Kyancutta is a small wheatbelt town at the junction of the Eyre and

Tod Highway Tod Highway is an important 177 kilometre highway serving South Australia's Eyre Peninsula's wheatbelt, and is designated route B90. It is named after Robert Tod who explored the area in 1839. Route Tod Highway begins from Eyre Highway at Kyanc ...

s on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Earlier called Eyre's Peninsula, it was named after e ...

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 ...

. Once a busy town with an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

, Kyancutta is now nearly a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

, acting only as a centre for the

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

districts surrounding it, as well as passing

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

History

The town was established in 1917 to support the surrounding

lands. The name is thought to be derived from the Aboriginal ''kanjakatari''; ''kanja'' – "

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

" and ''katari'' – "surface water", implying water in rocks. Another possible origin is that the name was taken from a nearby hill "Kutta kutta", which was the local Aboriginal name for the night hawk. An

was built not long after establishment, and flights between

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 ...

and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

stopped there regularly. This added another facet to the town's

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

, and caused the town to fall into a steady decline after its closure in 1935. A school was built in the town in 1920, remaining active for 25 years before closing in 1945. An official

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

, established at Kyancutta in 1928, became Australia's first fully automated station with a three-hourly programme of weather observation, which is still ongoing under the care of the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government that is responsible for providing weather forecasts and meteorological services to Australia and neighbouring countries. It was established in 1906 unde ...

. In 1986, a memorial park was established to honour the pioneers of

settlement in the area. Past two decades the town has struggled due to the general store and post office not being consistently occupied or managed. The last manager was Sean Heeney, who lived at the house adjoining the store with his wife and three children. The Heeney family left in 2020, leaving the site unoccupied.

Climate

Kyancutta has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

( Köppen: BSk), with moderately hot, dry summers, and mild, relatively wet winters. Due to its inland location, average minima remain cool to cold year-round, range in July to in January and February. Average annual rainfall is low: , occurring within 95.5 rainfall days, with a maximum in winter. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 9 July 1959 to on 9 January 1939.

Economy

The town now is the service centre for the surrounding

districts, with cereal crops and

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

grazing the prevalent industries. Grain silos for storage of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and field peas are located in Kyancutta at the railway station on the

Eyre Peninsula Railway The Eyre Peninsula Railway is a track gauge, gauge railway on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. Radiating out from the ports at Port Lincoln and Thevenard, South Australia, Thevenard, it is isolated from the rest of the Rail transport in ...

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a city on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. Known as Galinyala by the traditional owners, the Barngarla people, it is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, ...

. It also serves as a rest point for travellers making their way across the

Eyre Highway Eyre Highway is a highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1 and the National Highway (Australia), Australian Nat ...

. Kyancutta has no real attractions of its own, but a number of natural features including Waddikee Rock and Corrobinne Hill do lie within 20 km of the town.

Facilities

Kyancutta has free camping in the park adjacent the Kyancutta Store. The store has closed, but there is a self-service fuel bowser. For the locals, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and a sporting complex including 18 hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

course,

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

facilities are also located in the town.

References

External links

Tourism Eyre Peninsula page
{{authority control Towns in South Australia Eyre Peninsula