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Balhannah

AC with 0 elementsAdelaide HillsSouth Australia geography stubsTowns in South AustraliaUse Australian English from March 2013
BalhannahSA
BalhannahSA

Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to incorporate two once adjoining towns: Gilleston (named for Osmond Gilles) and Blythetown, named for James Blythe, another Scottish settler.It is on the main interstate railway between Adelaide and Melbourne. In the past it was the junction for a branch line that ran up the Onkaparinga Valley and beyond to Birdwood and Mount Pleasant.Much of Balhannah is along Onkaparinga Valley Road, although there are some other residential streets, and Greenhill Road terminates near the town centre. One of the larger businesses in the town is a long-established hardware store, now part of the Mitre 10 chain. The fruit cold store built in 1914 was one of the first in Australia and is still in use.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Balhannah (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Balhannah
Swamp Road, Adelaide Hills Council

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Wikipedia: BalhannahContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -34.983333333333 ° E 138.81666666667 °
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Address

Grasby Memorial Park

Swamp Road
5240 Adelaide Hills Council
South Australia, Australia
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BalhannahSA
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Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

The Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival is a horse-racing meeting held over two days by the Oakbank Racing Club at the Oakbank Racecourse located in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The carnival is a mixture of flat and jumping races with between two and four jumps races on day one and two feature jumping races on day two. Day one is held on Easter Saturday and is one of the highest attended race days in Australia. The Von Doussa Steeplechase (named after founder Alfred von Doussa) takes place on day one and is a preliminary to the Great Eastern Steeplechase held on Easter Monday. A "classic" hurdle race takes place on Monday as does the feature flat race, the Onkaparinga Cup. The meeting is conducted by the Oakbank Racing Club and is popular with families and groups. Although ostensibly a horse race meeting, Oakbank is an event in itself with carnival rides, picnics and other activities. Many families camp for the whole weekend in the paddocks adjacent to the track, and some have done so all their lives. Patrons travelled by train from Adelaide to nearby Balhannah railway station, 2 miles (3.2 km) from the course, from 1884. When the Mount Pleasant railway line opened in 1918, a platform was constructed adjacent to the course, permitting special race trains to run direct to the course the following Easter. The line to Mount Pleasant closed on 3 March 1963, thus the race trains ran no more.On October 1st 2021 it was announced that jumps racing will no longer be conducted in South Australia mainly due to the small number of South Australian jumps horses. There were plans to run the Great Eastern and Von Doussa Steeplechase as a flat race. However on 3rd March 2022 it was announced that would not happen. However, many jumps racing supporters have attempted to keep jumps racing at Oakbank with that fight now in the South Australian Court System.

Oakbank Racecourse
Oakbank Racecourse

Oakbank Racecourse, also but less frequently known as the "Onkaparinga Racecourse", is home of the Oakbank Racing Club, a club which, until 2009, raced just twice annually, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday at the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival, and has done continually since 1876, except during World War II when it was held at Victoria Park and Morphettville Racecourse due to the army taking over the facility. Located in South Australia's Adelaide Hills, it is the home of steeplechasing and jumping in SA, which combines with flat racing over the festival, including the famous Great Eastern Steeplechase and classic Harry D. Young Hurdle. Brooklyn Park Jockey Jack McGowan was a regular and prominent identity in the late 1800s and early 1900s on horses such as Strike and All Fours. Jack won the Harry D Young Hurdle on Jack Spratt and also run close seconds in the Great Eastern Steeplechase and Oakbank Hurdle on Edirol and Culleraine. In 2019 Oakbank Easter Saturday was still South Australia's most attended race day in the SA racing calendar hosted by Oakbank racing club. Oakbank Week is held each year on the Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday prior to Easter Sunday, except in 2020 when it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Easter Saturday at Oakbank now attracts crowds of over 20,000, when the feature Great Eastern Steeplechase is run. The racing carnival used to attract massive crowds, with about 40,000 attending the Saturday meeting and up around 70,000 attending on Easter Monday. From 2009 the inaugural Oakbank Prelude Raceday has taken place two weeks before Easter, marking the first time that a separate meeting to the Easter Carnival has taken place at Oakbank. The famous Von Doussa Steeplechase is run on this program. More information is available at www.oakbankracingclub.com.au