Aldinga is a suburb of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
located about south of the
Adelaide city centre
Adelaide city centre () is the inner city locality of Adelaide, Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide l ...
in the
City of Onkaparinga
The City of Onkaparinga () is a local government area (LGA) located on the southern fringe of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the Onkaparinga River, whose name comes from ''Ngangkiparinga'', a Kaurna word meaning women's river. It ...
. It is a small suburb (population around 573 in 2016), about a kilometre east of the edge of the larger suburb of
Aldinga Beach, and about from the beachfront.
History
Aboriginal use
Before
British colonisation of South Australia
British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...
, the
Kaurna people occupied the land from the
Adelaide plains and southwards down the western side of the
Fleurieu Peninsula
The Fleurieu Peninsula ( ; locally mainly ) is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide.
History
Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western s ...
. There was a camp at Aldinga known as Camp Coortandillah, and Kaurna people were present living in the
Aldinga Scrub until the 1870s, when Bishop
Augustus Short sent the remaining people to the mission at
Poonindie, thus ending their occupation of the area. After they were removed, some Aboriginal people from the
Goolwa area (
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 ...
people) occupied the area. The
Kaurna language name of Aldinga was Ngaltingga.
European history
After
British colonisation of South Australia
British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...
, Aldinga started as a town in the 1850s in response to the development of farming on the Aldinga Plains. The layout of the town in circa 1857 is attributed to Lewis Fidge, a local farmer. The town is reported as growing quickly with the construction of a "hotel, church,
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
's shop and a number of other shops and trades". In the 1870s, the combination of declining productivity of the land and opportunities such as the availability of land in South Australia's mid-North resulted in a
population decline
Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total world population, human population has estimates of historical world population, continued to grow but projections sugg ...
. However, the town survived due to its location on the Old Coach Road which continues south to towns along the east coast of
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 Sp ...
as part of what is now called the
Main South Road.
Aldinga Post Office opened around 1851 and closed in 1992.
Popular culture
The bands
Another's Life, The Fall of Troy,
I Killed The Prom Queen and Spirit of Alondray come from Aldinga.
See also
*
Aldinga Airfield
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldinga, South Australia
Suburbs of Adelaide
Populated places established in 1857
1857 establishments in Australia