Quorn Railway Station was planned as a railway junction for rail traffic travelling north-south and east-west across the continent and for the transport of minerals from the Flinders Ranges. The prospect of opening rich agricultural lands on the Willochra Plain was an added incentive. The Great Northern Railway, later known as the Central Australian Railway, reached Quorn from Port Augusta in 1879.
A cottage-style timber station building was erected in that year when the yards were also completed, although work continued on workmen’s cottages and railway water supplies into the 1890s. The old station was replaced by the present elegant stone and brick structure in 1916.
During the Second World War Quorn became a hive of activity in the movement of troops to Darwin in preparedness for a Japanese invasion, following the bombing in 1941. Troops, supplies, evacuees and stock moved continuously in and out of Quorn day and night. The Quorn Country Women’s Association offered to provide meals for troops and evacuees during their stops at Quorn, serving them either on the verandah, or in the army-built Sydney Williams hut, or in the First World War Memorial Hall on the Quorn Oval. Much appreciated freshly cooked meals for hundreds of people were provided sometimes at short notice. These were Quorn’s glory days.
After the war railway business in Quorn waned especially after the completion of the new northern railway west of the Ranges in 1956.
The Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1973 following the efforts of a group of enthusiasts who pressed for the retention of the railway in Pichi Richi Pass between Quorn and Port Augusta.