South Australian place names

Collection Items | Internet Sites | Further Sources

Aboriginal communities were familiar with the southern coastline which was 'unknown' to Europeans, and had their own place names.

Matthew Flinders was the first to chart and name features on the coast of South Australia from Fowlers Bay to Encounter Bay, including the north coast of Kangaroo Island.

French names remain on the south-eastern coastline, and on the south coast of Kangaroo Island - their discoveries.

Collection items

Internet sites

Geography South Australia [The geographical nomenclature of South Australia compiled from early maps: mostly Flinders but also Arrowsmith and Freycinet]

PlaceNames Online: South Australian State gazetteer

Further sources

Cockburn, Rodney. What's in a name?: nomenclature of South Australia: authoritative derivations of some 4000 historically significant place names. Rev. and enl. ed. [Glen Osmond, S. Aust.]: Ferguson Publications, 1984 (Adelaide: Gillingham Printers)

The Encounter 1802: art of the Flinders and Baudin voyages / [compiled by] Sarah Thomas Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2002

Manning, Geoffrey. From Aaron Creek to Zion Hill: the place names of South Australia. 2000