River Torrens in the context of "Victoria Square, Adelaide"

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⭐ Core Definition: River Torrens

The River Torrens /ˈtɒrənz/ (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows 85 kilometres (53 mi) from its source in the Adelaide Hills near Mount Pleasant, across the Adelaide Plains, past the city centre and empties into Gulf St Vincent between Henley Beach South and West Beach. The upper stretches of the river and the reservoirs in its watershed supply a significant part of the city's water supply.

The river is also known by the native Kaurna name for the river—Karrawirra Parri or Karrawirraparri (karra meaning redgum, wirra meaning forest and parri meaning river), having been officially dual-named in 2001. Another Kaurna name for the river was Tarndaparri (Kangaroo river). The river was thought to be a reflection of the Milky Way ("wodliparri"), and was the heartland of the Kaurna people, who lived along its length and around the tributary creeks.

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👉 River Torrens in the context of Victoria Square, Adelaide

Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga (formerly Tarndanyangga, Kaurna pronunciation: [ˈd̪̥aɳɖaɲaŋɡa]), is the central square of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.

It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, Colonel William Light, who was Surveyor-General at the time, in his 1837 plan of the City of Adelaide which spanned the River Torrens Valley, comprising the city centre (South Adelaide) and North Adelaide. The square was named on 23 May 1837 by the Street Naming Committee after Princess Victoria, then heir presumptive of the British throne. In 2003, it was assigned a second name, Tarndanyangga (later amended to Tarntanyangga), in the Kaurna language of the original inhabitants, as part of the Adelaide City Council's dual naming initiative.

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River Torrens in the context of Greater Adelaide

Adelaide (/ˈædɪld/ AD-il-ayd; Kaurna: Tarndanya [ˈd̪̥aɳɖaɲa]) is the capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre; the demonym Adelaidean is used to denote the city and the residents of Adelaide. The traditional owners of the Adelaide region are the Kaurna, with the name Tarndanya referring to the area of the city centre and surrounding Park Lands, in the Kaurna language. Adelaide is situated on the Adelaide Plains north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St Vincent in the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges in the east. Its metropolitan area encompasses over 430 suburbs, extending 96 km (60 mi) from Gawler in the north to Sellicks Beach in the south and 20 km (12 mi) from the western coast to the eastern foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Named in honour of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for the only freely settled British province in Australia, distinguishing it from Australia's penal colonies. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide's founding fathers, designed the city centre and chose its location close to the River Torrens. Light's design, now listed as national heritage, set out the city centre in a grid layout known as "Light's Vision", interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by park lands. Colonial Adelaide was noted for its leading examples of religious freedom and progressive political reforms and became known as the "City of Churches" due to its diversity of faiths. It was Australia's third-most populous city until the postwar era.

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River Torrens in the context of Adelaide Park Lands

The Adelaide Park Lands are a green belt forming a figure-eight configuration of open space on both banks of the River Torrens between Hackney and Thebarton, which encloses and separates the City of Adelaide area (including both the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide) from the surrounding suburbia of greater metropolitan Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. They were laid out by Colonel William Light in his design for the city, and originally consisted of 2,300 acres (930 ha) "exclusive of 32 acres (13 ha) for a public cemetery". One copy of Light's plan shows areas for a cemetery and a Post and Telegraph Store on West Terrace, a small Government Domain and Barracks on the central part of North Terrace, a hospital on East Terrace, a Botanical Garden on the River Torrens west of North Adelaide, and a school and a storehouse south-west of North Adelaide.

Over the years there has been constant encroachment on the Park Lands by the state government and others. Soon after their declaration in 1837, 370 acres (150 ha) "were lost to 'Government Reserves'". In 1902, The Herald noted that a total area of 489 acres (198 ha) had been taken from park lands. In 2018, the loss is about 568 acres (230 ha). The part of the Park Lands not in the "Government Reserves" have been managed and maintained by the Adelaide City Council since 1852, and since February 2007, the Adelaide Park Lands Authority has advised council and government.

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River Torrens in the context of Adelaide Plains

The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of Adelaide around Brighton at the foot of the O'Halloran Hill escarpment with the south Hummocks Range and Wakefield River roughly approximating the northern boundary.

Traditionally entirely occupied by the Kaurna (indigenous) people, the Adelaide Plains are crossed by a number of rivers and creeks, but several dry up during summer. The rivers (from south to north) include: the Onkaparinga/Ngangki, Sturt/Warri Torrens/Karra Wirra, Little Para, Gawler, Light/Yarralinka and Wakefield/Undalya. The plains are generally fertile with annual rainfall of about 460 millimetres (18 in) per year.

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River Torrens in the context of Whitmore Square

Whitmore Square, also known as Iparrityi (formerly Ivaritji), is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. Occupying 2.4ha (24,000 m), it is located at the junction of Sturt and Morphett streets in the south-western quarter of the Adelaide city grid.

It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, William Light, who was Surveyor-General at the time, in his 1837 plan of the City of Adelaide which spanned the River Torrens Valley, comprising the city centre (South Adelaide) and North Adelaide. The square was named in 1837 by the Street Naming Committee after William Wolryche-Whitmore, a British politician who had introduced the South Australia Act 1834 to the British House of Commons. In 2003, as part of the dual naming initiative of the Adelaide City Council, a second name, Ivaritji (later corrected to Iparrityi), was assigned in the Kaurna language of the original inhabitants. Iparrityi (c.1847—1929), also known as Amelia Taylor, was the last full-blood Kaurna person and last speaker of the Kaurna language.

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River Torrens in the context of North Adelaide

North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three sections by Colonel William Light in 1837, the suburb contains many grand old mansions.

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River Torrens in the context of Yalumba

Yalumba is an Australian winery located near the town of Angaston, South Australia in the Barossa Valley wine region. It was founded by a British brewer, Samuel Smith, who emigrated to Australia with his family from Wareham, Dorset in August 1847 aboard the ship China. Upon arriving in Adelaide in December, Smith built a small house on the banks of the River Torrens. He lived there less than a year before moving north to Angaston where he purchased a 30-acre (120,000 m) block of land on the settlement's south eastern boundary. He named his property "Yalumba" after an indigenous Australian word for "all the land around". In 1849 Smith and his son Sidney planted Yalumba's first vineyards, beginning the Yalumba dynasty. Until the 1960s Yalumba was known for fortified wines. As at 2022 it was ranked the twelfth largest Australian wine company by production and ninth largest in terms of total revenue.

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