Paskeville is within the traditional lands of the indigenous
Narungga people. The first European explorers to traverse the Northern Yorke Peninsula were
John Hill and
Thomas Burr, on horseback. On 28 April 1840 they camped overnight near present-day Paskeville and later reported they had discovered extensive fertile land there. The area known as Green's Plains, after John Green who established a sheep station there in 1851, was soon occupied by
sheep graziers, who held occupation licences until closer settlement came two decades later. The
Hundred of Kulpara was proclaimed on 12 June 1862. Surveys soon followed, including the surveyed township of
Kulpara. The
District Council of Green's Plains was established in 1871 bringing local administration to the hundreds of Kulpara and
Kadina. Pioneer farmers cleared the land for cropping, but there was no town at Paskeville until 1878, when a station was established on the new
Port Wakefield to Kadina railway. The surveyed town which surrounded this station was on 4 March 1880 named after General
Edward Hanson Paske, brother-in-law of the incumbent
Governor, Sir
William Jervois. Paskeville was located on the
Balaklava-Moonta railway line. The railway yards at Paskeville were soon busily thronged by local farmers with transhipments of bagged wheat and barley, as well as wool. Goods sheds were built in 1887, while silos were built later for bulk grain handling. These products were generally exported through the port of Wallaroo. The township also provided commercial and community support services, including churches, a school, a grocer and baker, and a hotel (originally named the Railway Hotel). Gaslight came to Paskeville in 1903, a new post office in 1925, and a 32-volt power supply until 1953. The township thrived for a time, but the closure of the railway in the 1980s, plus better roads and shopping options, eventually stalled its growth. A water reservoir was constructed near Paskeville in the 1890s. It was supplied with water by a main pipeline derived from the
Beetaloo Reservoir via the
Barunga Reservoir, a slightly larger storage constructed further north and connected by of steel pipe. The Paskeville Reservoir could hold of water, which could then be distributed to the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta, as well as down the
Yorke Peninsula. In the 1960s, Paskeville also received water from the
River Murray via the
Swan Reach-Paskeville pipeline.
Bikie shooting In February 2008, a
Kadina man was lured to Paskeville where he was ambushed by four men and shot at least 15 times at close range, before driving to the Paskeville Hotel. The offenders fled, leaving the man in a critical condition. Remarkably, he survived. The victim was linked to the shooting death of a
bikie gang member at
Wallaroo in May 2004, for which he had been tried and acquitted. The hotel burnt down in 2012, and the owners decided not to rebuild it. ==Geography and climate==