Gum Creek is a rural locality in the Mid North region of South Australia, situated in the Regional Council of Goyder.[2] It was established in August 2000, when boundaries were formalised for the "long established local name".[3] It is named for the Gum Creek pastoral property, which originally extended from Farrell Flat to Mount Bryan, with the homestead being located in the Gum Creek locality.[4][3] The property was owned by a number of notable figures, with Sir John Duncan succeeding Sir Walter Hughes as owner.[5]
A Primitive Methodist church opened at "Iron Mine, Gum Creek" in October 1871, built by J. & T. Pearce of Kooringa for a cost of £140.[6] A Sunday school at Ironmine Methodist Church, as it came to be known, was built in 1923.[7] The church held a 75th anniversary celebration in April 1946.[8] The church closed in 1974 and was converted to a residence.[9]
Gum Creek School opened in 1898 and closed in 1957.[10] Prior to this, a day school was reported as being run by a Mr. Rogers in the Gum Creek Chapel during the 1870s.[11] The later school building survives today, though is in a derelict state.
A telephone office opened at Gum Creek on 1 May 1926, became a postal receiving office on 3 May 1926 and was upgraded to a post office on 1 July 1927. It closed on 13 March 1953.[12]
It formerly had its own tennis, football and cricket teams.[13][14]
^"BURRA PASTORAL ESTATES". The Kapunda Herald. Vol. XLII, no. 3, 327. South Australia. 26 January 1906. p. 6. Retrieved 27 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.