Mindarie is a small town in 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 ...
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 ...
between
Karoonda and
Loxton. The town was
gazetted
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.
In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...
in 1912. The name Mindarie is believed to originate from the
Dieri
The Diyari (), alternatively transcribed as Dieri (), is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.
Language
Diyari is classified as one of the ...
Aboriginal language, and possibly means "festival to invoke peace".
Mindarie was a stop on 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 ...
which opened in 1912. Mindarie is no longer a stop on what is now 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 ...
.
Mindarie school was founded in 1916, initially being taught in the town institute hall. The school received its own building in 1929. The Mindarie school has been replaced by East Murray Area School which is located about 10 km northwest of Mindarie. It educates about 50 students from Reception to Year 12 in an isolated location.
Mindarie is home to the Murray Zircon
heavy mineral sands mine. The mine is Chinese owned and operated, with a 120 room mine camp located beside the Karoonda Highway, with a large disused separation plant located nearby and also visible from Karoonda Highway. The mining operation is now approximately 25k east at Galga, but know at Mercunda Mindarie Mine which was developed in late 2023 and went into full production of HMC in 2024. The mine employs around 100 direct employees and 60 contractors at the mine.
Together with nearby
Halidon, it hosts the Mindarie-Halidon Races in September each year, which is known as the ''
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the ...
of the Mallee''.
The August
2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...
reported that Mindarie had a population of 38.
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]
References
External links
Place Names Search: MINDARIE
Towns in South Australia
{{SouthAustralia-geo-stub