History and Heritage

Ngarmaracha, meaning Women’s Waterhole, is a sacred place for Peramangk Peoples. This was a birthing place for women. Peramangk Peoples lived on the eastern side of the escarpment of the Mount Lofty Ranges and were known as the ‘Fire Makers’ and as the ‘Red Ochre Peoples’. Karra-watta means Redgum Land and is the name referring to the stretch of country running north from Lobethal to the Torrens through Kersbrook, the valley of the South Para River up to as far as Williamstown. The local clan/ family groups who lived here were the Karra-watta people.

This area was settled in 1839 by William Beavis Randell and his family. He built the family home, Kenton Park, followed by a flour mill and church. In 1855, Randell allocated land for a township and by 1860 the town was laid out and homes and services emerged. William Beavis Randell’s son, William Richard Randell, had a dream to build a steam boat to transport flour from the family flour mill in Gumeracha via the river at Mannum to the goldfields in Victoria. He built the first Murray River paddlesteamer in Gumeracha in 1852 and named it Mary Ann after his mother.