Wallaroo is a port town on the western side of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, 160 kilometres (100 mi) northwest of Adelaide.

[7] The Narungga are the group of Indigenous Australians whose traditional lands include what is now termed Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

[8] During the early years of European settlement, the Narungga maintained a healthy population, but it has since declined.

When he sailed by on 16 March 1802, he recorded that "the intermediate coast ... which extends several leagues to the north of the point, is low and sandy, but a few miles back it rises to a level land of moderate elevation, and is not ill-clothed with small trees.

[8] Trading prospered, and a jetty was built in 1861 for ships to bring in coal, timber, food and mining equipment.

[8] The areas population peaked at 5,000 in 1920, and Wallaroo was Yorke Peninsula's largest and most important port until when copper production ceased in 1923.

[citation needed] From the 1880s onwards the most important economic driver in the area has been cereal cropping, despite the proximity to Goyder's Line, which traditionally marks the geographic edges of agricultural viability in South Australia.

[citation needed] Wallaroo's surrounds are used for growing barley, wheat and other crops such as legumes, canola, chickpeas and field peas.

Tourism associated with the copper mining history and marine leisure activity has become a major part of Wallaroo's economy in the latter 1900s.

From the 1990s until 2009,[citation needed] the Lions Club of Yorke Peninsula Rail operated tourist services between Wallaroo, Kadina and Bute on some Sundays on the previously disused railway line.

[21] Grain is transported to the storage near the wharf by road, and loaded to ships by conveyor belts at the Wallaroo jetty.

[22] A passenger and vehicle ferry has run intermittently between Wallaroo and Lucky Bay (near Cowell) on Eyre Peninsula.

[23][24] Nearby Kadina Airport caters to general aviation and emergency services users, although there are no scheduled passengers flight as of 2024.