Marree, South Australia
Encyclopedia
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...
. It lies 685 kilometres (426 mi) 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...
at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track
Oodnadatta Track
The Oodnadatta Track , Australia is an unsealed 620 kilometre track between Marree and Marla via Oodnadatta in South Australia. It passes the southern lake of the Lake Eyre National Park....
and the Birdsville Track
Birdsville Track
The Birdsville Track is a notable outback road in Australia. The 517 km track runs from Marree, a small town in northern South Australia, north across the Tirari Desert and Sturt Stony Desert, ending in Birdsville in south western Queensland....
, 49 metres (161 ft) above sea level. The area is the home of the Dieri
Dieri
The Dieri is an Indigenous Australian group and language from the South Australian desert—specifically Cooper and Leigh Creek, Lake Howitt, and Lake Hope, Lake Gregory and Clayton River and low country north of Mount Freeling.-Alternate names:DiariDiyeri...
people. 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,...
, Marree had a population of 70.
The town was home to Australia's first official mosque, made of mud brick and built by the Afghan cameleers employed at Marree's inception. At one time the town was divided in two, with Europeans on one side and Afghans and Aboriginals on the other.
History
The first European to explore the area was Edward John EyreEdward John Eyre
Edward John Eyre was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica....
, who passed through in 1840. In 1859, explorer John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart was one of the most accomplished and famous of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, and the first to do so from a starting point in South Australia, achieving this...
visited the area, and his assistant Herrgott discovered the springs after which the town was initially named. Originally called Herrgott (or Hergott) Springs, the town's name was changed
Australian place names changed from German names
During World War I, many German-sounding place names in Australia were changed because of Anti-German sentiment. The new names were often Anglicized , given Aboriginal names , names of famous people , or battlefields . This was done through an Act of Parliament, as well as by petition...
to Marree in 1918 due to anti-German sentiment after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Early transportation
The Central Australia Railway reached the town in 1883, and the town became a major railheadRailhead
The word railhead is a railway term with two distinct meanings, depending upon its context.Sometimes, particularly in the context of modern freight terminals, the word is used to denote a terminus of a railway line, especially if the line is not yet finished, or if the terminus interfaces with...
for the cattle industry. The railway then continued north from the town to Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
(completed in 1929). This was the route of the passenger train known as The Ghan. In 1957, the line south of Marree was rebuilt as standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
on a flatter alignment to support moving coal from Leigh Creek
Leigh Creek, South Australia
Leigh Creek is a coal-mining town in the north of South Australia. At the 2006 census, Leigh Creek had a population of 549....
to Port Augusta
Port Augusta, South Australia
-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...
. This made Marree a break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
on the Ghan as the remainder was still narrow gauge until 1980 when the 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...
to Alice Springs line was rebuilt much further west and Marree lost its railway completely.
The town was also the home of Tom Kruse
Tom Kruse (mailman)
Esmond Gerald Kruse, MBE was a former mailman on the Birdsville Track in the border area between South Australia and Queensland...
, one of the men who drove the mail trucks from Marree to Birdsville
Birdsville, Queensland
-External links:*...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, a distance of some 700 kilometres. This route crosses some of the most challenging sandy and stony desert country in Australia, and it was a remarkable feat for fully loaded trucks to make the run at all. His truck is on display in Marree. He died on 30/6/2011.
Etymology
The name "Marree" was referred to briefly around the world when in 1998, a chalk figure etched into the landscape 60 km west of Marree was discovered, dubbed the "Marree ManMarree Man
The Marree Man, or Stuart's Giant, is a modern geoglyph discovered by air on 26 June 1998. It appears to depict an indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe, hunting birds or wallabies with a throwing stick. It lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs 60 km west of the...
". Calls were made to turn it into a state icon but the unimpressed local population preferred to let it fade naturally back into the landscape.
Politics
Marree is in the federal Division of GreyDivision 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 ....
and 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...
. It is outside of council areas, and administered by the Outback Areas Community Development Trust
Outback Areas Community Development Trust
The Outback Areas Community Development Trust is a trust in South Australia which is operated under the Outback Areas Community Development Trust Act...
.
Climate
Like much of inland Australia, Marree has a very hot and dry climate in a desertDesert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
like environment.
External links
- A model of the Great Northern Hotel in Marree in the Google 3D Warehouse
- The first mosque built in Australia by Muslim Afghan Cameleers.
- Afghan Camelmen
- MSN Map
- GSL Aviation - Local Scenic Flight Operator
