RYMILL PARK / MULLAWIRRABURKA

'King John’ or ‘Onkaparinga Jack’

Mullawirraburka is formed from mulla ‘dry’ plus wirra ‘forest’ and burka ‘old man’. Mullawirra ‘dry forest’ was the name of the pangkarra ‘territory’ in the foothills in the Aldinga-Willunga area which Mullawirraburka inherited from his father. In this case Mullawirraburka derives his name from the territory he inherits.

This area has been identified as a meeting and camping place. Tommy Walker, a Ngarrindjeri man well known to Adelaidians in the latter part of the nineteenth century, was known to camp in this area. Margaret (Connie) Roberts reported that Aboriginal people were forced to move from this area to the Botanic Gardens and then to Glenelg.

Pronunciation Tips:

• pronounce the u in both mulla and burka as in ‘put’;
• the rr in wirra is a rolled r like that in Scottish, Indonesian or Italian;
• the r in burka is rolled like in Scottish. (Try not to pronounce the ur in this word as in ‘slur’. Both the u and the r are distinct sounds in their own right);
• stress the first syllable in mulla and burka.