Marree
South Australia
Marree Hotel
Marree is located in South Australia
Marree
Marree
Coordinates29°38′57″S 138°03′49″E / 29.649176°S 138.063556°E / -29.649176; 138.063556[1]
Population65 (SAL 2021)[2]
Established20 December 1883 (town)
29 May 1997 (locality)[3][4]
Postcode(s)5733[5]
Elevation50 m (164 ft)airport[6]
Time zoneACST (UTC+9:30)
 • Summer (DST)ACST (UTC+10:30)
Location
LGA(s)Pastoral Unincorporated Area[1]
RegionFar North[7]
State electorate(s)Stuart[8]
Federal division(s)Grey[9]
Mean max temp[6] Mean min temp[6] Annual rainfall[6]
29.1 °C
84 °F		 14.0 °C
57 °F		 142.2 mm
5.6 in
Localities around Marree:
Callanna Marree Station Marree Station
Callanna Marree Marree Station
Callanna Callanna
Marree Station		 Callanna
FootnotesLocations[5][1]
Adjoining localities[1]

Marree (/mɑːˈriː/ mah-REE, formerly Hergott Springs) is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies 589 kilometres (366 mi) North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, 49 metres (161 ft) above sea level.[10] Marree is an important service centre for the large sheep and cattle stations in northeast South Australia as well as a stopover destination for tourists traveling along the Birdsville or Oodnadatta Tracks.[11]

The area is the home of the Dieri Aboriginal people. The major areas of employment are mining, agriculture and accommodation services.

The town was home to Australia's first mosque, which was made of mud brick and built by the Afghan cameleers employed at Marree's inception. At the turn of the 20th century the town was divided in two, with Europeans on one side and Afghans and Aborigines on the other.[12]

History and Etymology

The first European to explore the area was Edward John Eyre, who passed through in 1840. In 1859, explorer John McDouall Stuart visited the area together with the German botanist and accomplished bushman Joseph Herrgott, who discovered the springs which Stuart named after him. Herrgott had previously taken part of B. H. Babbage's expedition to Lake Torrens. He died two years afterwards in 1861; he was 36 years old.[13][14]

Initially the area was known as Herrgott (or Hergott) Springs, with the town's post office given the name Hergott Springs after surveying of the town in 1883.[15] The town was also recognised as Hergott Springs in the 1911 census.[15] In that year the District Trained Nursing Society sent Clara Winifred Howie to establish a nursing facility in Hergott Springs.[16]

The town's name was changed to Marree in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment during World War I.[17][10]

Marree Hotel and Marree Fettlers' Cottages are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.[18][19]

The Rover, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, was filmed in Marree in January 2013. Parts of The Inbetweeners 2, a 2014 British comedy film set in Australia, were filmed in Marree.[20] Scenes from Last Cab to Darwin, starring Michael Caton, were filmed in Marree in May 2014. Jan Palo, a local identity, had a non speaking part filmed in his home, the old butchers shop.

Early transportation and telegraphy

Former Commonwealth Railways NSU class locomotive at Marree railway station

The Central Australia Railway reached the town in 1883 and the first train ran to the railway station in January 1884. The South Australia Post and Telegraph Department established a telegraph and post office in Maree in June 1884.

Maree Post Office and Telegraph Station, 1884. Charles Arthur O'Brien, on left.

It operated in a canvas tent, until a more permanent structure was built. The first station master was James Arthur O’Brien (born 1863) who held the post from 1884 to 1901.[21]

The town became a major railhead for the cattle industry. The railway was extended north from the town in stages, reaching Alice Springs in 1929. It was on the route of the passenger train which became known as The Ghan. In 1957, a standard gauge line was built south from Marree on a flatter alignment to facilitate the movement of coal from the Leigh Creek Coalfield to Port Augusta. That made Marree a break-of-gauge on The Ghan service because the remainder of the line was still narrow gauge. In 1980 the narrow gauge line from Marree to Alice Springs closed when the Adelaide to Alice Springs line was rebuilt much further west. In 1987 the standard gauge line to Marree was closed north of the coal mine and the town lost its railway connection completely.[22]

Marree was also the home of Tom Kruse, one of the men who drove the mail trucks from Marree to Birdsville in Queensland, a distance of some 700 kilometres. This route crosses some of the most challenging sandy and stony desert country in Australia, and it was a remarkable feat for fully loaded trucks to make the run at all. A collection of hundreds of photographs, documents and memorabilia from Kruse's Birdsville mail run are on display at the Marree Hotel.

Marree Man

Marree's Camel Cup

The name "Marree" was referred to briefly around the world when in 1998, a chalk figure recently etched into the landscape 60 km west of Marree was discovered, dubbed the "Marree Man". Calls were made to turn it into a state icon but the unimpressed local population preferred to let it fade naturally back into the landscape.

Governance

Derelict infrastructure of the former Central Australia Railway in 2010

Marree is located within the federal Division of Grey, the state electoral district of Stuart, the Pastoral Unincorporated Area of South Australia and the state's Far North region.[8][9][7][1] In the absence of a local government authority, the community in Marree receives municipal services from a state government agency, the Outback Communities Authority.[23]

Climate

Like much of inland Australia, Marree has a very hot and dry climate in a desert environment. Temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F) have been recorded in every month from October to April and rainfall is extremely erratic, falling mostly in brief heavy downpours experienced usually between one and five times per year, or when cold fronts in winter manage to penetrate far north enough into the Tirari Desert.


Climate data for Marree Aero (1998 to present)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 49.4
(120.9)		 47.9
(118.2)		 46.1
(115.0)		 40.1
(104.2)		 34.0
(93.2)		 30.1
(86.2)		 29.6
(85.3)		 35.0
(95.0)		 39.5
(103.1)		 43.7
(110.7)		 47.5
(117.5)		 49.0
(120.2)		 49.4
(120.9)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 38.0
(100.4)		 36.8
(98.2)		 33.9
(93.0)		 28.5
(83.3)		 23.2
(73.8)		 19.6
(67.3)		 19.1
(66.4)		 21.5
(70.7)		 25.8
(78.4)		 29.6
(85.3)		 33.3
(91.9)		 36.1
(97.0)		 28.8
(83.8)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 21.5
(70.7)		 21.1
(70.0)		 18.1
(64.6)		 13.3
(55.9)		 9.0
(48.2)		 6.0
(42.8)		 4.9
(40.8)		 6.4
(43.5)		 9.8
(49.6)		 13.4
(56.1)		 16.9
(62.4)		 19.5
(67.1)		 13.3
(56.0)
Record low °C (°F) 10.0
(50.0)		 10.6
(51.1)		 7.8
(46.0)		 2.8
(37.0)		 0.0
(32.0)		 −2.8
(27.0)		 −2.8
(27.0)		 −1.4
(29.5)		 −1.1
(30.0)		 1.0
(33.8)		 7.2
(45.0)		 10.2
(50.4)		 −2.8
(27.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 17.3
(0.68)		 21.5
(0.85)		 14.3
(0.56)		 11.0
(0.43)		 13.3
(0.52)		 13.6
(0.54)		 9.9
(0.39)		 9.1
(0.36)		 10.6
(0.42)		 12.9
(0.51)		 11.8
(0.46)		 16.4
(0.65)		 161.7
(6.37)
Average precipitation days 2.3 2.2 1.9 1.9 2.5 3.0 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.8 2.7 2.5 29.3
Average relative humidity (%) (at 3pm) 21 26 25 31 39 44 41 34 29 25 23 21 30
Source: [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Search results for 'Marree, LOCB' with the following datasets being selected - 'Suburbs and Localities', 'Government Towns', 'Local Government Areas', 'SA Government Regions' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  2. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Marree (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  3. ↑ Glyde, Lav. (20 December 1883). "Untitled proclamation re the Town of Marree" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. pp. 2178–2179. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Kentish, P.M. (29 May 1997). "GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ACT 1991 Notice to Assign Boundaries to Places (localities of Beltana, Cockburn, Marree, Farina and Waukaringa)" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. South Australian government. p. 2691. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Postcode for Marree, South Australia". Postcodes Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Monthly climate statistics for Marree Aero". Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Far North SA government region" (PDF). The Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  8. 1 2 "District of Stuart Background Profile". Electoral Commission SA. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Federal electoral division of Grey, boundary gazetted 16 December 2011" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Marree". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 February 2004.
  11. ↑ "Maree". Outback Communities Authority, Government of South Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Afghan Camelmen South Australian History".
  13. ↑ The Germans in Australia By Jurgen Tampke, Jürgen Tampke, Cambridge University Press, 2006, page 51
  14. ↑ "Herrgott, Joseph Albert Franz David - botanical collector".
  15. 1 2 "Agriculture and Mining". Marree Hotel. Marree Hotel. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  16. ↑ Gaston, Carol F., "Clara Winifred Howie (1881–1960)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 31 October 2023
  17. ↑ Peake, A.H. (10 January 1918). "NOMENCLATURE ACT, 1917. Change of Place·Names" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. 1918: 37. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  18. ↑ "Marree (Former Great Northern) Hotel". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  19. ↑ "Marree Fettlers' Cottages". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  20. ↑ Palmer, Alun (30 July 2014). "The Inbetweeners 2 cast on getting back together: We don't have any other pals". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  21. ↑ Hines, C (2002). Jim and Annie on the overland telegraph. South Australia: Wallandbeen.
  22. ↑ The Dual Gauge Yards at Marree Reid, Graeme Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, May 1997 pp147-156
  23. ↑ "Communities (serviced by the Outback Communities Authority)". Outback Communities Authority. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
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