| Moorlands South Australia | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  Moorlands | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 35°17′29″S139°38′39″E / 35.291325°S 139.644121°E Coordinates: 35°17′29″S139°38′39″E / 35.291325°S 139.644121°E [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 5301 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 12 m (39 ft) [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 20 km (12 mi) east of Tailem Bend | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Coorong District Council | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Hammond | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Barker | ||||||||||||||
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| Footnotes | Adjoining localities [1] | ||||||||||||||
Moorlands is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia. [1]
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of 28,684.
Moorlands is located east of Murray Bridge and has farms that cultivate wheat, sheep and other livestock. It is on the Mallee Highway and Pinnaroo railway line. Its name is believed to be derived from Moorlands near London in England. [2]
Murray Bridge is a city in the Australian state of South Australia, located 76 kilometres (47 mi) east-southeast of the state's capital city, Adelaide, and 77 kilometres (48 mi) north of the town of Meningie. The city had an urban population of approximately 17,500 as at the 2016 Census making it the fifth most populous urban area in the state after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Victor Harbor - Goolwa and Whyalla.
The Mallee Highway is part of the shortest route between Adelaide and Sydney. It runs east from Tailem Bend in South Australia through cereal-growing farmland at the southern end of the Murray Mallee to Pinnaroo near the border with Victoria, where it crosses Pinnaroo-Loxton and Pinnaroo-Bordertown Road in Pinnaroo. It continues in Victoria through Ouyen, where it crosses the Calder Highway, and Piangil, where it crosses the Murray Valley Highway.
The Pinnaroo railway line ran east from the Adelaide to Melbourne line at Tailem Bend to Pinnaroo near the South Australia / Victoria state border. The route continues into Victoria via the Victorian Railways line to Ouyen where it joined the Mildura line.
Lignite coal was first discovered in the vicinity of Moorlands in 1910. Further exploration and assessment was conducted in the 1920s and 1940s. [3] Despite apparent enthusiasm at the time, the Moorlands coalfield was never developed, with the state government choosing to develop the larger coal deposit at Leigh Creek instead.
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content. It has a carbon content around 60–70 percent. It is mined all around the world, is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation, and is the coal which is most harmful to health.
Leigh Creek is a former coal-mining town in eastern central South Australia. At the 2016 census, Leigh Creek had a population of 245, a 55% decrease from 550 in the previous census in 2011.
