Yankalilla - Culture and History

A town of considerable historic interest it is one of the more important centres on the Fleurieu Peninsula. No one knows exactly how the town got its name. Some people think it comes from a local Aboriginal word of unknown meaning. The argument for this is that the area has such names as Tunkalilla, Yattagolinga and Carrickalinga - all of which would seem to come from the same language. Others, noting that Colonel Light (the founder of Adelaide) wrote about it as Yanky-lilly and Yanky Point have come up with the rather quaint theory that there was an American, possibly a whaler, who had a daughter called Lilly and that is how the place got its name. There is no evidence to support this theory. There is also an argument that an American ship named 'Lilly' was wrecked off the coast.

It was settled very early in the history of South Australia with the first Europeans arriving as early as 1836. 5,400 acres of land around Yankalilla was surveyed in 1838 and within the next two years sheep and dairy activities were occurring on land along the coast. The actual settlement of Yankalilla occurred in 1842 with the arrival of Henry Kemmis, Septimane Herbert and George Worthington who all took up land and built houses. The farmers planted wheat and barley in the land they had cleared.

The town grew rapidly between 1850 and 1870. During this time Yankalilla became one of the five major towns in the colony of South Australia. It was serviced by a jetty on the coast which was used to ship the wheat out. The district was officially proclaimed in 1854 and the first council meeting took place in the Normanville Hotel that same year. A postmaster was appointed in 1855 and a police station was built at Normanville in 1856. By the late 1860s the town and Normanville had three flour mills, five stores, two breweries, four blacksmiths, three hotels and five churches.

The town remained an important centre but, as transportation improved, its proximity to Adelaide (it is now less than an hour away) ensured that its original importance was reduced.