Dawson is a rural locality in 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 souther ...

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. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, situated in the

District Council of Peterborough The District Council of Peterborough is a local government area in the Yorke and Mid North region of South Australia. The principal town and council seat is Peterborough; it also includes the localities of Cavenagh, Dawson, Hardy, Minvalara, ...

. It covers the entirety of the cadastral Hundred of Coglin, with the exception of the small town of

Oodla Wirra Oodla Wirra (formerly Penn) is a small town in the upper Mid North of South Australia. It is on the Barrier Highway approximately halfway from Adelaide to Broken Hill. When the railway was built in 1880, a siding was provided, named Oodla Wirra. ...

. Boundaries for the locality were created on 31 August 2000 and it was given the "long established name" of Dawson which is derived from the Government Town of Dawson whose site is located within the boundaries of the locality.

History

The government town of Dawson was surveyed in February 1881; it was often referred to as Coglin in its early years. It was founded as part of an attempt to establish wheat farming north of

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 ...

, but this proved unsuccessful in the long term, and the

Crystal Brook-Broken Hill railway line A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosco ...

bypassed Dawson, instead running further south through

and

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

. Coglin Post Office opened in 1881, was renamed Dawson Post Office in April 1882, and closed on 14 August 1971. The 1880s saw the construction of

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Christian denomination within the holiness movement. Originating in early 19th-century England as a revivalist movement within Methodism, it was heavily influenced by American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–18 ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

es; the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church (1886) survives and is listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

. The Dawson Hotel was built in 1883. A public school opened in 1885 after several years of agitation from local residents. Local government came to the area in 1888 with the District Council of Coglin; it met alternately at Dawson and

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), alternatively written as Launcelot and other variants, is a popular character in the Matter of Britain, Arthurian legend's chivalric romance tradition. He is typically depicted as King Arthu ...

until 1899, when the council seat shifted to Penn (now Oodla Wirra). At its peak, Dawson also had multiple stores, churches, an institute, an agricultural bureau, and a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

. Information on a proposed school appeared in 1883; Dawson School, opened in 1885, closed in 1964. The town had a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team, in the 20th century.

''In 1949, it was suggested that all unsold allotments be purchased by the government and, by 1960, this had been accomplished and the town was diminished. Its post office, opened as 'Coglin' in January 1881, closed on 14 August 1971.'' South Australian Names

In 1954 the government began to resume town blocks if they had never been purchased or if the owners were not traceable. In 1960 the town was officially abolished as a town. Very little of the former town survives today. It contains the heritage-listed former Catholic church, the Dawson Hall, and the former school, now a private residence. The Dawson Cemetery on Dawson Gorge Road and Dawson War Memorial on Dawson-Peterborough Road also remain. The Dawson Hotel closed in 1961, and survives as a substantial ruin at Dawson's main crossroads.

Name

It has been conjectured that the name derives from one of several people: *The most likely candidate is Robert Kearsley Dawson (1798-1861), a Lt-Colonel in the Royal Engineers and friend of Governor Jervois. Colonel Dawson was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich * Robert Dawson (1776-1860), a tutor to young officers of the Royal Engineers in the art of topographical drawing also an associate of Governor Jervois. *Henry Dawson, the first mail contractor between Burra and Outalpa and after whom Dawson Dam (

Hundred of Rees County of Burra is a cadastral unit located in the Australian state of South Australia which covers land located in the state’s east associated with the town of Burra. It was proclaimed in 1851 by Governor Young and named after the town of ...

) was named. This explanation was dismissed by

Geoff Manning Geoffrey Haydon Manning (1926–2018) was an Australian author and historian. He is known particularly for his books on South Australian placenames; ''Manning's Place Names of South Australia'' (1990) is particularly well-known and available onli ...

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia