Region information
Southern Mallee District Council welcomes you to our Website, we trust that you will find the information on our website useful. We hope to soon have a specific tourism web site and you will be able to use this website if you are travelling through our district or if staying in the region as a visitor in the future. In the meantime, any improvements or suggestions are most welcome and if you are a visitor to our region, we hope your stay with us is enjoyable.
Contact us at council@southernmallee.sa.gov.au
Our Area
Our region is accessed the minute you drive from Victoria into South Australia. From the Adelaide end, we are located approximately 2 hours drive from the capital city. Our district comprises nearly 6000 square kilometres predominantly made up of farming and horticulture within a rural Mallee setting.
The population is about 2,300 people and features Pinnaroo and Lameroo as the 2 major retail towns and complimented by the rural community townships of Parilla, Geranium, Parrakie and Wilkawatt. The main connector for all towns is now the Mallee Highway, but previously it was the railway corridor which saw grain produced from fertile Mallee soils capable of being shipped out of the district prior to road freight becoming the predominant way to shift fresh produce.
We have 336,000 hectares of conservation parks that provide walking trails, native birds, wildflowers, camping and rest facilities and four wheel drive tracks. (For more information, go to the Tourism link)
The district was first farmed in the late part of the 1800's, however it was not until 1906 that viable farming activities came into existence because of the introduction of rail services and pioneering families moving into the district and becoming permanent settlers. Local Government was established in October 1908 and other services such as hospitals, schools and retail shopping was established at the same time and evidence of these original buildings still exists today in most towns.
The most noticeable change on the landscape is the shift to irrigated horticulture over the last 20 years and how this has significantly increased in the last 7 years due to the extended drought impacting on the Murray Darling Basin. The district now produces 75% of Australia's fresh supply of potatoes and increased production of carrots, onions and olive production due to the extended drought. This has seen a shift of those reliant on water previously from the River Murray relocating to this region to access water rights.
This region is fortunate that it sits above underground water aquifers which generally provide good quality water to those who are entitled to use this valuable resource under strict conditions.
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