Settlers & Pioneers of Mern Merna RegionPrint Page

To commemorate the settlers, pioneers and families who battled extreme hardship to develop this area and open up the region beyond.

Looking 50km to the western horizon Lake Torrens can be sighted.  It is the longest lake in the Southern Hemisphere (240 km) with an area of 5700 sq kms.  Lake Torrens is an endorheic saline rift lake in the same rift valley as Spencer Gulf and as far as is known has only filled once in the last 150 years.  Discovered by Edward J Eyre in 1839.

Looking towards the south west can be seen the remains of the Mern Merna railway siding.  Once home to many fettlers and their families and established in the mid 1880`s it was a thriving community on the original Ghan line.  The Ghan transported goods, stock, ore and produce and was the only means of mechanical transport to and through the northern interior. The Mern Merna school opened in 1911 and continued to 1958.  The Chinese built stone kilns to extract lime from the local dolomite rock for use in the construction of culverts & bridges.  They also produced vegetables locally to serve the camps further north.