The ghost towns detailed here are significant examples but not all the examples of the ghost towns in Australia. They have been included either for their historic significance, or because they have other significance which is detailed in the text.
Beltana (SA Flinders Ra.)
Beltana is an old railway town on the western fringe of the Flinders Ranges. Today, it is a historical reserve off the main Hawker-Leigh Creek road. The detour is worth it. Many of the town’s buildings are being or have been restored, making Beltana a time-capsule of the I9th century. These include the original Beltana Homestead (1855), Police Station (1881), Post Office and Telegraph (1875), Bush Hospital (1898) and School (1882).
The “Smith of Dunesk Mission Church” was opened in 1895 and was the base from which Rev. John Flynn pioneered the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Australian Inland Mission. Beltana was also the base for pastoralists Thomas Elder and Robert Ban-Smith, co-founders of Elders. In the early days it was a camel breeding station. When the railway was replaced in 1956, Beltana slowly fell into disuse. Note: the buildings in Beltana are privately-owned and are generally not open to the public.
Beltana is an old railway town on the western fringe of the Flinders Ranges. Today, it is a historical reserve off the main Hawker-Leigh Creek road. The detour is worth it. Many of the town’s buildings are being or have been restored, making Beltana a time-capsule of the I9th century. These include the original Beltana Homestead (1855), Police Station (1881), Post Office and Telegraph (1875), Bush Hospital (1898) and School (1882).
The “Smith of Dunesk Mission Church” was opened in 1895 and was the base from which Rev. John Flynn pioneered the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Australian Inland Mission. Beltana was also the base for pastoralists Thomas Elder and Robert Ban-Smith, co-founders of Elders. In the early days it was a camel breeding station. When the railway was replaced in 1956, Beltana slowly fell into disuse. Note: the buildings in Beltana are privately-owned and are generally not open to the public.
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The tip of Yorke Peninsula was the scene of a major mining venture which began back in 1913. William Innes, who discovered huge deposits of gypsum in the area, staked a mining claim and began exploiting the minerals he had found. He began to mine near Cape Spencer and with his brother formed the Peninsula Plaster Company and shipped the gypsum to Melbourne until 1916 when it was processed on site. Very soon he had built a Post Office, a Manager’s House and assorted cottages for his workers and the village of Cape Spencer was born.
At the northern end of the Flinders Ranges National Park, Blinman was a thriving copper town between 1862 and 1830. Robert Blinman’s discovery of the metal in 1859 built up high hopes for the future of the town that bears his name. Some old mine machinery, early buildings and an historic cemetery remain as a reminder of the town’s history.
On the edge of the desert in the far north of South Australia, it is situated on the aligmnent of the original Ghan railway, 26 km north of Lyndhurst and 55 km south of Marree where the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track commence. Encouraged by a series of unusually wet winters in the 1880s, many optimistic farmers settled here, hoping that rain follows the plough. It was believed that it would be good for growing wheat and barley, however normal rainfall is nowhere near enough to grow these crops. Such was not to be.
A designated historic former railway town which marked the northern region’s change of railway gauge. Terowie came into existence as part of the railway network which was built in South Australia in the late 19th century. There are old hardware stores and blacksmith’s shops in the main street which have all the charm of something from the 1880s.
On a map you will see a plethora of names noting remote communities once home to the railway men, fettlers and anyone else who could scrape together a living around the railway line. Very little of these settlements remains. A rubble of stones might demark an old water bore, sometimes even the outline of a stone hut is often all that can be seen today. Some sites with tourist or historic value have been partially preserved – such as the site of the Prisioner of War camp which housed 300 Italian prisoners of war who worked on the maintenance of the line during World War II. Others, long since deserted, have been razed by bulldozers.