kiwibird: Terowie, an old railway town in South Australia

We are travelling on the Barrier Highway, named after the Barrier Hills, which run alongside the highway after Peterborough. The highway runs for 420 km, from the Horrocks Highway in South Australia to Nyngan in New South Wales.

Although we are now further along the highway, in Wilcannia, I wrote this blog in Peterborough, which is approximately 250 km north east of Adelaide.

Peterborough was established in 1875, to service the new rail link between Adelaide and the ore-rich town of Silverton (not far from Broken Hill, in New South Wales. It then become an important railway town which repaired and maintained the steam trains.

Terowie is 20 km from Peterborough and was also an important railway town in that the South Australian broad gauge line finished here, so all freight and passengers had to be transferred onto trains which used the narrow gauge line in New South Wales.

In Australia each state used different gauge lines which meant that there was always disruption at state borders when people and freight had to be transferred to another train.

From 1969 Terowie started to decline when the broad gauge line was extended to Peterborough and then in 1989 the line was disbanded and ripped up. A new line from Perth to Sydney was built and it bypasses all the small towns. The passenger train is the luxurious Indian Pacific which takes three nights and four days to complete the journey. The new line is also used for freight trains.

Peterborough has managed to survive as it is a larger regional town, and it has railway museums.

Terowie went from 2000 residents during the 1940/50s to a 150 residents now, who are struggling to keep the town alive. The Terowie Citizens Association have bought and restored seven of the buildings and surprisingly the main street was very well maintained. Unlike the richer eastern states who promote their country towns, South Australian has not done so, due to lack of money.

The main street of Terowie, just as the rain clouds gathered above. My point and shoot photography meant that it looked very stormy, whereas there was little rain..

After my stormy photograph, we had plenty of sunshine!

A random train statue.

Although the shops were empty, the verandahs and the main street were in very good order.

The empty small goods/butcher shop was filled with display cabinets.

So empty, and deserted of people and traffic. There was no risk of getting run over when crossing this street.

There were two small museum shops. A blacksmith's shed,

and a shop with photos and pieces of furniture from long ago.

This shop was open, now a small grocery/fast food shop which also sold coffee. Not brilliant coffee, but very friendly service.

An old bank building.

No roof on this house.

The old school, sadly closed.

A well restored house. People have bought houses here, restored them and now use them as weekenders. Also quite a number of people seem to live here, in very cheap and run down houses.

A car to go with the house.

A bit difficult to see in this photograph. There were birds perched on the top of the roof of the old church.

Another old house.

All the streets were still there, and with names on them. Some streets still had houses on them, some used, some renovated, but many empty blocks with perhaps a gate or fence or a pile of bricks where once there had been houses. It was a fascinating place, but sad and eerie too.

Some of the railway buildings that were left intact. There had once been a very large station here, with yards and shunting areas. Now just a few buildings and railway lines are left.

The area is now used as a free camp for caravans and motorhomes. We were going to stay here, but realised that we needed electricity to run our electric heater. The nights, and often the days, are very cold in Peterborough and Terowie. The average temperature during the day while we were there was about 14/15 degrees. The nights dropped to about 4 or 5 degrees.