Adelaide River (locality)

Adelaide River
Old train station in Adelaide River
State :  Australia State : Northern Territory Founded : 1871
Coordinates : 13 ° 14 ′  S , 131 ° 6 ′  E Coordinates: 13 ° 14 ′  S , 131 ° 6 ′  E Area : 8.6  km²
Residents : 265 (2016) Population density : 31 inhabitants per km²
Time zone : ACST ( UTC + 9: 30 ) LGA : Coomalie
Adelaide River

Adelaide River is a town in the Northern Territory in Australia . It is located on the south bank of the river of the same name , 114 kilometers south of Darwin.

Adelaide River was created as a relay station of the Trans-Australian Telegraph Line , to which the Stuart Highway was built and crossed the river here. The gold rush triggered by the discovery of gold in Pine Creek in 1871 also brought an economic boom for Adelaide River. That and the location of the place created a need for overnight accommodation. The hotel industry emerged. Accommodation has been offered since 1873. Shortly afterwards, the “QCE Hotel” was created (QCE should be called: Quiet, Comfort, Ease). In 1879 the place received a police station.

In 1888 the Palmerston & Pine Creek Railway (later: North Australia Railway ) reached the place , which - about halfway along the route - set up a larger station where passengers also had the opportunity to have lunch. In 1976 the railway was shut down. The Central Australian Railway , which began operating in 2004, but no longer has a train station here and its trains do not stop here, was laid parallel to the old route .

During the Second World War , up to 30,000 Australian and US soldiers and hospital facilities were stationed in the area around the town . It was also a recreational area for the troops fighting in the Darwin area. What remains from this time is a military cemetery .

The old station building of the Northern Australian Railways was placed under a preservation order. It has housed a museum since 1988, mainly presenting the history of the place, the telegraph line and the railway. The old steel bridge over the Adelaide River has also been preserved.

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  Railway bridges over the Adelaide River: in front those of the Central Australian Railway , in the back those of the North Australian Railway

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  View over the town to the river

literature

• Helen Wilson, Penny Cook, David Carment: Early Days in Adelaide River . Ed .: National Trust. 1988.

Web links

Commons : Adelaide River, Northern Territory  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Sydney Morning Herald: Fact sheet on Adelaide River (English) ( Memento of 30 December 2012 at the Web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : Adelaide River (L) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2020.