Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Mount Torrens SA

Mount Torrens

Postcode: 5244

Mount Torrens is a town in the eastern Adelaide Hills region of South Australia, 46 kilometres east-north-east of the state capital, Adelaide and 8 km east of Lobethal along the Onkaparinga River. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area.

The town was named after Colonel Robert Torrens, one of South Australia’s founding fathers, and was developed by the Dunn family in the early 1840s. The town, then known as Barton Springs, incorporated a farmhouse, smithy, stables and the Cornish Arms Inn. The town proper was laid out in 1853, and it served the Murray River trade at Mannum as well as a nearby copper mine. A small gold deposit was discovered in 1870, but by World War I, the town’s importance had diminished, and the town that stands today is virtually unchanged since that time.

At the ABS 2001 census, Mount Torrens had a population of 319 people living in 120 dwellings.

Mount Torrens has a football club, hotel and general store, as well as several historical buildings.