Lameroo
Postcode: 5302
Lameroo is a town in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia. It is on the Mallee Highway about 40 km west of the Victorian border, or 210 km east of Adelaide. It is primarily a service town for the surrounding rural areas, growing grain and sheep. Lameroo has a population of around 600 people. Situated in the town is Lameroo Regional Community School, which is the school not only for Lameroo youth but also surrounding towns as Geranium, Parrakie, Parilla and Wilkawatt. Lameroo is home to the Lameroo Football club, The Lameroo Hawks, trained by football legend Rodney ‘Rocket’ Maynard who used to play for the Adelaide Crows.
Lameroo is currently celebrating 100 years of railroad in Lameroo. Lameroo is in the Southern Mallee District Council, the state electoral district of Hammond and the federal Division of Barker.
No one knows what the town’s name means. The name is an Aboriginal word of unknown meaning although some people believe it had rude or objectionable connotations. How the town got the name Lameroo is well-known because in 1932 J. McL. Johnston, an inspector in the Post and Telegraph Service wrote: “I was at a farmer’s house where Lameroo now is, one evening in 1904 … the farmer (Mr. Byrne) asked me to stay there, as there was a meeting that night to name the place. I attended a fairly large meeting. The settlers could not agree on a name and finally appealed to me, whereupon I suggested Lameroo, which was adopted with only one dissentient. I do not know the meaning of the word. I suggested it because its euphony pleased me and I had so named a little bay in the Northern Territory between the Darwin Hospital and Gaol.’
Today Lameroo is surrounded by mixed farming with wool and wheat dominating.