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"Orroroo has never known the feverish excitement of a gold rush....it is solely a pastoral and agricultural area....life has remained unchanged for one hundred years....""One can gaze over the rolling plains....changes to paddocks of golden grass....the creeks etched with dark green gum trees....the entire scene encircled by hills over ever-changing colour...." Orroroo Rendezvous of the Magpie by Nancy Parnell. |
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Around Orroroo |
Further Afield |
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Map of Orroroo |
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The Fascinating Magnetic Hill Taking your vehicle to Magnetic Hill is one of those things that you must do if you want to experience something that is just a little different from anything else. Park your car on the side of the hill and watch it roll UPHILL! Murray Catford, a former farmer of Tarcowie/Bully-Acre tells the tale of an acquaintance who, in the 1930s, had acquired his first motor car. He was driving in the vicinity of the (then) Bruffs Hill and happened to get a puncture right on the section of the road now known as Magnetic Hill. He did the right thing - put a stone in front of one of the wheels before jacking up the vehicle - only to have it roll uphill. Here's how to get there... Take the road from Peterborough to Orroroo. Around 25kms from Peterborough you will come to a T-junction, left to Jamestown and right to Orroroo. Turn left and travel approximately 1km, where you will cross over a railway crossing. Around 400 metres from that crossing, and on the right-hand side of the road, there is a gravel road with a sign 'Magnetic Hill 8 km'. Just follow the signs. When you get to Magnetic Hill park alongside the sign (it even works from down near the creek), put your vehicle into neutral gear, and watch it roll uphill. |
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Goyder's Line Peterborough and Orroroo are both on the edge of Goyder's Line. Goyder's Line is an imaginary line marking off a huge area of inland South Australia that receives an average of 254 millimetres of rainfall a year or less. It was named after George Woodroffe Goyder (1826-1898), who was born in England and migrated to Australia in 1848. In 1857 he was sent off to check on some geographical discoveries of Benjamin Babbage, the South Australian Government Assayer. Between Babbage's earlier journey north and Goyder's trip there had been some heavy rainfalls and the countryside was in full flower. Goyder, in contradiction of earlier assessments by Edward Eyre, was able to report with some amazement that Lake Blanche contained fresh water and that the land was fertile. But he was a 'bit green' and easily deceived by this temporary lushness. As a result of his optimistic account there was a rush of applications for leases in this 'promised land'. It was not long, however, before these pioneers of the north were sending back gloomy reports on the barren, waterless and useless tracts of land. Following some years of drought, in 1865 Goyder was sent north to determine the line of demarcation between where rainfall had extended and where the drought conditions prevailed. Thus was established the so-called "Goyder's Line of Rainfall", which followed the southern boundary of the vast saltbush areas of the north. Goyder's Line provides a very accurate guide to the separation point between lands sutable for all sorts of agriculture on a long term basis and lands suitable for grazing. Those settlers who did not listen to the advice of Goyder eventually were forced to leave their holdings to the pastoralists and take up land elsewhere. |
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