Pangkarla and Aboriginal history around Normanville and the Bungala River

Abstract

Pangkalla or Pangkarla (New Spelling Pangkala or Pangkarla) might probably be the Kaurna name for an area around the lowest reaches of the Bungala River near the mouth (Sections 1012, 1014, 1015, and 260). The creek flows through today’s town of Yankalilla about 4 km from the mouth, and enters the sea at Normanville. The name ‘Bungala’ was originally obtained in 1839-40 by the first surveyors of this part of District F (Kentish and Poole), no doubt from Kaurna-speaking Aboriginal guides whom they brought with them from Adelaide. Phonetically the original Kaurna word could very likely be the Kaurna word Pangkarla, ‘two lagoons’.