| Pike River South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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  Pike River | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°15′41″S140°47′18″E / 34.261503°S 140.788312°E Coordinates: 34°15′41″S140°47′18″E / 34.261503°S 140.788312°E [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 56 (2016 census) [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 16 March 2000 [3] | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 5340 [4] | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 15 m (49 ft)(floodplain) [5] | ||||||||||||||
| Time zone | ACST (UTC+9:30) | ||||||||||||||
| • Summer (DST) | ACST (UTC+10:30) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Renmark Paringa Council [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Region | Murray and Mallee [1] | ||||||||||||||
| County | Alfred [1] | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | [6] | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | [7] | ||||||||||||||
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| Footnotes | Locations [1] [4] Adjoining localities [1] | ||||||||||||||
Pike River is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Riverland in the state’s east on the southern side of the Murray River about 210 kilometres (130 mi) north-east of the state capital of Adelaide and about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south-east of the municipal seat of Renmark. [1] [4]
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.
The Riverland is a region of South Australia. It covers an area of 9,386 square kilometres (3,624 sq mi) along the Murray River from where it flows into South Australia from New South Wales and Victoria downstream to Blanchetown. The major town centres are Renmark, Berri, Loxton, Waikerie, Barmera and Monash, along with many minor townships; the population is approximately 35,000 people.
The Murray River is Australia's longest river, at 2,508 kilometres (1,558 mi) in length. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains, and then meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest into South Australia. It turns south at Morgan for its final 315 kilometres (196 mi), reaching the ocean at Lake Alexandrina.
Its name and boundaries were created on 16 October 2000. [3] The name is derived from Pike River, a stream which enters the Murray River from within the locality and which forms part of its southern boundary. [1] [9]
Pike River extends from the centre of the Murray River channel in the north-west to higher ground both in the south and in the east over a floodplain known in one source as the Pike River Basin and in another as the Pike Floodplain and which it shares with the localities of Mundic Creek and Paringa in the north. [1] [10] [11] Most of the floodplain located in what is now the locality was flooded by the 1956 Murray River flood and those parts existing as permanent water bodies are part of the nationally important wetland known as the Pike-Mundic Wetland Complex. [5] [12] [1] Stanitzki Road (also known as the Loxton-Paringa Road) passes through the locality connecting it to both the Sturt Highway in the east and to the town of Loxton in the south-west as well as forming part of its western boundary. [1]
A floodplain or flood plain is an area of land adjacent to a stream or river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge. The soils usually consist of levees, silts, and sands deposited during floods. Levees are the heaviest materials and they are deposited first; silts and sands are finer materials.
Mundic Creek is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Riverland in the state’s east on the southern side of the Murray River about 217 kilometres (135 mi) north-east of the state capital of Adelaide, and about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south-east of the municipal seat of Renmark.
Paringa is a small town in the Riverland of South Australia. Paringa is famous for its vineyards, almond, citrus and stone fruit orchards, and the steel bridge with a span that can be raised to allow houseboats and paddlesteamers to pass underneath and across the Murray River to Renmark. At the 2006 census, Paringa had a population of 946.
Land use within Pike River consists of ‘primary production’ activities such as agriculture, fishing and sand mining, recreation activities concerned with watercraft, fishing and hunting, some residential use and irrigation. Land to the south of Stanitzki Road which is located on higher ground is zoned for ‘Primary Production’. Land to the north of Stanitzki Road which is located on the floodplain is either zoned as the ‘River Murray Flood Zone’ or the ‘River Murray Fringe Zone’ and is subject to statutory control for the purposes of “conservation and improvement of water quality” as per the requirements of the River Murray Act 2003. [5] [12] [13]
The 2016 Australian census which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Pike River had a population of 56 people. [2]
The 2016 Australian census was the seventeenth national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as 23,401,892 – an increase of 8.8 per cent or 1,894,175 people since the 2011 census. Norfolk Island joined the census for the first time in 2016, adding 1,748 to the population.
Pike River is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of Chaffey and the local government area of the Renmark Paringa Council. [7] [1] [6]
The Division of Barker is an Australian Electoral Division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member divisions. It is named for Collet Barker, an early explorer of the region at the mouth of the Murray River. The 63,886 km² seat currently stretches from Morgan in the north to Port MacDonnell in the south, taking in the Murray Mallee, the Riverland, the Murraylands and most of the Barossa Valley, and includes the towns of Barmera, Berri, Bordertown, Coonawarra, Keith, Kingston SE, Loxton, Lucindale, Mannum, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge, Naracoorte, Penola, Renmark, Robe, Tailem Bend, Waikerie, and parts of Nuriootpa and Tanunda.
Chaffey, created in 1936, is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the Riverland region of South Australia including the towns of Renmark, Berri, Barmera, Loxton and Waikerie. The seat is named after brothers George and William Chaffey who established the irrigation area along the Murray River from 1886.
The Renmark Paringa Council is a local government area located adjacent to the Victorian border, in the Riverland, South Australia. The area is known for its various fruit production, and is heavily dependent on the River Murray as a water source. The council seat is at Renmark.
