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Victoria Square Tarntanyangga

Victoria Square Tarntanyangga

Australia

Adelaide

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Overview

Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga, is the central square of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. 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.

The square was named on 23 May 1837 by the Street Naming Committee after Princess Victoria, then heir presumptive of the British throne, and in 2003 assigned a second name in the language of the original inhabitants, Kaurna, Tarndanyangga, as part of the dual naming initiative by the Adelaide City Council. The square has been upgraded and modified several times through its lifetime. During the Christmas period, it is traditional for a 24.5-metre high Christmas tree to be erected in the northern part of the square.

Dual naming and significance

The square was first named "Victoria Square" on 23 May 1837 by the Street Naming Committee, in honour of the then Princess Victoria.

In line with the Adelaide City Council's recognition of Kaurna country, the square was officially referred to as Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga from 2002, modified to Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga by 2013, when Stage 1 of a major upgrade was done.

The names "Tarndanya", sometimes recorded as "Dharnda anya" (or variant spelling) by colonial sources means "red kangaroo rock" and was reportedly the name used by the Kaurna people for "the site of South Adelaide" or the central-South Adelaide area; the local people whose central camp had been "in or near Victoria Square" were called the "Dundagunya tribe" by colonial sources. Tarndanyangga/Tarntanyangga is derived from the Kaurna word for "red kangaroo" – tarnta (tarnda) – and that for "rock" – kanya. The ending "-ngga" means it's a location, implying "in, at or on", which is often used in Kaurna place names. Many quarries were built on the southern bank of the Torrens, and Tarnta Kanya probably referred to one or more rock formations which were quarried, providing much of the stone for the large early buildings on North Terrace.

Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga is still considered an important meeting place for Aboriginal Australians. It is the focus for many political and community-based Indigenous events, such as the National Sorry Day commemoration held by Journey of Healing (SA) on 26 May each year. Each year during NAIDOC Week in July, there is a "family fun day" held at the square and a march to Parliament House.

The Australian Aboriginal Flag was flown at Victoria Square for the first time in the country at a land rights rally in Victoria Square in Adelaide on 9 July 1971. On 8 July 2002 the Adelaide City Council endorsed the permanent flying of the flag, which now flies adjacent to the Australian flag.

Address: Grote St, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Area: 2 ha
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