| Wonuarra South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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  Wonuarra | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°12′58″S140°52′48″E / 34.216°S 140.880°E Coordinates: 34°12′58″S140°52′48″E / 34.216°S 140.880°E | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 5340 | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 10 km (6 mi) south of Paringa | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Renmark Paringa Council | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Chaffey | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Barker | ||||||||||||||
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Wonuarra is a locality southeast of Paringa in the east end of the South Australian Riverland region. The locality is east of the Sturt Highway between Paringa and Yamba and extends from the highway to the state border. [1]
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.
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.
Wonuarra was the next siding on the Barmera railway line south of Paringa and provided bagged wheat for rail transport out of the district. [2] The siding was originally named Koora, but renamed to Wonuarra as the original name was easily confused with Noora further south. [3]
The Barmera railway line was the second railway built to develop the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, in 1913. It followed the success of the Pinnaroo railway line in 1906. Both lines branched east from Tailem Bend to the north of the main Melbourne–Adelaide railway. The Brown's Well line was the more northerly, and extended into country which had not been developed much before the railway, partly due to the absence of any viable transport route for produce. The original terminus of the Brown's Well railway was at Meribah, not far from the Victorian border.
In the 1960s, a branch line joined the main line north of Wonuarra. It was 27.3 kilometres (17.0 mi) long, and went northeast to Murtho to the south bank of the Murray River to support construction of the proposed Chowilla Dam. The dam was never built, after the South Australian government negotiated a guaranteed supply of water from the Dartmouth Dam. The railway line was removed without ever being used. [4] [5]
Murtho is a locality in South Australia. It is northeast of Renmark and Paringa. It is bounded by the Murray River on its north and west sides and the Victorian border on the east.
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.
Chowilla Dam was a proposed water storage reservoir on the Murray River in the 1960s. The dam wall would have been in South Australia, but the reservoir behind it would have stretched upstream into Victoria and New South Wales. The site was selected in 1960. Early preparations for its construction were conducted before the project was halted. These included a 23 km service railway from the Barmera railway line, which was dismantled without ever actually being used.
