Hoyleton (formerly Hoyle's Plains) is a former

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

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 ...

, 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. 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 politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister ...

ran from

Balaklava Balaklava ( Ukrainian and , , ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklavsky District that used to be part of the Crimean Oblast before it was transferred to Sevast ...

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 souther ...

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 is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, 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, that are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'' wi ...

, on the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, 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 ...

. 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, Ba ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

, 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 frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

References

Gallery

Image:Grain silo, Hoyleton.JPG, Grain storage that is no longer 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