Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in

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 ...

, north of the state capital,

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 ...

. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South Australia, and is currently the second most important and second busiest port in SA. At the 2021 Census, Port Pirie had a population of 13,896. Port Pirie is the eighth most populous city in South Australia after

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with a population of 25,591 as of the 2021 census. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier (volcano), Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about ...

, Gawler, Mount Barker, Whyalla, Murray Bridge and Port Lincoln. The city's economy is dominated by one of the world's largest

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

smelters,Port Pirie's lead smelter at risk of breaching licence to operate due to spike in lead levels
''ABC News'', 8 November 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2019. operated by Nyrstar. It also produces refined

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and various other by-products. In 2014, the smelter underwent a $650 million upgrade, of which $291 million was underwritten by the state government to replace some of the old existing plant and to reduce airborne lead emissions drastically.Port Pirie smelter could reopen old high-polluting sinter plant after new infrastructure damaged
''ABC News'', 13 August 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2021. Regardless of these upgrades, blood lead levels in young children continue to rise. In 2021 a report from the South Australian Health Department found an average blood level of 7.3 μg/dL in young children, compared to a finding of 5.3 μg/dL in 2014, and an upward trend of airborne lead levels.Port Pirie lead levels in two-year-olds hit 10-year high after Nyrstar's EPA licence breach
''ABC News'', 22 February 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.

History

Prior to British settlement, the location that became Port Pirie was occupied by the indigenous tribe of

Nukunu Nukunu are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, living around the Spencer Gulf area. In the years after British colonisation of South Australia, the area was developed to contain the cities of Port Pirie, South Australia, Port Piri ...

. The location was called 'Tarparrie', which is suspected to mean "Muddy Creek". The first European to see the location was Matthew Flinders in 1802, as he explored the Spencer Gulf by boat. The first land discovery of the location by a European was by the explorer Edward Eyre, who explored regions around

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

. John Horrocks also discovered a pass through the Flinders Ranges to the coast, now named '' Horrocks Pass''. The town was originally called Samuel's Creek after the discovery of Muddy Creek by Samuel Germein. In 1846, Port Pirie Creek was named by Governor Robe after the , the first vessel to navigate the creek when transporting sheep from Bowman's Run near Crystal Brook. In 1848, Matthew Smith and Emanuel Solomon bought and subdivided it as a township to be known as Port Pirie. Little development occurred on site and by the late 1860s there were only three woolsheds on the riverfront. The locality was surveyed as a government town in December 1871 by Charles Hope Harris. The thoroughfares and streets were named after the family of George Goyder, Surveyor General of South Australia. In 1873, the land of Solomon and Smith was re-surveyed and named Solomontown. On 28 September 1876, with a population of 947, Port Pirie was declared a municipality. With the discovery of rich ore bearing silver, lead and zinc at

Broken Hill Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

in 1883, and the completion of a narrow gauge railway from Port Pirie to close to the Broken Hill field in 1888, the economic activities of the town underwent profound change. In 1889 a lead smelter was built by the British Blocks company to treat the Broken Hill ore. BHP initially leased the smelter from British Blocks but began constructing its own smelter from 1892. In 1913, the Russian consul-general Alexander Abaza reported that Port Pirie had a population of more than 500 Russians, mostly

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

, who had come to work at the smelter. At that time the town supported a Russian-language school and library. In 1915, the smelter was taken over by Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS) – a joint venture of companies operating in Broken Hill. Led by the Collins House Group, by 1934 BHAS became the biggest lead smelter in the world. The smelter gradually passed to Pasminco, then Zinifex, and since 2007 has been operated by Nyrstar. In 1921, the town's population had grown to 9,801, living in 2,308 occupied dwellings. By this date, there were 62 boarding houses to cater for the labour demands at the smelter, and the increasingly busy waterfront. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(1941-1943), a Bombing and Gunnery school (2BAGS) was established by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

at Port Pirie. 22 men lost their lives there during training exercises. It was re-designated the 3 Aerial Observers School (3AOS) in December 1943. Port Pirie was declared South Australia's first provincial city in 1953, and today it is South Australia's second-largest port.

Heritage listings

The city is characterised by an attractive main street and some interesting and unusual historic buildings. Heritage-listed sites include: * 1 Alexander Street: Barrier Chambers Offices * 32 Ellen Street: Adelaide Steamship Company Building * 64-68 Ellen Street: Sampson's Butcher Shop * 69-71 Ellen Street: Port Pirie Customs House * 73-77 Ellen Street: Port Pirie (Ellen Street) railway station * 79-81 Ellen Street: Port Pirie Post Office * 85 Ellen Street: Development Board Building * 94 Ellen Street: Sample Rooms, rear of Portside Tavern * 134 Ellen Street: Family Hotel * 32 Florence Street: Carn Brae * 50-52 Florence Street: Waterside Workers' Federation Building * 105 Gertrude Street: Good Samaritan Catholic Convent School * Memorial Drive: Second World War Memorial Gates * 5 Norman Street: AMP Society Building, Port Pirie

Demographics

In the , the population of the Port Pirie urban area was 13,896 people. Approximately 51.0% of the population were female, 85.9% were Australian born, and 5.2% were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Port Pirie has significant Italian and Greek communities. In 2021, the most popular industries for employment were copper, silver, lead and zinc smelting and refining (11.0%), non-psychiatric hospitals (6.0%), residential aged care (4.3%), other social assistance services (4.2%) and supermarket and grocery stores (3.9%). The unemployment rate was 7.7%. The median weekly household income was A$1044 per week. 48.5% of the population identified with no religion, while 21.0% identified themselves as

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 ...

Geography

Port Pirie is at an elevation of 4 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It is approximately inland, on the Pirie River, which is a tidal saltwater inlet from Spencer Gulf. It is on the coastal plain between Spencer Gulf to the west, and the Flinders Ranges to the east.

Climate

Port Pirie has a

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: BSh), with hot, dry summers and cool, somewhat wetter winters. The town is above Goyder's Line, and is surrounded by mallee scrub. Temperatures vary throughout the year, with average maxima ranging from in January to in July, and average minima fluctuating between in February and in July. Annual precipitation is low, averaging , with a maximum in winter. There are 78.3 precipitation days, 125.0 clear days and 100.0 cloudy days annually. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 4 January 1979 to on 27 June 1958.

Transport

Port Pirie is off the Augusta Highway. It is serviced by Port Pirie Airport, six kilometres south of the city.

Railways

The first railway in Port Pirie opened in 1875 when the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the organisation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Australian Natio ...

gauge Port Pirie-Cockburn line opened to Gladstone, ultimately being extended to

. The original Ellen Street station was located on the street with the track running down the middle. The station today is occupied by the Port Pirie National Trust Museum. In 1937, it became a break-of-gauge station when the broad gauge Adelaide-Redhill line was extended to Port Pirie. At the same time the Commonwealth Railways

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 ...

Trans-Australian Railway was extended south from

to terminate at the new Port Pirie Junction station where it met the broad gauge line, in the suburb of Solomontown. As far back as 1943, a plan existed to build a new station to remove trains from Ellen Street. As part of the gauge conversion of the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line, Mary Elie Street station was built to replace both Ellen Street and Port Pirie Junction stations. When opened, the new station was the meeting point for the Commonwealth Railways and

networks with through trains changing locomotives and crews, so the disadvantages were not as notable. However, after both became part of Australian National in July 1975 and trains began to operate in and out with the same locomotives, trains began to operate via Coonamia station on the outskirts of the city. Mary Ellie Street station was eventually closed in the 1990s and in 2009 was redeveloped as the city's library. Until 2012, a GM class locomotive and three carriages were stabled at the platform. A freight line continues to operate into Port Pirie, feeding the metals plant with raw materials from Broken Hill, and transporting the processed material to Adelaide. This line is managed by Bowmans Rail.

Sea transport

Port Pirie's marine facilities, managed by Flinders Ports, handle up to 100 ship visits annually, up to Handymax size, for commodities such as mineral concentrates, refined lead and zinc, coal, grain, and general cargo.

Bridge to nowhere

John Pirie Bridge, locally known as "the bridge to nowhere", was built in the 1970s to encourage development of industry on the other side of Port Pirie Creek. Construction cost $410,000 and lasted 26 weeks. It was officially named the John Pirie Bridge in 1980. The land across the bridge remains undeveloped.

Economy

The main industries are the

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...

of metals, and the operation of silos to hold grain. , Port Pirie is the locality of the largest lead smelter and refinery in the southern hemisphere; a lead smelter has been there since the 1880s. The owner since 2007, Nyrstar, is the city's main employer., and high blood lead levels in the local population are an ongoing concern. In 2006 Zinifex formed a joint venture with Umicore to create Nyrstar, which owns the smelter, with the intention that it would eventually be an entity separate from the parent companies.

Waterfront development

The PPRC completed a major redevelopment of its foreshore area in 2014 including the construction of the Solomontown Beach Plaza, opening up Beach abroad to through traffic, replacing lighting along the beach and improving security.

Efforts to combat lead poisoning

Lead smelters contribute to several environmental problems, especially raised lead levels in the blood of some of the town population. The problem is particularly significant in many children who have grown up in the area. A state government project addressed this. Nyrstar plans to progressively reduce lead in blood levels such that ultimately 95% of all children meet the national goal of 10 micrograms per decilitre. This has been known as the "tenby10" project. Community lead in blood levels in children are now at less than half the level that they were in the mid 1980s. The Port Pirie smelter conducted a project to reduce lead levels in children to less than 10 micrograms per decilitre by the end of 2010.

"The goal we are committed to achieving is for at least 95% of our children aged 0 to 4 to have a blood lead level below ten micrograms per decilitre of blood (the first ten in tenby10) by the end of 2010" (the second ten in tenby10).

Higher concentrations of lead have been found in the organs of bottlenose dolphins stranded near the lead smelter, compared to dolphins stranded elsewhere in South Australia. The health impacts of these metals on dolphins has been examined and some associations between high metal concentrations and kidney toxicity were noted.

Education

Port Pirie has many educational institutions, including John Pirie Secondary School (years 7–12), St Mark's College (Foundation - year 12), Mid North Christian College (reception - year 12), many preschools and primary schools, and a TAFE campus (adult education). Risdon Park High School (formerly Port Pirie Technical High School) was a co-ed

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

. In 1973, Port Pire Technical High School changed its name to Ridson Park High School, and in 1995 the school merged with Port Pirie High School forming John Pirie Secondary School.

Culture

Port Pirie is home to the National Trust Historic and Folk Museum and Memorial Park, and the Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery also serves the regional community. Every September and October the city hosts a country music festival. The Keith Michell Theatre, within the Northern Festival Centre, is named after the renowned actor Keith Michell, who grew up in Warnertown, from Port Pirie. A play by actress and playwright Elena Carapetis, ''The Gods of Strangers'', set in Port Pirie, is based on the oral histories of Greek, Cypriot and Italian people who migrated to regional South Australia after World War II. It was staged by the State Theatre Company South Australia in 2018. It played at the Dunstan Playhouse in Adelaide as well as in Port Pirie. It was also filmed by local production company KOJO and intended to be shown by Country Arts SA in regional cinemas in 2020, but it was later shown online owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia.

News media

The town's main newspaper, '' The Recorder,'' was first published 21 March 1885 as ''The Port Pirie Advocate and Areas News''. In 1971, a brief experiment, known as the ''Northern Observer'' (7 July - 30 August 1971), occurred when ''The Recorder'' and '' The Transcontinental'' from Port Augusta were published under a combined title in Port Pirie. ''The Recorder'', which is still in print today (Tuesdays and Thursdays), has recently changed to a morning paper, after being delivered at around 3:00 pm. Other Port Pirie newspapers include the free '' The Flinders News'' (Wednesdays), and '' The Advertiser'', which covers some Port Pirie news, but to a very small extent. Another newspaper, the '' Port Pirie Advertiser'' (7 April 1898 – 28 June 1924) was also published by Robert Osborne. A further publication was the short-lived ''Saturday Times'' (6 December 1913 – 15 August 1914), printed by Roy Harold Butler and closed at the start of the Great War. Television coverage in the city is provided by the ABC, SBS, Southern Cross (7, 9 and 10) and Austar. Several radio stations cover Port Pirie, including ABC 639AM, ABC 891AM, 1044 5CS, 1242 5AU, ABC Classic FM,

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

, ABC NewsRadio, triple j, Magic FM and Trax FM (a community radio station).

Governance

State and federal

The results shown are from "Port Pirie West", the largest polling booth in Port Pirie, which is at the SA TAFE Campus. Port Pirie is part of the federal

division of Grey The Division of Grey is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 ...

, and has been represented by Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey since 2007. Grey is held with a margin of 4.43% but is considered a safe Liberal seat. The city is part of the state

electoral district of Frome Frome is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate stretches nor ...

, which had been held since 1993 by former Liberal Premier, Rob Kerin, with a margin of 3.4%. It also has been considered a safe Liberal seat. Although the region is generally Liberal-leaning because of its agricultural base, Port Pirie is an industrial centre that is favourable to the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. In late 2008, Rob Kerin announced his retirement, which led to a by-election being held in January 2009. Port Pirie mayor Geoff Brock announced his candidacy as an independent, and subsequently took the seat from the Liberals at the 2009 Frome by-election. After the poll for the by-election had closed and first preferences had been counted, (but before other preferences had been distributed), the result was LNP: 39.2%; ALP: 26.1%; Brock 23.6%; Nat: 6.6%; Greens: 3.8%; Other: 0.7%.Frome 2009 By-election results
abc.net.au, 2 February 2009. Retrieved on 15 March 2009.District of Frome - Electoral Results
, Electoral Commission SA, 24 January 2009. Retrieved on 15 March 2009. State Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith (Liberal Party) claimed victory, prematurely. Distribution of National Party, Greens and other preferences placed Brock ahead of the ALP candidate. Hence with the assistance of the ALP candidate's preferences, Geoff Brock won the by-election 51.7% to 48.3% for the Liberal candidate.

Local government

Port Pirie and some of the sparsely inhabited areas around it are in the Port Pirie Regional Council

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 ...

Notable residents

Sportspeople

* Brodie Atkinson (1972-), St. Kilda, Adelaide Crows, North Adelaide premiership player (1991), Sturt premiership player (2002) and Magarey Medal winner (1997) * Mark Bickley (1969-), Adelaide Crows dual premiership captain * Abby Bishop (1989-), Canberra Capitals basketball player * Mark Jamar (1982-), Melbourne Demons player * Lewis Johnston (1991-), Sydney Swans and Adelaide Crows football player * Sam Mayes (1994-), North Adelaide,

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

(2013-2018) and Port Adelaide FC (2019-) football player * Nip Pellew (1893-1981), Australian test cricketer and North Adelaide player * David Tiller (1958-), North Adelaide Roosters captain and premiership player * Elijah Ware (1983-), Port Adelaide and Central Districts player and premiership player

Others

* Geoff Brock, state politician * Sir Hugh Cairns (1896–1952), neurosurgeon * Ted Connelly, state politician * Lillian Crombie (1958–2024), actress * Andrew Lacey (1887–1946), federal and state politician, state leader of the ALP 1933–1938 * Keith Michell (1928-2015), actor *

John Noble John Noble (born 20 August 1948) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Denethor in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003), and Dr. Walter Bishop in the Fox science fiction series '' Fringe'' (2008–2013). ...

(1948-), actor and director * Robert Stigwood (1934-2016), music entrepreneur and impresarioRobert Stigwood, music mogul behind Bee Gees and Clapton, dies aged 81
''ABC News'', 5 January 2016. Accessed 6 January 2016. * Jørgen Jensen (1891-1922), Victoria Cross recipient

References

External links

Port Pirie, South Australia referencePort Pirie Regional Council
Travel section, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 2008.

ABC News, 31 August 2007.
Nystar
Home page - English. {{Authority control 1845 establishments in Australia Cities in South Australia Mid North (South Australia) Port cities in South Australia Spencer Gulf