Pelberre Railway Station

 

  Pelberre Station was a stop on the railway line between Gawler and Angaston. Pelberre is believed to be the Kaurna word for fruit. The station was situated near Bella Street, Gawler East, one stop from what is now Gawler Central (formerly Gawler North Railway Station).
Other stops that existed between Gawler and Lyndoch included Kalbeeba Station, Kalperri Station, Sandy Creek, Warpoo and Wilamba.[1]

 In 1947, Nancy Haese (24), her mother Amy Haese and Robert Lee (38) were travelling in their car when they were hit by a train at Jolly’s crossing. The mother and daughter were in the front seat, and Lee was in the back of the 1927 open touring car.
 According to the News,

The railcar struck the motor car alongside the steering wheel. The car was then crushed against the cattle pit guard rails, and carried 40 yards before it was hurled down a 15-ft. embankment. The 60-1b rails forming the cattle pit guard were bent and broken.
 With the exception of the engine and bonnet, the car was a twisted mass of steel and wood after the accident.
 The rear axle was ripped, out and carried along by. the railcar's cowcatcher, until it slid down the embankment when the railcar stopped 125 yards past the point of collision.[2]

  Nancy Haese was driving the car back to the family property. Lee was an employee; the three had been picking grapes on the Adelaide Road side of the railway line at Warpoo. The gate to the Haese property was just 20 feet from the crossing where the car was struck.
 Nancy was killed instantly. Mrs Haeses and Lee both suffered fractured skulls and died later in the Hutchinson Hospital, Gawler.
 In an article in The Register Newspaper, it states that the original stop at Warpoo was known as Haese’s, and was little more than a flattened piece of ground where the train stopped to pick up and drop off passengers.[3]

  The Angaston line from Gawler opened in 1911. Regular passenger services ceased in December 1968. In November 1996, Transadelaide introduced Sunday services to Nuriootpa, and in 1998, Bluebird Rail Operations ran the Barossa Wine train on the line, which ceased in 2003.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller (c) 2025

S.A.R. 1938 train timetable courtesy of Martin Walker.

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[1] Manning G.H., A Compendium of the Place Names of South Australia, State Library of South Australia, p. 669.

[2] 'Three Killed in S.A. Crossing Smash', News, (30 April 1947), p. 1.

[3] 'Country News.', The Register, (7 May 1925), p. 13. 

McDonald, J., & Johnson, B., ‘Barossa Valley Lines to Truro, Penrice Quarry, and Angaston.‘ Lost in South OZ, (2024), https://lostinsouthoz.jarmlibrary.me/.