The location that is now Caltowie, was previously known as Red Banks, the out station of the Booyoolie Run. The Indigenous term was Carcowie, and this is thought to be the origin of the current name. Carcowie was a watering hole for bullock teams heading to other locations.
Settled from the 1860s, the town blocks were sold in 1872, and the first hotel soon followed. The largely agricultural settlement once boasted a vibrant and almost self-sufficient economy with local industry and the railways being the chief employers. Birthplace of the Both brothers, who invented a portable ‘iron lung’ to treat those with polio, local to the Neoen Wind Farm of 99 turbines, the “Big” Battery, and the habitat of the endangered and near extinct pygmy Blue Tongue Lizard (Tiliqua adelaidensis), a tiny lizard that lives in spider holes in the ground.
