Pirrangga

Abstract

Pirrangga (Old Spelling Birrangga) is the Kaurna name of a small relatively flat area around Section 1, Hundred of Noarlunga;1 centred on the shallow valley of an extinct creek. This named place probably extends from a little north of Beach Rd and a little west of Dyson Rd almost to the Colonnades shopping centre, down to and along Goldsmith Drive (i.e. comprising all of Section 1 and adjacent parts of 2, 661, 660, 659 and 310). The name and location were obtained in 1839 by Louis Piesse during the first surveys of the area, no doubt from Kaurna employees of the Survey Department who accompanied the teams as guides, interpreters and helpers with bush tucker. Pirrangga means ‘place of lung-passion, anger, or inclination to fight’. This may refer to an unrecorded traditional use of the place for warrior-like challenges and protocols with visiting groups, some of whom might come from distant Country via the major travel hub at Ngangkiparingga (the ford at Old Noarlunga), might sometimes be hostile, and in any case would need permission to be on this territory. The campsites at the dunes in Port Noarlunga, overlooked by the low ridge on the southwestern edge of Pirrangga, were less than 2 km away. An old burial site was discovered in 2011 a few hundred metres south of Pirrangga. An Appendix to this essay gives an annotated first-hand account of an incident in February 1837 near Pirrangga and at Port Noarlunga, which fortuitously illustrates some of those protocols.