CONTACT INFORMATION

Southern Flinders Discovery Centre for Tourism Information
14 Gladstone Street
Gladstone South Australia
(PO Box 3 Gladstone SA 5473)
Telephone - 08 8662 2226
Email - sfdiscovery@gladstone.org.au

Gladstone Community Development and Tourism Association
Email - gcdta@gladstone.org.au

District Council of Rocky River
PO Box 94
Gladstone SA 5473
Telephone - 08 8662 2018

LINKS

ARTICLES ON THE CITY OF GLADSTONE

Located 209 km north of Adelaide, Gladstone is a medium-sized service town in an area dominated by wheat and sheep

Even today the town boasts the largest grain silos in South Australia

The first Europeans into the area took up the 'Booyoolie (sometimes spelt 'Booyoolee') Run' in 1851
Some of the original buildings dating from this period are still standing

It wasn't until 1871 that the town was formally surveyed and the name Gladstone - an honour to the British Prime Minister William Gladstone - was given to the new settlement
This resulted in the strange situation where there were two tiny settlements - Booyoolie and Gladstone - until the 1940s when they finally agreed to accept Gladstone as the term to apply to both of them

The town developed rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1877
It was built to ship wheat from the town's grain silos to Port Pirie

Today trains still use the line but the largest use is for the transportation of lead and zinc from Broken Hill to Port Pirie

The appeal of the town lies in its broad streets and substantial buildings
The Commercial Hotel which dates from 1878 and has some particularly attractive lattice work, the Gladstone Hotel offers accommodation, and the most impressive buildings in town are the bank buildings which dominate the street beside the railway line

The famous Australian poet, C. J. Dennis, lived in the town as a child
His father ran the local hotel and Dennis attended the local primary school

The Gladstone Gaol
The town's main attraction is Gladstone Gaol, located in Park Terrace at the northern end of town, which was built between 1879-81 at a cost of £21,640
The slate was quarried at Mintaro and transported by bullock draying
It was originally used for 'inebriates and debtors'
It was never a large gaol and from the time of its opening until the 1920s it never housed more than twenty prisoners
From its earliest days it was always a gaol for both men and women
During World War II it was used as an internment camp for Italians and Germans
After 1943 it remained unused until 1953 when it became a corrective training complex for 18-25-year-old offenders
It was reasonably secure
There were only twenty escapes in the gaol's 100 year history
It was eventually closed down in 1975 and opened to visitors in 1978
It is open now for inspection and for backpacker accommodation
Open weekends and public holidays from 9:00am to 4:00pm - weekdays from 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Contact (08) 8662 2200 for details

Railway Yards
Train spotters come to Gladstone to see one of the wonders of the railway world
It is here that three railway gauges - the narrow, standard and broad gauge - all meet
At the railway yards it is possible to see the three gauges beside each other

Few folk would be happy to claim a lockup as their town’s greatest tourist attraction, but, when it comes to prisons, Gladstone Gaol is one right out of the history pages

Two years in the building, Gladstone Gaol opened in 1881 to provide temporary quarters for ‘inebriates, debtors and other prisoners’

Its guest list remained basically unaltered until the early days of World War II when it was used for the internment of German and Italian nationals and subsequently, as a military detention centre
The Germans and Italians were allowed to return to their Australian homes at war's end and the lock-up remained empty until 1953 when it was recommissioned as a medium security gaol for young prisoners

In 1975 it was deemed to be outdated and its inmates were transferred to other gaols

Three years later its doors were thrown open to visitors

Today the gaol shares the Gladstone heritage spotlight with the Gladstone Hotel which was the childhood home of Australian poet, C.J. Dennis
Dennis lived in the hotel, which his father owned, from the age of seven to thirteen and no doubt picked up some characteristics of the Sentimenal Bloke and Ginger Mick from the Gladstone regulars