 The district was originally called "Sally Owens Plains", but takes its present name from Marburg, then in Saxony, Germany.The story goes that, when the station master of the nearby Walloon railway station asked the settlers where they lived, the settlers responded with 'ober dar'.He felt that 'ober dar' should have a proper name and since he had read an article about a town in Germany called 'Marburg' he decided to register their produce as coming from 'Marburg'.