Parndana is a town and locality in the Australian state of

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 ...

located on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

about southwest of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and about southwest of the municipal seat of Kingscote.

History

Parndana was established after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to support the

Soldier Settlement Scheme Soldier settlement was the settlement of land throughout parts of Australia by returning discharged soldiers under soldier settlement schemes administered by state governments after World War I and World War II. The post-World War II settlement ...

on Kangaroo Island. The name "Parndana" means "The Place of Little Gums". Returned soldiers and their families began to arrive in the area in 1948, occupying huts brought from a former internment camp, and began to move onto their farms in 1951. A total of 174 families came to live in the area, almost doubling Kangaroo Island's population by 1954. The Town of Parndana which was proclaimed on 26 July 1951 under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929-1944'', occupied a triangular-shaped area of land in the cadastral unit of the

Hundred of Seddon County of Carnarvon is a cadastral unit located in the Australian state of South Australia which covers the full extent of Kangaroo Island. It was proclaimed in 1874 by Governor Musgrave in response to the demand for agriculture land on Kang ...

bounded by the

Playford Highway Playford Highway (with Telegraph Road and Kohinoor Road through Kingscote at its eastern end, and Cape Borda Road at its western end) is a main road on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, with its eastern end designated part of route B23. It ext ...

on the north-west, the Rowland Hill Highway to the south-west and the Wedgewood Road to the east. The soldier settlements were established on Crown land, which first had to be cleared of heavy native vegetation. Returned soldiers had to agree to live and work in camps to undertake this clearance work for a number of years before being allocated a block of land which then required further development before they could begin to farm the land, the costs of this further development being bourne by the settlers using government loans (arbitrarily administered by public servants without any specific knowledge of farming needs in the district). Many settlers were unable to succeed in raising sheep (recommended as the best use of the land) because of the widespread use of the Yarloop clover (recommended for use in heavy wet soils), which was subsequently discovered to reduce the fertility of sheep, but at the time the settlers were blamed for their poor farm management skills. Later it was an expensive exercise for farmers to remove the Yarloop clover and replace it with other varieties of clover. As a consequence of these issues, by the 1970s some settlers were in desperate financial circumstances and the government wanted to foreclose on their loans, forcing them to sell their farms, leading to desperate protests and legal action based on the misadvice they had received from public servants. Boundaries for the locality of Parndana were created on 16 May 2002 which consisted of the town's site and some land to the immediate west. The locality name was spelt incorrectly in the notice gazetted on 16 May 2002 and was subsequently corrected in the

South Australian Government Gazette ''The South Australian Government Gazette'' is the government gazette of the South Australian Government. The ''South Australian Gazette'' was first printed on 20 June 1839, after the South Australian Government chose to have its own publicatio ...

on 29 August 2002.

Facilities

The town has an area school for years reception to 12, a community hotel and two general stores. The Parndana Research Centre was established to the south of the town as a support for early farming activities but closed in the 1990s.

Attractions

The Soldier Settlement Museum provides information and artefacts relating to the soldier settlement program.

Sports

The Parndana Football Club first fielded teams in 1948, 1949 and 1951 during the early days of the land clearing operations, before being permanently admitted to the

Kangaroo Island football league The Kangaroo Island Football League (KIFL) is an Australian rules football competition based on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, Australia. It is an affiliated member of the South Australian National Football League and is zoned to the Sou ...

in February 1956.

Climate

Notes

External links

Parndana Wildlife Park
{{authority control Towns on Kangaroo Island Australian soldier settlements 1951 establishments in Australia