Marree, South Australia

Marree is a small village in the north of South Australia with 70 inhabitants.

Location

The village is located 685 kilometers north of Adelaide.

Marree is the southern starting point of the Oodnadatta track that leads through the settlement by Marla Oodnadatta. From Marree also the Birdsville Track starts towards Queensland.

Name

Until the First World War Marree Hergott Springs was called, although Marree was already at that time the official name. The name Hergott Springs was awarded in 1859, when John McDouall Stuart visited the area. Named after the town was his assistant Joseph Albert Lord (also: Herrgolt ), a German botanist. In the case of the place name was accounted one of the two "r". Until 1918, established itself as the name of the place through due to the resentment of German as a result of World War Marree. The etymology is to be attributed to the Aboriginal word Mari, which means place of many possums. However, this is controversial.

History

In the area around the Marree Aboriginal people of the Dieri lives. The discoverer and explorer Edward John Eyre was the first European who visited the area in 1840.

The place was initially a station for the camel caravans on the way from South Australia to Alice Springs and Queensland. In Marree was built by a native of Afghanistan and the then British India operators of the nomads in the first prayer room for Muslims in Australia.

Railway

1883 reached exported in the cape gauge Great Northern Railway from Port Augusta arriving the place. The railway line was extended after 1891 and reached Oodnadatta in 1929 Alice Springs. In the period 1883-1891, as here was the operating head of the train, Marree was important as a loading station for the cattle, which was driven by the northern " Stations" here to be loaded onto the train.

On the route wrong as passenger of the " Ghan ". Since 1957, coal was mined at Leigh Creek. Since the narrow-gauge railway for the transportation of coal was not powerful enough, a new standard gauge railway was built between Marree and Port Augusta, which received between Stirling North and Brachina a completely new route to avoid the passes of the Flinders Ranges. In the station of Marree now clashed the two gauges, travelers had to change trains, goods are transhipped.

The original course was built by the South Australian Railway, final and completely taken over in 1926 by the Commonwealth Railways, which was transferred to the Australian National 1976. After 1980, the new central Australian Railway was opened - it starts in Tarcoola on the Trans- Australian Railway, about 190 kilometers west of the ancient route of the Great Northern Railway - the entire narrow gauge and standard gauge railway north of Leight Creek was shut down. Marree is today so again without a railway connection.

Worth knowing

Every year in July is near Marree a camel race, the Marree Camel Cup, organized. The place now serves as a supply center there in the livestock sector employees and for tourists passing through. About 60 kilometers away, is the 4.2 -kilometer Marree Man, an earth sign, one of the greatest works of art Land Art

Marree has a yacht club.