Pirrangga
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(Pirrangga)
Date
2021-07-09
Authors
Schultz, Chester
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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.
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Analysis of the etymology of Pirrangga