Burra knows the lay of the land
Sitting on Goyder’s Line, the pastoral town of Burra draws on its rich history to turn challenges into opportunities. That problem-solving mentality has earnt it a return as a finalist in the Agricultural Town of the Year Award.
The historic little town of Burra has spent generations shaping industries far beyond the Mid North.
Its copper “Monster Mine” became Australia’s largest mine for its first decade and played a critical role in South Australia’s early economic survival.
Later, Burra became known as the “Merino Capital of the World”, developing genetics that have shaped Merino breeding.
Today, in a town of around 1000 people, that Merino expertise continues at Collinsville Stud, one of Australia’s leading breeding operations, producing premium rams adapted to tough conditions.
“Collinsville influences about 30 per cent of the world’s Merino genetics” says Collinsville Stud general manager Tim Dalla.
Merino expertise is also evolving through technology. At Cousins Merino Services, livestock data and electronic identification help farmers identify their strongest animals, retain core stock through drought and make more informed, sustainable decisions.
“It’s allowing them to identify their more profitable animals and make decisions on those less profitable animals, and actually manage them better within their enterprises,” says Cousins Merino Services co-owner Michelle Cousins.
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Positioned around Goyder’s Line, Burra has learnt to work with the limitations of its landscape and turn them into opportunities.
“The Mid North is unique because around Burra, you have high rainfall, high altitude. It gets cold and snows in the winter,” Tim says.
“Not very far away you have Goyder’s Line, low rainfall, so you have to have sheep that can adapt to all different areas.
“A lot of farming families have been here for more than a century and they’re resilient enough to do that.”
Mayor Bill Gebhardt explains that resilience has been tested in recent years, particularly through drought.
“The last two years have shown both the challenges and the strengths of our community,” Bill says.
“We faced record low rainfall. I’ll be honest, for our farms, it’s probably the worst few years we’ve ever had. This year hopefully made up for it, but we’re still recovering.
“At the same time, we see that community comes together. Our community continues to adapt, innovate and support one another in good times and tough times.”
Amid those strains, the people of Burra have looked to each other, with mental health increasingly in the spotlight. Local psychologist, farmer and mother of three Steph Schmidt is helping lead that conversation.
While experiencing the hardships of farming herself, Steph has developed free resources, workshops and podcasts designed around the realities of rural life, including episodes tailored for listening to in the ute or on the tractor.
“Seeing the pressures we face in farming and the challenges in having services available, we needed to approach mental health differently,” Steph says.
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“We all need skills to manage challenges in our life, whether we’re on farm or not. The focus was how do we build those skills so that we’re not just waiting to the point that we need to see a psychologist.”
Ski for Life echoes this focus, with the community-led charity founded in Burra in 2012 now supporting mental health and resilience programs across the country.
“When we started, we had 20 people involved in the skiing relay. This year, we had 400 people go to this event,” says local leader Jane Kellock, who chaired Ski for Life for 10 years.
“We raise between $400,000 and $500,000 every year. That goes into mental health and wellbeing resilience programs right throughout Australia, and that started in Burra. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Over at the Men’s Shed, one of over 50 clubs in Burra, members support wellbeing through community projects – whether repairing furniture, organising guest speakers, raising money for local causes or, according to member Mike Pinkerton, “telling really bad dad jokes”.
“Men’s Shed is a good place to sit down, exchange some of your ideas and some experiences,” Mike says.
“We all learn something new every day just by knowing each other.”
For entrepreneur Tim Stockman, Burra’s problem-solving mentality has become the foundation of three businesses.
He founded Stockman Electronics as a teenager to help farmers adopt new technology, later expanding into telemetry systems for pastoral properties across outback Australia.
In 2017, he launched goyderCONNECT after seeing regional communities overlooked by major telecommunications companies. It now services about 650 customers through more than 20 tower sites spanning roughly 6000 square kilometres.
“Nothing was easy. No power, no optic fibre, no site access. But as a true farmer, we found a way,” Tim says.
Tim explains Burra draws on its history to continue shaping its future.
“You see a problem? You ask why. You find a way. When your community needs something, you turn up. That’s what country communities do, and it’s what I’ve tried to do right here in Burra my entire life,” Tim says.
“George Goyder showed us to understand what you’ve got, understand the limitations, work with it, not against it. That’s still how we do things in Burra today.”
Purchase your tickets and join us as we announce the 2026 Agricultural Town of the Year winner at a celebration event at Peter Lehmann Wines on Thursday 5 November 2026.
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