Peebinga is a town and locality in the Australian state of
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 ...
.
Peebinga was the terminus of the
Peebinga railway line which was built in 1914 as part of a major state government project to open up the
Murray Mallee
The Murray Mallee is the grain-growing and sheep-farming area of South Australia bounded to the north and west by the Murray River (in South Australia, "River Murray"), to the east by the Victorian border, and extending about 50 km south ...
for grazing and cropping.
When the railway was built, it terminated in the scrub in the district of Peebinga. The town was later surveyed in 1924 adjacent to the railway station. The current locality of Peebinga includes the historic place of Mootatunga.
Mootatunga was the next-to-last stop on the railway line, and is now adjacent to
Peebinga Conservation Park
Peebinga Conservation Park (formerly Peebinga National Park ) is a 34 km2 protected area lying 40 km north of the town of Pinnaroo in the Murray Mallee region of south-eastern South Australia, about 240 km east of Adelaide and 1 ...
and the
Browns Well Highway, 5 km west of Peebinga itself. Peebinga was named by
Governor of South Australia
The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-gene ...
,
Tom Bridges
Lieutenant General Sir George Tom Molesworth Bridges (20 August 1871 – 26 November 1939) known as Sir Tom Bridges, was a British Army officer and the 19th Governor of South Australia.
Bridges had a distinguished military career, seeing servi ...
after the district,
which had previously been named by Governor
Day Bosanquet
Admiral Sir Day Hort Bosanquet, (22 March 1843 – 28 June 1923) was a British politician and senior officer in the Royal Navy. He served as the Governor of South Australia from 18 February 1909 until 22 March 1914.
Naval career
Born in Alnwick ...
in 1912 from the
Aboriginal name for a rock hole in the area.
Mootatunga was the native name for a totem of the tribe. The town was also surveyed in 1924.
The railway closed in 1990. The post office opened in 1926 and closed in 1986.
Peebinga school opened in 1938 but is now also closed.
The
2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as – an incre ...
which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Peebinga had a population of 32 people.
[
Peebinga is located within the federal ]division of Barker
The Division of Barker is an Australian Electoral Division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member div ...
, the state Electoral district of Chaffey
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
and the local government area of the District Council of Loxton Waikerie
The District Council of Loxton Waikerie is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia. The council seat lies at Loxton, South Australia, Loxton, while it maintains a branch office at Wai ...
.
References
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Towns in South Australia