| Monarto South Australia | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||
  Monarto | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 35°04′S 139°06′E / 35.07°S 139.10°E | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 30 November 1847 | ||||||||||||||
| County | Sturt | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
The Hundred of Monarto is a cadastral unit of hundred, the centre of which lies about 47 kilometres (29 mi) east southeast of Adelaide in South Australia and about 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of the Murray River.[1] One of the ten hundreds of the County of Sturt, it is bounded on the west by the Bremer River, with the north west corner being set at the point where Mount Barker Creek merges with the river.[2] It was named in 1847 by Governor Frederick Robe after "Queen Monarto", an aboriginal woman who lived at the time in the area. According to John Wrathall Bull, in his writings on early South Australia history, she was the lubra (partner) of aboriginal tribal leader "King John", whose tribe resided "on the banks of the Murray" at the time.[3][1]
The following localities and towns of the Murray Bridge Council area are situated inside (or largely inside) the bounds of the Hundred of Monarto:
- Rockleigh (most part)
- Monarto, the township laid out in 1908 named after the hundred and located at its centre.
- Monarto South (northern half only)
- Callington (large part west of Bremer River)
- ^ a b "Search for 'Hundred of Monarto' (ID SA0045594)". Government of South Australia. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ "GOVERNMENT GAZETTE (EXTRAORDINARY). PROCLAMATION. By his Excellency FREDERICK HOLT". The South Australian. Adelaide. 3 December 1847. p. 4. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ "NOMENCLATURE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. NAMES AND THEIR ORIGIN. XVII.—AN ALPHABETICAL REVIEW". Adelaide: Evening Journal. 29 June 1908. p. 2. Retrieved 8 June 2007.
Monarto was the name of a native lubra. J. W. Bull, in his "Early Recollections," makes the following reference to a native tribe occupying a piece of country on the banks of the Murray [...] "We called their chief King John and the name of his lubra was Monarto, which was considered so pretty a name that the whites never changed it. [...]"