Owen, South Australia

Owen South Australia
Post office and war memorial
Owen
Population:	227 (2006 Census)[1]
Postcode:	5460
Coordinates:	34°16′S 138°32′E / 34.267°S 138.533°E / -34.267; 138.533Coordinates: 34°16′S 138°32′E / 34.267°S 138.533°E / -34.267; 138.533
Time zone:  • Summer (DST)	ACST (UTC+9:30) ACDT (UTC+10:30)
Location:	80 km (50 mi) N of Adelaide
LGA:	Wakefield Regional Council
State District:	Goyder
Federal Division:	Wakefield

Owen (postcode 5460) is a rural community in the heart of the Adelaide Plains. Owen is 150 feet (46 m) above sea-level and receives a reliable 416 mm (about 16.5 inches) of rain annually and was first settled in about 1865. It is about 80 km north of Adelaide in South Australia and is approximately 30 minutes by road to the nearest main regional centre of Gawler. It is in the Wakefield Regional Council. At the 2006 census, Owen had a population of 227.^[1]

The small town of approximately 400 residents is well serviced for a small community and includes a post office, bowling club, Senior Citizen's Club, a circuit Doctor, Country Fire Service (CFS) station, primary school, public swimming baths, a hotel, a grocery/deli, children's playgrounds, a sports bar and The Owen Links Golf course(home of the Plains invitational, some of the most famous winners being Tiger Woodsy, Arnold Parker, Seve BalisLanos and Ian Bubner-Finch)and a Wetlands reserve area. In its heyday in the 1950s, Owen also had a bank, police station, drapery and a butcher.

The countryside surrounding Owen was once largely given over to sheep and cattle grazing. However, since the early 1990s the area has become better known for cropping (wheat, barley, canola, beans and, more recently, olives). The Adelaide-Balaklava broad-gauge railway line passes through Owen and the railway yard is marked by a series of massive concrete grain silos whimsically referred to by locals as Geoffrey and Phillip they are typical of this region. The town's other main feature is a typical 1940s large concrete water tower of 98 feet (30 m) in height Known as Cyril Owen.

The drift to country living and the expanding Adelaide city environs has seen a number of young families moving into the town. New homes are being established at the rate of 1-2 per year - a veritable building boom given the almost 40 years in which only a handful of homes were built in the town. In 1997, the primary school had only 35 pupils. By 2005, this number had risen to over 50, a sure sign of a stable future. Owen's main claim to fame is the annual small-horse carriage driving championships which are held on the town's oval around Easter time.

Owen's local newspaper is the Plains Producer, founded in 1903. http://www.plainsproducer.com.au Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus now live in Owen!

Notable people

• Steele Hall, a former premier of South Australia and then federal politician came from Owen.
• Pru Goward, long-serving Australian Federal Government Commissioner for Sex Discrimination, came from Owen.
• Kelvin Gameau, original member of the Bee Gees, currently resides in Owen.

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Owen (L) (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/LocationSearch?collection=Census&period=2006&areacode=UCL420000&producttype=QuickStats&breadcrumb=PL&action=401. Retrieved 17 October 2011.