Wallaroo is a port town on the western side of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, northwest of Adelaide. It is one of the three Copper Triangle towns famed for their historic shared copper mining industry, and known together as "Little Cornwall", the other two being Kadina, about to the east, and Moonta, about south. In 2016, Wallaroo had a population of 3,988 according to the census held. Description Wallaroo is about north of Moonta and west of Kadina. Since 1999, the rural broadacre farming area to the north of the town has been officially known as Wallaroo Plain The area south of Wallaroo is Warburto. The Warburto railway station name was derived from the Narungga name for a nearby spring. History Aboriginal The Narungga are the group of Indigenous Australians whose traditional lands include what is now termed Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. The name "Wallaroo" comes from the Aboriginal word wadlu waru, meaning wallaby urine. The early settlers tried to copy the Aboriginals by calling it Walla Waroo. However, they found this too big to stamp on the wool bales, so they shortened it to Wallaroo. During the early years of European settlement, the Narungga maintained a healthy population, but it has since declined. European Matthew Flinders was the first European to visit the location. When he sailed by on 16 March 1802, he recorded that "the intermediate coast ... which extends several leagues to the north of the point, is low and sandy, but a few miles back it rises to a level land of moderate elevation, and is not ill-clothed with small trees." Wallaroo was first settled in 1851 by a sheep grazier, Robert Miller. In 1857, Walter Watson Hughes purchased the land and named it "Walla Waroo". The name was subsequently shortened to "Wallaroo". Copper was soon discovered in the Kadina area in 1859, and in Moonta (in a wombat hole) in 1861. Confusingly, the famous Wallaroo Mines were at Kadina, not Wallaroo. There were no copper mines at Wallaroo itself, although Wallaroo became a smelting and harbour town, not a mining town. The copper smelter was established in 1861. Wallaroo settlement was established on Wallaroo Bay by 1861 and was proclaimed as a government town on 29 January 1862. In June of that year, the cadastral Hundred of Wallaroo was proclaimed, allowing the surrounding land from coast to Wallaroo Mines to be allotted and sold