Gladstone (including the former town of Booyoolie) is a small rural town in the

Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...

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 ...

in the approach to the lower

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...

. At the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, Gladstone had a population of 629. The town services the surrounding district with two pubs, three churches, a bank, post office and several shops and small businesses providing basic goods and services. The closest hospital is 11 km away in a neighbouring rural town, but doctors take appointments in the town's medical clinic. There is a kindergarten (approximately 12 enrollments), state primary school (63), Catholic primary school (60) and a secondary school (approximately 205 students, drawn from the wider district). Gladstone has sporting/social clubs providing for Aussie Rules football, netball, cricket, tennis, golf, lawn bowls, swimming (at the local outdoor pool) and soccer (newly formed for school-aged children), all seasonal. Sporting competitions occur between clubs from the neighbouring towns within a radius of about 75 km. Wheat and sheep are the main farming produce of the region, but Gladstone has the largest inland grain storage facility in the Southern Hemisphere, storing wheat, barley, durum wheat, peas, faba beans and fiesta beans. The Anglican

Diocese of Willochra The Diocese of Willochra is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia. It is situated in the northern and western parts of the state of South Australia, Australia. As part of the Province of South Australia it covers the Eyre Peninsula, ...

is based in Gladstone, with the Registry (the Diocesan Office) housed in building in the main street. In addition the Bishop of Willochra lives in Bishop's House which is on the Main North Road. Gladstone was the home of

Trend Drinks Trend Drinks was a manufacturer of soft drinks in Gladstone in the Southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia from 1876 until 2015. Trend Drinks was the last locally owned regional soft drink manufacturer in South Australia. Historically, So ...

, a local soft drink manufacturer, from its founding in 1876 until it moved to

Corowa, New South Wales Corowa is a town in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah. It is the largest town in the Federation Council an ...

in 2016.

History

The town of Gladstone was privately laid out by Matthew Moorhouse east of the railway line in October 1872 on Section 31,

Hundred of Yangya The Hundred of Yangya is a cadastral unit of hundred in the County of Victoria, South Australia straddling the towns and localities of Gladstone, South Australia, Gladstone, Caltowie, South Australia, Caltowie, West Bundaleer, South Australia, Wes ...

. A government town named Booyoolie was laid out in March 1875 on the western side of the railway line in the Hundred of Booyoolie. In 1940, Booyoolie was renamed Gladstone to match the private town and railway station. The name Gladstone is derived from

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

, a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the RAAF No. 28 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot was established near Gladstone. It consisted of large tanks concealed under earthen mounds. The Gladstone depot was one of 31 fuel depots established across Australia in places that were remote from airfields and immune to naval attack.

Heritage listings

Gladstone has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * 42 Gladstone Street: National Australia Bank Building * 44 Gladstone Terrace: Savings Bank of South Australia Building * Ward Street:

Old Gladstone Gaol The Old Gladstone Gaol is a historic former prison in Gladstone, South Australia. It is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register. The prison was built between 1879 and 1881. It was built to address chronic overcrowding in regional prison ...

Railways

Gladstone is located on the main

Crystal Brook-Broken Hill railway line A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

, with branches going north and south. Originally, all the lines were gauge

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

s, starting with the line from

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. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...

in 1875, extended to Petersburg (now

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

) in 1880 and to Cockburn (on the state border near

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

) in 1888. A branch from Gladstone to Laura in 1884 was extended to Wilmington in 1915. The line from the south (extending the line that terminated at Blyth) was completed in 1894. In 1927, the line from

Hamley Bridge Hamley Bridge is a community in South Australia located at the junction of the Gilbert River (South Australia), Gilbert and Light River (South Australia), Light rivers, as well as the site of a former railway junction. Named by the government of ...

through Blythe to Gladstone was converted to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

, making Gladstone a

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

junction. In 1970, the line from Port Pirie to Broken Hill was converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

making Gladstone into a rare three-gauge

junction as the Wilmington railway line to the north remained an isolated narrow gauge line.''The Triple-gauge Track of Gladstone'' Vincent, Graham

Australian Railway History ''Australian Railway History'' is a monthly magazine covering railway history in Australia, published by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society on behalf of its state and territory Divisions.Towns in South Australia Mid North (South Australia)