Hoyleton (formerly Hoyle's Plains) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

, west of the

Clare Valley The Clare Valley is a valley located in South Australia about north of Adelaide in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys council area. It is the river valley formed by the Hutt River but is also strongly associated with the roughly parallel Hill Riv ...

, halfway between Leasingham and Halbury. 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 ...

, Hoyleton had a population of 283. Hoyle's Plains was the original terminus of the Port Wakefield railway line. This was constructed in 1869 as a horse-drawn tramway to assist farmers on the newly settled Hoyles Plains to get their grain to the port. The

Gladstone railway line 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 ...

ran from

Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Cri ...

to Blyth and further on into 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 ...

of the state. Due to various reasons, this particular line had become obsolete and the tracks were dismantled in the late 1980s. The original historic stone railway shed remains standing alongside the grain silos which are still in use, but now serviced by road. Sir Walter Watson Hughes, one of the founders of the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, originally owned a pastoral lease at Hoyleton in the 1850s. He later went on to own vast copper mining interests at

Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'', and not a portmanteau of the words "kangaroo" and "wal ...

, on the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Str ...

. The Hoyleton Airbase to the west of the township is a base for firefighting aircraft to quickly respond to reports of fires in the Mid North region.

Government

Hoyleton is in the

Wakefield Regional Council Wakefield Regional Council is a local government area in the Yorke and Mid North region of South Australia. The council seat is at Balaklava. Geography The Wakefield Regional Council includes the towns and localities of Avon, Balaklava, Bar ...

local government area, the State

Electoral District of Goyder Goyder was an electoral district of the South Australian House of Assembly. It was a 9,258 km² rural electorate located on the Yorke Peninsula and taking in the towns of Ardrossan, Bute, Edithburgh, Kadina, Maitland, Minlaton, Moonta, ...

and the Federal Electorate of

Grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

References

Gallery

Image:Grain silo, Hoyleton.JPG, Grain storage silo still in use Image:Hoyleton church.JPG, Disused church Image:Hoyleton from Mt George Rd,.JPG, Looking west towards Hoyleton from Mt. George Road Image:Hoyleton hotel.JPG, Former Hoyleton Hotel Image:Railway monument, Hoyleton.JPG, Railway monument Towns in South Australia {{SouthAustralia-geo-stub