Pinnaroo is a town in the Murray Mallee region of

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 ...

, near the border with Victoria, 243 km east 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 ...

. Pinnaroo is on the north side of the Mallee Highway, and on the railway line between

Tailem Bend Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

and Ouyen. The roadhouse on the highway at Pinnaroo is the first "food and leg-stretch" stop on the bus route from Adelaide to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

. At the 2016 census, the locality of Pinnaroo had a population of 712 of which 547 lived in and around its town centre.

History

The town's name is derived from a word for "big man" in a local Aboriginal language. The railway arrived in the area in 1906. There had not been any significant development in the area before that, as the remoteness and difficulty of getting supplies in and produce out had made it uneconomic to farm before that.

Economy

The railway is not currently available for transport between the states, as the line from Tailem Bend was converted to

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 E ...

and more recently mothballed forcing grain to be trucked to the port. The town has become a major centre for growing

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es since around 1990.

Recreation

Pinnaroo has a show and field days every year at the start of October. The Pinnaroo Show features dog trials, agricultural tents, competitions, horse events, keg tosses, animal judging and fireworks. The show attracts large numbers people each year. The

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 10 ...

is north of Pinnaroo,

Karte Conservation Park __NOTOC__ Karte Conservation Park (formerly Karte National Park) is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia in the localities of Karte and Parilla about east of the state capital of Adelaide and about north-west ...

30 km north-west, and the much larger

Ngarkat Conservation Park Ngarkat Conservation Park is a protected area located in South Australia's south-eastern corner about south east of the Adelaide city centre. The conservation park was proclaimed in 1979 "to conserve the mallee heath habitat of the 90 Mile ...

is south of the town. All of which provide off road access. The town has a large variety of sports, such as

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

, netball, cricket, tennis, basketball, volleyball, lawn bowls,

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

, golf and darts. The local football team, the Pinnaroo Supa Roos play in the

Mallee Football League The Mallee Football League (MFL) was an Australian rules football competition in South Australia. The league comprised teams located in south eastern South Australia and one team (Murrayville) located in western Victoria (Australia), Victoria. ...

. From about 2012 to 2020, residents of Pinnaroo volunteered their time and effort to transform a

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation ( storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed l ...

collection site, formerly an old railway dam for

steam train A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s, into a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

bordering the Mallee Highway. It is the only water attraction in the area, and a popular place to explore nature or sit and watch the birdlife, which includes

crake The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, althou ...

s and

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

Government

Pinnaroo is the seat of the local government area of the

Southern Mallee District Council The Southern Mallee District Council is a local government area in the Murray and Mallee region of South Australia. The council offices are in Pinnaroo and Lameroo. It was established on 23 January 1997 when the District Council of Lameroo a ...

, and is in the state electoral district of Chaffey and the federal division of Barker.

Media

The Border Times The ''Border Times'', based in Pinnaroo, is the local newspaper of the Southern Mallee region of South Australia since 1911. Published weekly, it focuses on local news, sports and weather. History The ''Pinnaroo & Border Times'' (subtitled "'' ...

'' is a weekly newspaper published since 1911.

Education

Pinnaroo Primary School is a public primary school for students in Reception to Year 7, and has approximately 80 students. The school has four composite classes - Reception, Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5,6 and 7. It is the only school within 30 km of the town. The school's slogan is ''Aim High''. The school is home to South Australia's first community library, which opened in 1977. The school regularly takes part in interschool sports with neighbouring schools, Lameroo and

Geranium ''Geranium'' is a genus of 422 species of annual, biennial, and perennial plants that are commonly known as geraniums or cranesbills. They are found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly i ...

, in swimming and athletics. The school also takes part in SAPSASA with the Murray Mallee team in sports such as

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

, athletics, swimming, golf, softball, tennis, netball and basketball. The school has four classrooms, a GP room, an art and technical centre, a home economics centre, an FM radio station, a swimming pool, two ovals, outdoor tennis, netball and basketball courts, and a full-size gymnasium.

Tourism

Pinnaroo is home to the Mallee Tourist and Heritage Centre, which apart from displays on local farming history, has well-maintained and presented collections relative to three distinct topics: history of wheat breeding (featuring the D. A. Wurfel grain collection); an extensive range of restored farm machinery, based on the Gum Family Collection, which includes a replica Ridley stripper; and letterpress printing. The museum, which is supported by the Pinnaroo Historical Society, is situated opposite the large and popular bakery.

Gallery

File:PinnarooMainStreet1.JPG, Main Street File:PinnarooMainStreet2.JPG, Main Street File:PinnarooSA.JPG, Main Street File:PinnarooPostOffice.JPG, Post Office File:PinnarooAnglicanChurch.JPG,

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

File:PinnarooChurch.JPG,

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

File:PinnarooLutheranChurch.JPG, Lutheran Church File:PinnarooFountain.JPG, Fountain File:PinnarooGoldenGrainHotel.JPG, Golden Grain Hotel File:PinnarooHotel.JPG, Pinnaroo Hotel File:PinnarooInstitute.JPG, Pinnaroo Institute File:PinnarooMemorialClock.JPG, Memorial Clock File:PinnarooSoldiersMemorialHospital.JPG, Memorial Hospital File:PinnarooWarMemorial.JPG, War Memorial

External links

Mallee Tourist and Heritage CentrePinnaroo Historical Society

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Murray Mallee