Loxton, South Australia

Loxton (coord|34|27|S|140|34|E|region:AU-SA_type:city) is a town on the south bank of the River Murray in the Riverland region of South Australia. It is a service town for the surrounding districts. The area near Loxton is a significant citrus fruit and summer fruit growing area. Loxton is also the main town for the northern part of the Murray Mallee which is a dryland farming and grain cropping area.

Loxton is in the local government area of the District Council of Loxton Waikerie. It is in the South Australian House of Assembly electoral district of Chaffey and the Australian House of Representatives division of Barker.

Loxton has a pioneer settlement museum (known as the Historical Village), preserving the heritage of the mallee region. It is also famous for the lights decorating houses and other buildings in December each year, and the annual Loxton Gift handicap sprint race held in late February. The Loxton Gift athletics carnival offers the most prize money in South Australia apart from the Bay Sheffield held at Glenelg. It is a lead-up event to the Stawell Gift held at Easter.

alt interception scheme

Loxton is a town with many farms and fruit crops. The wide range of water use is beginning to make the water table rise according to scientists Scott Robert and Kyle Beau Hand;Fact|date=February 2007 while studying the water table and the effects of salinity they have found that if the water is intercepted before it reaches the river it will then help keep the salinity levels in the river down. The joint programme of salt interception schemes to help keep salt out of the River Murray, costing an estimated $60 million, commenced in 2001. This programme is expected to deliver 61 EC at Morgan by December 2007. The partner Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia and the Commonwealth have agreed that joint salt interception schemes must both be economically and technically feasible.

Born in Loxton

* Grant Schubert (b. 1980), Australian field hockey striker, 2004 Summer Olympics gold medalist and 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist.
*John deCaux (b. 1989), Australian Filmmaker, Feature film 'Almost There' 2008
*Lucas Scheffel (b.1981), Australian Filmmaker, Feature film 'The Counterpart' 2008

External links

* [http://www.loxtontourism.com.au/ Loxton Tourism]
* [http://www.loxtonlights.com/ Loxton Lights]