Two Italian prisoners of war from Loveday Internment camp dismantled the distillery. In the 1930s the State Bank of South Australia had an agency in the Moorook Co-operative store. The bank opened its own office in Moorook in 1949 before it built a new bank and residence in 1951. As it was near the River Murray it was only saved from the 1956 flood by massive sandbagging by locals.
The residents of Moorook were devout church attenders. Anglicans held monthly church services in the Moorook School from 1908 until a church hall was started in 1932. The land was donated by Mr W Loxton and the foundation stone laid at the end of 1932. The parish hall/church opened in 1933. The hall was consecrated as St Mary’s the Virgin Church. During the 1956 River Murray flood it was six feet under water for nine months. When a porch was added by the Bishop in 1974 the hall became an official Anglican Church which only closed in 2018. The first German Lutheran settlers of Moorook attended church in New Residence but in 1910 land was donated by Rien Gogel for Moorook’s St Peter’s Lutheran. It opened in January 1911. The church was renovated and enlarged in 1957 and a new Sunday School was added in 1970. The Church of Christ ran a Sunday School and church service in the McIntosh Hall from 1922 until 1924 and then church services were held in private homes from 1925 until the late 1930s. In 1956 they recommenced Church of Christ services in the former McIntosh Hall and later the Moorook Hall. In 1966 a new Church of Christ was built at Moorook South. On the main road beside the Moorook General Store and Post Office is the old galvanised iron Vercoe’s Billiard Rooms. It was erected in 1926.
The Loveday camps housed Germans, Italians and Japanese from the UK, from the war arenas in the Middle East and Asia and a few Australian residents of enemy alien background. A maximum of 5,382 internees were held at Loveday including 2,206 Italians, 2,035 Japanese, 532 Germans and 609 others. Loveday was the largest prisoner of war camp in Australia. It employed around 1,500 military personnel with the camp headquarters based in Barmera and they ate the same food as the internees. During World War Two when the Loveday Internment Camp was established there were small camps of internees in various places along the River Murray with Japanese soldiers interned near Renmark, and some Italians Interned at Moorook. The Moorook Camp opened in 1942 as a tent camp. 210 Italian prisoners lived and worked from the camp. A few of the internees worked with local farmers but most worked cutting wood for fires and fuel for the water pumping stations along the Murray. It was a wood camp. The Italians were moved out of Moorook Camp at the beginning of 1943 and Japanese prisoners of war immediately replaced them. When Moorook Camp closed permanently in February 1944 the Japanese were sent to a camp near Renmark for the remainder of the War.
Moorook on the Murray. This former Anglican Church opened in 1933. Services began 1908 in the school then later in the Institute. Closed in 2018.
Moorook another Village Settlement in the 1890s.
Thomas Wigley was granted a pastoral lease in this area in 1851 which he called Thurk covering the area from Moorook to Kingston-on-Murray. John Whyte took this lease over in the early 1860s. In 1868 part of Thurk was re-subdivided and the area round Moorook was leased to W and W Shephard. The Hundred of Moorook was declared in 1893 along with other hundreds facing the River Murray. Moorook had sand hills on one bank and a lagoon on the other so it was an attractive site to the local Aboriginal people for burials, stone axe production and fishing and ceremonies. But by the time the Hundred of Moorook was declared in 1893 there few Aboriginal people anywhere in the district. Moorook became another communistic village settlement in 1894. Twenty families, mainly from Port Adelaide settled at Moorook after disembarking there from the paddle steamer Gem. The government provided initial supplies, pumping equipment for irrigation etc but the clay soils of the flats near the River Murray emerged as a great problem. Once wet it stuck to everything. The first pumps were operational by 1896. The settlers soon produced onions and potatoes for sale despite the conflicts and hardships and the rising debts to the government. The first stone house was built at Moorook in 1896. Many had left the struggling village settlement by 1900 and in 1905 Moorook settlement and others were wound up with no leases continuing. New leased blocks covering 3,000 acres were then issued to ten settlers and individualism returned to Moorook. The government declared Moorook and Irrigation Area in 1914 and a large new pumping station was installed. This was partly to provide an income for returning soldiers from World War One. By 1918 Moorook was becoming a major soldier settler district and the town blossomed. Twenty soldier settlers and their families had arrived in 1917 and further 19 soldiers and their families arrived in 1918. By 1922 more 30 soldier settlers were allocated blocks. In 1921 the government erected the Woolpunda Water Tower west of Moorook on Koop Road to help service the irrigation area. At that time it was the highest water tower in Australia being 101 feet from the foundations and 122 feet above the ground. It held 250,000 gallons of water pumped to it from Kingston-on-Murray. Pipelines were built from the water tower to surrounding towns and districts including Moorook, Wunkar and Mantung etc. It has since been replaced by a modern space mushroom tower and the original tower was demolished in 1979.
In 1919 the government began surveying a formal settlement with quarter acre town blocks along the river frontage thus creating the township of Moorook. The first government school in Moorook was built in stone in 1896 and served as the first institute or public hall. It is now the rear section of the 1933 Moorook Institute. In 1923 when two new school rooms were built by the government the old 1896 school became the public hall. In 1933 a major stone front extension was opened. A new stone and red brick school was built on another site in 1923 to provide sufficient accommodation for the influx of children of soldier settlers. It remains as the Moorook School. Some town buildings preceded the formal town. The first store and Post Office opened in 1910. A prefabricated hall was moved after World War One from Colonel Light Gardens military camp to Moorook to be used as a R.S.L. hall and Church of Christ. It was named the McIntosh Hall. In 1956 it became the Moorook Co-operative building and general store. Moorook Co-operative was formed in 1921 as the soldier settlers arrived. It began by opening a general store and large packing shed for dried fruit processing and handling. They also installed a grape crusher and distillery in 1921 for distilling their Doradillo gapes. The distillery operated for many years until 1943 when World War Two Italian prisoners of war from Loveday Internment camp dismantled the distillery. In the 1930s the State Bank of South Australia had an agency in the Moorook Co-operative store. The bank opened its own office in Moorook in 1949 before it built a new bank and residence in 1951. As it was near the River Murray it was only saved from the 1956 flood by massive sandbagging by locals.
The residents of Moorook were devout church attenders. Anglicans held monthly church services in the Moorook School from 1908 until a church hall was started in 1932. The land was donated by Mr W Loxton and the foundation stone laid at the end of 1932. The parish hall/church opened in 1933. The hall was consecrated as St Mary’s the Virgin Church. During the 1956 River Murray flood it was six feet under water for nine months. When a porch was added by the Bishop in 1974 the hall became an official Anglican Church which only closed in 2018. The first German Lutheran settlers of Moorook attended church in New Residence but in 1910 land was donated by Rien Gogel for Moorook’s St Peter’s Lutheran. It opened in January 1911. The church was renovated and enlarged in 1957 and a new Sunday School was added in 1970. The Church of Christ ran a Sunday School and church service in the McIntosh Hall from 1922 until 1924 and then church services were held in private homes from 1925 until the late 1930s. In 1956 they recommenced Church of Christ services in the former McIntosh Hall and later the Moorook Hall. In 1966 a new Church of Christ was built at Moorook South. On the main road beside the Moorook General Store and Post Office is the old galvanised iron Vercoe’s Billiard Rooms. It was erected in 1926.
The Loveday camps housed Germans, Italians and Japanese from the UK, from the war arenas in the Middle East and Asia and a few Australian residents of enemy alien background. A maximum of 5,382 internees were held at Loveday including 2,206 Italians, 2,035 Japanese, 532 Germans and 609 others. Loveday was the largest prisoner of war camp in Australia. It employed around 1,500 military personnel with the camp headquarters based in Barmera and they ate the same food as the internees. During World War Two when the Loveday Internment Camp was established there were small camps of internees in various places along the River Murray with Japanese soldiers interned near Renmark, and some Italians Interned at Moorook. The Moorook Camp opened in 1942 as a tent camp. 210 Italian prisoners lived and worked from the camp. A few of the internees worked with local farmers but most worked cutting wood for fires and fuel for the water pumping stations along the Murray. It was a wood camp. The Italians were moved out of Moorook Camp at the beginning of 1943 and Japanese prisoners of war immediately replaced them. When Moorook Camp closed permanently in February 1944 the Japanese were sent to a camp near Renmark for the remainder of the War.