Bumbunga, South Australia

Bumbunga is a locality in the Mid North of South Australia 125 kilometres (78 mi) north of Adelaide. It lies 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Lake Bumbunga.

Bumbunga
South Australia
Bumbunga
Coordinates33°54′S 138°13′E
Postcode(s)5520
Location125 km (78 mi) north of Adelaide
LGA(s)Wakefield Regional Council
State electorate(s)Narungga[1]
Federal Division(s)Grey
Localities around Bumbunga:
Barunga Gap, Bute Snowtown Condowie, Brinkworth
Lochiel, Ninnes Bumbunga Everard Central, Blyth
South Hummocks, Kulpara Nantawarra Mount Templeton, Whitwarta

According to anthropologist Norman Tindale the name was derives from parnpangka, the local indigenous (Kaurna) term for 'rain water lake',[2] referring to Lake Bumbunga.

The town administration falls under the control of the Wakefield Regional Council for local governance. Bumbunga lies in the state electoral district of Narungga and in the federal electoral division of Grey.

An east-facing 2006 photograph of an entrance to the former micronation, Province of Bumbunga

The South Australian Government's Atlas of South Australia describes the Bumbunga environmental subregion as being a low-lying (mean altitude 130 metres (430 ft) alluvial plains "with salt lakes and occasional dunes." The atlas further describes the subregion as having "grassland cover used for rotation cereal cultivation and livestock grazing" and "low shrubland used for livestock grazing" on salt lake margins.[3]

Located on what was traditionally the land of the Kaurna (indigenous) people, the first pioneers arrived sometime between 1847 and 1849 due to the rapid expansion of farming to the north of the area. Bailliere's South Australian gazetteer and road guide, published in 1866, contains a brief description of "Hummock's Run" located 28 miles (45 km) north of Port Wakefield. This farmland, according to the publication, contained the farming stations of Barunga, Bumbunga and Wokurna and consisted of "salt lakes and lagoons, dense scrub, with mallee, pine and bushes, grassy plains and saltbush, well grassed spurs and hills, with oaks and wattle on the Broughton River."[4]

A secessionist micronation, the Province of Bumbunga, was located in Bumbunga for approximately a decade in the 1970s and 1980s.[5]

The Bumbunga railway siding of the Port Pirie railway line was established in the early 1920s during the extension of the main line from Long Plains to Redhill. In 1926, a 5-mile (8.0 km) spur line was completed from the siding to Lochiel salt works on the south-western shore of Lake Bumbunga.[6]

Salt Lake

About 1905 a hamlet called Salt Lake existed on Salt Lake Road, the present-day boundary between Bumbunga and Snowtown 750 metres (800 yards) north of Lake Bumbunga.[7] The hamlet included the Salt Lake school, and a small cemetery that still exists on Salt Lake Road, 1.1 km (0.7 mi) east of Augusta Highway at 33°50′59″S 138°12′06″E.

References
  1. Narungga (Map). Electoral District Boundaries Commission. 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  2. "Place Names of South Australia: Bumbunga". Manning Index of South Australian History. State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  3. "Bumbunga (Environmental Association 4.6.10)". Government of South Australia. 29 June 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  4. Whitworth (1866) p. 283
  5. Dapin, Mark (12 February 2005). "If at first you don't secede...". Sydney Morning Herald. pp. 47–50.
  6. "LOCHIEL-BUMBUNGA". The Register (Adelaide). XCI (26, 600). South Australia. 18 November 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 5 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Placename Details: Salt Lake". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. 23 September 2008. SA0022599. Retrieved 8 April 2019.


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