| Pinkerton Plains South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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  Pinkerton Plains | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°25′50″S138°37′00″E / 34.430678°S 138.616693°E Coordinates: 34°25′50″S138°37′00″E / 34.430678°S 138.616693°E [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 76 (2016 census) [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 18 May 1995 (locality) [3] | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 5400 [4] | ||||||||||||||
| Time zone | ACST (UTC+9:30) | ||||||||||||||
| • Summer (DST) | ACST (UTC+10:30) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Light Regional Council [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Region | Barossa Light and Lower North [1] | ||||||||||||||
| County | Gawler [1] | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Light | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Grey | ||||||||||||||
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| Footnotes | Adjoining localities [1] | ||||||||||||||
Pinkerton Plains is a locality in the Mid North of South Australia, Australia.
The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains, but not as far north as the Far North, or the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern part of the Flinders Ranges, and the northern part of the Mount Lofty Ranges. The area was settled as early as 1840 and provided early farming and mining outputs for the fledgling colony. Farming is still significant in the area, particularly wheat, sheep and grapevines. There are not currently any significant mining activities in the Mid North.
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.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
The locality is named for William Pinkerton, an early pastoralist active in the region in the 1840s. [6] The land was originally the land of the Kaurna people. It is unclear when the area first became known as 'Pinkerton Plains', but references to Pinkerton Plains begin to appear in newspaper reports and South Australian Government documents from about 1866, which is about when the area was first settled. The area was settled by a number of Irish Catholic settlers, and in 1866, the St Benedict's Catholic Church was established there. The Church closed in 1900, but its cemetery remains in use by farmers in the area. [7]
William Pinkerton (1810–1893) was an early English settler in South Australia. He became a major rancher and landowner. He was known for violent retaliation in 1848 against a band of Nauo Aboriginals on his land who had killed one of his shepherds. It was known as the Waterloo Bay Massacre.
The Kaurna people are a group of Indigenous Australians whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. Pronunciation of the word "Kaurna" varies slightly by the background and origin of the speaker; the most common is English, sometimes, native [ɡ̊auɲa] or, less often,. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurna culture and language were almost completely destroyed within a few decades of the European settlement of South Australia in 1836. However, extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both language and culture.
In about 1868, a railway station was erected at Pinkerton Plains on the railway that ran through the locality. [8]
Pinkerton Plains School was established in 1886 and remained open until 1967. [7]
Pinkerton Plains' most famous resident was probably Nicholas McCabe, a notable farmer who invented 'McCabe's Wheat Pickler', a pickling device that was used by farmers across South Australia for a period of time.[ citation needed ]
Nicholas McCabe (1850–1914) was a notable South Australian farmer and inventor.
