Our next part of the journey was into South Australia and the Flinders Ranges but we needed to do a little overnighter in Peterborough to break up the drive.
We also decided to stay there because we were told their tourist information centre would have more detail on some of the unsealed roads we were thinking of taking as due to all the rain we have had, some potentially were closed or undrivable.
Upon arrival after hitting the tourist information centre and finding out not much more than we already knew 😂😂 we set off on a little town walk to catch the sights. Peterborough (originally called Petersburg but had its name changed after World War 1 where any reference to any German influence was wiped from memory) was once a thriving town due to it being the chosen place for where the north-south, east-west train lines intersected in the late 1800s. A hundred trains would pass through a day and the amount of steam omitted from those trains apparently increased the towns temperatures by a few degrees.
BHP carted all their silver, lead and zinc across the border to SA via Perterborough and into Port Pirie on the south coast. It was one of the most profitable stretches of railroad in the world and pretty much put South Australia on the map. I must admit I did not fully comprehend how influential and important BHP was in shaping so many communities and providing a livelihood for so many thousands of people for so many years. Literally whole towns existed due to its business. Unfortunately for Peterborough, once the steam train died out and a single gauge rail line was introduced out of town, along with the popularity of the motor vehicle, the town went into steady decline, along with most of the other little railway towns along the way.
We read all about this in a nifty train carriage turned museum in the middle of town. Fascinatingly Peterborough was not originally the town chosen by the government to be such a pivotal hub but they could not explain why the sudden change of heart. Smells like some lobbying of politicians in the form of kickbacks to me! Easy to see why when land parcels skyrocketed after the announcement.
The Main Street was still pretty grand even after it’s decline with beautiful stone buildings but unfortunately most of the shops were either closed or chinsy second hand stores. It did have an underground subway though which was pretty cool. Installed in the early 1900’s due to the number of trains coming in and allowing pedestrians to cross safely. Just outside the campsite there was a lovely park and Griff thoroughly enjoyed the feel of grass under his feet again!
Back at the campsite things started to get cold very quickly as the sun went down. Like very very cold. Luckily we had predicted this and paid for a powered site so our little electric heater got a work out again! We were actually contemplating staying two days but when we awoke the next morning the forecast was for rain and for the temperature to not go above single figures. So we packed up and headed north! S
