page_title: Adelaide
section_title: Before European settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Adelaide / History / Before European settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Approximate extent of the traditional territory of the Kaurna people. Based on the description given by Robert Amery in Warrabarna Kaurna!: reclaiming an Australian language.
context_page_description: Adelaide AD-ə-layd, is the capital city of the state of South Australia, and the fifth-most populous city of Australia. The demonym Adelaidean is used to denote the city and the residents of Adelaide.
  Adelaide is situated on the Adelaide Plains north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St Vincent in the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges in the east. Its metropolitan area extends 20 km (12 mi) from the coast to the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and stretches 96 km (60 mi) from Gawler in the north to Sellicks Beach in the south.
  Named in honour of Queen Adelaide, consort to King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for the only freely-settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide's founding fathers, designed the city centre and chose its location close to the River Torrens, in the area originally inhabited by the Kaurna people and known as Tarndanyangga ("place of the red kangaroo"). Light's design, now listed as national heritage, set out the city centre in a grid layout known as "Light's Vision", interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parklands.
context_section_description: Before its proclamation as a British settlement in 1836, the area around Adelaide was inhabited by the indigenous Kaurna people, one of many Aboriginal nations in South Australia. The city and parklands area was known as Tarntanya, or Tarndanyangga in the Kaurna language. The surrounding area was an open grassy plain with patches of trees and shrub which had been managed by hundreds of generations. Kaurna country encompassed the plains which stretched north and south of Tarntanya as well as the wooded foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges. The River Torrens was known as the Karrawirra Pari (red gum forest river). About 300 Kaurna populated the Adelaide area, and were referred to by the settlers as the Cowandilla.
  The Kaurna language was a complex one, reflecting their sophisticated culture and deep environmental knowledge. Within a few decades of European settlement of South Australia, Kaurna culture and language were almost completely destroyed. Extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both, which has included a commitment by local and state governments to rename or include Kaurna names for many local places.
caption: Approximate extent of Kaurna territory, based on the description by Amery (2000)
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