Hoyleton, South Australia

Hoyleton is a former railway town in South Australia, west of the Clare Valley, halfway between Leasingham and Halbury. At the 2006 census, Hoyleton had a population of 283.Hoyle's Plains was the original terminus of the Port Wakefield railway line. This was constructed in 1869 as a horse-drawn tramway to assist farmers on the newly settled Hoyles Plains to get their grain to the port.The Gladstone railway line ran from Balaklava to Blyth and further on into the Mid North of the state. Due to various reasons, this particular line had become obsolete and the tracks were dismantled in the late 1980s. The original historic stone railway shed remains standing alongside the grain silos which are still in use, but now serviced by road.Sir Walter Watson Hughes, one of the founders of the University of Adelaide, originally owned a pastoral lease at Hoyleton in the 1850s. He later went on to own vast copper mining interests at Wallaroo, on the Yorke Peninsula.GovernmentHoyleton is in the Wakefield Regional Council local government area, the State Electoral District of Goyder and the Federal Electorate of Wakefield.