Maitland () is a town in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, 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 o ...
. By road, it is 168 km west of
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 ...
by, 164 km south 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 ...
and 46 km north of
Minlaton known as the "heart of
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 ...
" due to being near the centre of the region. At the , Maitland had a population of 1,029.
Maitland is within a short driving distance of coastal towns on either side, with
Port Victoria to the west and
Ardrossan
Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the ' Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...
to the east, each within 25 km. It has a grain receiving depot operated by
AWB Limited
AWB Limited was a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. Founded in 1939 by the Government of Australia as the Australian Wheat Board, in 1999 it was sold off by the government, initially to be owned by wheat growers. It was acqu ...
, serviced only by road. Maitland is also the home base of the
Narungga
The Narungga people, also spelt Narangga, are a group of Aboriginal Australians whose traditional lands are located throughout Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Their traditional language, one of the Yura-Thura grouping, is Narungga.
Country ...
Aboriginal Progress Association.
History
The town was named in 1872 after Lady Jean Maitland, who died in 1766, who was the wife of the
2nd Lord of Kilkerran, Sir James Fergusson, 1688-1759 2nd Baronet of Kilkerran, the Great-Great Grandmother of
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-gen ...
at this time,
Sir James Fergusson 1832-1907; the local aborigines calling it "madu waltu", meaning white flint. Maitland's urban design is patterned after Adelaide's central business district: a neat grid of streets surrounded on all four sides by parkland.
In October 1884 the Adelaide Observer noted:
Maitland in situated about twenty-three miles from Moonta, on Yorke's Peninsula, and is about equidistant between the two Gulfs. The town stands about 490 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by some of the richest soil on the Peninsula. The township is only about nine years old, and has made steady progress, and bids fair to be the next largest town to Moonta on the Peninsula.
Climate
Maitland experiences a
hot-summer mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(
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, nota ...
: ''Csa''),
Trewartha: ''Csal''); with hot, dry summers; mild to warm, relatively dry springs and autumns; and mild, winters with moderate precipitation.
Media
Maitland was home to a newspaper called the ''Maitland Watch'' (22 December 1911 – 26 June 1969). In 1969, the newspaper merged with
Yorketown's the ''
Pioneer'' (1898–1969) to become the short-lived ''Yorke Peninsula News Pictorial'' (3 July 1969 – 28 May 1970), which was then incorporated into the ''
Yorke Peninsula Country Times
''Yorke Peninsula Country Times'' is a weekly South Australian newspaper, which was first published on 4 September 1968. It was formed by the merging of ''Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta Times'' and ''South Australian Farmer,'' representing numerous fo ...
'' from June 1970.
See also
*
List of cities and towns in South Australia
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
John Shannon (Australian politician)
John Wallace Shannon (28 April 1862 – 30 January 1926) was an Australian politician. Born in Angaston, South Australia, where he was educated, he became a farmer on the Yorke Peninsula and an auctioneer. He served on Maitland Council, of w ...
References
External links
Harvest Corner WebsiteYorke Peninsula Visitor Information Centre at Minlaton
Towns in South Australia
1872 establishments in Australia
Yorke Peninsula
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