Eudunda

Eudunda is a town in the Mid North region of South Australia, situated 110 kilometres northeast of Adelaide in the Regional Council of Goyder. As of 2021, Eudunda had a population of 815 people. Eudunda is known as the birthplace of author and educator Colin Thiele. Etymology The town name of Eudunda originates from the name of the spring to the west of the town, which local Aboriginal people called judandakawi. According to Dr. Phillip Clarke of the South Australian Museum, judandakawi means 'sheltered water.' The earliest-known written mention of the name Eudunda was published in the The Express and Telegraph on 8 March 1872. History The area is the traditional lands of the Ngadjuri people. The Ngadjuri have been largely overlooked in the histories of colonisation and the subsequent dispossession from their traditional lands. The first Europeans in the area were those travelling to the Adelaide markets from New South Wales and Queensland in the 1830s. In 1838, four young livestock importers from the eastern colonies, John Hill, William Wood, Charles Willis, and John Oakden, embarked on a journey find a route through the Mount Lofty Ranges to bring livestock overland from New South Wales to South Australia, following the Murray River, naming landmarks along the way. Shortly after, pastoralists such as Frederick Dutton took up sheep grazing runs in the area.