The Counties and Hundreds of South Australia

What are the names and locations of the Counties and Hundreds in South Australia, and where are they located, you ask?

When Colonel William Light was appointed Surveyor-General to the Colony of South Australia, his orders were to divide the land within the Colony into townships and counties. The first 9 of these were not proclaimed until 1842. Prior to this the land had been sold under a system of preliminary districts and special surveys—eg. The Mt Barker Special Survey of 1842 and the Three Brothers Survey of 1843. But by 1846, it was clear that a better system was needed, and that the divisions needed to be smaller in order that they be manageable.

A system of hundreds, similar to that used in parts of England was adopted, but with some modifications to suit the vast size of South Australia in comparison to the “Mother Country”. Where the English system delineated a hundred by drawing a line around what amounted to roughly 100 homes, the South Australian model used an area of roughly 100 square miles. It should be noted that not all hundreds in SA are universally this size, nor are they technically square.

In the 1850’s a hierarchical system of Counties, Hundreds, Sections, and Lots was adopted. In 1858, the Premier of SA, Sir Robert Richard Torrens came up with the system of land title registration which is still used today—Torrens Title, which became law following the passing of the Real Property Act in 1861. After 1861, no land in SA could be sold without it being located within a County and a Hundred. An individual needed to register his purchase of land with the Lands Titles Office. Once a person’s name was registered against a piece of land, that person became the exclusive owner of that property by right of title registration.

Before 1865, the Government did little to promote the creation of country towns, save for those that were important as river or sea ports, such as Goolwa and Pt Augusta. In the 1870’s this changed and the wheat boom caused the Central and Northern regions to be surveyed. Between 1895 and 1930 the areas known as the Murray Mallee and Eyre Peninsula were opened up and surveyed into counties & hundreds.

After 1865 it became commonplace for the Government to survey at least one town in each hundred. Before this, however, there had been a number of towns that sprang up within hundreds that had been privately surveyed.

[Introduction of the Real Property Act in South Australia, D.Pike 1961]

The following are the Hundreds, listed alphabetically, with their respective Counties and other useful information including towns that are located within the Hundred boundaries. As time Permits, we will add further information.