Karoonda is a town in the middle of the

Murray Mallee The Murray Mallee is a cereal, grain-growing and sheep-farming area in the east of the Australian state of South Australia. The name is not formally designated but is widely used to refer to an area of approximately bounded by the Murray Rive ...

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 ...

( northeast of Murray Bridge). The current boundaries include the former town of Lowaldie, which was the next stop on the railway line away from

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

History

Karoonda takes its name from the Aboriginal word for "winter camp". The town was founded on

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

-growing early in the 20th century (proclaimed on 11 December 1913), but the cleared land is also suitable for raising

merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

sheep. The Karoonda Development Group instigated and built a larger-than-life sculpture of a Merino ram in the park in the main street to emphasise this. There are even seats with rams heads dotted around the town. A number of other

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

and

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

industries are now also represented in the district. Each year the Karoonda Farm Fair is held, a two-day event attracting over 10,000 visitors to the town. In 1922 the District Council of Karoonda was established, bringing local-level government to the township and surrounding district for the first time. Karoonda briefly shot to international fame in 1930 when the " Karoonda meteorite" fell to earth just to the east of the town on the night of 25 November. Being of a very rare type and being found only a couple of weeks afterwards, it raised international interest in astronomical circles.

Railways

Railways were built in 1911–1914 to open up the

for agriculture. Karoonda was on the railway line to Paringa, which was extended to

Barmera Barmera ( ) is a town in the Riverland region of South Australia. It is on the Sturt Highway A20, 220 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. It is primarily an agricultural and viticultural town and is ...

in 1928. In 1914 the station became a junction with the

Waikerie railway line The Waikerie railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. Route The Waikerie railway line branched from the Barmera railway line at Karoonda, which was also the junction for the Peebinga railway line on the ...

to the north and the Peebinga railway line to the east (south of the main line). The

Barmera railway line The Barmera railway line was the second railway built to develop the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, in 1913. It followed the success of the Pinnaroo railway line in 1906. Both lines branched east from Tailem Bend to the north of the ...

closed in 1990 but the Waikerie branch line remained open until 1994. The main line through Karoonda remained open as the

Loxton railway line The Loxton railway line is a closed railway line in the northern Murray Mallee region of South Australia. It ran north-east from Tailem Bend to grain silos near Loxton. History The first stage of the Brown's Well railway line opened from ...

and was converted from

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

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 in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. It closed in July 2015.

Governance and demographics

Karoonda is located in the local government area of

District Council of Karoonda East Murray The District Council of Karoonda East Murray is a local government area in the Murray Mallee area of South Australia. The main council offices are in Karoonda. The council area covers 4,415 square kilometres and had a population of approximate ...

, the state

electoral district of Hammond Hammond is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after Ruby Hammond, the first indigenous woman to stand for the Federal Parliament. Hammond is a rural electorate east and south-east of Adel ...

and the federal

Division of Barker The Division of Barker is an Australian electoral division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member d ...

. At the 2016 census, the locality of Karoonda had a population of 512, of which 351 were living in and around the town of Karoonda. In Karoonda locality 90.6% of people were born in Australia and 93.3% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were Uniting Church 25.0% and No Religion 22.4%.

Facilities and attractions

Karoonda Area School was the first

area school In New Zealand and Australia, an area school is a school that takes children from kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part o ...

in South Australia. There is some amazing silo art done by Heesco over the winter months of 2019 also the playground is a good car stop for kids of all ages Pioneer Park on East Terrace is being developed as a Malleelands Pioneer Railways and farm museum, with displays of harvest machinery, ploughs, railway rolling stock and facilities already in place. The Nature Trail & Bush Walk is adjacent. There is an obelisk to commemorate the Karoonda meteorite in the RSL Park on Railway Terrace.

Climate

Karoonda has a mediterranean-influenced

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

( Köppen: BSk), with very warm, dry summers and mild, somewhat wetter winters. Mean maxima vary from in January to in July, while mean minima fluctuate between in January and in July. Annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is low, averaging between 93.5 precipitation days. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 20 December 2019 to on 15 June 2006.

Lowaldie

The Lowaldie railway station was east of Karoonda and also had a small town surveyed, with a school and post office operating for some time. These have all closed, and the former institute building is used as a private residence. The station was originally named Lowalde in 1913, but when the town was proclaimed in 1914, the spelling used was Lowaldie. The name is derived from a

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

word meaning "summer".

Photo gallery

Image:Karoonda po.jpg, Post Office Image:Karoonda general store.jpg, General Store Image:Karoonda silos.jpg, ABB Silos Image:Karoonda railway.jpg, Old Railway Station Image:Karoonda police2.jpg, Police Memorial, Railway Tce Image:Karoonda poineer.jpg, Lions Pioneer Park Image:Karoonda painting.jpg, Painting at Parking Bay Image:Karoonda memorial.jpg, Memorial Gates at the Oval Image:Karoonda meteor1.jpg, Obelisk Image:Karoonda meteor2.jpg, Obelisk Image:Karoonda school1.jpg, Area School Image:Karoonda school2.jpg, Area School Image:Karoonda football.jpg, Oval Image:Karoonda institute.jpg, Institute Image:Karoonda hospital.jpg, Hospital Image:Karoonda pub.jpg, Karoonda Pub Image:Karoonda anglican.jpg, "All Hallows" Anglican Church Image:Karoonda catholic.jpg, St Finian's Catholic Church Image:Karoonda lutheran.jpg, St Johns Lutheran Church Image:Karoonda uniting.jpg, Uniting Church Image:Karoonda opshop.jpg, Op-Shop Image:Karoonda amb.jpg, Ambulance Station Image:Karoonda cfs.jpg, CFS Station Image:Karoonda police3.jpg, Police Station

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia