An advertisement for superphosphate from the Wallaroo Mt Lyell Fertilisers Ltd, produced at Wallaroo. The simple advertisement emphasises the immediacy of delivery, because it is a local product.

There was a crisis in the wheat industry in the 1880s and 1890s as drought reduced the capacity of the farmers to harvest good crops: in 1879 an average of 8.5 bushels per acre was harvested, by the early 1890s only 5 bushels, but this was better than the state average. By 1896 the figure was down to 2 bushels. In 1896 superphosphate fertilizer was used for the first time at Minlacowie and production began to increase. Joseph Parsons of Curramulka imported eleven-coulter drills from England and began applying superphosphate: bushel rates improved significantly. The Correll Brothers property at Minlaton achieved an increase in yield of 8-10 bushels over previous years. Production increased and apart from some exceptionally dry years would not fall below 12 bushels to the acre. In the decade of the 1950s the average yield was 25 bushels for wheat and 28 for barley.

John Custance at Roseworthy Agricultural College had shown the the value of adding superphosphate to the soil in the 1880s, but its use was not widely taken up by farmers until the success of the Correll Brothers. Yorke Peninsula farmers adopted their methods and productivity increased.

When the Wallaroo Superphosphate Manure Company was established at Wallaroo in 1899 the farmers had a local supplier. The advertising slogan reflects this. The plant was built in 1899 adjacent to the sulphuric acid plant at the Wallaroo Smelters. When built the superphosphate plant was capable of producing 20,000 tons of superphosphate a year.

In 1913 the Wallaroo Phosphate Company amalgamated with the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company to become Wallaroo Mt Lyell Fertilisers Ltd. This company merged with Adelaide Chemical Fertilisers in 1965 to become Adelaide and Wallaroo Fertilisers which in 1988 became Top Australia. This company was subsequently acquired by Pivot, now Incitec Pivot.

There is no longer a manufacturing plant at Wallaroo, only a distribution centre.

Wallaroo-Mount Lyell Fertilisers Ltd

Drew, G. J. Discovering historic Wallaroo, South Australia [Adelaide]: Dept. of Mines and Energy and the Corporation of the Town of Wallaroo, 1989

Wiltshire, Rex Copper to gold: a history of Wallaroo: Wallaroo, South Australia, 1860-1923 Wallaroo, S. Aust.: Corporation of the Town of Wallaroo, [1983]

Hughes, Lloyd Clarence Wallaroo, 1874-1974 Wallaroo: Pub. by the Corporation of the Town of Wallaroo, 1974

Williams, Michael, The making of the South Australian landscape; a study in the historical geography of Australia London, New York: Academic Press, 1974 Chapter 7 Changing the soil

Hill, R Land development: value of topdressing [Adelaide: The Chronicle, 1938]