Yankalilla (Yankalilla)
Yankalilla is an agriculturally based town situated on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, located 72 km south of the state's capital of Adelaide. The town is nestled in the Bungala River valley, overlooked by the southern Mount Lofty Ranges and acts as a service centre for the surrounding agricultural district.
In the early stages of the colonisation of the state, Yankalilla was a highly important location, but its close proximity to Adelaide and the advent of fast transport has greatly diminished this position.
The origin of the town's name is unclear, but it is known that Governor Hindmarsh recorded the Kaurna pronunciation of "Yoongalilla", as applied to the District and noted this in dispatches of 1837. Colonel Light, however wrote about it as Yanky-lilly and Yanky Point, giving rise to the unsubstantiated idea that it was named after an American whaler or an American ship named 'Lilly' which was wrecked off the coast.
According to Geoff Manning, Norman Tindale said that the word is "derived from the Aboriginal word jankalan, meaning "falling", from an incident in the myth of Tjilbruke, whose sister's [sic] mummified body began to fall into pieces here, as he was carrying it from Brighton to Cape Jervis for burial".
In 2002, Kaurna scholar Georgina Yambo Williams, in a paper co-authored by University of Adelaide linguist Robert Amery, drew from her own knowledge and various literary sources from the period of British colonisation of South Australia. In it, she relates that Yankalilla comes from the words yerkandi, meaning "to fall to, to join onto", much in the way a disease does, and lya and illa, which means "place". Thus "Yankalilla" is literally "place of the fallen bits". This is considered by Yambo Williams to be in reference to the Dreaming story of Tjilbruke, who carried his dead nephew's disintegrating body from (what is now called) the Sturt River (Warriparinga ) to Yankalilla and then collapsed. One version of the story of Tjilbruke spells it Yarnkalyilla ("place of the falling bits"), and describes a cave where Tjilbruke deposits his nephew's body. Recent scholarly research by Chester Schulz has concluded that the original site of Yankalilla was Lady Bay, at the mouth of the Yankalilla River just south of Normanville.
Other references to the meaning of Yankalilla come from Kallangoo (Kalunggu) recorded in Robinson's journal on 2 June 2 1837 "Said the country where she came from was called BAT.BUN.GER [Patpangga = Rapid Bay] YANG.GAL.LALE.LAR [Yankalilla]. It is situate at the west point of St. Vincents Gulf. Said that Emue’s brother was her husband. It is on the sea coast; there is a long sandy beach with three rivers.". All of the "Adelaide tribe" – Kaurna language – words starting with "Yanga" mean something to do with wife or women in the 1840 Outlines of a grammar, vocabulary, and phraseology of the Aboriginal language of South Australia by Teichelmann and Schurmann. Yankalilla is the Place of Fallen Bits and the crumbling cliff line in Yankalilla Bay tells this but the meaning of the name Yankalilla is recorded as something to do with a women's place.
In the early stages of the colonisation of the state, Yankalilla was a highly important location, but its close proximity to Adelaide and the advent of fast transport has greatly diminished this position.
The origin of the town's name is unclear, but it is known that Governor Hindmarsh recorded the Kaurna pronunciation of "Yoongalilla", as applied to the District and noted this in dispatches of 1837. Colonel Light, however wrote about it as Yanky-lilly and Yanky Point, giving rise to the unsubstantiated idea that it was named after an American whaler or an American ship named 'Lilly' which was wrecked off the coast.
According to Geoff Manning, Norman Tindale said that the word is "derived from the Aboriginal word jankalan, meaning "falling", from an incident in the myth of Tjilbruke, whose sister's [sic] mummified body began to fall into pieces here, as he was carrying it from Brighton to Cape Jervis for burial".
In 2002, Kaurna scholar Georgina Yambo Williams, in a paper co-authored by University of Adelaide linguist Robert Amery, drew from her own knowledge and various literary sources from the period of British colonisation of South Australia. In it, she relates that Yankalilla comes from the words yerkandi, meaning "to fall to, to join onto", much in the way a disease does, and lya and illa, which means "place". Thus "Yankalilla" is literally "place of the fallen bits". This is considered by Yambo Williams to be in reference to the Dreaming story of Tjilbruke, who carried his dead nephew's disintegrating body from (what is now called) the Sturt River (Warriparinga ) to Yankalilla and then collapsed. One version of the story of Tjilbruke spells it Yarnkalyilla ("place of the falling bits"), and describes a cave where Tjilbruke deposits his nephew's body. Recent scholarly research by Chester Schulz has concluded that the original site of Yankalilla was Lady Bay, at the mouth of the Yankalilla River just south of Normanville.
Other references to the meaning of Yankalilla come from Kallangoo (Kalunggu) recorded in Robinson's journal on 2 June 2 1837 "Said the country where she came from was called BAT.BUN.GER [Patpangga = Rapid Bay] YANG.GAL.LALE.LAR [Yankalilla]. It is situate at the west point of St. Vincents Gulf. Said that Emue’s brother was her husband. It is on the sea coast; there is a long sandy beach with three rivers.". All of the "Adelaide tribe" – Kaurna language – words starting with "Yanga" mean something to do with wife or women in the 1840 Outlines of a grammar, vocabulary, and phraseology of the Aboriginal language of South Australia by Teichelmann and Schurmann. Yankalilla is the Place of Fallen Bits and the crumbling cliff line in Yankalilla Bay tells this but the meaning of the name Yankalilla is recorded as something to do with a women's place.
Map - Yankalilla (Yankalilla)
Map
Country - Australia
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The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
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| AUD | Australian dollar | $ | 2 |
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| EN | English language |