About Springton

Located 63 km north-east of Adelaide, Springton was originally known as Black Springs.  It is a small township at the south-eastern extremity of the Barossa Valley and is known primarily because the earliest European settler, Friedrich Herbig, lived in a hollowed out red gum which still stands in the main street.

Prior to European settlement a small number of Aborigines were well established in the district. They lived on a diet of grass seeds (made into a kind of damper), kangaroos, wallabies, possums, lizards and fish and protected themselves against the winter cold with possum skin rugs.  Their life was simple but perfectly in tune with the climate, flora and fauna of the region.

Soon after the arrival of colonists in South Australia in July, 1836 expeditions were sent out to explore the hinterland.

By December 1837 explorers had reached Lyndoch and by 1838 other explorers had reached the Murray River passing through the Barossa Valley.  The valley was named by Colonel Light after Barossa (Hill of Roses) in Spain where he had fought against the French in 1811 in the Peninsula War.