Kingston-On-Murray
- Located about 215 kilometres north east of Adelaide, Kingston-on-Murray
is surrounded by orchards and vineyards.
- European settlement of the district first occurred when Thomas Wigley
established a homestead in 1851. The property was probably called ‘Thurk’ from
an Aboriginal word meaning mouth (the River Murray enters the mouth
of a gorge nearby).
- The settlement of Kingston was established March 1894 as a village
settlement under the South Australian government’s scheme to
settle unemployed people from Adelaide in co-operative communities.
- It was named after Charles Cameron Kingston, premier of South Australia
from 1893 to 1899.
- In 1918, the settlement was officially re-named Thurk, after Wigley’s
station. Most people continued to call it Kingston, however, and because
South Australia already had a town named Kingston, it was changed to
Kingston-on-Murray in 1940.
- After the First World War land in the Kingston area was settled by
returned soldiers under the South Australian governments soldier settlement
scheme.
- Kingston-on-Murray is in South Australia’s fertile Riverland
district where grape vines, stone and citrus fruits are grown in abundance.
Further reading
Early years of the South Australian village settlements: Kingston-on-Murray,
Pyap, Moorook, New Residence, from 1894, [Loxton, SA: N. Schulz?],
1994.
Links
Walkabout – Kingston-on-Murray http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/SAKingston-on-Murray.shtml |
