Kawandilla

Abstract

Kawandilla (Kawantilla in KWP’s New Spelling 2010) is a Kaurna word meaning ‘in the north’ or ‘north place’. It seems also that some Kaurna speakers in first contact times – probably those whose heart country was further south – used this word as a kind of general area name for the region of the ‘Adelaide tribe’, i.e. the southernmost portion (around the Torrens and Sturt Rivers) of what we now call the Adelaide Plains. It was probably not used as a place-name for the Adelaide area by the local owners. Beginning with Hack and Mary Thomas, early colonists thought the name “Cowandilla” meant ‘good water’ or ‘plenty of water’, no doubt because the first syllable reminded them of one of the few Kaurna words which they knew, kauwi (‘water’). But this etymology is extremely unlikely and does not account for all the syllables. Somebody may have confused an informant’s description of a place (e.g. well-watered ‘Glenelg’) with the meaning of the word. In spite of guesses by Tindale and others, the Kaurna name does not belong specifically to today’s suburb of Cowandilla on Section 92. The village established there in 1840 was given this name because the developers thought ‘Cowandillah’ meant something about ‘water’, not because the name belonged there.