History
Mount Barker, the mountain, was first sighted by Captain Charles Sturt in 1830, although he thought he was looking at the previously discovered Mount Lofty. Captain Collet Barker corrected this error when he surveyed the area in 1831. Sturt named the mountain in honour of Captain Barker after he was killed later that year by Aborigines, at the Murray Mouth. The mountain was officially recognised by King William IV in 1834, two years before the colonisation of South Australia in 1836.
The first Europeans to ascend the mountain, on 27 November 1837, were a six-man party comprising John Barton Hack, John Morphett, Samuel Stephens, Charles Stuart (South Australian Company's stock overseer), Thomas Davis (Hack's stockman), and John Wade (a "gentleman from Hobart Town"). Four weeks later, on 25 December 1837, four colonists, Robert Cock, William Finlayson, A. Wyatt, and G. Barton, left Adelaide to examine the country south east of Adelaide toward Lake Alexandrina. Along the route, they also ascended the mount.
Mount Barker was originally home to the Peramangk Aboriginal people. The Ngarrindjeri people from the east also used the Summit for ceremonial and burial sites. The Mount Barker Summit is a significant Aboriginal area, and may be one of the most sacred sites near Adelaide. In 1984 the Ngarrindjeri people tried to prevent the building of a police communications tower, and in 1987 they also tried to stop the Telecom tower, although both attempts were not successful.
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