Pinnaroo
Postcode: 5304
Pinnaroo is a town in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, near the border with Victoria 243 km east of Adelaide. Pinnaroo is on the Mallee Highway, and the railway line between Tailem Bend and Ouyen. The roadhouses on the highway are the first food and leg-stretch stop on the bus route from Adelaide to Sydney.
The town’s name is derived from ‘big man’ in a local Aboriginal language.
The railway arrived in the area in 1906. There had not been any significant development in the area before that, as the remoteness and difficulty of getting supplies in and produce out had made it uneconomic to farm before that.
The Border Times is a weekly newspaper published in the town.
The railway is not currently available for transport between the states, as it was converted to standard gauge from Tailem Bend soon after the main Adelaide–Melbourne line was converted, but the line to Ouyen remains as broad gauge. Both sides are used to transport grain from silos along the railway line towards the ports in each state.
The town has also become a major centre for growing potatoes since around 1990.
The Peebinga Conservation Park is 42 km north of Pinnaroo, Karte Conservation Park 30 km north-west and the much larger Ngarkat Conservation Park is 28 km south of the town.
The postcode for Pinnaroo is 5304. Pinnaroo is the seat of the Southern Mallee District Council, and is in the South Australian House of Assembly electoral district of Hammond and the Australian House of Representatives Division of Barker.