Wilpena Pound - Nomenclature

Nomenclature

The name for the Pound, Wilpena, is reported to be Aboriginal, meaning "place of bent fingers"; this might either be a reference to the mountains resembling the shape of a gently cupped hand, or the freezing cold of the ranges in winter. The traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha, however, have no such word in their language. Their name for the Pound is Ikara which means "meeting place". It's not clear who named St Mary Peak: a somewhat discredited turn-of-the-century account has the surveyor B.H. Babbage naming it in 1856, but others says that the pastoralist George Marchant suggested the name while in the area in 1851, and the latter explanation is more likely.

Point Bonney was named after the Crown Commissioner of Lands Charles Bonney, while Rawnsley's Bluff is named after the surveyor H.C. Rawnsley. The peak directly to the south of Wilpena Gap was known informally through much of the later twentieth century as Mount John, reportedly because bus drivers became so tired of tourists asking its name they dubbed it as such. However, it had been marked on a private survey in 1851 as Mount Ohlssen-Bagge, after a business partner of the surveyor's. In recent years the latter name has regained preeminence. The Adelaide Bushwalkers produced a detailed map of the Pound in 1959 in which they gave generic aboriginal names to many of the eastern peaks: Attunga Bluff ("high place"), Tanderra Saddle ("resting place"), Timburru Peak ("steep"), and Wangara Hill (a popular lookout to the north of Wilpena Gap) date from this map.

The peaks on the western range were named as part of a detailed survey for the hundred Moralana in 1895: the surveyor, William Greig Evans, named them all after his family and associates: Dorothy's Peak, Beatrice Hill, Madge's Hill, Harold's Hill are after his children, Reggie's Nob his brother, Greig's Peak himself, and Dick's Nob, Walter's Hill, and Fred's Nob are after members of his surveying party. Bimbornina Hill has recently gained some usage as a name for Dick's Nob, which overlooks Bridle Gap. The original 1851 name for Dorothy's Peak was Mount Boord, after the pioneer of Oraparinna station, but this name has not regained any usage.

Although not part of the Pound, the adjacent Elder Range (and its highest point Mount Aleck) was named by Frederick Sinnett after the very successful Adelaide businessman, Sir Thomas Elder.