Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Tungkillo SA

Tungkillo

Postcode: 5236

Tungkillo is a town in South Australia, located approximately 5 km south of Mount Pleasant. It sits on Adelaide-Mannum Road, 60 km east-north-east of the state capital, Adelaide and 25 km north-west of Mannum.

Tungkillo was originally the name of a mine located south of Palmer, which opened in 1847. In 1848, a town was surveyed at the mine, The present-day town was settled by Samuel Patten in 1861, who called it South Petherton (after the Somerset town of North Petherton from which his family originated). The name of South Petherton was officially altered on January 24, 1906 to Tungkillo, although the two names were used interchangeably as late as 1936.

Tungkillo is a corruption of tainkila, an Peramangk Aboriginal word meaning ghost moth grubs.

Tungkillo is in the Mid Murray Council local government area, the South Australian House of Assembly electoral district of Schubert and the Australian House of Representatives Division of Barker.