Cape Town Lens: Peterborough. Railway Station Masters house of about 14 rooms . Built around 1882 after the lines from the north south and west reached Petersburg as it was then called. Line from East (Broken Hill) reached Petersburg in 1886

A Cape Town District Six Museum tagged image from photographer – denisbin as published on Flickr.

Peterborough. Railway Station Masters house of about 14 rooms . Built around 1882 after the lines from the north south and west reached Petersburg as it was then called. Line from East (Broken Hill) reached Petersburg in 1886

Image by denisbin

Railways in Peterborough.
Early railways in South Australia headed out from the ports inland to the farming areas and one was from Port Pirie to Crystal Brook in 1874. This line was significant as it was extended to Peterborough in January 1881. Meanwhile, the railway from Burra (it reached there in 1870) and been extended to Hallett in 1878. But as early as 1874 the premier, Mr Boucaut was talking about running the line north from Hallett to connect to Port Augusta via Quorn. The line up to Burra from Adelaide was broad gauge- 5 feet 3 inches, but the line up from Port Pirie to Peterborough was narrow gauge – 3 feet 6 inches. The first surveys for this great northern line were made in 1876 and the township of Lancelot was fixed as the point where the broad gauge line would end and the narrow gauge line to Peterborough and Quorn would begin. Not long after this, the government made a new decision to terminate the broad gauge line at Terowie (and not at Lancelot) and create a junction at section 216 north of Terowie by having a spur line across to the existing line at Jamestown. As soon as the owner of section 216 heard of this plan he subdivided his land, auctioned it off, and created a township at the rail junction which he called Petersburg after his German friend Peter Doecke. The narrow gauge line from Jamestown reached Peterborough (then Petersburg) in January 1881. At the same time the broad gauge line was opened from Hallett to Terowie. Contracts for the construction of the line from Terowie to Quorn were let almost immediately and the line reached Peterborough from Terowie in June of 1881 thus linking the southern and Pirie rail systems. The line north from Peterborough to Quorn opened in stages with the first stage to Orroroo open in late 1881. The line reached Quorn in 1882 and later in that year the first connecting rail service from Adelaide to Port Augusta was operated. After federation Port Augusta was linked with Kalgoorlie in Western Australia in 1917 and the rail service from the eastern states to Perth passed through Peterborough then Quorn, Port Augusta and on to Perth. This main national railway line passed through Peterborough until mid 1937 when the new line was opened across the Adelaide Plains from Salisbury to Port Pirie and on to Port Augusta and Perth. Pictured above is the Railway Hotel in Peterborough with the cupola.

Peterborough’s importance as a rail junction and centre was strengthened in 1884 with the discovery of the world’s richest silver, lead and zinc deposit at a site which became known as Broken Hill. The South Australian government in 1886 passed an Act authorising the construction of a new railway from Peterborough to the SA border location closest to Broken Hill. The government could see that the riches of the mines could assist SA as it had the closest port, and wharf facilities. The terminus of the line was at Cockburn on the border which was reached by January 1887. The NSW government, in typical fashion, had refused permission for SAR to build a line to Broken Hill, so a private railway was built for the last 30 miles into Broken Hill called the Silverton Tramway Company. SAR operated and provided rolling stock etc for the Silverton Tramway Company for some time after the line opened! This northern railway division was known as the Peterborough Division and the town blossomed as the administrative, workshop and rail centre for the top half of the settled areas of South Australia. In later years the line north from
Gladstone to Wilmington (1915) was added to the division and it also controlled the line north from Quorn to Farina.

More recently the narrow gauge line from Port Pirie was converted to standard gauge through to Broken Hill in 1970. At the same time the line from Terowie to Peterborough was converted to a broad gauge line. This then meant that Peterborough had three gauges. But it was not too long after that the rail passenger service from Adelaide via Terowie ceased as the new standard gauge line between Adelaide and Crystal Brook (and consequentially Peterborough and Sydney) was opened in 1982. Services south from Peterborough to Adelaide though Terowie ceased not long after in 1986. In 1957 a railcar service between Peterborough and Quorn had commenced but this ceased operating in 1980 with a reduced service just to Orroroo remaining. That stopped a year later. Steam Town Society began in 1981 to preserve the Old Round House rail turntable and workshops and the steam locomotive services of the district. SAR was taken over by the Commonwealth Government in 1974 and became part of Australian National with a consequent demise of the workshops and numbers of rail employees in Peterborough.

Peterborough (population 1,500.)
Alexander McCulloch took up a pastoral lease in this area in 1850. He held it until much of the area was resumed for closer settlement in 1869. The Hundred of Yongala was declared soon after but settlement did not begin until around 1875. The section where Peterborough now stands was taken up by Peter Doecke in 1875. He sent his niece and her husband from the Barossa Valley to settle the section in 1876. Once the government sent surveyors to determine the junction of the railways from Jamestown and Terowie, Peter Doecke had township allotments surveyed and created a private town in 1880. He called it Petersburg. (This was changed during World War One in 1917 when all German place names were changed.) In the same year Doecke sold some land to the government for railway and government purposes and a Post Office was opened in 1880, along with a Telegraph station in 1881, and a railway station in 1881. A police station and two hotels soon followed in 1881. Banks, shops and service industries followed, along with churches, and a government school in 1881 with the current buildings opening in 1883. There was frenzied activity to establish a major town at this important rail junction. The town developed more once a railway from Petersburg to the SA/NSW border to tap into the silver mines of Silverton (1887) was authorised. The coming of age of the town was reached quickly with the opening of the Institute in 1884 and the establishment of the town corporation and the opening of the adjoining Town Hall in 1894. The lifeblood of any town was always industry which would provide employment. Although Peterborough had the railways it soon had other significant industries too. The first was the flourmill which opened in 1885 and operated until 1924 when it was converted into premises for freezing rabbits and for producing ice. A cordial factory was established in 1894 and operated until 1976 when the factory was burnt down. The cordial factory had various owners over the years and after a visit by the Governor in 1899 it was granted Vice Regal approval! In the early days from 1899 until 1915 another factory produced temperance drinks, relishes and Worcestershire sauce.

Given the town was just outside Goyder’s Line it is somewhat surprising that Peterborough had a butter factory from 1898 until well into the 1930s. Butter was exported to England. Milk was supplied to the factory from a wide area including Orroroo, Hallett and Hammond from over 100 suppliers. It was usually sent by rail to Peterborough and often came from properties with only one or two cows which were hand milked. The town also had its own printing works from 1887 to produce a local newspaper. Papers for Orroroo and Quorn were also printed in Peterborough. The printing works surviving until 1970 when all operations were taken over by the printers in Port Pirie.

Peterborough was also special in that the government established a Gold Battery in the town in 1897 with an attached cyanide works. In the first six years of operation the battery produced 61,000 grams of gold with most of it coming from the goldfields near Oodlawirra and Dawson. Ore from across the state was still being sent to the Peterborough works in the 1980s. The cyanide plant was closed down in 1954. The gold battery is controlled by the National Trust, more as a museum piece, than a fully operating gold battery but it does still operate. It is the only gold battery in South Australia.

The Union Church which opened in 1879 was used by Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians. A tin Wesleyan Church was opened in 1880, but a stone church was not finished until 1884. The Baptists opened their first church in Peterborough in 1883 and it was added to several times. Once the Wesleyans and Baptists had their own churches, the original Union Church was re-dedicated as the Anglican Church in 1884. The Anglicans later built a new church which was opened in 1888.Further additions and enhancements were carried out over the next thirty years. This church was in the Diocese of Willochra which was created in 1915 with bishops being enthroned in the Port Pirie or Port Augusta church. The first bishop in 1915 resided in Peterborough in rented premises for two years before moving to Gladstone. The Presbyterians did not establish regular services after the initial period of 1879, until 1900 when they began planning their own church. They held services in the Town Hall until their church was completed in 1903. The congregation was always small and the church closed in 1918, with the building being converted to a residence in 1922. The Lutherans in Petersburg started their first services in 1877. A church (St Peters) was built in 1885 and a Lutheran school started soon afterwards. Dwindling numbers forced the day school to close in 1912 but the government would have forced its closure during World War One anyway.

The Catholics in Peterborough built the first church, St Sebastian’s three miles outside of the town with the first priest arriving in 1884.( This church was later demolished.) In 1884 the first Catholic Church in the town was opened and dedicated to St Anacletus with an attached day school for seven pupils. Tenders were called for a new church in 1890 and the formal opening was held in 1892. This became one of the largest buildings in the town after extensive additions in 1916 as it was then the Pro-Cathedral for the Diocese of Port Augusta. Nearby the convent school was opened in 1923 and still operates. In 1912 work started on a two storey Bishop’s Residence, designed by Bishop Norton himself. The massive stone residence of fourteen rooms, complete with new electric light from a private generator was finished in 1913. It had extensive stables, out buildings and a large surrounding stonewall. Peterborough was to be the focal point of the diocese of Port Augusta. Bishops resided in the house until 1952 when the diocese was changed to the diocese of Port Pirie and the Bishop’s Residence was shifted to Port Pirie as was the cathedral. Bishop’s Palace is now known as St Cecilia’s and operated as a private bed and breakfast establishment where you can sleep in Mother Superior’s Room or the Bishop’s room!