Olary is a town and locality on the Barrier Highway in South Australia.[1] It is situated near Olary Creek and is one of the easternmost settlements in South Australia. The name "Olary" was first given to a nearby well or waterhole by pastoralists Duffield, Harrold and Hurd.[10]
Description and history
This small settlement was established in the late 1880s to service the highway and the railway which pass through here. O'Lary Post Office opened on 12 October 1886, was renamed Oolarie around 1888 and Olary around 1896.[11] After the modernisation of transport which travelled between Adelaide and Broken Hill the village population declined. However it still has a hotel and general store to cater for the transient road and railway workers and travellers.[12]
The Flinders-Olary NatureLink includes the mountainous Flinders and Olary Ranges together with the connecting plains country to cover 6% of the South Australian state.[13]
In 2010 the historic Bimbowrie Cobb and Co coach house near Olary became the scene of a traditional restoration operation with almost 20 tradespeople attending a five-day training course in stonemasonry restoration techniques. Low-security prisoners from the Port Augusta Prison were among those who assisted with the project.[14]
^Ramsay, J.G. (1 December 1887). "Untitled proclamation re the "Town of Olary""(PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. p. 1054. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
^Weatherill, Jay (23 October 2003). "GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ACT 1991 Notice to Assign Names and Boundaries to Places"(PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South AustralIA. p. 3859. Retrieved 14 April 2019. Assign the names YUNTA, BLINMAN, BOOKABIE, GLENDAMBO, YALATA, KINGOONYA, OLARY, INNAMINCKA, and MANNA HILL, to those areas Out of Councils and shown numbered 1 to 9 on Rack Plan 857 (Sheet 3)