Hundred Of Mudla Wirra
History
The hundred was proclaimed on 29 November 1847 in the County of Gawler and named by Governor Frederick Robe, (at the same time as all the other Hundreds in Counties of Gawler, Light & Sturt were declared).
The name mudla wirra comes from the Kaurna language, but may have been misinterpreted in multiple sources, perhaps arising from the online version of Manning's Index. It has been reported that mudla means" implement", giving rise to the translation "a forest where implements are obtained", but in a newer publication (revised in 2012), Manning writes "Professor Tindale says that an alternative derivation is based on the word mudla meaning ‘nose’" (as in the Kaurna name for the Lefevre Peninsula, mudlanga), and other sources confirm this. Tindale and many others based their work on the work of German missionaries Teichelmann and Schürmann, who compiled a grammar and wordlist of the Kaurna language in 1840. In this work, mudla is recorded as meaning "nose", while mudli means implement.
Local government
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Hundred_of_Mudla_Wirra%2C_1964_%2822883339413%29.jpg/220px-Hundred_of_Mudla_Wirra%2C_1964_%2822883339413%29.jpg)
The first District Council of Mudla Wirra was established in 1854, bringing local government to the entire Hundred of Mudla Wirra and parts of the adjacent hundreds of Grace and Port Gawler. In 1856 the new District Council of Port Gawler assumed administration of those western parts outside the Hundred of Mudla Wirra. In 1857 the Town of Gawler was established at the south east corner of the hundred, annexing a small parts of Mudla Wirra.
In 1867 Mudla Wirra council split, horizontally, into the Mudla Wirra North and Mudla Wirra South, but the two were reunited as the second District Council of Mudla Wirra in 1933, bringing the hundred back under the administration of a single council body, apart from Gawler Town right at the south eastern fringe.
In 1977 the Mudla Wirra Council was amalgamated with the District Council of Freeling to form the District Council of Light. In 1996 the latter became a part of the much larger Light Regional Council, after combining with the District Council of Kapunda.
Being governed locally by the Light Regional Council since 1996, the hundred name has been preserved by being used for one of the council's four wards. The Mudla Wirra Ward covers the southern half of the hundred.
Towns
Light Regional Council towns and localities in the hundred include: Hamley Bridge (south part), Linwood (west part), Magdala, Pinkerton Plains (east part), Woolsheds, Wasleys, Templers (west part), Reeves Plains (east part), Kangaroo Flat, Roseworthy (west part), Ward Belt, Gawler Belt, Gawler River and Buchfelde. Town of Gawler suburbs in the hundred include: Willaston, Reid, Gawler, Gawler West and Gawler South (west part).
References
- ^ "Placename Details: Hundred of Mudla Wirra". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. 29 January 2009. SA0047381. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
Other Details: Area 109 1/2 square miles. According to Noel Webb, Mudla Wirra is taken from Mudla meaning implements and Wirra meaning forest and therefore means a forest from which implements are taken.
- ^ "Government Gazette (Extraordinary)". The South Australian. Vol. X, no. 894. 3 December 1847. p. 4. Retrieved 31 May 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Manning, Geoff (2002). "Morphettville - Munno Para". Manning Index of South Australian History. Place Names. State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
- ^ "Wasleys". Light Regional Council. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ^ Manning, Geoff (2012). "M [Chapter]". A Compendium of the Place Names of South Australia (PDF) (Revised ed.). Retrieved 31 May 2021.
Originally published as The place names of our land: a South Australian anthology, Modbury, South Australia: Gould Genealogy & History, 2010
- ^ "Songlines". Port Adelaide Enfield. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ^ Schultz), Chester (13 August 2020). "Mulla-yakki (Murla-yaki)and Mullayakki-parri (Murlayaki-pari)" (PDF). Place Name Summary (PNS) 8/17.
- ^ Teichelmann, Christian Gottlieb; Schurmann, C.W. (1840). "Outlines of a grammar, vocabulary, and phraseology, of the Aboriginal language of South Australia, spoken by the natives in and for some distance around Adelaide". University of Adelaide. Retrieved 31 May 2021 – via Adelaide Research & Scholarship.
- ^ Marsden, Susan (2012). "A History of South Australian Councils to 1936" (PDF). Local Government Association of South Australia. Retrieved 6 November 2017.