Roxby Downs is a town and locality in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

about north of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. The town has a highly transient population of around 4,000 people.Population by Age and Sex, South Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
/ref> Roxby Downs has many

leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

and

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

facilities including

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, cinema, cultural precinct, community

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

, cafes and sporting clubs and facilities. There are just two neighbouring towns in the area: Andamooka, an

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silicon dioxide, silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to the amorphous (chemical) physical structure, it is classified as a ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

town about 30 km to the east, and Woomera, 84 km south of Roxby Downs. Andamooka people call the town home, and many are of European background since the days of early opal mining.

History

The town of Roxby Downs was built in 1986-88 (land survey commenced in November 1986) with the aim of servicing the

Olympic Dam mine The Olympic Dam mine is a large poly-metallic underground mine located in South Australia, NNW of Adelaide. It is the fourth largest copper deposit and the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world. Copper is the largest contributor ...

and processing plant, located north of the site of the town. Roxby Downs was officially opened on 5 November 1988. The opening was celebrated with a "town party" held on the main oval and sponsored by the then owners of the operation Olympic Dam Project (O.D.P.). The town is subject to a specific Indenture Act and is administered by the Municipal Council of Roxby Downs in the form of an appointed Administrator.Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act 1982

Water supply

Water is extracted from the Great Artesian Basin and desalinated by the operators of the Olympic Dam mine. It is then supplied via pipeline. In 2004, the township was estimated to consume a daily average of 3 megalitres.

Governance

Roxby Downs is located within the federal

division of Grey The Division of Grey is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 ...

, the state electoral district of Giles and the state government region of the Far North, and with land within the town of Roxby Downs being located in the local government area of the Municipal Council of Roxby Downs and the remainder of the locality of Roxby Downs being located in the Pastoral Unincorporated Area of South Australia.

Environment

Roxby Downs is in an area, like many other arid zones in Australia, that was very badly overgrazed by sheep and cattle during the nineteenth century, as

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...

was introduced by European settlers. This caused many long-lived species of trees and shrubs to give way to short-lived

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. Globally, 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are ...

s and

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...

species. It was estimated that there were once at least 27 species of Australian mammals in the region, but by 2016 over 60 percent had become either completely or locally extinct since European settlement. Introduced feral rabbits,

cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

and

foxes Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

exacerbated the threat to both flora and fauna. Some bird species, including the bush thick-knee and

plains wanderer The plains-wanderer (''Pedionomus torquatus'') is an atypical species of wading bird, the Monotypic taxon, only representative of family Pedionomidae and genus ''Pedionomus''. It is endemic to Australia. Its historic range included much of east ...

, are now either locally extinct or classed as an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

, and many of the medium-sized desert mammals are now completely extinct or only exist on a few islands of Australia.

Arid Recovery

The Arid Recovery Reserve is a

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...

reserve north of Roxby Downs, about north of Adelaide. As of 2024, the fenced area of the reserve consists of of arid land. The initiative known as Arid Recovery was established in 1997 by Katherine Moseby and John Read, whose vision was the creation of a reserve dedicated to restoring the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

, which meant keeping

feral A feral (; ) animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in som ...

animals such as

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s, cats and

out.

WMC Resources WMC Resources Limited was an Australian diversified mining company. History Western Mining Corporation (WMC) was formed in 1933, when William Robinson, the Australian-born London-based managing director of Broken Hill Associated Smelters, wa ...

, the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage, the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

and a community group formed a committee. The first reserve was created when fences were constructed around , and it has grown from there. The current (2024) board of directors consists of mainly independent directors, but also has representatives from

Bush Heritage Australia Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund. Its vision is: Healthy Country, Protected Forever. ...

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

, Adelaide University, and the

Department for Environment and Water The Department for Environment and Water (DEW) is a department of the Government of South Australia. It is responsible for ensuring that the state of South Australia's natural resources are managed productively and sustainably, while improving ...

. Its three-pronged focus is on conservation, research and education. Roxby Downs in 2017

In October 2020, nine bilbies – four males and five females – were released into the Arid Recovery Reserve, with the aim of increasing the

gene pool The gene pool is the set of all genes, or genetic information, in any population, usually of a particular species. Description A large gene pool indicates extensive genetic diversity, which is associated with robust populations that can survi ...

. The first bilbies had been brought in 2000, with a second group ten years later, and this is the third release. These bilbies were caught on Thistle Island, which has a very large population of the

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

s. Heavy rainfall in January 2022 led to the reserve's annual survey finding the second highest number of native animals in 25 years, with particularly high numbers of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s such as

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

s and

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards ...

Climate

Roxby Downs has a subtropical desert climate ( Köppen: BWh), with very hot summers and mild winters. There is large

seasonal variation In time series data, seasonality refers to the trends that occur at specific regular intervals less than a year, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Seasonality may be caused by various factors, such as weather, vacation, and holidays and consi ...

due to the town's inland location. Average maxima vary between in January and in June while average minima fluctuate between in January and in July. The mean annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is very low, , though well-distributed across the year, occurring within 42.3 precipitation days. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 25 January 2011 to on 30 June 2002. Climate data was sourced from the nearby

north of the town.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Mining towns in South Australia Far North (South Australia)