Nantawarra is a locality 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 ...
located about north of the
Adelaide city centre
Adelaide city centre () is the inner city locality of Adelaide, Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide l ...
and within the local government area known as the
Wakefield Regional Council
Wakefield Regional Council is a local government area in the Yorke and Mid North region of South Australia. The council seat is at Balaklava.
Geography
The Wakefield Regional Council includes the towns and localities of Avon, Balaklava, Ba ...
. The locality occupies land on both sides of
Highway 1 between
Port Wakefield in the south and
Snowtown
Snowtown is a town located in the Mid North of South Australia 145 km (90 miles) north of Adelaide and lies on the main road and rail routes between Adelaide and Perth, Western Australia, Perth – the Augusta Highway and Adelaide-Port ...
in the north.
[ Nantawarra is recognisable from a distance by the presence of the disused grain silos immediately just east of the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line. The name Nantawarra may derive from the word ''nantuwara'' (meaning a northern yerta, or family group) in ]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 ...
, the language of the indigenous people of this part of South Australia.
In June 2023, the grain silos were planned to be demolished, with uproar from the local community. The silos were demolished in January 2024.
Traditional occupants
According to the ''Manning Index of South Australian History'' the " Nantuwwara ictribe of some 25 to 30 once occupied the country from the River Wakefield, north to Whitwarta and west to Hummock Range
The Hummocks or Hummock Range is a range of hills in the northern Mount Lofty Ranges extending north from the eastern edge of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. It is traversed by the Copper Coast Highway immediately west of where it passes aro ...
", an area which would encompass the modern localities of Bowmans, Whitwarta, Goyder, Beaufort, Nantawarra and Mount Templeton. The term Nantuwara (or Nantuwaru) is considered to be a specific name for the northern hordes of the 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 ...
people. Stone implements thought to have been used by the Nantuwara people were discovered at sites adjoining the banks of the lower reaches of the River Wakefield and added to a South Australian Museum
The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultur ...
collection curated by Harold Cooper in the 1960s.
See also
*List of cities and towns in South Australia
This is a list of town and locality names in South Australia outside the metropolitan postal area of Adelaide.
:For a list of suburbs in metropolitan areas of Adelaide, see lists inside following individual city council articles: City of Adela ...
*Railway accidents in South Australia
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...
* Yorke Peninsula Field Days
References
Towns in South Australia
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