The Adelaide Plains Council (formerly the District Council of Mallala) is a

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It consists of a largely rural region along the

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger S ...

, covering a total area of approximately 926 km². The council seat lies at Mallala, but it also maintains a service centre at

Two Wells Two Wells is a town approximately north of the Adelaide city centre in South Australia adjacent to Port Wakefield Road and passed by the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line. The first settlers in the area used two aboriginal wells in the area a ...

Description

Both the Light River and the Gawler River pass through the district and the rich fertile plains are ideal for vegetable production, the majority of which is sent to the nearby Adelaide markets. As well as the general agricultural pursuits of grain growing and storage and running livestock, other major industries in the region include the livestock market / sale yards, metal fabrication and manufacture of industrial equipment.

History

The District Council of Light was proclaimed on 21 March 1935, having stemmed from the amalgamation of the District Council of Grace, the

District Council of Dublin The District Council of Dublin was a local government area in South Australia from 1873 to 1935, seated at Dublin. History The council was proclaimed on 27 November 1873. Its jurisdiction consisted of the whole Hundred of Dublin as well as th ...

and the

District Council of Port Gawler The District Council of Port Gawler was a Local government areas of South Australia, local government area in South Australia from 1856 to 1935. It was proclaimed on 11 September 1856 after being severed from the District Council of Mudla Wirra ...

. It is unrelated to either the earlier or later councils also named District Council of Light, both of which were predecessors of the adjacent

Light Regional Council Light Regional Council is a local government area north of Adelaide in South Australia. It is based in the town of Kapunda, and includes the towns of Freeling, Greenock, Hansborough, Hewett, Roseworthy and Wasleys. The council is named f ...

. In 1936, the council petitioned the state government to have its name changed citing an existing problem with correspondence intended for the Council being addressed to towns situated outside its boundaries in the cadastral unit of the

Hundred of Light 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

and that the recent creation of the

electoral district of Light An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

which was also outside of its boundaries would “cause further confusion.” The change was granted and the renaming of the council as the District Council of Mallala was gazetted on 15 April 1937. The first white settlement of the area dates back to the Port Gawler Special Survey in 1839. Originally the land was inhabited by 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. Kaurn ...

people whose territory extended in a narrow corridor along the eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent; Cape Jervis to Port Wakefield; inland to near Crystal Brook, Snowtown, Blyth, Hoyleton, Hamley Bridge, Clarendon, Gawler, and Myponga; from the east side of the Hummock Range to Red Hill. Inland the stringy bark forests of the Mount Lofty Ranges marked their boundary. Throughout the district large tracts of surveyed land were allotted to pastoralists who farmed mostly grain and sheep. The early produce of the area was often shipped out on ketches from the Ports of Gawler and Parham. In 1986, the council was reported as having an area of and a population of about 3940 with most population growth occurring in the southern part of the council area around the town of

. The principal industries were agriculture and

salt mining Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustio ...

with the former consisting of

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

in the vicinity of the Gawler River with the remainder of the district being used for cereal growing, stock grazing and dairying, and with the latter being concerned with salt extraction via evaporation at sites along the coastline. In September 2016, the council's name was changed to be Adelaide Plains Council, reflecting its extent and location on the northern

Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of Ade ...

Geography

The Adelaide Plains Council includes the towns and localities of Calomba,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * A ...

, Korunye, Lewiston, Lower Light, Mallala, Middle Beach, Parham, Port Gawler, Redbanks, Thompson Beach,

, Webb Beach and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, and parts of Barabba, Grace Plains, Long Plains, Reeves Plains and

Wild Horse Plains Wild Horse Plains is a locality in South Australia on the eastern coastline of Gulf St Vincent about north-northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Its name is attributed to Thomas Day, who found wild horses grazing within the locality around 187 ...

Councillors

The Adelaide Plains Council has a directly-elected mayor.

Former chairmen

The following persons were elected to serve as chairman of the council for the following terms: * Edmund Albert Charles Brooks (1935–51) *Arthur David Prime (1951–55) *Albert Sydney Helps (1956–62) * Leslie Rupert Hart (1962–64) *Maxwell Howard Marshman (1964–70) *Allan Reginald Hart (1970–75) *Roy Arthur Bache (1975–79) *Lancelot Arthur Davies (1979–82) *Leon George Broster (1982–86) *Bill Forby (1986-89) *Ian O'Loan (1989-93) *Mark Cody (1993-94) *Ian O’Loan (1994-97) *Michael Picard (1997-2000) *Margaret Gameau (2000-2006) *Marcus Strudwicke (2006-2007) *Steve Kennedy (2007-2009) *Marcus Strudwicke (2009-2014) *Duncan Kennington (2014-2016) *Tony Flaherty (2016-2018)

References

External links

Official site
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Adelaide Plains