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History
The current Town of Leigh Creek – or correctly now Leigh Creek South – is the second location of the town that has serviced the operations at the Leigh Creek open cut brown coalfields originally started in 1941. The company town was moved 10 km south to its new location in the early 1980s to allow access to coal deposits that underlay the original town.
Although mechanised open-cut mining began in the 1940s, coal had been taken from Leigh Creek since the late 19th century. The Telford railway siding between Copley and Lyndhurst built in 1893 to load coal and there is record of an 1895 sale of coal from Leigh Creek to Broken Hill.
In its heydays in both its original and present location, Leigh Creek had a population well in excess of 1 000 people but with increased mechanisation in the extraction and railing of the coal to the Port Augusta power station, the town population is now about 300. The life of the known coal deposits is limited and Leigh Creek faces something of an uncertain future.
The town was owned and managed by the Electricity Trust of South Australia and is now controlled by NRG Flinders. It is a planned and laid out town with sealed and kerbed roads, services and planted roadside and common-area vegetation. Water is reticulated from the Aroona Dam in the Ranges to the south-west of the town.
Special attractions
Leigh Creek is centrally located to provide a jumping-off point to historic townships like Beltana and Copley and to the Aboriginal communities at Nepabunna and Iga Warta. It is also close to the main east-west access road across the north Flinders Ranges from Copley to Balcanoona and Arkaroola.
Tourist services
Leigh Creek has tourist information centre run collaboratively by the Leigh Creek Progress Association and the senior students at the area school. There is a sealed aerodrome capable of handling a range of aircraft and the town tavern provides good motel-style accommodation. Petrol and services are available seven days.
