Hindmarsh Square


Hindmarsh Square/Mukata is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It is located in the centre of the north-eastern quarter of the city, and surrounds the intersection of Grenfell and Pulteney Streets, near the eastern end of the Rundle Mall. Pirie Street forms the southern boundary of the square.
It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, Colonel William Light, who was Surveyor-General at the time, in his 1837 plan of the City of Adelaide which spanned the River Torrens Valley, comprising the city centre and North Adelaide. It was named after John Hindmarsh, the first Governor of South Australia, in the same year by the Street Naming Committee, and in 2003 assigned a second name in the language of the original inhabitants, Kaurna, Mogata, as part of the dual naming initiative by the Adelaide City Council.

History

The square was first named by the street naming committee on 23 May 1837 after Governor Hindmarsh.
The east side of the square was for many years dominated by the Congregational Church, which later became the orchestral studio for ABC Radio and the South Australian Symphony Orchestra at No. 44, with other studios in adjacent buildings and a rehearsal studio and recording facilities across the Square in the ground floor and basement of Football House.
The building then named CitiCentre, on the north-western side of the square, was the scene of the high-profile murder of psychiatrist Margaret Tobin in 2002.
In March 2003, as part of the City of Adelaide's dual naming project in association with the University of Adelaide's project, the square was assigned the name "Mogata", from the Kaurna word Mukarta, meaning "head". The spelling was later changed to Mukata. This was the name of one of the four wives of Mullawirraburka, a Kaurna elder and warrior, also known as "King John". Mukata was also known as "Pretty Mary".
In 2018, two charging stations for electric vehicles were created in Hindmarsh Square, as part of a citywide plan which created a total of 46 EV stations across the city centre.