The Hundred of Para Wirra is a cadastral

hundred 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 ...

of the

County of Adelaide The County of Adelaide is one of the 49 cadastral counties of South Australia and contains the city of Adelaide. It was proclaimed on 2 June 1842 by Governor Grey. It is bounded by the Gawler River and North Para River in the north, the Mount ...

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 ...

, spanning a portion of the Adelaide Hills north of the

Torrens Valley The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) 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 from its source in the ...

including Mount Crawford.

Location

The hundred spans a large number of Adelaide Hills localities but is dominated by

Kersbrook Kersbrook (formerly Maidstone) is a town near Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area. At the 2006 census, Kersbrook had a population of 367. History The first settlers established farms in t ...

in the west and Mount Crawford in the east, with the Mount Gould Range forming a natural boundary between the two. In the west of the hundred are the towns of Inglewood (most part) and localities of Humbug Scrub, Sampson Flat (most part), Millbrook (and

Millbrook Reservoir Millbrook Reservoir is a 16,000-megalitre artificial water storage reservoir in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. It was built from 1914 to 1918 during World War I to control water flows in the upper River Torrens and provide gravity-fed wate ...

) and Chain of Ponds (most part). Other towns and localities crossing the hundred boundary in the west include Yattalunga (eastern half), Lower Hermitage (east half) and Paracombe (eastern portion). Other towns and localities crossing the hundred boundary in the east include Forreston (north west portion),

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

(northern half), Mount Pleasant, (north west portion) and Flaxman Valley (west portion).

History

Hundred of Para Wirra, 1947 (23759827626)

The hundred was proclaimed by Governor

Frederick Robe Major-General Frederick Holt Robe CB (1801 – 4 April 1871) was the fourth Governor of South Australia, from 25 October 1845 to 2 August 1848. Robe entered the Royal Staff Corps as an ensign in 1817, following his father, Sir William Robe wh ...

in 1846 and named for an indigenous compound term meaning 'river forest' (compare: ''

Karra wirra-parri The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) 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 from its source in the ...

''). The first local government within the hundred were the District Council of Para Wirra, seated at Kersbrook, and

District Council of Mount Crawford A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

. The councils were established on the same day in 1854 to administer, respectively, the western and eastern halves of the hundred, with the Mount Crawford council area extending into the neighbouring

Hundred of Barossa The Hundred of Barossa is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia in the northern Adelaide Hills. It lies west of the Barossa Range at the south end of the Barossa Valley and is bounded on the north and south by the North Para and South ...

and slightly east outside the

boundaries. Para Wirra and Mount Crawford councils were both dissolved in 1935 and the hundred, from this time until 1997, was governed by the new

District Council of Gumeracha The District Council of Gumeracha was a Local government in Australia, local government area of South Australia from 1935 to 1997, seated at Gumeracha, South Australia, Gumeracha. History The council was established in 1935 out of the abolished ...

. In 1997, Gumeracha was amalgamated with

East Torrens East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

, Onkaparinga, and

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

councils to form the much larger

Adelaide Hills Council Adelaide Hills Council is a local government area in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is in the hills east of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and extends from the South Para Reservoir in the north to the Mount Bold Reservoir ...

. In 1962 the Para Wirra National Park was proclaimed in the northwest of the hundred. It was reconstituted as a recreation park in 1972, but was upgraded to Conservation Park status in 2015 and the recreation park status was abolished. In 1966, the Warren Conservation Park was created in the middle of the hundred on the northern slopes of Mount Gould Range.

References

{{reflist Para Wirra 1846 establishments in Australia