Port Pirie Railway Station

As South Australia's first proclaimed provincial city, Port Pirie has a diverse history, a proud multicultural heritage and a well earned reputation as a friendly city. An industrial and commercial centre, Port Pirie also boasts a large market garden as well as a fishing industry. It is located on the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf, 229 kms north of Adelaide.

Where is it?: South Australia: Central Agricultural. Port Pirie is located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf, 224 km north of Adelaide.

Things to see and do:

Port Pirie is home to the National Trust Historic and Folk Museum and Memorial Park housed in the stunning former Ellen Street Railway Station. There is a wealth of history locked into the city and its buildings.

Visitors can celebrate Port Pirie’s industrial success with a tour of the world’s largest lead smelter – an expansive facility that continues to dominate the city skyline. Tours run on Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays and bookings can be made at the Tourism and Arts Centre.

Events: Every September and October it hosts the Southern Flinders Live Music Festival.

December/January: Tripolis Yachting Classic

About Port Pirie

Port Pirie's role as a true overseas port began in 1861, with the arrival of the barque County of Merioneth to load the first cargo of wheat grown in the area. But there were other freights emanating from the area which helped turn Port Pirie into a busy port - wool, tallow and meat products from Booyoolee station, Crystal Brook and Beetaloo, the big three properties in the area. By the 1970s, wharves were being built as more and more ships took on cargo there during the colony of South Australia's most affluent decade of the 19th century.
Port Pirie would have remained just another port were it not for the discovery of silver and lead on Mt. Gipps station by Charles Rasp far away in an outback corner of New South Wales. What became the Broken Hill mine needed a port from which to ship out the ore, and Port Pirie was strategically placed to fulfil that role, being far and away the closest sea point to Broken Hill 332 km to the east.
BHP's decision to make Port Pirie its industrial centre led to massive port developments, as well as import requirements for the new mine. Timber began being imported through Port Pirie from North America and Scandinavia, cement from Hamburg and Antwerp, iron and steel from south Wales and the north of England. By the time the smelters opened in 1889, there was an endless flow of ships bringing coke from Europe to keep the smelters operational. Thoughout this period, the wheat trade remained the port's bread and butter.
The focal point of early Port Pirie was a small township called Solomontown, thus named after the original land purchaser, Emanuel Solomon. During the 1870s another township was developed by the Government across the creek, which became modern day Port Pirie.
For more than a century, mineral products have mostly come through the Port Pirie smelter. Broken Hill's massive mining operations led to the largest lead smelter in the world being built there. The series of complex processes includes the smelting and refining of concentrates to produce quality lead and important by-products such as zinc, silver, gold, copper, cadnium and sulphuric acid.
In 1937 the broad gauge railway line to Adelaide was completed and by 1953 Port Pirie was declared South Australia's first provincial city. Today it is South Australia's second largest port, with wheat, barley, lead and zinc the main exports to pass through it. It is characterised by a gracious main street and some interesting and unusual historic buildings. It remains a busy port.

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