The City of Port Augusta is a local government area located at the northern end of Spencer Gulf in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It is centred on the town of Port Augusta. The city was the site of South Australia's main power supplier, the Port Augusta powerhouse, located on the coast of the Spencer Gulf.

History

The Port Augusta region is a natural crossroads and aborigines have been trading in the area for 40 000 years. European settlement began in the 1840s and the town grew from a pastoral service centre to a

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...

with the construction of the

overland telegraph line The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

, then the commencement of the railways towards Alice Springs and Kalgoorlie. The municipality was created as the Corporate Town of Port Augusta on 3 November 1875. A number of smaller separate municipalities were subsequently proclaimed in the Port Augusta area, including the Corporate Town of Davenport (25 August 1887), the Corporate Town of Port Augusta West (6 October 1887), and the District Council of Davenport (5 January 1888, later called Woolundunga). The municipalities in the area were amalgamated on 16 February 1933, with Port Augusta West, Davenport and part of Woolundunga being merged into a larger Port Augusta municipality. It became the City of Port Augusta with the granting of city status in late 1964. The Port Augusta Town Hall was built to house the municipality in 1886–87. It was severely damaged by fire in 1944, rebuilt in 1946, but was vacated by the City in 1983 after the completion of the new Port Augusta Civic Centre. The former town hall subsequently fell into disuse, and was advertised for sale by the state government in June 2015 awaiting redevelopment. Another major industry was the production of electric power, with three coal-fired

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

s burning coal mined at Leigh Creek, the first of which was completed in 1954. The last of these ( Northern Power Station) was shut down on 9 May 2016. Demolition and rehabilitation of the site was completed in May 2019.

Localities

The district also includes two closely neighbouring areas, one of which is a significant town. This means there are two towns in the district: *

Blanche Harbor Blanche Harbor is a natural harbour between Mono Island and Stirling Island of the Treasury Islands archipelago, located n the Western Province of the Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands ...

* Commissariat Point * Davenport * Miranda * Mundallio * Port Augusta * Port Augusta West * Port Paterson * Saltia (part) *

Stirling North Stirling North is a town located east of Port Augusta in the Australian state of South Australia. The now abandoned Marree railway line forms the official border line separating the two towns. Primarily, Stirling North is a satellite town to Po ...

* Wami Kata * Winninowie * Woolundunga (part)

Council

The City of Port Augusta has a directly elected mayor.

Mayors of Port Augusta

References

External links