Pompoota, South Australia

Pompoota is a locality in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, on the east (left) bank of the Murray River, downstream of Mannum. It has shacks and irrigated floodplains near the river, and dryland farming on the higher ground away from the river. The locality of Burdett wraps around the eastern side of Pompoota, with a short stretch of river frontage south (downstream) of Pompoota.^[2]

Pompoota South Australia
Marion steam shovel excavating at Pompoota Flat, 1913
Pompoota
Coordinates	34.99°S 139.34°E / -34.99; 139.34
Population	65 (SAL 2021)[1]
Postcode(s)	5238
LGA(s)	Mid Murray Council
State electorate(s)	Hammond
Federal division(s)	Barker
Localities around Pompoota: Across Murray River Wall Flat Ponde Woodlane Pompoota Burdett Mypolonga

Training farm

Pompoota was the site of a training farm established in 1917. The farm was part of a scheme to teach returning soldiers from World War I before taking up land under a soldier settlement scheme. It was the first formal repatriation plan for returned soldiers to learn farming when they returned from the war. The hall built as part of the scheme was still in use as a community hall a hundred years later.^[3] The training farm was an initiative of Samuel McIntosh who had observed the Village Settlements twenty years earlier in which unemployed city people were provided with land and expected to be able to clear and farm it with no relevant experience in farming.^[4]

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Pompoota (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
2. "Placename Details: Pompoota". Property Location Browser Report. Government of South Australia. 24 January 2007. SA0056237. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
3. "Pompoota Training Farm to be commemorated in new exhibition". Government of South Australia. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
4. "Pompoota Hall centenary: little-known tales of SA's soldier-settler scheme to be re-told". The Murray Valley Standard. Fairfax Regional Media. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.