This page contains a selection of Mount Barker pictures taken during the 1970s.
These pictures were scanned using the CanoScan FS2710 film scanner.
If you want to see a larger image of any of these pictures, please click on the picture.
When Australia was being explored,
Captain Matthew Flinders sailed along the coast of South Australia
and marked the highest peak in the Mount Lofty Ranges which was visible from the coast on his map,
naming it Mount Lofty.
Captain Charles Sturt sailed down the River Murray
and marked the highest peak he could see looking West from the River Murray on his map.
He assumed that he was also looking at Mount Lofty.
Both Flinders and Sturt were respected map-makers,
so when the two maps showed Mount Lofty in different places,
Captain Collett Barker was sent to investigate.
He sailed to South Australia, landed and climbed Mount Lofty.
From its summit, looking east, he was able to see another peak which stood out,
and which turned out to be in the position of the peak which Sturt had plotted on his map.
This peak became known as Mount Barker.
Barker himself was killed by Aborigines further down the coast of South Australia.
Mount Barker in the summer time. The buildings in the foreground are the farm where I grew up.
Summer-time view from Mount Barker Summit looking towards Mount Lofty. The three TV transmission towers are visible when you click for the larger image.
Summer-time view from Mount Barker Summit.
The buildings at the right are the farm where I grew up.
Mount Barker in the spring. Our farm buildings are visible in the foreground again. Before I create one of those ideas that gets wrongly perpetuated, I should add that Wuronga was the name of our property, not the Aboriginal name for Mount Barker. The Summit was called Yaktanga by the local people and Womma Mu Kurta (mountain on the plain) by eastern tribes.
