Wikipedia
Simmonston was a town surveyed and partially constructed in the South Australian outback, before being abandoned half-finished in the early 1880s. The town was originally intended to be on the new railway extending north from Quorn, but the final route passed through Gordon instead. Today, the stone ruins of a hotel and its cellars are still visible. The town is reported as being "named after Sir John L.A. Simmons, Field Marshal and Commandant of the Royal Engineers" by William Jervois, the 10th Governor of South Australia. The creation of the town was announced in April 1880 as follows - "Portions of Crown Lands in the Hundred of Kanyaka have been reserved as a site for the new town of Simmonston." Plans to build the hotel were announced three weeks later in May 1880 by a D. McFie.