Pioneers SA Learning Hub

Exploring the early European settlement of South Australia from 1836 to 1846 and answering questions on the lives of people in South Australia's colonial past, what significant events happened during this time

Image reference: A temporary view of the country and the temporary erections near the site for the proposed town of Adelaide. Light, William (1837). State Library of SA B 10079.

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Pioneers SA celebrates our shared heritage and honour the achievements of south Australian pioneers. The blog provides links and resources to tell us the story of the early years of European settlement and colonisation in South Australia.

The Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains

Copy of artwork depicting a group of Kaurna people in the early days of European settlement in Adelaide, South Australia. [State Library of SA B 49504]
  • Pilta Wadli (Kaurna for possum home) is located in the Adelaide parkland north of the River Torrens
  • It was a regular camping ground for the Kaurna people. In 1837 it was designated as the “Aborigines location”
  • German missionaries established a Christian mission as the site in 1839. Within the settlement were pise (mud and straw) houses and huts, wurlies and a pise school for the Kaurna people

Some useful websites to access:

Kaurna Language Conservation

Kaurna Children’s Letters: https://www.amw.org.au/register/listings/kaurna-children%E2%80%99s-letters

Piltawodli, north of the river: https://adelaideaz.com/articles/piltawoldi–north-of-river-torrens–the-last–native-location–for-kaurna-in-adelaide-

Pirltawardli

Documenting the Kaurna Language

In September 1840 Schurmann had taken up a government position as deputy protector of Aborigines at Port Lincoln.

As an interpreter he often accompanied police investigations and travelled to Adelaide for court proceedings but had difficulty harmonizing this work with his missionary activities.

By the end of that year he had collected 500 words of the Parnkalla (Banggarla) language.

He repeatedly requested government support for an agricultural settlement and school for the Aboriginal population away from the influence of European settlers.

In 1843 he was recalled to Adelaide as a court interpreter and the next year published a dictionary of 2000 entries “A Vocabulary of the Parnkalla Language, Spoken by the Natives Inhabiting the Western Shores of Spencer’s Gulf”

Clamor Wilhelm Schurmann ca. 1890. Lutheran Archives, Adelaide

Some useful language websites:

Kaurna Warra, the language of the people of the Adelaide Plains: https://www.kaurnawarra.org.au/

Clamor Schürmann’s Barngarla grammar: A commentary on the first section of A vocabulary of the Parnkalla language: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/barngarla

Clamor Schürmann’s Barngarla grammar

Germans in South Australia

Germans in South Australia

The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/4755c59ae93447a9b0acf9b2b0b265f6/

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