Carrieton is situated in the broad valley formed by the Oladdie Hills and The Horseshoe, an imposing geological feature to the west of the town.
The first buildings here grew up around a well sunk by early pastoralist Alexander Grant on the Yanyarrie run, then part of Coonatto station.
An eating house set up nearby, and teamsters would stop off here on the dray route between Burra and Blinman. Next was a post office and general store. This little settlement was known as Yanyarrie Whim.
When a township was surveyed (1879) here as part of the great wheat drive, it was named Carrieton, after a daughter of Governor Jervois. Carrieton soon had two hotels, three churches, two schools, an Institute, a [loce station and courhouse and a post and telegraph office. Many skilled tradesmen worked here, and there was even a doctor, a chemist and an accountant.
Carrieton was on the railway line from Peterborough going north, and this helped it to survive longer than other townships created around the same time.
Droughts hit hard here. As farmers quit the land, the businesses that supplied them closed down too. For example, David Davies employed over thirty men in his implement and coach-building business at the end of the nineteenth century. When he quit Carrieton in 1904 after years of drought, his workforce had fallen to three.
Carrieton’s population is now less than 100.
Resources
- District Council of Orroroo Carrieton
- Barker, S, M M McCaskill and B Ward, eds. c.2005 Explore the Flinders Ranges. Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (S.A Branch).
- Flinders Ranges Research – http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/kanyaka.htm
- Nicol, Stuart 1998 Flinders Ranges and the Mid North . Adelaide. Royal Automobile Association of South Australia.