Steamtown Peterborough, SA
SA completed its first major country broad gauge (BG) line to Gawler in 1857. This was extended in stages to the copper mining towns of Kapunda (1860) and Burra (1870). In the 1870s, SA built a number of narrow gauge (NG) lines in order to get grain and other produce to coastal ports at Port Augusta, Port Pirie, and Port Wakefield. These lines were relatively cheap because of their light construction and in subsequent years were extended by stages further inland to serve their respective districts.
In 1876, silver was discovered at Umberumberka Creek in NSW and the town of Silverton was supplied by bullock teams from the rail head at Burra and then Hallett and Terowie as the BG line was extended further north. In 1878 the Government announced plans to connect the two northern coastal lines from Port Pirie and Port Augusta with an NG extension from Terowie. From the new junction, a line would be built north-east to New South Wales, meeting the border at Cockburn and joining the Silverton Tramway. Minerals from Broken Hill could now be transported directly to Port Pirie on the NG line or transferred to the BG line and sent to Port Adelaide. This break of gauge would prove to be a long-standing headache for South Australian railways and was inherited by the Commonwealth Railways.
The junction point would be in Section 216, Hundred of Yongala, which had first been settled in 1875. For this reason, it was often referred to as the “Yongala” junction. Seeing the opportunity, one of those settlers, Johann Koch, arranged for the survey of allotments for a township in May 1880: he named it Petersburgh but very quickly the name lost its “h” (probably because of the number of reports appearing in the newspapers at the time about St Petersburg in Russia). In July, Koch sold land to the Government for the railway station and yards. Two other settlers also subdivided parts of their holdings, naming these portions Petersburgh North (Section 218) and Petersburgh West (Section 217). The announcement of the establishment of a post office in the SA Government Gazette of 23 December 1880 seems to have cemented the spelling and the town was known as Petersburg until 1918 when it became Peterborough.
The BG line from Hallett to Terowie was declared open by the Governor on 14 December 1880. The official party then travelled by road to Petersburg, “at the junction of the Terowie and Pichirichi [sic], and Jamestown extension” and then through Yongala to Jamestown by rail where the Governor declared that line open. He also mentioned the expectation that the line to Beltana and the Government Gums (Farina) would be completed by the end of the following year.
This would be part of the “Great Northern Railway” which would link Adelaide with Port Darwin (the Northern Territory then being administered by South Australia). The Governor had turned the first sod at Port Augusta on 18 January 1878. Peterborough became a major railway junction which put it on the map.
Engineering Heritage Recognition Program
| Marker Type | Engineering Heritage National Marker (EHNM) |
| Award Date | October 2017 |
| Heritage Significance | The crossing point of Australia’s east-west and north-south railways
Former regional headquarters of South Australia’s rail network |
| Nomination Document | Available here. |
| Ceremony Booklet Ceremony Report |
Available here. |
| Plaque/Interpretation Panel | Not Installed. |
