Solomontown is a suburb of

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 A ...

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 was historically a separate town. It was named after

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 ...

, who owned the land that the town developed on.

Transport

Solomontown has the Spencer Highway run from northeast to south through it, and Warnertown Road from Port Pirie towards 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 ...

and

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 ...

runs northeast to southwest through it. The railway line in to the Port Pirie smelters (and previously to the town stations) runs along the southern boundary of Solomontown. The Solomontown railway station was formerly in the southwest corner of the town. It had a suburban rail service to Port Pirie in 1911. The Port Pirie Junction station was newly built in 1937 as the

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 between 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 Aust ...

broad gauge from the south and 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 from the north on the site of the older Solomontown station on the Port Pirie-Cockburn railway line. (officially known as Port Pirie Junction with both names on the signboard) The station was replaced and closed in 1967, and later demolished.

Community

Solomontown Primary School, Solomontown Kindergarten and the Solomontown Cats football and netball teams are based in the town.

Military History

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 opposing ...

, Solomontown, now a suburb of

, was the location of RAAF No.11 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), built in 1942 and closed on 14 June 1944. Usually consisting of 4 tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

and the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Port Pirie