Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the 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 ...

, north of the state capital,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South Australia and is currently the second most important and second busiest port in the state. The city was founded in 1845, and at the 2016 Census had a population of 15,343. Port Pirie is the eighth most populous city in

after

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

Gawler Gawler is the oldest country town on the Australian mainland in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the ...

, Mount Barker,

Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...

, Murray Bridge and

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

. The city's economy is dominated by one of the world's largest

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

smelters Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

,Port Pirie's lead smelter at risk of breaching licence to operate due to spike in lead levels
''ABC News'', 8 November 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2019. operated by

Nyrstar Nyrstar is a global multi-metals business, with a market leading position in zinc and lead and growing positions in other base and precious metals, such as copper, gold and silver. Nyrstar has mining and smelting operations located in Europe, North ...

. in 2014 the smelter underwent a $650 million upgrade, of which $291 million was underwritten by the state government to replace some of the old existing plant and to reduce airborne lead emissions drastically.Port Pirie smelter could reopen old high-polluting sinter plant after new infrastructure damaged
''ABC News'', 13 August 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2021. Regardless of these upgrades

Blood lead level Blood lead level (BLL), is a measure of the amount of lead in the blood. Lead is a toxic heavy metal and can cause neurological damage, especially among children, at any detectable level. High lead levels cause decreased vitamin D and haemoglob ...

s in young children continue to rise. In 2021 a report from the South Australian Health Department found an average blood level of 7.3 mg/dL in young children, compared to a finding of 5.3 mg/dL in 2014, and an upward trend of airborne lead levels.Port Pirie lead levels in two-year-olds hit 10-year high after Nyrstar's EPA licence breach
''ABC News'', 22 February 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021. It also produces refined

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and Various other by-products. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of 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 ...

region of South Australia.

History

Prior to European settlement, the location that became Port Pirie was occupied by the indigenous tribe of

Nukunu Nukunu are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, living around the Spencer Gulf area. In the years after British colonisation of South Australia, the area was developed to contain the cities of Port Pirie and Port Augusta. Name Bot ...

. The location was called 'Tarparrie', which is suspected to mean "Muddy Creek". The first European to see the location was

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

in 1802 as he explored the Spencer Gulf by boat. The first land discovery of the location by a European was by the explorer

Edward Eyre Edward John Eyre (5 August 181530 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and Governor of Jamaica. Early life Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved to ...

, who explored regions around

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

. John Horrocks also discovered a pass through the Flinders Ranges to the coast, now named ''

Horrocks Pass Horrocks Pass is a geographical location in the Australian state of South Australia in the localities of Nectar Brook, South Australia, Nectar Brook and Woolundunga, South Australia, Woolundunga in the southern Flinders Ranges, about west of ...

''. The town was originally called Samuel's Creek after the discovery of Muddy Creek by Samuel Germein. In 1846, Port Pirie Creek was named by Governor Robe after the , the first vessel to navigate the creek when transporting sheep from Bowman's Run near Crystal Brook. In 1848, Matthew Smith and

Emanuel Solomon Emanuel Solomon (1800 – 3 October 1873) was a businessman and politician in the early days of the Colony of South Australia, representing the seat of West Adelaide in the South Australian Legislative Assembly from 1862 to 1865. He is the bro ...

bought and subdivided it as a township to be known as Port Pirie. Little development occurred on site and by the late 1860s there were only three woolsheds on the riverfront. The locality was surveyed as a government town in December 1871 by Charles Hope Harris. The thoroughfares and streets were named after the family of

George Goyder George Woodroffe Goyder (24 June 1826 – 2 November 1898) was a surveyor in the Colony of South Australia during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He rose rapidly in the civil service, becoming Assistant Surveyor-General by 1856 ...

, Surveyor General of South Australia. In 1873 the land of Solomon and Smith was re-surveyed and named Solomontown. On 28 September 1876, with a population of 947, Port Pirie was declared a municipality. With the discovery of rich ore bearing silver, lead and zinc at

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 1883, and the completion of a narrow gauge railway from Port Pirie to close to the Broken Hill field in 1888, the economic activities of the town underwent profound change. In 1889 a lead smelter was built by the British Blocks company to treat the Broken Hill ore.

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

initially leased the smelter from British Blocks but began constructing its own smelter from 1892. In 1913 the Russian consul-general

Alexander Abaza Alexander Ageevich Abaza (Александр Агеевич Абаза 1821–1895) was one of the most liberal of the advisors of Alexander II of Russia. He served as minister of finance from October 27, 1880, to May 6, 1881, and unsuccessfull ...

reported that Port Pirie had a population of more than 500 Russians, mostly

Ossetians The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...

, who had come to work at the smelter. At that time the town supported a Russian-language school and library. In 1915 the smelter was taken over by Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS) – a joint venture of companies operating in Broken Hill. Led by the Collins House Group, by 1934 BHAS became the biggest lead smelter in the world. The smelter gradually passed to

Pasminco Pasminco was an Australian mining company founded in 1988. It was placed in voluntary administration in September 2001 with its assets sold in stages until 2004 when the remaining assets were spun-off to Zinifex. History Pasminco was establis ...

, then

Zinifex Zinifex was an Australian company that operated lead and zinc mines, refineries and a lead smelter. It was established in April 2004, when the assets of Pasminco were spun-off. In 2008 it merged with Oxiana to form OZ Minerals. History In ...

, and since 2007 has been operated by

. By 1921, the town's population had grown to 9,801 living in 2,308 occupied dwellings. By this date there were 62 boarding houses to cater for the labour demands at the smelter and on the increasingly busy waterfront. 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 ...

(1941-1943), a Bombing and Gunnery school (2BAGS) was established by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

at Port Pirie. 22 men lost their lives there during training exercises. It was re-designated the 3 Aerial Observers School (3AOS) on 9 December 1943. Port Pirie was declared South Australia's first provincial city in 1953, and today it is South Australia's second largest port.

Heritage listings

The city is characterised by an attractive main street and some interesting and unusual historic buildings. Heritage-listed sites include: * 1 Alexander Street: Barrier Chambers Offices * 32 Ellen Street:

Adelaide Steamship Company Building Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

* 64-68 Ellen Street: Sampson's Butcher Shop * 69-71 Ellen Street: Port Pirie Customs House * 73-77 Ellen Street:

Port Pirie (Ellen Street) railway station Ellen Street railway station was the second of six stations that operated successively between 1875 and the early 2010s to serve the rural maritime town (later city) of Port Pirie, 216 km (134 mi) by rail north of Adelaide, South Aus ...

* 79-81 Ellen Street:

Port Pirie Post Office The Port Pirie Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 79-83 Ellen Street, Port Pirie, South Australia. It was designed by Edward Woods and built in 1880, with extensions designed by Charles Owen-Smyth built in 1905–1907. It was added ...

* 85 Ellen Street: Development Board Building * 94 Ellen Street: Sample Rooms, rear of

Portside Tavern Port and starboard are nautical terms for watercraft and aircraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the bow (front). Vessels with bilateral symmetry have left and right halves which are ...

* 134 Ellen Street: Family Hotel * 32 Florence Street: Carn Brae * 50-52 Florence Street: Waterside Workers' Federation Building * 105 Gertrude Street:

Good Samaritan Catholic Convent School In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

* Memorial Drive: Second World War Memorial Gates * 5 Norman Street:

AMP Society Building, Port Pirie #REDIRECT Amp {{Redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

Demographics

According to the 2006 Census, the population of the Port Pirie census area was 13,206 people. Approximately 51.8% of the population were female, 86.9% are Australian born, over 92.7% of residents were Australian citizens. At the 2016 Census, the population had grown to 15,343 people, of whom 3.8% were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. The most popular industries for employment were Basic Non-Ferrous Metal Manufacturing (9.7%), School Education (6%), Hospitality (only including hotels) (11%), Health (5.4%) and Animal Husbandry (4%), while the unemployment rate is approx. 11%. The median weekly household income is A$608 or more per week, compared with $924 in Adelaide. 27.1% of the population identify themselves as

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, while 23.7% identify with no religion at all.

Geography

Port Pirie is at an elevation of 4 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. It is approximately inland, on the Pirie River, which is a tidal saltwater inlet from Spencer Gulf. It is on the coastal plain between Spencer Gulf (to the west) and the

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 ...

to the east.

Climate

Port Pirie experiences a hot-semi arid climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''BSh''), Trewartha: ''BSal''); with hot, dry summers; mild to warm, relatively dry springs and autumns; and mild, relatively dry winters. Port Pirie exists in a region with a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

, outside

Goyder's Line Goyder's Line is a line that runs roughly east–west across South Australia and, in effect, joins places with an average annual rainfall of . North of Goyder's Line, annual rainfall is usually too low to support cropping, with the land being sui ...

, surrounded by mallee scrub. Average daily maximum temperatures vary from a mild 16.4 °C in winter to 32.0 °C in summer. Its average annual rainfall is 345.2 millimetres, most of which falls in winter. The city is fairly sunny, receiving 125.0 clear days annually, akin to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, with the sunny days being more concentrated in the summer.

Transport

Port Pirie is off the

Augusta Highway Augusta Highway is the part of Australia's ring route (Highway 1) located in South Australia between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta. Route Augusta Highway starts at the intersection with Eyre and Stuart Highways in Port Augusta West, then ...

. It is serviced by

Port Pirie Airport Port Pirie Airport is an airport that is located south of Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia. The airport is owned by the Port Pirie Regional Council. History The airfield was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) station and home to ''No. ...

, six kilometres south of the city.

Railways

The first railway in Port Pirie opened in 1875 when the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

gauge Port Pirie-Cockburn line opened to

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 ...

, ultimately being extended to

. The original Ellen Street station was located on the street with the track running down the middle. The station today is occupied by the Port Pirie National Trust Museum. In 1937, it became 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 ...

station when the broad gauge Adelaide-Redhill line was extended to Port Pirie. At the same time the

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975. O ...

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 ...

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the easter ...

was extended south from

to terminate at the new Port Pirie Junction station where it met the broad gauge line, in the suburb of Solomontown. As far back as 1943, a plan existed to build a new station to remove trains from Ellen Street. As part of the gauge conversion of the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line, Mary Elie Street station was built to replace both Ellen Street and Port Pirie Junction stations. When opened, the new station was the meeting point for the

and

networks with through trains changing locomotives and crews, so the disadvantages were not as notable. However, after both became part of Australian National in July 1975 and trains began to operate in and out with the same locomotives, trains began to operate via Coonamia station on the outskirts of the city. Mary Ellie Street station was eventually closed in the 1990s and in 2009 was redeveloped as the city's library. Until 2012, a GM class locomotive and three carriages were stabled at the platform. A freight line continues to operate into Port Pirie, feeding the metals plant with raw materials from Broken Hill, and transporting the processed material to Adelaide. This line is managed by

Bowmans Rail Bowmans Rail is an Australian railway operator hauling freight in South Australia. History Bowmans Rail was founded as Bowmans Intermodal in 2003. It was a joint venture between hay processor and exporter Balco, and logistics operator Patrick Co ...

Sea transport

Port Pirie's marine facilities, managed by

Flinders Ports Flinders Ports Pty Limited is a company incorporated in 2001 that manages seven of South Australia's ten ports fronting the Great Australian Bight, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. It is the state's largest port operator, employing more than 8 ...

, handle up to 100 ship visits annually, up to

Handymax Handymax and Supramax are naval architecture terms for the larger bulk carriers in the Handysize class. Handysize class consists of Supramax (50,000 to 60,000 DWT), Handymax (40,000 to 50,000 DWT), and Handy (<40,000 DWT). The ships are used for ...

size, for commodities such as mineral concentrates, refined lead and zinc, coal, grain, and general cargo.

Bridge to nowhere

John Pirie Bridge, locally known as 'the bridge to nowhere', was built in the 1970s to encourage development of industry on the other side of Port Pirie Creek. Construction cost $410,000 and lasted 26 weeks. It was officially named the John Pirie Bridge in 1980. The land across the bridge remains undeveloped.

Industry and employment

The main industries are the

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...

of metals, and the operation of silos to hold grain. , Port Pirie is the locality of the largest lead smelter and refinery in the southern hemisphere; a lead smelter has been there since the 1880s. The owner since 2007, Nyrstar, is the city's main employer., and high blood lead levels in the local population are an ongoing concern. The Stack, which can be seen kilometres away, is 205 metres tall, and is the tallest structure in the state. In 2006 Zinifex formed a joint venture with

Umicore Umicore N.V.. formerly '' Union Minière'', is a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 1989 by the merger of four companies in the mining and smelting industries, Umicore has since reshaped ...

to create Nyrstar, which owns the smelter, with the intention that it would eventually be an entity separate from the parent companies. Flinders Industrial, a new industrial estate, is currently in its second stage and is planned to be home to the new council depot. There were plans to build a sulphuric acid plant for the benefit of the Nyrstar Smelter, but this project has been shelved and deemed not feasible.

Development

A $3.3 million cultural precinct funded by the

Port Pirie Regional Council The Port Pirie Regional Council (PPRC) is a local government area in South Australia, focused on the city of Port Pirie. It has a population of about 18,000 people. The council's main administrative facilities and works depot can be found in Por ...

and the Federal Government was completed in 2010. A committee is also looking at building a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

. The swimming pool was modernised after receiving a $1 million refit. A major waste recovery facility was opened in 2013, in which all waste and recycled material is sorted under one roof. In 2012 Port Pirie Regional Council completed a $5 million community water recycling project with Nyrstar which allows 350 megalitres of water from the smelter to be reused. Plans are under way to establish a large shopping complex in the city with an additional supermarket and department store. The city's population is continually growing and property prices continue to rise. The Port Pirie Regional Council has a number of large projects that will be launched or completed next financial year.

Waterfront development

The PPRC completed a major redevelopment of its foreshore area in 2014 including the construction of the Solomontown Beach Plaza, opening up Beach abroad to through traffic, replacing lighting along the beach and improving security. In addition, by the end of 2014, the council aims to replace and duplicate the current Solomontown boat ramp and undertake dredging in the vicinity of the ramp. This investment is aimed at creating a waterfront which will revitalise the area from the Main Road boat ramp up to the area off Ellen street.

Tenby10 (Lead levels)

Lead smelters contribute to several environmental problems, especially raised lead levels in the blood of some of the town population. The problem is particularly significant in many children who have grown up in the area. A state government project addressed this. Nyrstar plans to progressively reduce lead in blood levels such that ultimately 95% of all children meet the national goal of 10 micrograms per decilitre. This has been known as the tenby10 project. Community lead in blood levels in children are now at less than half the level that they were in the mid 1980s. The Port Pirie smelter conducted a project to reduce lead levels in children to less than 10 micrograms per decilitre by the end of 2010.

The goal we are committed to achieving is for at least 95% of our children aged 0 to 4 to have a blood lead level below ten micrograms per decilitre of blood (the first ten in tenby10) by the end of 2010 (the second ten in tenby10).

Higher concentrations of lead have been found in the organs of bottlenose dolphins stranded near the lead smelter, compared to dolphins stranded elsewhere in South Australia. The health impacts of these metals on dolphins has been examined and some associations between high metal concentrations and kidney toxicity were noted.

Education and culture

Port Pirie is the main centre for the

area. Many towns in the area rely on Port Pirie for shopping and employment. It also has many educational institutions such as

John Pirie Secondary School John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

(years 8-12), St Mark's College (reception - year 12), Mid North Christian College (reception - year 12), many preschools and primary schools, and a

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

campus (adult education). Port Pirie is home to the National Trust Historic and Folk Museum and Memorial Park. Every September and October the city hosts a country music festival. It has significant Italian and Greek communities. The Keith Michell Theatre, within the Northern Festival Centre, is named after the renowned actor

Keith Michell Keith Joseph Michell (1 December 1926 – 20 November 2015) was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare ...

, who grew up in Warnertown, from Port Pirie.

News media

The town's main newspaper, '' The Recorder,'' was first published 21 March 1885 as ''The Port Pirie Advocate and Areas News''. In 1971, a brief experiment, known as the ''Northern Observer'' (7 July - 30 August 1971), occurred when ''The Recorder'' and ''

The Transcontinental ''The Transcontinental'' is a weekly newspaper published in Port Augusta, South Australia which dates from October 1914. It was later sold to Rural Press, previously owned by Fairfax Media, but now an Australian media company trading as Australi ...

'' from Port Augusta were published under a combined title in Port Pirie. ''The Recorder'', which is still in print today (Tuesdays and Thursdays), has recently changed to a morning paper, after being delivered at around 3:00 pm. Other Port Pirie newspapers include the free ''

The Flinders News ''The Flinders News'' is a weekly newspaper published in Port Pirie, South Australia, formed from the historic mergers of multiple Mid North, Mid-North publications and representing a combined ancestry of 12 former publications. Its earliest cons ...

'' (Wednesdays), and '' The Advertiser'', which covers some Port Pirie news, but to a very small extent. Another newspaper, the '' Port Pirie Advertiser'' (7 April 1898 – 28 June 1924) was also published by Robert Osborne. A further publication was the short-lived ''Saturday Times'' (6 December 1913 – 15 August 1914), printed by Roy Harold Butler and closed at the start of the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Television coverage in the city is provided by the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, SBS,

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

(7, 9 and 10) and

Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Tele ...

. Several radio stations cover Port Pirie, including ABC 639AM, ABC 891AM, 1044 5CS, 1242 5AU,

triple j Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

, Magic FM and Trax FM (a community station).

Governance

State and federal

The results shown are from "Port Pirie West", the largest polling booth in Port Pirie, which is at the SA TAFE Campus. Port Pirie is part of the federal division of Grey, and has been represented by Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey since 2007. Grey is held with a margin of 4.43% but is considered a safe Liberal seat. The city is part of the state electoral district of Frome, which had been held since 1993 by former Liberal Premier,

Rob Kerin Robert Gerard Kerin (born 4 January 1954) is a former South Australian politician who was the Premier of South Australia from 22 October 2001 to 5 March 2002, representing the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was ...

, with a margin of 3.4%. It also has been considered a safe Liberal seat. Although the region is generally Liberal-leaning because of its agricultural base, Port Pirie is an industrial centre that is favourable to the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

. In late 2008 Rob Kerin announced his retirement, which led to a by-election being held in January 2009. Port Pirie mayor Geoff Brock announced his candidacy as an independent, and subsequently took the seat from the Liberals at the 2009 Frome by-election. After the poll for the by-election had closed and first preferences had been counted, (but before other preferences had been distributed), the result was Lib: 39.2%; ALP: 26.1%; Brock 23.6%; Nat: 6.6%; Greens: 3.8%; Other: 0.7%.Frome 2009 By-election results
abc.net.au, 2 February 2009. Retrieved on 15 March 2009.District of Frome - Electoral Results
, Electoral Commission SA, 24 January 2009. Retrieved on 15 March 2009. State Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith (Liberal Party) claimed victory, prematurely. Distribution of National Party, Greens and other preferences placed Brock ahead of the ALP candidate. Hence with the assistance of the ALP candidate's preferences, Geoff Brock won the by-election 51.7% to 48.3% for the Liberal candidate.

Local government

Port Pirie and some of the sparsely inhabited areas around it are in the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

Notable residents

;Sportspeople *

Nip Pellew Clarence Everard "Nip" Pellew (21 September 1893 – 9 May 1981) was an Australian cricketer who played in 10 Test matches from 1920 to 1921. Pellew was also a leading Australian rules footballer who, due to permit problems, was only allowed ...

(1893-1981), Australian Test cricketer and North Adelaide player *

Mark Bickley Mark Alan Bickley (born 4 August 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Bickley was a player for the Crows from 1991 until 2003, captaining the team to bo ...

(1969-), Adelaide Crows dual premiership captain *

Mark Jamar Mark Jamar (born 9 August 1983) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Jamar was born and raised in the cou ...

(1982-), Melbourne Demons player and all-Australian *

David Tiller David Tiller (born 30 May 1958) is a former Australian rules footballer in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), playing for the North Adelaide Football Club. Recruited from the Risdon Football Club in the Spencer Gulf Footb ...

(1958-), North Adelaide Roosters captain and premiership player *

Brodie Atkinson Brodie Atkinson (born 31 July 1972) is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL) and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Atkinson joined the North Adelaide Football Club in 1990 ...

(1972-), St. Kilda, Adelaide Crows, North Adelaide premiership player (1991), Sturt premiership player (2002) and Magarey Medal winner (1997) * Elijah Ware (1983-), Port Adelaide and Central Districts player and premiership player *

Abby Bishop Abby Bishop (born 29 November 1988) is an Australian professional basketball forward/center who plays for Southside Flyers of the Australian WNBL. She has played for the Australian Institute of Sport from 2005 to 2006, the Canberra Capitals ...

(1989-), Canberra Capitals player * Lewis Johnston (1991-), Sydney Swans, Adelaide Crows * Sam Mayes (1994-), North Adelaide, Brisbane Lions (2013-2018), Port Adelaide (2019-) ;Others * Geoff Brock, State Politician * Ted Connelly, State Politician * Andrew Lacey (1887–1946), Federal and State Politician, State Leader of the ALP 1933–1938 * Hugh Cairns (surgeon), Sir Hugh Cairns (1896–1952), Rhodes Scholar, Neurosurgeon and crash helmet proponent *

(1928-2015), Actor * John Noble (1948-), Actor and director * Robert Stigwood (1934-2016), Music entrepreneur and impresarioRobert Stigwood, music mogul behind Bee Gees and Clapton, dies aged 81
''ABC News'', 5 January 2016. Accessed 6 January 2016.

References

External links

Port Pirie, South Australia referencePort Pirie Regional Council
Travel section, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 2008.

ABC News, 31 August 2007.
Nystar
Home page - English. {{Authority control Port Pirie, 1845 establishments in Australia Cities in South Australia Mid North (South Australia) Port cities in South Australia Spencer Gulf