Port Augusta, city on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, at the northern end of Spencer Gulf, an arm of the Indian Ocean. Port Augusta is the processing, market, and service center for a large agricultural region. The city has a large regional power generation plant, burning coal from Leigh Creek. Salt extraction is also an important local industry. Port Augusta is an important transit center, lying on two major railways (the east-west Trans-Australian and the north-south Central) as well as major highways to Perth in the west, Adelaide and beyond in the east, and the interior in the north. The city is a base for two programs serving people in remote areas: the School of the Air, which broadcasts radio lessons to children across the outback, and the Flying Doctor Service, which gives medical care. Mount Remarkable National Park, at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, is nearby, to the southeast. Port Augusta's shallow harbor served as a port until 1973. Population (1996) 13,914.
