The Barossa Range (

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...

: ''Yampoori'') is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

located in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Location

The range is a part of the southern

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and d ...

and the western slopes primarily fall into the

Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major list of wine-producing regions, wine-producin ...

. As such, the range is the main source for the

North Para River The North Para River is a river located in the Barossa Valley of the Australian state of South Australia. The river's name is based directly on the Kaurna word ''pari'' which means river. The "north" descriptor distinguishes it from the South ...

and its tributary Jacob's Creek. The highest point of the range is Mount Kaiser Stuhl with an elevation of and forms part of the

Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park __NOTOC__ The Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia in the suburb of Flaxman Valley about north-east of the state capital of Adelaide and about south-east of the town of Tanun ...

Mengler Hill Mengler Hill (formerly Mengler's Hill) is a hill and popular lookout in the Barossa Range, South Australia. The hill was named after an early wine grower in the area. The Barossa Sculpture Park is sited at the base of the lookout area. The road rou ...

, another notable peak within the range, lies on the road route from Tanunda to Angaston. Panorama Mengler Hill

Naming

The range was named by

Colonel William Light William Light (27 April 1786 – 6 October 1839) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He was the first Surveyor-General of the new British Province of South Australia, known for choosing the site of the colony's capi ...

in 1837 after Barrosa Hill (Cerro de Puerco) in the modern municipality of

Chiclana de la Frontera Chiclana de la Frontera () is a town and municipality in southwest Spain, in the province of Cádiz, Andalucía, near the Gulf of Cádiz. It belongs to the association of municipalities of the Bay of Cádiz (Bahía de Cádiz), the provincial capita ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, to which it he thought it similar. The Spanish location was the site of the

Battle of Barrosa The Battle of Barrosa (Chiclana, 5 March 1811, also known as the Battle of Chiclana or Battle of Cerro del Puerco) was part of an unsuccessful manoeuvre by an Anglo-Iberian force to break the French siege of Cádiz during the Peninsular War ...

and was won by Light's friend

Lord Lynedoch Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (19 October 174818 December 1843) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet ...

(Lt. Gen. Sir Thomas Graham) in 1811. The word ''barrosa'' (mis-spelt in the naming of the valley, two 'r' and one 's' becoming one 'r' and two 's'; similarly the nearby town of 'Lyndoch' rather than 'Lynedoch'), in Spanish and Portuguese languages simply means "muddy". Confusion regarding the spelling and origin of the range also resulted in mistaken moves to change it as part of 'de-Germaning' during the First World War ('Kaiser Stuhl', for example, temporarily being renamed 'Mount Kitchener'). Thus named, the Barossa Range was the source of many other local place names, such as the

Hundred of Barossa The Hundred of Barossa is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia in the northern Adelaide Hills. It lies west of the Barossa Range at the south end of the Barossa Valley and is bounded on the north and south by the North Para and South ...

and better-known

Settled features

The Heysen Walking Trail and the Mawson Cycling Trail both traverse the range. It is also home to some of the many

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

in the region, including those in Eden Valley.

References

Mountain ranges of South Australia Barossa Valley {{SouthAustralia-geo-stub

Location

Naming

Settled features

See also

References