Former Printing Offices & Bank (Peterborough, Mid North South Australia)
The first edition of ''The Petersburg Times, Orroroo Chronicle, and the Northern Advertiser" was published from a small iron building on Mill Street near the Federal Hotel, by Mr Robert Osbourne on 12th of August 1887.
The paper's first reporter was Mr H. P. Colebatch, who went on to become a Premier of Western Australia. This building was built in 1891 but was not big enough so a larger printing office was built at No 7 Jervois Street.
The building was used for a short time as a school, Saint Andrew's College.
On the 5th of December 1908, the fifth state branch of the Savings Bank of South Australia opened. The first manager of the bank was Mr E. S. Bastard. It ceased to operate as a bank when new premises were opened in Main Street in 1967. The building is now a private residence.
Peterborough, South Australia:
Peterborough was part of the Eldoratrilla Run from 1851 until the Hundred of Yongala was broken up for selection in 1871. Farm land was taken up in 1875 by a group of German settlers; Peter Doecke (after whom the town was named), Johann Koch, and Herman Rohde.
In 1880, while the railway was under construction from Port Pirie, Koch surveyed his land into town allotments and named it Petersburgh. The coast railway arrived from Port Pirie through Jamestown in February 1881, and the inland line from Burra through Terowie connected with it in May 1881, so within months of its foundation Petersburg - as the Post Office and South Australian Railways insisted on spelling it - became a major railway junction.
The town rose to prominence very quickly, and has remained the major population centre in the eastern half of the region. From its early development, Petersburg became a classic railway town in layout - like Gladstone and Quorn - with its main street parallel to the railway, and its principal hotels, banks, and commercial buildings clustered opposite the railway station. Petersburg's growth was assisted by the extension of the railway to Broken Hill in 1887, and by the construction of the Transcontinental Railway to Perth and the
Ghan line to Alice Springs in the early twentieth century, making it a strategic hub of the national railway network.
Under Railways Commissioner William Webb, a large railway maintenance workshop was built at Petersburg, and a suburb of railway workers housing went up at the western end of town, using innovative cast concrete construction techniques developed by Adelaide builder Walter Torode.
In 1918 the Nomenclature Committee renamed the town Peterborough, oblivious to the irony that its German founder had originally given it an English name, and it had only been
made to look German by a bureaucratic mis-spelling. During the 1930s depression, a gold crushing battery was built at Peterborough to encourage local mining. The town has lost most of its railway function since the 1970s, but remains an important regional centre.
Source: District Council of Peterborough, Heritage Of the Upper North, Volume 6 - District Council of Peterborough, page 115.
Former Printing Offices & Bank (Peterborough, Mid North South Australia)
The first edition of ''The Petersburg Times, Orroroo Chronicle, and the Northern Advertiser" was published from a small iron building on Mill Street near the Federal Hotel, by Mr Robert Osbourne on 12th of August 1887.
The paper's first reporter was Mr H. P. Colebatch, who went on to become a Premier of Western Australia. This building was built in 1891 but was not big enough so a larger printing office was built at No 7 Jervois Street.
The building was used for a short time as a school, Saint Andrew's College.
On the 5th of December 1908, the fifth state branch of the Savings Bank of South Australia opened. The first manager of the bank was Mr E. S. Bastard. It ceased to operate as a bank when new premises were opened in Main Street in 1967. The building is now a private residence.
Peterborough, South Australia:
Peterborough was part of the Eldoratrilla Run from 1851 until the Hundred of Yongala was broken up for selection in 1871. Farm land was taken up in 1875 by a group of German settlers; Peter Doecke (after whom the town was named), Johann Koch, and Herman Rohde.
In 1880, while the railway was under construction from Port Pirie, Koch surveyed his land into town allotments and named it Petersburgh. The coast railway arrived from Port Pirie through Jamestown in February 1881, and the inland line from Burra through Terowie connected with it in May 1881, so within months of its foundation Petersburg - as the Post Office and South Australian Railways insisted on spelling it - became a major railway junction.
The town rose to prominence very quickly, and has remained the major population centre in the eastern half of the region. From its early development, Petersburg became a classic railway town in layout - like Gladstone and Quorn - with its main street parallel to the railway, and its principal hotels, banks, and commercial buildings clustered opposite the railway station. Petersburg's growth was assisted by the extension of the railway to Broken Hill in 1887, and by the construction of the Transcontinental Railway to Perth and the
Ghan line to Alice Springs in the early twentieth century, making it a strategic hub of the national railway network.
Under Railways Commissioner William Webb, a large railway maintenance workshop was built at Petersburg, and a suburb of railway workers housing went up at the western end of town, using innovative cast concrete construction techniques developed by Adelaide builder Walter Torode.
In 1918 the Nomenclature Committee renamed the town Peterborough, oblivious to the irony that its German founder had originally given it an English name, and it had only been
made to look German by a bureaucratic mis-spelling. During the 1930s depression, a gold crushing battery was built at Peterborough to encourage local mining. The town has lost most of its railway function since the 1970s, but remains an important regional centre.
Source: District Council of Peterborough, Heritage Of the Upper North, Volume 6 - District Council of Peterborough, page 115.