Piltawodli (Pirltawardli)

Abstract

Pilta-wodli (or Piltawodlingga; in KWP New Spelling 2010, Pirltawardli and Pirltawardlingga) was the Kaurna name of the area of the earliest ‘Native Location’ & School established in 1837, where the German linguist missionaries Teichelmann, Schürmann & Klose did most of their work recording the Kaurna language & using it to teach Kaurna children, 1838-45. The place (probably a campsite) was chosen by the Kaurna themselves: on the Torrens River, in the present North Adelaide Golf Links just north of the Torrens Lake weir. It is now marked by a memorial plaque at the carpark by the weir. Its meaning was not given at the time, but is almost certainly ‘brushtail possum home’. This may have been due to the many possums who lived in the big River red gums which grew then along this stretch of the river.