Ungarra is a small swamp

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located 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 ...

about from the state's capital,

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 around north of Port Lincoln. At the 2021 census, Ungarra had a population of 156. This has decreased since the , when Ungarra is recorded to have a population of 241. The name 'Ungarra' is derived from a nearby

waterhole Waterhole or water hole may refer to: * Watering hole, a depression in the ground in which water can collect, or a more permanent pool in the bed of an ephemeral river * Water hole (radio), an especially quiet region of the electromagnetic spectru ...

of the same name which is located just to the south of the township. It has a Mediterranean climate and receives on average just over 400mm of rainfall every year.

Overview

The traditional custodians of the land on which Ungarra stands are the Nawu people.

Settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

started farming the area in the early 1900s as 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 ...

from Port Lincoln reached Ungarra in 1909. This provided an incentive for the clearing of what was generally mallee/

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

mix of native vegetation for the growing 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 ...

. This railway is still in operation and the branchline extended to Buckleboo but now is only operational to Kimba. An important local historic location in the nearby Moody Rock and Tanks where water was collected from a natural outcropping of granite and stored in a large tank for the require water for steam trains. This site is located within the Moody Tank Conservation Park. Moody Rocks Water Tank is listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

. The Ungarra Memorial Park is located at the southern entrance to the township, containing an old

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

as a memorial to the early colonial settlers of the area. In its heyday, Ungarra sported a bank, a bakery, a school up to year 10, and general store and two churches. While the buildings for many of these enterprises still stand, only the school (R-7) and one of the churches is still in operation. The former bank is now located at the Koppio Smithy Museum at

Koppio Koppio is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the Eyre Peninsula about west of the state capital of Adelaide and about north of Port Lincoln, and within the Tod River catchment area, Southern Australia While long-e ...

. The agricultural production around the area has expanded from the original wheat and now includes barley, lupins, faba beans, field peas and canola. There are also livestock industries, particularly sheep-based. The town has a number of facilities, including sporting grounds and a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

as well as a lawn bowling green and soldier memorial hall. The school celebrated its centenary in 2014. The part-time Ungarra Community Cafe opened in 2015 as a local hub, selling coffee and local fresh produce, and donating some proceeds to local charities and overseas missions. The cafe operates out of the former general store building, which had previously been closed for eight years. The town is part of a popular tourist drive that can be done from

Tumby Bay Tumby Bay is a coastal town situated on the Spencer Gulf, on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, north of Port Lincoln. The town of Tumby Bay is the major population centre of the District Council of Tumby Bay, and the cen ...

, with no camping or accommodation available within the town. Other conveniences include public toilets and

payphone A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone or pay telephone or public phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic public areas. Prepayment is required by inserting coins or tel ...

. The town also has clearly visible grain silos operated by

Viterra Viterra Limited is a Canadian grain handling business, that began as the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a g ...

which while being quiet for most of the year spring into life in the November–December period each year.

Transport

While having a number of unsealed roads running into Ungarra, it is connected to

Lipson Lipson is a ward in the city of Plymouth, England. It is an area with mixed terraced housing, some subdivided into bedsits and flats and a public open-space called 'Freedom Fields', a Civil War battle site where the townsfolk of nearby Plymou ...

and the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

via a sealed all-weather road, the sealing of which was only completed in 2004. Ungarra was served by two freight-only stations of the gauge

- one is called Moody and the other is called Ungarra. A branchline is proposed to Ungarra with the proposed iron ore port of Sheep Hill which is northeast of Tumby Bay.

Governance

Ungarra 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 Flinders Flinders is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, who was responsible for charting most of the state's coastline. It is a 58,901 km² coastal rural elector ...

and the local government area of the District Council of Tumby Bay.

References

External links

Street-Directory.com mapStreet-Directory map 2Ungarra Primary School
{{authority control Eyre Peninsula