Melrose

Melrose is the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Melrose is the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The town was once named "Mount Remarkable". At the 2016 Australian census, Melrose had a population of 347.The town is known for its proximity to Mount Remarkable and the surrounding National Park, its caravan park and historical sites including Jacka’s brewery and Melrose Courthouse.

The Adnyamathanha people lived in the northern Flinders Ranges area for many millennia.

Journalist Rodney Cockburn, in his popular book What's in a Name asserts that consensus has not yet been reached about the origins of Melrose’s name. He gives the explanation that its surveyor named the town after George Melrose, of Rosebank, Mount Pleasant, who assisted him when he was ill.

Another explanation suggests a land owner named Alexander Campbell settled in the area in 1844 with his family and named the region after his hometown, Melrose, in Scotland.

Historian Geoff Manning found that the town was located on a property claimed by the Mount Remarkable Mining Company and in the 1850s subdivided it into 250 sections of 80 acres (32 ha). Townsites were surveyed at either end, Melrose to the north and Bangor at the southern end. This was in accord with Cockburn's findings, but Manning was convinced that A. L. Elder, a prominent director of the company and a proud Scotsman, named it for Melrose in Roxburghshire.The first European explorer in the area was Edward John Eyre in 1840; pastoralists settled in the area about a decade later. Copper was discovered and mining started in 1846, but it was not economically viable, and ceased in 1851. The mine was opened again three more times, with the latest closure in 1917.

In 1893 at a time of high unemployment, Wilton Hack founded a communal settlement in the area. At its peak, some 130 settlers were working 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land. By the end of 1895 after a succession of poor seasons around half the settlers had left, and in 1896 the village was closed by the Government.When it was opened in 1848, the police station in Melrose was not only the first permanent police station in the region, but the base of the largest police district in the world. A constable, two troopers and an Aboriginal tracker were responsible for an area extending to the Timor Sea.

The Wilmington railway line from Gladstone opened near Melrose in 1915 and closed in 1990. The station was almost 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of the town. Melrose is also on the Horrocks Highway, formerly known as Main North Road.

Melrose has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

3 Brewery Street: Keating Cottage

Melrose to Orroroo Road: Mount Remarkable Woolshed

Melrose to Orroroo Road: Mount Remarkable Station

Mount Street: Jacka's Brewery and Yard Walls

near Melrose: Rankine's Hut

Lot 2 Spratt Street: Timber Slab Dwelling

Stuart Street: Melrose Post Office

Stuart Street: Melrose Courthouse and Police Station

Stuart Street: Mount Remarkable Inn

22-24 Stuart Street: Blacksmith Shop and Dwelling

13 Whitby Street: Timber Slab Dwelling

Jacka’s Brewery was a family business founded by Joseph Jacka in 1877 in Melrose. Several months prior, Joseph and his brother William had leased the land the brewery still resides upon from Joseph’s father-in-law. At the time, the Jacka family also owned the North Star Hotel in Melrose, and were already experienced brewers as they had previously owned a brewery in Auburn.In 1887 Joseph continued brewing in Melrose while his brother William relocated to Burra. Jacka’s brewery was a great success and popular amongst the locals. Within the next decade or so, Joseph was able to buy more surrounding land and extend the breweries premises. At this point, Jacka’s brewery was distributing beer to Port Pirie and Port Augusta using custom made wagons, wooden casks and teams of eight horses to traverse the Flinders Ranges. William returned to Jacka’s Brewery in 1901 after his brother died, to assist his nephew William J.S. Jacka with running the business. The brewery ceased production in 1934 after World War I and the Great Depression rendered it economically inviable. The brewery was formerly known as T.B. Marshall’s Flour Mill.

Melrose Cemetery was established in the 1860’s. According to the Virtual War Memorial for Australia, the opening of the cemetery is referenced by local newspapers. This includes the South Australian Register’s account of a whooping cough epidemic creating several new graves mere months after the cemeteries opening in 1863. Almost a decade later, the South Australian Register again referred to Melrose Cemetery as being ‘new’, as well as a ‘regular resort for pigs to go about rooting in,’, suggesting that the council take better care of the grounds.