page_title: River Torrens
section_title: European exploration and naming
hierarchical_section_title: River Torrens / European exploration and naming
context_page_description: The River Torrens, is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows 85 kilometres from its source in the Adelaide Hills near Mount Pleasant, across the Adelaide Plains, past the city centre and empties into Gulf St Vincent between Henley Beach South and West Beach. The upper stretches of the river and the reservoirs in its watershed supply a significant part of the city's water supply.
  The river is also known by the native Kaurna name for the river – Karrawirra Parri or Karrawirraparri, having been officially dual-named in 2001. Another Kaurna name for the river was Tarndaparri. The river was thought to be a reflection of the Milky Way, and was the heartland of the Kaurna people, who lived along its length and around the tributary creeks.
  At its 1836 exploration by William Light, an inland bend was chosen as the site of the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide.
context_section_description: The first European sighting of the river was in November 1836 by an exploration party comprising Lieutenant W.G. Field, John Morphett and George Strickland Kingston. The river was named "The Yatala" by the party but later renamed by Surveyor General Colonel William Light after  Robert Torrens, chairman of the South Australian Colonisation Commission. On 29 December 1836 Light announced the location of the new city of Adelaide, 6 miles (9.7 km) inland on the river's banks . The first Europeans to explore the Torrens Gorge to the headwaters and sources of the river were Dr George Imlay and John Hill in January 1838.
  In recent years the river has been dually known by the indigenous Kaurna people's name of Karra wirra-parri (meaning river of the Red Gum forest), referring to the dense eucalyptus forest that lined its banks prior to clearing by early settlers. This name, alternatively Karra-weera, only referred to the lake section of the river, between Adelaide and North Adelaide. It was known as Karrundo-ingga at Hindmarsh, Witoingga near the reed beds, and Yertala everywhere when in flood, which has survived as Yatala in the naming of various places in Adelaide.
  Pirltawardli, now within Park 1/Pitawardli, a location next to the river near the weir, on the western side of North Adelaide, is an area of great historical significance, as the location of a Kaurna camp and later the first Christian mission and school in South Australia. The missionaries documented the Kaurna language, which formed the basis of the 21st-century language revival of the language. The "native location" and school moved from the southern side of the river (now Bonython Park) to the northern side several times.
caption: Alexander Schramm, A Tribe of Natives on the Banks of the River Torrens, 1850
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