Location: Where is: Marrabel, South Australia, Australia
GPS Coordinates: 34° 9' 0" South, 138° 52' 0" East
Marrabel is a township and locality beside the Light River in South Australia's Mid North. It is in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council local government area, 100 kilometres (62 mi) north west of the state capital, Adelaide.
It was first settled in early 1841 by a livestock pastoralist William Peter. His main, residential Sheep Station was just east of present Marrabel, off Tarnma Road, but he had sheep runs and shepherd huts in other places throughout the area. Once Copper was discovered at nearby Kapunda, it quickly gew to be much more, and also due to it being one of the main routes to the Burra copper mines used by bullock teamsters carting ore to Kapunda, and was a popular stopovers. The fertile district soon attracted farmers, leading to several small service towns being established, including Marrabel. "In 1859 a local landholder, John E. Marrabel, laid out a town on part section 1122, Hundred of Waterloo, naming it Marrabel."
By 1865 there was a hotel in the town, several churches, a school, two general stores, two blacksmiths, a post office, a steam flour mill, plus many other facilities. [1]
