Kingoonya

Kingoonya is a very small town in the remote Outback of the state of South Australia, Australia. It is located far from any big city.

 History 
Kingoonya was started because of a railway, but it is now an "almost ghost town." The town began in 1916 when the Trans-Australian Railway was built. This railway goes across Australia from east to west.

Kingoonya was a major stop for steam trains. Workers lived here to put coal and water into the trains and to fix the railway tracks. In the 1950s, the trains started using diesel engines instead of steam. Diesel trains did not need as many stops for water and coal.

Because of this change, the railway needed fewer workers, and most people left Kingoonya. Today, the town is a quiet place with very few people living there all the time. The old Kingoonya Hotel (pub) is the main building left and serves travellers.

The Kingoonya Post Office opened about 1884, closed in 1892, reopened in 1915 as the Trans-Australian Railway was constructed, and finally closed in 1982.

 Geography 
Kingoonya is in the centre of South Australia's vast desert area, called the Far North region. It is about 635 kilometres (395 miles) northwest of Adelaide.

The land is mostly flat, dry, and dusty. It includes salt lakes and stony plains. The weather is very hot and dry for most of the year but cool and cold in the winter, which is typical of the Australian Outback. The town is near important places like the Gawler Ranges National Park and Lake Gairdner, which is a huge salt lake.