Solomontown is a suburb of

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

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 ...

. It was historically a separate town. It was named after Emanuel Solomon, who owned the land that the town developed on.

Transport

Solomontown has the Spencer Highway run from northeast to south through it, and Warnertown Road from Port Pirie towards the

Augusta Highway Augusta Highway is the part of Australia's ring route (Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1) located in South Australia between Port Wakefield, South Australia, Port Wakefield and Port Augusta, South Australia, Port Augusta. Route Augusta Highway ...

and

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 ...

runs northeast to southwest through it. The railway line in to the Port Pirie smelters (and previously to the town stations) runs along the southern boundary of Solomontown. The Solomontown railway station was formerly in the southwest corner of the town. It had a suburban rail service to Port Pirie in 1911. The Port Pirie Junction station was newly built in 1937 as the

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

junction between 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 ...

broad gauge from the south and the

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australian Railway, Trans-Australia and Adelaide-Darwin railway, Port Augusta to Darwin railways. In 1 ...

standard gauge from the north on the site of the older Solomontown station on the Port Pirie-Cockburn railway line. (officially known as Port Pirie Junction with both names on the signboard) The station was replaced and closed in 1967, and later demolished.

Community

Solomontown Primary School, Solomontown Kindergarten and the Solomontown Cats football and netball teams are based in the town.

Military History

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 ...

, Solomontown, now a suburb of

, was the location of RAAF No.11 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), built in 1942 and closed on 14 June 1944. Usually consisting of 4 tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

and the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Suburbs of Port Pirie