Port Broughton
Postcode: 5522
Port Broughton is a small South Australian town located on the Yorke Peninsula on the east coast of Spencer Gulf. It is situated about 170 km north east of Adelaide, and 56 km south of Port Pirie
The close proximity (two hours drive from Adelaide) makes it a popular tourist destination, with the number of people in town swelling to over 4000 in the summer holidays.
The land around Port Broughton was initially used for grazing, however the local conditions were unsuitable and the land was divided up into acre lots and sold.
Port Broughton was surveyed in 1871 to service the surrounding wheat and barley growers on the recommendation of Captain Henry Dale. It is on a sheltered inlet called Mundoora Arm Inlet at the extreme northern end of Yorke Peninsula. The town is named after the Broughton River (named by Edward John Eyre after William Broughton, the first Anglican bishop of Australia) which flows into the gulf a few kilometres further north.
Built in 1876, the ‘T’-shaped jetty was serviced by a railway line from Mundoora, 16 km inland and uphill. The railway brought the grain down to the port. Horses were used to tow the empty wagons uphill, but they were sent downhill powered only by gravity, with a driver to operate the brakes. Ketches carried the grain from the jetty 8 kilometres out into the gulf where the larger windjammers were anchored to carry the grain back to England.
Port Broughton has now come to support a prawning fleet, and has become a popular holiday destination.