Pinnaroo is a 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 ...

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 ...

, near the border with

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, 243 km east of

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 ...

. Pinnaroo is on the north side of the

Mallee Highway Mallee Highway is a highway connecting Tailem Bend, South Australia, Tailem Bend in south-eastern South Australia and Piangil, Victoria, Piangil in north-western Victoria, Australia, Victoria, running mostly across the Murray Mallee, Mallee plai ...

, and on the railway line between Tailem Bend 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 States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

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

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 tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

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 crowds each year. The Peebinga Conservation Park is north of Pinnaroo, Karte Conservation Park 30 km north-west, and the much larger Ngarkat Conservation Park is south of the town, all accessible by off road vehicles. 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

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

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

, golf and darts. The local football team, the Pinnaroo Supa Roos play in the Mallee Football League. From about 2012 to 2020, residents of Pinnaroo volunteered their time and effort to transform a

stormwater Stormwater, also written 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 lan ...

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 locomoti ...

s, into a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

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 Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large, cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized terrestrial and/or semi-amphibious birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity in its forms, and includes such ubiquitous species as the crakes, coots ...

s and

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order (biology), order Podicipediformes (). Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in sea, marine habitats during Bird migration, migration and winter. Most grebes f ...

Government

Pinnaroo is the seat of the local government area of the Southern Mallee District Council, and is in the state

electoral district of Chaffey Chaffey, created in 1936, is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the Riverland region of South Australia including the towns of Renmark, South Australia ...

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 ...

Media

'' The Border Times'' 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'' and 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, with the gre ...

, in swimming and athletics. The school also takes part in the South Australian Public Schools Amateur Sports Association (SAPSASA) with the Murray Mallee team in sports such as

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, 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 is supported by the

Pinnaroo Historical Society Pinnaroo may refer to: Queensland *Pinnaroo Cemetery and Crematorium, Brisbane South Australia *Pinnaroo, South Australia, a town and locality *District Council of Pinnaroo (1908-1920), a former local government area which was renamed in 1920 as t ...

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, 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 ...

File:PinnarooChurch.JPG,

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 ...

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