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Truro (postcode 5356, altitude 311m) is a town in
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, 80 km northeast of
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...
. It is situated in an agricultural and pastoral district on the
Sturt Highway Sturt Highway is an Australian national highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is an important road link for the transport of passengers and freight between Sydney and Adelaide and the regions situated adjacent to the ...
, east of the
Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destinat ...
, where the highway crosses somewhat lofty and rugged parts of the
Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...
. At the , Truro had a population of 523. Truro is in the
Mid Murray Council The Mid Murray Council is a local government area in South Australia in the Murray and Mallee region of South Australia. The council spans the area from the Riverland through the Murraylands to the eastern slopes of the Mount Lofty Ranges. It ...
local government area, the
South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was crea ...
electoral district of Schubert Schubert is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly covering an area of 2,017.8 km². It is named after Max Schubert, the winemaker of Penfolds Grange Hermitage. The Barossa Valley area was first r ...
and the
Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Austra ...
Division of Barker The Division of Barker is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original Division of Sou ...
.


History

The town was established on Truro Creek (White Hut Creek) in 1848 by
John Howard Angas John Howard Angas (5 October 1823 – 17 May 1904) was an Australian pioneer, politician and philanthropist. Early life and education John Howard Angas was the second son of George Fife Angas and his wife Rosetta née French. He was born in New ...
, the son of
George Fife Angas George Fife Angas (1 May 1789 – 15 May 1879) was an English businessman and banker who, while residing in England, played a significant part in the formation and establishment of the Province of South Australia. He established the South Au ...
who had bought the land in 1842. The survey was conducted by
Thomas Burr Thomas Burr (1813–1866), surveyor and mine manager, was a British explorer and Deputy Surveyor General of South Australia 1839–46. Early life in England Born 1813 in England, probably at Kent, Thomas Burr's father was George Dominicus Burr ...
, assisted by his (eventual) son in law
Frederick Sinnett Frederick Sinnett (8 March 1830 – 23 November 1866) was a literary critic and journalist in colonial Australia. Sinnett was born in Hamburg, Germany, a son of Mrs. Percy Sinnett, a well-known English author, and was educated for the profession ...
, during a period when both were freed from their usual commitments in order to pursue private contracts. It is named after the city of
Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...
in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...
, United Kingdom. It is somewhat uncertain whether the name Truro was given by Angas, or the first settlers in the town, but with the Wheal Barton mine nearby, many of those settlers were
Cornish Cornish is the adjective and demonym associated with Cornwall, the most southwesterly part of the United Kingdom. It may refer to: * Cornish language, a Brittonic Southwestern Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Cornwa ...
miners, so it is quite likely that if they were not the namers of the town, they were certainly the inspiration thereof. The township of Barton was also nearby, however that soon became a part of Truro. It was formerly the seat of its own municipality, the
District Council of Truro The District Council of Truro was a local government area in South Australia from 1876 to 1991. It was proclaimed on 15 August 1876, comprising an area of 508 square kilometres, including the Hundred of Anna, the southern portion of the Hundred o ...
, from 1876 to 1991.


Heritage listings

Truro has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Baldon Road: Baldon Homestead Complex * 37 Moorundie Street: Former Truro Police Station and Cells * off Sturt Highway: Stone Wall * off Sturt Highway: Accommodation Hill Spring and Pipeline Relics


Industry

The first industry that European settlers introduced to Truro district, from the early 1840s, was pastoralism, primarily the grazing of sheep flocks, watched over by shepherds, on unfenced occupation licenses. Many of the picturesque dry stone walls so prevalent in the district date from this era. Copper was discovered in 1846 and was mined at the Wheal Barton mine 2 km east of Truro from 1849 to 1889 and again between 1956 and 1972. These copper mines are what led to the survey and establishment of the town. The mine was established in 1849, and a church erected in the township by August 1850. Truro was the terminus of the
Truro railway line The Barossa Valley railway line is a railway line with several branches, running from Gawler into and through the Barossa Valley. The original terminus was at Angaston. A branch was built from Nuriootpa via Stockwell to Truro, and a further ...
from its opening in 1917 until it ceased operating in the 1970s and was permanently closed in the 1980s. Rainfall in Truro is lower than in the neighbouring
Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destinat ...
region. For this reason dry grain crop farming, mainly of wheat and barley, is more prevalent than viticulture. There are two hotels in Truro. Truro also has several tourism offerings, in the form of the Pioneer Park, a specialist olive shop and several antique shops. The town also has service facilities for tourists and travellers along the Sturt Highway.


Truro murders

During the 1970s the town of Truro gained notoriety due to human remains being found scattered among nondescript Mallee scrub upon the arid Murray Plains near Sandleton. This became widely known as the Truro murders, one of the notable occurrences of
serial killing A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
in Australian history. Those human remains were actually found many tens of kilometres away from Truro, but, despite these tragic crimes being unrelated to the Truro township, the
broadcast media Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
found 'Truro' to be a convenient label for them through being the nearest town recognizable to the public.


References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia