Alford is a
settlement in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. Alford is in the
Hundred of Tickera, northern
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula ...
, about midway between the towns of
Kadina and
Port Broughton. The natural landform is undulating fertile plains, which often feature limestone and dunes. Founded on the agricultural industry, which surrounds the township, most of the original
mallee scrub vegetation has been cleared for highly productive broad-acre
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
and
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
farming, plus grazing and mixed farming.
History
The
Narungga name for the area around modern day Alford is Bilila Wiila.
The SA Government first surveyed the township in 1882, naming it after Henry Alford (1816–1892), pioneer and inaugural member of the
South Australia Police
South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. SAPOL is an independent statutory agency of the Government of South Australia directed by the Commissioner of Po ...
under
Henry Inman in 1838. The first blocks were auctioned in September 1882. Within several years there was a small township comprising a hotel (Alford Hotel), general store, churches, school, and blacksmith servicing the surrounding farming community.
[''From Stumps to Stubble'', Paterson and Price, 1984]
The state's first automatic telephone exchange was trialled at Alford.
As road transport improved, nearby towns
Kadina,
Bute
Bute or BUTE may refer to:
People
* Marquess of Bute, a title in the Peerage of Great Britain; includes lists of baronets, earls and marquesses of Bute
* Lord of Bute, a title in medieval Scotland, including a list of lords
* Lucian Bute (born ...
, and
Port Broughton mostly usurped this role and Alford did not thrive beyond township status.
In 2004 the primary school was closed and most of the students enrolled in Kadina. The town has a hotel, bowls club and a golf course and after the general store's closure the "post office" was moved to the pub. Alford is an important hub for the district and continues to foster social and sporting activities.
Transport
Alford is on the
Spencer Highway (South Australia route B89), just north of where the named highway diverges towards the coast at
Wallaroo and the numbered route continues through
Kadina, merging again outside of
Moonta. The highway continues north through
Port Broughton to
Port Pirie
Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...
.
See also
*
Alford (disambiguation)
Citations and references
;Citations
;References
*
Towns in South Australia
Populated places established in 1882
{{SouthAustralia-geo-stub