Port Pirie

Port Pirie is a city on the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf in South Australia, at the foot of the southern Flinders Ranges. Its lead smelter, on the waterfront beside the town, has refined ore from the Broken Hill mines since the late 19th century.

The Nukunu people called the place Tarparrie, thought to mean muddy creek. Matthew Flinders sailed up Spencer Gulf in 1802, and John Horrocks found a pass through the ranges to the coast that now carries his name. In 1846 Governor Robe named Port Pirie Creek after the John Pirie, the first vessel to sail up it while carrying sheep from a run near Crystal Brook. The streets of the town were named after the family of George Goyder, the Surveyor General of South Australia, and Solomontown was surveyed beside it later.

Nyrstar runs the smelter, which produces lead along with refined silver, copper, gold and sulfuric acid. Wheat and barley from the farms of the Mid North are loaded onto ships at the grain terminal on the harbor.

Ellen Street, the old main street, has the railway running down its middle and keeps buildings from the days when trains from Broken Hill unloaded ore beside the shops. The National Trust museum fills the old railway station, customs house and police station with exhibits on the port and the smelter. The Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery shows changing exhibitions beside the tourist center. The Flinders Ranges rise east of the city, with walking trails and lookouts over the gulf at Telowie Gorge.