Wallaroo, South Australia

Wallaroo is about 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Moonta and 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Kadina. Since 1999, the rural broadacre farming area to the north of the town has been officially known as Wallaroo Plain[5] The area south of Wallaroo is Warburto.[6] The Warburto railway station name was derived from the Narungga name for a nearby spring.[7]

Wallaroo has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• 1 Jetty Road: Wallaroo Customs House[12]
• John Terrace: Wallaroo railway station[13]
• 1 John Terrace: Old Wallaroo Police Station and Dwelling[14]
• 32 Lydia Terrace: Wallaroo Courthouse[15]
• 8 Stirling Road: Wallaroo Wesleyan Methodist Church[16]
• Wallaroo Smelters Site[17]

Wallaroo exists in a grain farming area with a moderate to low rainfall. It is located on the foreshore and is 13 metres above sea level. Wallaroo has a dry Mediterranean climate with seasonal temperatures a few degrees above Adelaide's temperatures. The temperature ranges are similar to those of Kadina and the weather patterns are similar to those of Kadina and Adelaide. In the summer Wallaroo has a light cool sea breeze on hot afternoons that sometimes makes the hottest afternoons more bearable than further inland.

Wallaroo was home to a number of historic publications. One of these, the Wallaroo Times, went through a series of evolutions, namely:

• Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal (1 February 1865 – 31 December 1881)
• Wallaroo Times (4 January 1882 – 28 July 1888)
• Kadina and Wallaroo Times (1 August 1888 – March 1966)
• Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta Times (7 April 1966 – 29 August 1968)
• Yorke Peninsula Country Times (4 September 1968 – present)

Another publication was the Wallaroo Wheatsheaf (December 1911 – November 1918), which was produced monthly by Roland Campbell for Wallaroo Amalgamated Co-operative Society Ltd.[18] Its successor, Wheatsheaf (December 1918 – 16 June 1921), used the subtitle "an official organ of the Co-operative Movement of South Australia, application being made for registration as a newspaper".

Historically, Wallaroo was part of the "copper triangle" copper mining industry. One of the large mining chimneys still stands, aptly named the 'big stack'. Copper mining ceased in the area in the 1920s, but the old copper smelter is now a tourist attraction. From the 1880s onwards the most important economic driver in the area has been cereal cropping, despite the proximity to Goyder's Line, which traditionally marks the geographic edges of agricultural viability in South Australia. Wallaroo is a significant sea port in South Australia and is the point of international export for many agricultural products originating on Yorke Peninsula and nearby parts of the South Australian Mid North. This especially includes seeds and grain products via the Wallaroo Grain Terminal. Wallaroo's surrounds are used for growing barley, wheat and other crops such as legumes, canola, chickpeas and field peas.

Tourism associated with the copper mining history and marine leisure activity has become a major part of Wallaroo's economy in the latter 1900s. The three-day Kernewek Lowender Cornish festival is held every odd year in May, with Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo each hosting the festival for one day. From the 1990s, beachfront development in the town has accelerated with new housing developments situated at Office and North beaches. The Copper Cove Marina commenced construction at North Beach in 1997 and expects, on completion, to contain a total of 154 marina berths with a proportionate number of new residential and commercial plots.[19] The marina development is almost one third of the size of the original township (prior to 1997).[20]

Wallaroo is at the western end of the Copper Coast Highway and on the Spencer Highway. The Balaklava-Moonta and Kadina-Brinkworth railway lines closed in the 1990s. From the 1990s until 2009, the Lions Club of Yorke Peninsula Rail operated tourist services between Wallaroo, Kadina and Bute on some Sundays on the previously disused railway line.[21] Grain is transported to the storage near the wharf by road, and loaded to ships by conveyor belts at the Wallaroo jetty. The jetty is also regarded as one of the best scuba diving sites in South Australia. The water is only 5–6 metres deep so can also be enjoyed by snorkelers and free-divers.[22]

A passenger and vehicle ferry has run intermittently between Wallaroo and Lucky Bay (near Cowell) on Eyre Peninsula.[23][24]

The Copper Coast Council governs Wallaroo at the municipal level, replacing the former Corporate Town of Wallaroo which existed from 1874 to 1997. As such, it remains part of the Hundred of Wallaroo which itself is part of the County of Daly. Wallaroo lies in the state electoral district of Narungga and the federal electoral Division of Grey.

• Caroline Carleton, writer of "Song of Australia"
• Ernest Cowan, Western Australian member of parliament[25]
• Adam Goodes, Australian rules footballer and dual Brownlow Medal winner[26]
• Leslie Heath, South Australian member of parliament.
• Sir Walter Watson Hughes, Pioneer philanthropist, founder of the University of Adelaide
• Leslie Renfrey, cricketer[27]

• 
  Aerial view looking west
• 
  Town map, 1874
• 
  Jetty in 1909
• 
  Mines Federal Band, 1910
• 
  Foreshore with silo
• 
  Shops along Cornish Terrace
• 
  Disused dual-gage rails
• 
  Disused copper smelter chimney

• Copper Coast
• Kernewek Lowender

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wallaroo, South Australia.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Wallaroo".

• Yorke Peninsula: Wallaroo
• Wallaroo, Copper Coast Council
• Wallaroo Shores Resort announcement