Mitcham, South Australia

Created as a village separate from Adelaide known as "Mitcham Village", it was ancillary to a sheep station at Brown Hill Creek belonging to the South Australia Company. Prior to British colonisation, the area was inhabited by the Kaurna, an Aboriginal people. A group of about 150 Kaurna formerly camped at "Wirraparinga", now Mitcham Reserve (known for many years as "Brown Hill Creek reserve"). The reserve area occupies what was used as the village green. In August 1909, the Church of England's Orphan Home for Girls, established by Julia Farr and Mrs W. S. Douglas in Carrington Street in Adelaide city centre in 1860, moved to Fullarton Road, Upper Mitcham. == Governance ==

The suburb is the seat of the Mitcham Council. Mitcham is located in the federal electorate of Boothby and the state electorate of Waite, which have been considered safe Liberal seats. Both are currently held by the Australian Labor Party. == Notable residents ==

• Theodore Ambrose (1880–1947) medical practitioner • Major Rupert Downes (1885–1945) surgeon and soldier • Hedley Herbert Finlayson (1895–1991) conservationist and mammalogist • John Harvey Finlayson (1843–1915) newspaper editor • Laura Margaret Hope (1868–1952) medical practitioner • Doris Egerton Jones (1889–1973) writer • Ellen Thornber (1851–1947) schoolmistress • Joseph Garnett Wood (1900–1959) botanist ==Gallery==

File:Mitcham School.jpg File:Old Belair Road, new bridge, Mitcham.JPG File:Mitcham Village Institute, Mitcham 1.JPG File:Mitcham Village Uniting Church, Mitcham.JPG File:H Mitcham Reserve, Brownhill Creek in flood.JPG File:Mitcham Square 2.JPG == References ==