Balhannah
Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to incorporate two once adjoining towns: Gilleston (named for Osmond Gilles) and Blythetown, named for James Blythe, another Scottish settler.[2]
| Balhannah South Australia | |||||||||||||||
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 Onkaparinga Valley Road at Balhannah | |||||||||||||||
  Balhannah | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°59′S 138°49′E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 1,075 (2011 census)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1839 | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 30 km (19 mi) SE of Adelaide | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Adelaide Hills Council | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Kavel | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Mayo | ||||||||||||||
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It is on the main interstate railway between Adelaide and Melbourne. In the past it was the junction for a branch line that ran up the Onkaparinga Valley and beyond to Birdwood and Mount Pleasant.[3]
Much of Balhannah is along Onkaparinga Valley Road, although there are some other residential streets, and Greenhill Road terminates near the town centre. One of the larger businesses in the town is a long-established hardware store, now part of the Mitre 10 chain. The fruit cold store built in 1914 was one of the first in Australia and is still in use.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 October 2012). "Balhannah (State Suburb)". 2011 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- "Towns, People, and Things We Ought to Know". The Chronicle (Adelaide). LXXVI (4, 011). South Australia. 28 September 1933. p. 13. Retrieved 23 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia. An interesting article with much more information on the history off Balhannah
- Sallis, Roger (1998). Railways in the Adelaide Hills, 1st edition. Openbook Publishers, Adelaide. ISBN 0-646-35473-6.