St Kilda

History

Before the 1836 British colonisation of South Australia, the area was inhabited by the Kaurna people, who occupied the land from what is now Cape Jervis in the south, up the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, to Crystal Brook in the north, east to the Mount Lofty Ranges, across to Gulf Saint Vincent, including the Adelaide Plains and city of Adelaide. They called the Port River region and estuary Yerta Bulti, meaning "land of sleep or death". The Kaurna people made much use of the estuarine area for hunting and gathering food and for materials which they made into artefacts and tools. They made use of the natural resources; for example, they would trap and spear fish (kuya), lobsters (ngaultaltya) and birds (parriparu), and gathered bird's eggs, black river mussels (kakirra, species Alathyria jacksoni), periwinkle (kulutunumi), river crawfish (kunggurla – probably common yabby), clams, native mud oysters and blue swimmer crabs. However, they did not kill the black swans, as this was taboo. The reeds, blue flax lily and rushes (probably Juncus kraussii, the salt marsh rush) were used for weaving baskets and nets – the latter used for not only fish, but game such as kangaroo and emu. Dolphins were known as yambo. Settler fishermen had established huts on three low-lying islands, covered in shell grit and saltbush and surrounded by mangrove and samphire swamps by 1865. By 1873, 13 huts and a boathouse were recorded. By the 1890s, people who lived in Adelaide were visiting the islands, attracted to the supposedly curative properties of the mangrove mud and using the beach for bathing and fishing for crabs. St Kilda was proclaimed a town on 31 July 1893; sales of the first allotments occurred on the same day. The St Kilda Hotel, built out of limestone obtained from…

Most-observed species

• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  5,430
• Australian Ibis

  Threskiornis molucca (Cuvier, 1829) · Aves
  5,045
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  4,431
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  4,371
• Pacific Black Duck

  Anas superciliosa J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  4,230
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  4,098
• New Holland Honeyeater

  Phylidonyris novaehollandiae (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  4,091
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  4,036

Most recent

• M 3 — 2022-03-29
  3 km ESE of Macclesfield, Australia
• M 4 — 2022-03-05
  3 km SW of Mount Barker, Australia
• M 3.2 — 2018-08-08
  11 km WNW of Mannum, Australia
• M 3.9 — 2017-02-01
  9 km NW of Murray Bridge, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2011-10-18
  3 km ESE of Hawthorndene, Australia
• M 3.8 — 2010-04-16
  2 km N of Macclesfield, Australia