Steamtown experienced a bumper Queen’s Birthday long weekend when it reopened to visitors following the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions in South Australia on Saturday 6 June 2020.
The Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre is more than a museum, it’s a legacy of Australia’s rapid industrial rise in the early 19th century. At its heart is the steam train, a thing that is at once beautiful, powerful and strangely melancholy, symbolizing as it does the passing of an era.
Steamtown is at its most potent after dark when the Sound and Light show is played in the industrial shadows of heritage-listed ‘Roundhouse’ — a huge shedding area that circles an 85-foot turntable. Visitors sit in a period carriage on the turntable surrounded by silent locomotives and diesel engines to watch as Peterborough’s greatest chapter is played out on a cinema screen. But this is a story of astonishing growth and sudden decline: when the lights finally lift to illuminate the handsome faces of the mighty engines, it’s not uncommon to see people wiping their eyes.
Situated in Peterborough, South Australia, today the artefacts controlled by SHRC range from the unique to heritage listed one of a kind, such as the 85-foot turntable. SHRC has an obligation to the community of Peterborough and indeed to the pioneers of the Australian railway industry to preserve these for future generations.
We would love to see you in Peterborough soon! For as little as $17.50 you to can experience a museum like no other.