Minnipa, South Australia

Minnipa is a small town serving the local grain growing community located on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. The area around the town was first settled in 1878 but it wasn't until the arrival of the railway line in 1913 that any kind of township developed. When the railway was opened to Minnipa on 5 May 1913, the town consisted of two tents. Development of the surrounding districts followed the railway, and accelerated after the opening of the water pipeline from the Tod River scheme in 1925. By 1960, Minnipa was the major railway centre between Cummins and Thevenard. Before the construction of the Tod River scheme and its network of pipelines, tanks were constructed at many locations to catch the runoff from the granite outcrops which are a feature of the landscape. The earliest of these were constructed at Minnipa Hill in 1914 by the South Australian Railways. These historic tanks were reconditioned in the 1990s and fitted with new roofs to provide a standby water supply for Minnipa.