To the memory of Captain Collet Barker

We have probably all driven past here many times and never bothered to have a look. Until today when we used this small reserve at the corner of Wellington Road and Maldon Street to turn around, I hadn't.

The memorial is to Captain Collet Barker after whom Mt Barker, the hill / mount was named "by Captain Sturt who erroneously thought it was Mount Lofty", and in which township in South Australia this memorial is located. He "was with-out doubt the first European who traversed the Adelaide Plains and the mountain ranges between Mount Lofty, Cape Jervis, and southwards to Encounter Bay." Captain Collet Barker met an untimely death at the hands of natives at the mouth of the Murray on April 30, 1831.

Captain Collet Barker was charged to call at Encounter Bay on his way to Sydney to examine the South Australian coastline to determine if any navigable channel existed between the River Murray and the sea, since Sturt had to abandon his journey at Lake Alexandrina.

As well as identifying the Murray mouth where he ultimately died, Barker climbed Mount Lofty where he sighted the Port River inlet, Barker Inlet and the future Port Adelaide, probably his most important discovery.

Google him, an interesting read.

References : Wikipedia and Trove.