Goyder, South Australia


Goyder is a locality in South Australia's Mid North situated in the central east of the cadastral Hundred of Goyder. It was named for the hundred which was in turn named for George Goyder, Surveyor General of South Australia at the time.
The locality is bounded on the west by the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line. The Black Range stretches north–south through the locality from the foot of Mount Templeton outside the northern boundary of the locality. Similarly, the Bismark Valley runs north to south through the centre of the locality.

Traditional occupants

According to the Manning Index of South Australian History the "Nantuwwara tribe of some 25 to 30 once occupied the country from the River Wakefield, north to Whitwarta and west to Hummock Range", an area which would encompass the modern localities of Bowmans, Whitwarta, Goyder, Beaufort, Nantawarra and Mount Templeton. The term Nantuwara is considered to be a specific name for the northern hordes of the Kaurna people. Stone implements thought to have been used by the Nantuwara people were discovered at sites adjoining the banks of the lower reaches of the River Wakefield and added to a South Australian Museum collection curated by Harold Cooper in the 1960s.