Like many towns and cities in mid-north South Australia, Quorn is largely a child of the age of steam, when the railway lines from the south and the east snaked out to connect with far-flung settlements their intersections and junctions forming the bases for busy railways towns.
Where is it?: Quorn is 39 km northeast of Port Augusta.
Prior to European settlement it is thought the Nugunu Aborigines lived in the area. The first European settlers arrived in the 1850s. The town, named for the town of Quorn in Leicestershire, England, sits at the northern end of the Pichi Richi railway, that was once the first leg of the Great Northern Railway. Four years after it was established the Pichi Richi railway line was built to Port Augusta to carry ore from the busy mines to the north; today it is the only line that still operates here and it has the distinction of being one of the oldest intact railway systems in the world. So active is the Railway Preservation Society that it issues a detailed timetable listing the dates when it unleashes its barrage of historic, narrow-gauge engines, motor coaches and rolling stock on excursions to Woolshed Flat and back to Quorn.
In 1878 the government sold plots of land in the area. The Pichi Richi Railway opened in 1879, and was the first stage of The Ghan, a railway intended to link Port Augusta with Darwin. The Ghan name originated in Quorn in 1923 when the Great Northern Express was dubbed The Afghan Express by railwaymen. In 1929 this line reached Alice Springs.
The East-West Transcontinental railway across the Nullarbor Plain was completed in 1917, and the Pichi Richi Railway became part of the East-West route for the next 20 years. Quorn was a vital railway junction, especially during World War II when military, coal and other traffic placed sizeable demands on the railway.
Washaways in the north and the incapacity of the railway to handle expanding traffic saw a new standard-gauge railway constructed from Stirling North to Brachina, and the Pichi Richi Railway was closed to regular traffic in 1957.
Quorn's greatest period of importance as a railway centre was between 1917 and 1937 when it was the junction for both the east to west and north to south railway services. This importance continued through World War II when over 400 people in the town were working for the railways. During this time thousands of troops passed through the town and it has been estimated that the local branch of the Country Womens Association provided over 1 million meals to the servicemen.
The standardisation of gauges, and the establishment of the standard gauge railway to Marree in 1956, saw the town's importance decline.
Pichi Richi Railway
The Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society Inc. has, since its formation in 1973, been dedicated to the preservation, restoration and operation of the Pichi Richi Railway, the first leg of the old Central Australian Railway to Alice Springs - the old Ghan route. The society has built up a collection of historic narrow gauge rolling stock of the old South Australian and Commonwealth Railways. These are restored and operated on a voluntary basis. The line has been extended through to Port Augusta, so trains now depart from both the Quorn and Port Augusta Railways Stations on a regular basis. For more details contact (1800) 440 101.
If visiting Quorn on days when trains are not running, still drop in to Quorn Railway Station and visit the Railway Museum. It tells the full story of the original Ghan. The first Quorn railway station was built in 1860. This handsome limestone building was completed in 1916 and is characterised by a bull-nosed iron roofed verandah with cast iron decoration.
Russell Crowe in The Water Diviner
The town's buildings have made Quorn a popular location for feature films and commercials. The first one was Bitter Springs, filmed in nearby Warren Gorge in 1949. It starred Chips Rafferty, Tommy Trinder, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, Michael Pate and Gordon Jackson. The Hollywood movie, The Sundowners, which starred Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov and Chips Rafferty, was filmed at Quorn in 1961.
Other films shot here include Kangaroo (1953), starring Peter Lawford, Maureen O'Hara, Chips Rafferty; Sunday Too Far Away (1975), starring Jack Thompson, Reg Lye and John Ewart, was filmed in the Flinders Ranges near the town with Quorn and Peterborough both featuring in it. The 1986 TV mini-series, The Shiralee, starring Bryan Brown and Rebecca Smart; the TV mini-series The Last Frontier; a youthful Mel Gibson was filmed at the same hotel, running down the stairs and onto Railway Terrace in a scene in the movie, Gallipoli. Many of the town's historic building had supporting roles in the film. Russell Crowe also filmed his Gallipoli movie, The Water Deviner, in and around Quorn.
Coincidentally, the English town of Quorndon after which Quorn is named, is also a popular location for television shows and feature films. Enigma, a romantic thriller based on the international best-selling novel by Robert Harris, directed by Michael Apted and starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet, was shot there.
Walking Trails
There are a large number of walking trails in the district. The most famous, the Heysen Trail from Cape Jervis to the Flinders, passes through Mount Brown Conservation Park to the south of the town. There are also walks in the Dutchman Stern Conservation Park which lies to the west of the town; Devils Peak, 11 km south of the town has a good 2 hour walking trail; and Moockra Tower has a scenic lookout in the Horseshoe Ranges. Maps for most of these walks can be obtained from the Tourist Information Centre at the District Council Office.
Warrens Gorge
Appreciate and photograph the the stunning red cliffs, gums, fauna and flora at Warrens Gorge north of Quorn. View the rare and endangered Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby. This shy marsupial is often seen at dawn or dusk in the gorge. he gorge is a camping reserve. It has pit toilets but no other facilities.
Kanyaka Homestead Ruins
Located 42 km north of Quorn on the road to Hawker, the Kanyaka Ruins are definitely worth visiting. A strange collection of ruins dating back to 1851 when Kanyaka Station was a huge wheat property (984 square kilometres) on the limits of the desert. At the time it supported a station population of nearly 70 families (working on farms at the time was labour intensive) but the inevitable droughts drove the people away so that all that is left are the ruins of the buildings. The buildings include remnants of a stable and harness room, a woolshed and an overseer's cottage. Detailed information about the ruins and their history is provided on a number of excellent information plaques which include photographs of the buildings before they became ruins.
St Cecilia's Catholic, Cradock
Cradock
Cradock is nothing more than a broken down petrol station, a pub and one house. Further along the road is a beautiful old church, St Gabriel's Church, which was built in 1882 and is now part of the National Heritage. It is a tiny and exotic village on the edge of the desert.
Yourambulla Caves Historic Reserve
Yourambulla Caves Historic Reserve is an Aboriginal art site near the road to Wilpena Pound between Kanyaka and Wilson. There is a walking trail that leads to the stairs at the base of the cave. The cave contains many paintings, all of which are in excellent condition. There is also an interpretive sign showing the meaning of the painted symbols used. The art portrays "the Dreaming" in which artists record the exploits of their ancestors, outlining rituals and explaining the creation of land formations, animals and plants.
The markings themselves look like a secret language, Art Brut with childlike patterns that are beautiful and rhythmic. These enchanting works act as an oasis of visual splendour in a dry and arid land. The view out across the plain from the caves, which nestle below Yourambulla Peak, is impressive. The colors of the cave paintings mimic the colors of that landscape - no surprise, as many of the ochres come from the earth itself.
Sacred Canyon
Sacred Canyon art site consists of engravings on rocks within a gorge, not behind bars as is the case with Yourambulla Caves. With its natural spring, the canyon proved the ideal place for men to gather, swap stories and leave their mark. The engravings date back perhapd tens of thousands of years, the Aboriginal people believing they were done by the spiritual people.
The Ranges were once part of a major trade route, and these were chiseled in the stone using a piece of granite, probably traded by people from as far afield as Cape York; the granite tools explains why the engravings have not eroded with time. They are simple forms, often circles, made by banging one stone against another to create small marks which then coalesced into lines, or by rubbing a sharp stone to produce a groove. Many simple circles here represent camps (arngu), the cicrles signifying waterholes. Circles with lines in and around them signify events at initiation ceremonies. Sacred Canyon is a short fifteen-minute drive from Wilpena Pound Resort.
Wilson
Wilson, a former village in the Flinders Ranges between Quorn and Hawker, came and went under similar circumstances to many 19th century settlements in South Australia. These small towns were formed as community centres after South Australia's pastoral runs were resumed by the Government in the 1870s and subdivided into small farms. Drought, the inability of the land to sustain such intense agriculture and the arrival of the motor car all contributed to the demise of most of these settlements, the ruins of which are scattered across the South Australian countryside.
