Saddleworth was originally established as one of many settlements on the road to Burra, and was named after Saddleworth Lodge pastoral station, a local landholding which itself was named after a civil parish on the edges of the Pennines in Yorkshire, England, part of which is in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham near Greater Manchester, England.[3] Joseph Dunn applied for a Publican's Licence to open a new Saddleworth Lodge in March 1846, and it was granted on 14 March 1846.[4] The Burra railway line passed through the town from 1870[5] until the early 2000s.
An old store on the Barrier Highway has been converted into a museum which focuses on the history of Saddleworth and the nearby towns of Waterloo, Marrabel, and Manoora.
^"Tuesday, 10th March". Adelaide Observer. Vol. III, no. 142. South Australia. 14 March 1846. p. 4. Retrieved 22 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.