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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox Australian place | type = town
| name     = Echunga
| state    = sa
| image    = Hagen Arms Hotel, Echunga.JPG
| caption  = Hagen Arms Hotel, located in the main street
| coordinates = {{coord|35|06|0|S|138|47|0|E|display=inline,title}}
| lga      = District Council of Mount Barker
| postcode = 5153
| pop      = <!-- Leave blank to draw the latest automatically from Wikidata. -->
| est      = 1839
| stategov = Electoral district of Heysen
| fedgov   = [[Division of Mayo|Mayo]]
| dist1    = 34
| location1= Adelaide
| dist2    = 8
| location2= Hahndorf
| near-nw  = [[Chapel Hill, South Australia|Chapel Hill]], [[Biggs Flat, South Australia|Biggs Flat]]
| near-n   = [[Hahndorf, South Australia|Hahndorf]]
| near-ne  = [[Paechtown, South Australia|Paechtown]]
| near-w   = [[Jupiter Creek, South Australia|Jupiter Creek]]
| near-e   = [[Mount Barker, South Australia|Mount Barker]]
| near-sw  = [[Meadows, South Australia|Meadows]]
| near-s   = [[Flaxley, South Australia|Flaxley]]
| near-se  = [[Bugle Ranges, South Australia|Bugle Ranges]]
| footnotes=<ref name="PLB">{{cite web |url=http://maps.sa.gov.au/plb/ |title=Placename Details: Echunga |id=SA0021861 |work=Property Location Browser |date=1 August 2007 |access-date=28 October 2016 |publisher=Government of South Australia |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012010923/http://maps.sa.gov.au/plb/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}
'''Echunga''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|ˈ|tʃ|ʌ|ŋ|g|ə}} {{respell|ih|CHUNG|gə}}) is a small town in the [[Adelaide Hills]] located {{convert|34|km}} south-east of [[Adelaide]] in [[South Australia]].
The area was settled by Europeans during the period of [[British colonisation of South Australia]] in 1839, with the town laid out in 1849.<ref name="frr"/> The name of the town was derived from a name takes its name from the [[Kaurna language|Kaurna]] word ''Ityangga'', meaning "over there"<ref>{{cite web | last=Schultz | first=Chester | title=Place Name Summary: (PNS) 1/02: Kawandilla | date=30 April 2018 | website=Adelaide Research & Scholarship | series=The Southern Kaurna Place Names Project | publisher=[[University of Adelaide]] | url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/kwp/placenames/research-publ/1-02Kawandilla.pdf | access-date=16 November 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  or "close by".<ref name="smh"/>
[[Gold]] was discovered in 1852 and Echunga became the first proclaimed [[gold mining|goldfield]] in South Australia. This led to a [[gold rush]]; however, it did not last long, with the [[diggings]] exhausted and all but abandoned within a year. Subsequent discoveries in 1853 and 1854 led to smaller and equally short-lived rushes. In 1868 more gold was discovered at nearby [[Jupiter Creek, South Australia|Jupiter Creek]], which proved to be a much larger and long-lived field.<ref name="frr">{{cite web | url=http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/echunga.htm | title=Echunga | access-date=29 March 2007}}</ref>
For a brief time Echunga prospered and it has been estimated that at its peak it had grown to a population in excess of 1,200.<ref name="smh">{{cite news | url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/South-Australia/Echunga/2005/02/17/1108500204243.html | title=Echunga, South Australia | access-date=27 November 2006 | work=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=8 February 2004}}</ref> Echunga is part of Battunga Country.<ref name="battungacountry">{{cite web | url=http://www.battunga.org.au | title=Battunga Country | access-date=3 July 2007}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
<!-- more info can be found here: http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/echunga.htm -->
{{Adelaide Hills}}
{{District Council of Mount Barker localities |state=collapsed}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Mining towns in South Australia]]
{{SouthAustralia-geo-stub}}