Ghost Towns in Australia - Hammond

Ghost Towns in Australia - Hammond

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Posted 2017-07-06 by Dave Walshfollow


People seem to have a consuming interest in ghost towns in Australia. I'm not sure whether it's the stark images of desolation, a ghoulish curiosity how abandoned places come about, or a morbid fixation on the lives of long-gone people. Regardless, these long forgotten towns hold an intense fascination, and it's rewarding to discover how they came to be derelict and deserted.

Hammond was a small settlement in South Australia in the southern Flinders Ranges, formed when the huge Coonatta station was broken up for farming in 1879. Located 315 kilometres from Adelaide, this remote community north of Goyder's Line was inevitably doomed to disappear. It is now one of many ghost towns of South Australia in the Flinders Ranges.



From the earliest days, the future looked rosy. The drought of the 1860's was but a distant memory, land for farming was in short supply, and Bill Jacka built the Hammond Hotel which was supplied by Jacka's Brewery at Melrose. The Hammond Hotel served the town well, only closing its doors after 115 years in business.



By 1880 the Hammond post office was opened for business, 200 people attended the first Hammond races held by the Jockey Club in 1881, and seven years later nearly 600 people joined in the excitement. It's significant that attendance in 1888 was not as high as expected due to rain the night before and on the day. By the 1890's drought was hitting Hammond farmers hard again. Even this was not enough to suppress spirits, with the Hammond Amateur Dramatic Society holding a variety concert to benefit the construction of an assembly hall in 1891.



In 1882 the Peterborough to Quorn railway had been completed, providing a daily train service to Adelaide, and connections to Broken Hill and Port Pirie. The railway line from Peterborough through Hammond to Quorn remained in operation carrying freight for around 100 years. Even after this time, occasional trains ran from Steamtown in Peterborough to the town of Quorn , where the Pichi Richi Explorer is based.



Hammond residents continued to work hard and the Bank of Adelaide came to town in 1883. A teller departing to another branch was frequently reported in the newspaper. The spiritual needs of Catholics were satisfied when St Dominic's Catholic Church in Hammond opened in 1907, and Catholic picnics were held annually, with the Catholic Southern Cross newspaper available from WP Case General Store. The church is still standing, although the last service was held in 2006. Like in other abandoned places, other churches also opened but are now long gone.



The Hammond water supply dried out for months in 1911, a bad omen for the future of this ghost town in the southern Flinders Ranges. By 1924 the population of Hammond was 319 - later peaking at 600. Most landowners were farmers, railway workers or store keepers. Hammond Primary School educated the children, and a Resident Justice kept citizens in line.

The god-fearing folk of Hammond continued their hard labour through the harsh climate extremes of the desolate Flinders Ranges as the population steadily declined.



In 1948 a government survey on the marginal lands concluded: The population of marginal districts has declined 31% in the last decade, and the committee considers that further depopulation is inevitable. They were right. The decline went one stage further in 1963, when Hammond alone lost another half-dozen families. They said they could no longer afford to live there because their children needed better schooling. The following year it was announced that the school itself was to close.



Today the few inhabitants of Hammond are virtually invisible. I saw no people. No cars. No dogs barked. A chill wind blew as I foraged through the bare skeleton of Hammond and its abandoned buildings with my dogs.



The residents are fiercely protective of their place, with "Private Property" signs bristling on abandoned places and buildings. But as I stood at the crossroads of the main street, with roads in four directions, nobody made their presence known.



Today Hammond is destined to become another of the desolate ghost towns in Australia. Like other ghost towns in the beautiful Flinders Ranges of South Australia, Hammond was always borderline for farming. The loss of a regular train service to Adelaide must have been another nail in the coffin, and like the ghost town of Terowie , Hammond streets now are empty.



Find out more about life in Hammond during its heyday on Facebook by following the Hammond History Team . You can also watch Hammond live on webcam thanks to one of the few local residents, but don't expect to see any action except a rare urban explorer .

South Australia is littered with abandoned railway stations . Once the centre of thriving communities, some of the disused railway stations have been re-purposed . Many of the train stations are now derelict and decaying , like the ghost towns they once served. Some are surprisingly close to Adelaide - but all are symbols of a downturn in South Australia's fortunes.



See the Lionel Noble Collection for a rich range of historical photos of South Australian Railways in the mid-north of South Australia.

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204442 - 2023-06-16 05:33:01

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