Carrickalinga (from

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 ...

Karrakardlangga / Karragarlangga) is a small coastal town in

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 ...

about south of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

on the

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula ( ; locally mainly ) is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western s ...

overlooking

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger Sp ...

. The town has no shops, with the nearest being in Normanville, one kilometre away. Haycock Point separates two beaches, sometimes referred to as North Carrickalinga and South Carrickalinga beaches, both on

Yankalilla Bay Yankalilla Bay is a long, wide bay in south-eastern South Australia, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is on the south-eastern coast of the Gulf St Vincent, as it opens into the Southern Ocean. Three rivers discharge into the bay: the Bungala River ...

. Carrickalinga Creek discharges into the sea south of the town.

History

Aboriginal use

Before

British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

, the

Kaurna people 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 ...

occupied the land from the

Adelaide plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast ( Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of A ...

and southwards down western side of the

. The

name was Karrakardlangga. According to

Geoff Manning Geoffrey Haydon Manning (1926–2018) was an Australian author and historian. He is known particularly for his books on South Australian placenames; ''Manning's Place Names of South Australia'' (1990) is particularly well-known and available onli ...

, the name is "a corruption of the name of a former Aboriginal camp on section 1018 meaning 'place for

redgum Redgum were an Australian bush band, folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson (composer), Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were ...

firewood'". The Tjilbruke Dreaming Track, based on the story of the Kaurna creator ancestor Tjilbruke's journey down the Fleurieu Peninsula, follows the coastline through Carrickalinga. There is a

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

on Gold Coast Drive on the

foreshore The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats ...

European settlement

Information on a

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

mine in the area was reported in newspapers in 1862 and 1880, and a 1913 article refers to "mineral wealth". Carrickalinga first appeared in 1958 as the name of a private subdivision developed by a George Lewis of Waterloo Corner in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Myponga. The name was "used in preference to Gold Coast". Boundaries were established in respect to the ''Geographical Names Act 1988'', with a portion being added in 1994 and then "redefined" in 1999. George Lewis is remembered in the naming of Lewis Road, whilst a former Town Clerk of the

District Council of Yankalilla The District Council of Yankalilla is a local government area centred on the town of Yankalilla on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. It was created on 23 October 1856, when the District Council of Yankalilla and Myponga was divided i ...

, Tom Lyddon, has Lyddon Place named after him. The original sales agent, Cliff Hawkins, placed a flagpole on the hill adjoining Solitude Drive, which remains in place today.

Governance

Carrickalinga is located within the federal

division of Mayo The Division of Mayo () is an Australian electoral division located to the east and south of Adelaide, South Australia. Created in the state redistribution of 3 September 1984, the division is named after Helen Mayo, a social activist and th ...

, the state

electoral district of Mawson Mawson is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the entirety of Kangaroo Island, and parts of the local government areas of Alexandrina Council, the City of Onkaparinga, and the District Counc ...

and the local government area of the

Description

The beaches are wide with white sand that stretches down to the pristine water. Haycock Point separates two beaches, with the beach north of the point and running up to Carrickalinga Head described as Carrickalinga Beach by Beachsafe. There was a

jetty A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater (structure), breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French la ...

constructed there in April 1923, later demolished owing to its poor siting, being exposed to wind and constant

sea swell A swell, also sometimes referred to as ground swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a series of mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air under the predominating influence of gravity, and thus are oft ...

. Carrickalinga Creek, also spelt Carricalinga Creek, discharges into the sea just south of Riverview Drive, although beach sand often covers the river mouth.

References

External links

"Carrickalinga becomes Australia’s first International Dark Sky Community"

DarkSky International DarkSky International, formerly the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), is a United States–based nonprofit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, a physician and amateur ...

(May 30, 2024) {{District Council of Yankalilla suburbs , state=collapsed Coastal towns in South Australia Fleurieu Peninsula Gulf St Vincent