The Kingston District Council (formerly District Council of Lacepede) 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 ...

in the

Limestone Coast The Limestone Coast is a name used since the early twenty-first century for a South Australian government region located in the south east of South Australia which immediately adjoins the continental coastline and the Victorian border. The ...

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 ...

established in 1873.

Kingston SE Kingston SE (Kingston South East to distinguish it from Kingston-on-Murray) formerly Kingston is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east coastline on the shores of Lacepede Bay. It is located about ...

is the largest town of the district and also the seat of council. The district is mostly reliant on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, particularly

cereal crops A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

. Cape Jaffa also hosts a

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

fishing fleet, with other

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

also providing part of the area's economy.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

also plays a minor role, with Kingston SE a minor tourist destination, noted for its '

Big Lobster The ''Big Lobster'' is a tourist attraction located in the town of Kingston SE, South Australia. Known locally as ''Larry the Lobster'', the sculpture of a spiny lobster stands 17 metres tall, and is regarded as one of the most impressive of Aust ...

', with

Mount Scott Conservation Park __NOTOC__ Mount Scott Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Blackford about east of Kingston SE in the state's Limestone Coast region. The conservation park is loca ...

and

Butchers Gap Conservation Park Butcher Gap Conservation Park is a protected area located in the Limestone Coast of South Australia overlooking Lacepede Bay about south of the town of Kingston SE. The conservation park was proclaimed under the ''National Parks and Wildlife A ...

also located in the district.

History

The area was originally settled by the

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

Aborigines, who lived along the Coorong and extended across the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

to the present day site of Goolwa. The first European to make contact with this stretch of coastline was the French explorer

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

who discovered

Lacepede Bay Lacepede Bay (french: Baie Lacépède) is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south-east coast about northwest of Mount Gambier and about southeast of Adelaide. It was named in 1802 by the Baudin expedit ...

in 1802. In 1840, the Brigantine ''

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

'' was shipwrecked near Cape Jaffa after leaving

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

. This reference quite credibly states the bodies were stuffed down

wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adap ...

holes, where others coyly refer to "shallow graves". It is also one of the few to touch on the contentious possibility of cannibalism. All 25 people aboard were massacred by Aborigines along the Coorong. The town of Kingston was established in 1856, the town being named after the government surveyor, George Strickland Kingston by Governor McDonnell, in 1858 and renamed as Kingston SE in July 1940. The District Council of Lacepede was established on 4 July 1873 to serve the growing area. The name was changed to the present designation on 1 July 2000. Mayor Legoe justified the change at the ceremony, stating; "The decision to change the name of the Council was not a decision to change for the sake of change. It is a decision to change the image and identity of the Council to propel itself into the 21st Century".

Localities

The district council includes the following localities - Avenue Range (part),

Blackford Blackford might refer to: People with the surname *Charles Minor Blackford (1833–1903), an American lawyer *Hosea Blackford, a fictional character in books by Harry Turtledove *Ian Blackford, a Scottish politician *Isaac Blackford (1786–1859), ...

Cape Jaffa Cape Jaffa is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the south end of Lacepede Bay on the state's south east coast about south west of the town centre of Kingston SE. The cape is described as being "a low sandy point" ...

, Coorong, Keilira,

, Marcollat, Pinks Beach, Reedy Creek, Rosetown, Sandy Grove, Taratap, Tilley Swamp, Wangolina,

West Range The West Range is a mountain range in Lincoln County, Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, Californi ...

and Wyomi.

Councillors

Kingston District Council has a directly-elected mayor.

References

External links

Council pageLGA of South Australia - Kingston DC
{{Coord, 36, 50, S, 139, 51, E, region:AU-SA_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Kingston 1873 establishments in Australia Limestone Coast