Yarta-Kurlangga

Abstract

Yarta-kurlangga was the Kaurna name of a small area centred on the well-favoured campsites at Rapid Bay, around the mouth of what we know today as the Yattagolinga River. Yarta means 'earth, land, country'. Here kurla (a word with a range of recorded meanings) probably means ‘separate’ and/or ‘last’. The name therefore means ‘place of the separate or last land’. This may refer to the remote and rather separate position of Rapid Bay away from the bigger population centres and frequently-used travel routes, and perhaps to a tendency of the resident groups here to be more socially isolated than others.