Tarcoola is a settlement in South Australia about 740 km northwest of Adelaide . Tarcoola was founded on February 21, 1901 and named after the nearby Tarcoola gold mine, which in turn took its name from a racehorse that won the Melbourne Cup horse race in 1893. Nobody lives in the village these days (as of 2016).
Tarcoola mainly as a branching point of the two longest Australian Railroads, the Trans-Australian Railway from Perth to Port Augusta (and on to Sydney ) and the Central Australian Railway from Darwin known to Tarcoola (and on to Adelaide). The station is located in a triangular track , which enables each train to continue in either of the other two possible directions without having to change the direction of travel . A second triangular track in the station enables vehicles to be turned around.
