Town History

Written by Casey (Year 8) and photos collected by James (Year 7)

The first settler in Leigh Creek was Harry Leigh. That is how the name of this small country town was picked. In 1856 coal was discovered, and was mined in small quantities in 1888. But the coal was only really mined significantly until 1943, making South Australia more self-sufficient for its energy needs, so they no longer needed to rely on New South Wales.

Coal is transported to power stations just outside of Port Augusta by rails. The mine is operated by Babcock and Brown, 2.5 million tones a year of coal is what they produce.

The coal train

Another feature of Leigh Creek is Aroona Dam. In 1985, the lands of the Aroona Sanctuary were damaged because of the large numbers of goats and rabbits which ate the native vegetation. Gully erosion was the result of the loss of vegetation. Later in 1985, under the direction of Beat Odermatt, a large scale environmental rehabilitation project started, which was finished by destroying the rabbits and goats, and of course by undertaking the erosion control works. After the rabbits and goats were gone, the vegetation was free to grow again. Millions of trees and shrubs emerged in waterways and Aroona dam drastically reduced.

The township of Leigh Creek

Today Leigh Creek has about 600 people living here. Services include:

• Leigh Creek Tavern (hotel/motel)
• Foodland Supermarket
• Post office
• Community R-12 School
• Open Cut Café
• Medical services (hospital)
• Police station
• Caravan park
• Fire station
• Olympic-sized swimming pool
• Community Library
• Netball and Tennis courts
• Town oval and BBQ
• Gym
• Theatre
• Child care centre
• Kindergarten
• Multi-Denominational Church
 

A coal truck