Southern Kaurna Place Names Essays

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Browsing Southern Kaurna Place Names Essays by Title

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    Anacotilla
    (Chester Schultz, 2019-07-22) Schultz, Chester
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    Brukangga and Tindale's uses of the word bruki
    (Chester Schultz, 2018-10-26) Schultz, Chester
    At the date of last editing (above), we can be fairly sure that in times of first contact ‘Brookunga’ (phonetic spelling Brukangga) was an ‘outsider’ name for a deposit of iron pyrites in the southern Mt Lofty Ranges; it was on Section 5279, Hundred of Kanmantoo; and it meant ‘place of fire’, with a secondary reference to pyrites. However, none of these propositions is yet proved beyond all reasonable doubt. The name was first drawn to public attention in 1952 as a new name officially bestowed on a new settlement on Section 5279 for workers at the proposed Nairne Pyrites Mine. The Nomenclature Committee reported that “during the original survey” of this area the name “Brookunga” had been recorded on “a creek running through the section” (i.e. Dawesley Creek, which also contained the northern part of the large pyrites deposit); or perhaps on “the creek running through the area”. After consultation with NB Tindale and the Mt Barker District Council, the name was gazetted in the spelling “Brukunga”.
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    'Coorara' (Morphett Vale)
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-03-26) Schultz, Chester
    ‘Coorara’ is not a Kaurna word. As the name of a railway stopping place on the former Willunga line, it was selected (probably from Taplin 1879) and approved by the Nomenclature Committee on 12th November 1935. It has also been used as a name for homesteads in the Southeast and elsewhere.
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    Cow-e-o-lon-ga / Cowie-orlunga
    (Chester Schultz, 2016-08-30) Schultz, Chester
    The name of a site a kilometre or so north of McLaren Vale town was recorded at first contact as “Cow-e-o-lon-ga” and “Cowie-orlunga”. This name is clearly Kaurna, as it uses the standard Kaurna Locative ngga ‘at’, and follows the rules for its use. But its spelling and meaning are uncertain. The compound root word could be any combination of a first morpheme kauwi ‘water’ OR kauwa ‘steep [place], cliff’, with a second morpheme yarla ‘calf of the leg’ OR yurlu ‘face, forehead’.
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    ‘Cowyrlanka’ / ?Kauwiyarlungga (Second Valley)
    (Chester Schultz, 2020-01-26) Schultz, Chester
    In 1838 the explorer Stephen Hack, travelling on foot from Adelaide to Encounter Bay, Rapid Bay and back, twice recorded a Kaurna place-name as “Cowyrlanka”, “about one mile” north of Rapid Bay. No doubt he heard it from a Kaurna-speaking Aboriginal guide. The name certainly refers to the mouth area and/or lower valley of the Parananacooka River at Second Valley (roughly Sections 1553, 1554, and 1567). Hack’s spelling certainly represents a Kaurna compound word, one of a number of possibilities which are very hard to decide between. In a balance between linguistic and landscape interpretations, the most likely are Kauwi-yarlungga (‘place of fresh water and sea’) or Kauwayarlungga (‘place of cliffs and sea’), both of which would make clear references to features of the place. The place was on the well-used Aboriginal route between major campsites to the north at Yarnauwingga (Wirrina Cove area) and Yarnkalyilla (mouth of the Yankalilla River), 3 and 10 km respectively, and to the south at Yarta-kurlangga (Rapid Bay, 3 km on foot over the ridges). ‘Cowyrlanka’ offered a very good freshwater pool or tiny lagoon at the river mouth, fed by springs around the Parananacooka River upstream, and bordered by useful reeds and rushes; a small shallow bay ideal for net-fishing, as shown in the famous painting by George French Angas in 1844; a magnificent fire-managed hunting ground nearby in the grassy valley; sheltered campsites on or immediately above the beach; and good lookout sites nearby on the high cliffs.
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    Daringa / Taringga
    (Chester Schultz, 2016-08-30) Schultz, Chester
    Taringga (linguistically the same as Daringga in Kaurna language) may have been the Kaurna name for a site at or very near to the old ‘Daringa’ homestead which still stands off Kangarilla Rd next to Oxenberry Farm Wines and the Rail Trail. But this is so only if Tarangga and Taringga were separate names applying to separate places – and there is a high probability that both of the earliest records (‘Tarranga’ and ‘Daringa’) originated from the same word spoken by Kaurna survey guides in 1839.
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    Ingkalilla
    (Chester Schultz, 2016-03-23) Schultz, Chester
    Ingkalilla is the Kaurna name of a site or area in the vicinity of Hay Flat plain and the part of Waterfall Creek which runs through it. It was recorded by the first surveyors in 1839 as ‘Ingullilla’. The meaning of the name is unknown, apart from the Kaurna suffix -illa ‘at’. The name has also been adapted in later decades and used for the Ingalalla Falls on a steep upper reach of Waterfall Creek under Mt Hayfield.
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    Itjikawingga (Second Valley)
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-02-04) Schultz, Chester
    ‘Itji-kawingga’ is a Kaurna name which Tindale, and perhaps his Ngarrindjeri informant Albert Karlowan, applied to the springs and associated campsite on Sections 1563-4 at Second Valley, a short distance northwest of the main road on the River Parananacooka. Tindale probably related it to ‘Jaitjakawengga Reserve’. However, ‘Itji-kawingga’ and its original do not apply here (unless it is an unknown generic name). The name was recorded originally by the first surveyors in 1839 on the headwaters of Nowhere Else Creek near Delamere.
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    ?Ityi-Kauwingga (Nowhere Else Creek)
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-05-09) Schultz, Chester
    Ityi-kauwingga (also optionally Ityi-kauwe) is probably the correct spelling of the Kaurna name recorded in 1839 by the first surveyors as ‘Ichicouinga’ on the upper reach of Nowhere Else Creek, just over the ridge north of Delamere. The common Kaurna morpheme kauwe ‘water’ identifies it as a fresh-water site. It is the small wetland on Section 1527, at the junction of Nowhere Else Creek with some tributary creek gullies, about 1.5 km northwest of the main road at the Rapid Bay turnoff. There is no known meaning for ityi.
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    Kadlatiyangga
    (Chester Schultz, 2021-07-19) Schultz, Chester
    Kadlatiangga (New Spelling Kadlatiyangga) was the ‘Kaurna’-Miyurna name adopted in 1849-50 for John Heathcote’s station in Wattle Flat, in the Anglicized spelling ‘Cudlatiyunga’. It had probably been obtained by the first surveyors in 1840 from ‘Kaurna’-Miyurna guides, who would have applied it to an unknown site on the station or nearby. Although Heathcote received no official land grants until 1851 and we do not yet know exactly where his station was in the 1840s, it may have been on Section 417, Hundred of Myponga,1 immediately north of the Bowyer Bridge crossing at Carrickalinga Creek. The name means ‘gap-tooth place’; but we do not know what this referred to: possibly a nearby feature of the landscape, or an unrecorded Dreaming story, or both.
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    Kadlitiya and Kadliti'-Pari
    (Chester Schultz, 2020-09-30) Schultz, Chester
    Kadli-tiya was the Kaurna name of a site somewhere in the immediate vicinity of Gawler town, probably near to or the same place as Kadliti’-parri, which was probably located at the campsite and waterhole near the ford on the South Para River at Dead Man’s Pass Reserve. Kadli-tiya could be abridged to Kadl’iya. These names mean ‘dingo tooth’ and ‘dingo-tooth river’.
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    ?Kangkarrartingga (River Congeratinga)
    (Chester Schultz, 2019-07-22) Schultz, Chester
    The earliest explicit record of this name was the ‘River Congeratinga’ marked on the first maps based on the work of the first surveyors of District D (around Yankalilla) in 1840. However, there is indirect evidence to suggest that Samuel Stephens in 1838 might have obtained the name ‘Congerati’ somewhere in District D, even though he wrote only of ‘Conderati’ (see Appendix). The ‘Yankalilla Surveys used Aboriginal guides, probably hired in Adelaide, who no doubt gave the name; and Stephens presumably likewise. The word must be in Kaurna language, since it ends with the standard Kaurna Locative ngga (‘at, place of’). The root noun represented by ‘Congerati’ is unknown in any local language as it stands; but must be a Compound of two words, probably also contracted (since no known vocabulary fits the whole word as it is). Among several possible but uncertain etymologies, the most likely is Kanggarri-karti, contracted to Kanggarr’arti, ‘human birthing blood’ (New Spelling 2010 Kangkarrikarti, Kangkarr’arti).
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    Kanyanyapilla
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-02-25) Schultz, Chester
    Kanyanyapilla is the Kaurna name of a campsite on the rising ground south of Maslin Creek, on the east side of California Road near the California Road Wetland. The name was recorded by the first surveyors in 1839 and used for a few years by the first settlers for the inland reaches of Maslin Creek. It is clearly a Kaurna word, but there are several possibilities for its meaning, with no way of choosing between them.
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    Karrawadlungga
    (Chester Schultz, 2020-08-13) Schultz, Chester
    In 1839 William Williams (Colonial Storekeeper in Adelaide) recorded “Cur-ra-ud-lon-ga” as the name of “Lyndoch valley” (presumably a site somewhere within it, between the town of Lyndoch and the end of the valley near Williamstown). He almost certainly obtained it while interpreting for a police expedition in April 1839 which was tracking members of the ‘Wirra tribe’ who had murdered shepherd Duffield at Teatree Gully. It is a Kaurna word, using the standard Locative ngga; but its meaning is uncertain, especially because the interpretation of Williams’ written letter ‘o’ is ambiguous. It might very likely be Karrawadlungga, ‘place of underbrush and shrubs’, i.e. low understorey in a forest. But it could also be Karra-wadlangga, ‘place of fallen redgum trees’ or ‘place of high deadwood’; or Karrawadlhangga, ‘place of redgums and wallabies’. However, it was probably not a genuine place-name of the occupants of that territory, the ‘Wirra tribe’, who were not necessarily Kaurna speakers. It was probably a Kaurna generic name for that kind of country, given by trackers including Kadlitpinna (‘Captain Jack’), who belonged to country further south.
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    Karrawatungga
    (Chester Schultz, 2021-07-01) Schultz, Chester
    Karrawatungga was a ‘Kaurna’-Miyurna name recorded in the 1840s with a variety of spellings by four settlers (John Clarke, the Boord brothers, George Foreman and John Heathcote senior). They all used it to refer to the locality which they were occupying between Myponga valley and the Yankalilla plain, i.e. the northern half of the valley now known as Wattle Flat, covering the vicinity of Sections 410 northeast to 495, Hundred of Myponga. 1 The exact location of the original Kaurna site is unknown.
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    Kauwa-Yarlungga (Myponga Beach)
    (Chester Schultz, 2019-03-00) Schultz, Chester
    Kauwa-yerlongga (Kauwa-yarlungga in KWP New Spelling 2010), meaning ‘place of cliffs and sea’, is probably the correct interpretation of the Kaurna name for the vicinity of the Myponga river estuary at Myponga Beach, with its wetland and cliffs, on Sections 687, 688 and 683 (Hundred of Myponga). It was recorded as “Coweyalunga” in 1850, “Cowiealunga” in the 1870s, and “Coweelunga” in 1887. The last of these (incorrectly suggesting a four-syllable word rather than five) was probably a mis-transcription of the lost original record by surveyors in 1840, who must have obtained it from their Kaurna-speaking guides. Kauwayarlungga has been neglected in the literature of place-names and Aboriginal history; but it seems to have been a significant destination in its own right, a focus for travel routes from the north, south and east. It was used for sheltered camping, fishing (with a rocky shore for shellfish), for corroborees, and (it is said) had a burial site. It was one of the campsites used by Aboriginal people in their spring and summer movement up the Gulf coast following the fish runs (bream, mullet, salmon and mulloway).
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    Kauwe-Marnilla
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-04-14) Schultz, Chester
    Kauwe-marnilla is a Kaurna descriptive phrase, perhaps also a place-name, for waterholes on the tributaries of Field River in the vicinity of Old Reynella or Happy Valley. By 1840 it had been recorded as ‘Cowie Manilla’. It means ‘two good waters’.
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    Kauwi Ngaltingga
    (Chester Schultz, 2015-06-11) Schultz, Chester
    Kauwi Ngaltingga is probably the Kaurna name for some kind of water source on the western side of Aldinga Plain. The most probable sites for it (though still conjectural) are the springs and waterholes which once existed in the coastal dunes on the southwestern fringes of Aldinga Scrub (from Section 742 south to 808 and 639). The name means ‘water at Ngalti’, but no meaning is known for ngalti.
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    Kawandilla
    (Chester Schultz, 2018-04-30) Schultz, Chester
    Kawandilla (Kawantilla in KWP’s New Spelling 2010) is a Kaurna word meaning ‘in the north’ or ‘north place’. It seems also that some Kaurna speakers in first contact times – probably those whose heart country was further south – used this word as a kind of general area name for the region of the ‘Adelaide tribe’, i.e. the southernmost portion (around the Torrens and Sturt Rivers) of what we now call the Adelaide Plains. It was probably not used as a place-name for the Adelaide area by the local owners. Beginning with Hack and Mary Thomas, early colonists thought the name “Cowandilla” meant ‘good water’ or ‘plenty of water’, no doubt because the first syllable reminded them of one of the few Kaurna words which they knew, kauwi (‘water’). But this etymology is extremely unlikely and does not account for all the syllables. Somebody may have confused an informant’s description of a place (e.g. well-watered ‘Glenelg’) with the meaning of the word. In spite of guesses by Tindale and others, the Kaurna name does not belong specifically to today’s suburb of Cowandilla on Section 92. The village established there in 1840 was given this name because the developers thought ‘Cowandillah’ meant something about ‘water’, not because the name belonged there.
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    ‘Konggaratingga’ (Blowhole Creek)
    (Chester Schultz, 2013-06-06) Schultz, Chester
    ‘Konggaratingga’ is RM Berndt’s spelling of the Kaurna name which (according to him) Ngarrindjeri man Albert Karlowan applied around 1940 to a cave on the southern Fleurieu coast at Blowhole Creek. In Karlowan’s version of the story the ancestral hero Tjirbuki, after his long underground journey, emerged here already transformed into a bird. The name is one possible phonetic spelling of ‘Congeratinga’, recorded by the first surveyors in 1840 as the name of a river northeast of Second Valley. However, at Blowhole Creek ‘Konggaratingga’ is almost certainly an error: either a confusion by Karlowan or a misunderstanding by Berndt. ‘Kongarati Cave’ in the cliffs near today’s Wirrina Resort was named (probably by Tindale) after the nearby River Congeratinga, and it is very likely that this name was mistakenly transferred to the other cave at Blowhole Beach.