Hawker, South Australia
Encyclopedia
Hawker is a town in the Flinders Ranges
Flinders Ranges
Flinders Ranges is the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts approximately north west of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna...

 area of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, 365 km north of Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

. It is in the Flinders Ranges Council
Flinders Ranges Council
Flinders Ranges Council is a local government area in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.The council area is approximately 100 km from north to south, and 45 km from east to west, with a total area of 4,198 square kilometres....

, the state Electoral district of Stuart
Electoral district of Stuart
Stuart is an electorate for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the northeast part of the state extending from just north of the Barossa Valley all the way to the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales borders, and extending west to include Port Augusta...

 and the federal Division of Grey
Division of Grey
The Division of Grey is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia.The division was created in 1903 and is named for Sir George Grey, who was Governor of South Australia 1841-45 ....

. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Hawker had a population of 229.

The main economic activities in the area are tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 and pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...

 runs of sheep and increasingly cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

. Due to the arid environment, the stocking rates are low, at about one sheep per three to four hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s. Hawker is 55 km south of Wilpena Pound
Wilpena Pound
Wilpena Pound is a natural amphitheatre of mountains located north of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia in the heart of the Flinders Ranges National Park. The Pound is the most northern point with access via a sealed road in this part of the Flinders Ranges...

, a unique natural dish-shaped range of hills popular with tourists, as well as the spectacular scenery of the Southern Flinders Ranges
Southern Flinders Ranges
Southern Flinders Ranges is a South Australian wine region, located east of Spencer Gulf and north of the Clare Valley. It is located to the east and north-east of Port Pirie...

.

Hawker was a thriving railway town
Railway town
A railway town is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.In Victorian Britain, the spread of railways greatly affected the fate of many small towns...

 from the 1880s until 1956 as it was on the famous Ghan railway line, until the route was moved further west when the line was upgraded.

External links

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