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Aboriginal Connections | About Mound Springs

The mound springs of this area have provided sanctuary to Aborigines for centuries and supplied crucial water to the construction sites for the Overland Telegraph Line.

Major Peter Warburton, the Police Commissioner of South Australia, was surveying the area from the top of Mt Hamilton in October 1858 when he saw green grassy mounds rising from a flat salt pan at the base of a hill. He had found clear, running water in the midst of what appears to be completely desolate country.

The mounds were formed from an accumulation of dissolved salt deposits - not from volcanic cones as first throught. They form an arc from Lake Callabonna through Marree towards Oodnadatta. The largest is Dalhousie 70 kms north of Oodnadatta.

About Mound Springs by Colin Harris