Port Augusta

Port Augusta
State :  Australia State : South Australia Founded : 1852
Coordinates : 32 ° 29 ′  S , 137 ° 46 ′  E Coordinates: 32 ° 29 ′  S , 137 ° 46 ′  E Area : 31.8  km²
Residents : 12,896 (2016) Population density : 406 inhabitants per km²
Time zone : ACST (UTC + 9: 30) Postal code : 5700 LGA : City of Port Augusta
Port Augusta

Port Augusta is a city in the Australian state of South Australia . It is located about 200 miles northwest of Adelaide at the northern end of the Spencer Gulf .

history

On May 24, 1852, the settlement of Port Augusta was founded by Alexander Elder and John Grainger near the natural harbor on the Spencer Gulf. It was named after Augusta Sophia Young, the wife of the then South Australian governor Sir Henry Edward Fox Young .

In 1878 the settlement and its harbor became the starting point for the construction of the later Cape-gauge Great Northern Railway , which was to cross Australia to Darwin . The railway “only” reached Alice Springs and thus missed this goal. In 1917, Port Augusta became the eastern terminus of the standard-gauge Trans - Australian Railway , which ran from here to Kalgoorlie-Boulder . For the onward journey, it was necessary to switch to the narrow-gauge railway in Port Augusta . 1956/57 the southern part of the railway to Alice Springs between was Marree and Port Augusta to standard gauge umgespurt . With this, Port Augusta initially lost the narrow-gauge railway.

climate

On January 25, 2019, the worldwide highest temperature was in here with 49.5 ° C coastal town measured.

traffic

railroad

Station sign

The station of Port Augusta is located on the section of the continent by crossing railway lines, the Trans-Australian from the railway and the Central Australian Railway is shared. The station is equipped with a large depot . The long-distance trains Indian Pacific and The Ghan stop at the only platform of the passenger station .

Street

The city is the eastern starting point of the Eyre Highway (A1) to Western Australia and the southern starting point of the Stuart Highway (A87) in the Northern Territory , to Alice Springs and Darwin.

Air traffic

Port Augusta has an airport that is occasionally used for domestic flights. It is also an important station of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia .

shipping

The city is located on the Spencer Gulf and has a natural harbor, but today it is almost irrelevant to cargo shipping.

economy

In the port bay is a large coal plant , which exclusively with coal from the mine of Leigh Creek is fired. It is approached from there on the last operated section of the Great Northern Railway by rail.

Attractions

About 40 kilometers north of Port Augusta is the Flinders Range National Park .

The Pichi Richi Railway is a museum railway that has been operated by the Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society since the 1990s on a section of the original route of the Great Northern Railway . First, the section between Quorn and Woolshed Flat was put into operation, then expanded to Stirling North and, since 2002, extended to Port Augusta. The narrow-gauge track was repaired for this purpose. The train is named after the Pichi-Richi-Pass that it crosses.

To the north of the city are the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens , where the desert and steppe vegetation of the Australian outback is shown and explained in guided tours.

Personalities

• Kerry O'Brien (* 1946), track and field athlete and world record holder

Web links

Commons : Port Augusta, South Australia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Port Augusta  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : Port Augusta ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
2. ↑ World record and blackouts - heat wave in Australia. In: proplanta.de. World Meteorological Organization, accessed January 26, 2019 .