Editing Flinders Ranges (section)

===19th century: European explorers and settlement===
The first European explorers were an exploration party from [[Matthew Flinders]]' seagoing visit to upper [[Spencer Gulf]] aboard [[HMS Investigator (1801)|HMS ''Investigator'']]. They climbed Mount Brown in March 1802. In the winter of 1839 [[Edward John Eyre]], with five men, two drays and ten horses, [[Eyre's 1839 expeditions|further explored]] the region, setting out from [[Adelaide]] on 1 May. The party set up a depot near Mount Arden, and then explored the surrounding region and upper Spencer Gulf, before heading east to the [[Murray River]] and returning to [[Adelaide]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Flinders Ranges, A Portrait|isbn= 0-949773-37-9| year=1986 | publisher=Little Hills Press |location =[[St Peters, South Australia]] | last= Domin |first = Eduard R. |author2=Mincham H. |author3=Swinbourne R. |author4=Cook J.  |pages =12–19}}</ref>
[[Image:Flinders Ranges South Australia wide.jpg|thumb|The Flinders Ranges as seen from the [[Stuart Highway]]]]

There are records of [[squatting (Australian history)|squatters]] in the [[Quorn, South Australia|Quorn]] district as early as 1845;{{cn|date=November 2022}} however, the first three [[pastoral lease]]s in the central Flinders Ranges were only marked out in 1851. These were [[Wilpena Station|Wilpena]], [[Arkaba Station|Arkaba]], and [[Aroona Station|Aroona]], which were developed as [[sheep station]]s. The leases were initially granted for 14 years by the government of the [[Colony of South Australia]], over land dubbed "unoccupied waste lands".<ref>{{cite web | title=Rawnsley Park history | website=Rawnsley Park Station | url=https://www.rawnsleypark.com.au/about-us/rawnsley-park-history/ | access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref>

====Aroona and the Brachina Gorge massacre (1852)====
{{anchor|brachinamassacre}}<!---anchor for redirect--->The name ''Aroona'' is derived from an [[Adnyamathanha language|Adnyamathanha]] word meaning "running water", or "place of frogs". Aroona Valley is a long open valley that lies around {{cvt|25| km}} north of Wilpena Pound, between the Heysen Range and ABC Ranges. The lease was taken up first by the Brownes, and then by Johnson Frederick Hayward in the 1850s. Hayward had arrived in 1847 from [[Somerset]], and was initially overseer of [[Pekina Station]]. Hayward Bluff, False Mount Hayward, South Mount Hayward, and Mount Hayward, in the Heysen Range, are all named after him.<ref name=aroona1>{{cite web | title=Aroona Valley | website=A biography of the Australian continent | url=https://austhrutime.com/aroona_valley.htm | access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> The Aroona head station was built next to a waterhole used by local Adnyamathanha people for its permanent supply of fresh water, but the Aboriginal people were not welcome on the station during Hayward's time there.<ref name=saf/> He was implicated in a [[Indigenous Australian massacres|massacre of Aboriginal people]] near [[Brachina Gorge]]. At least 15 men, women, and children were killed in a dawn attack on 17 March 1852, in retaliation for the murder of [[stockman (Australia)| stockman]] Robert Richardson on 14 March.<ref name=carbone2023>{{cite web | last=Carbone | first=Isabella | title=Brachina Gorge massacre behind Lavene Ngatokorua's truth-telling art of Flinders Ranges' violent past | website=ABC News | date=11 November 2023 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-11/lavene-ngatokorua-aroona-flinders-ranges-massacre-sa/103026546 | access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title= Brachina Gorge Flinders Ranges | website=Centre For 21st Century Humanities |series=Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930| publisher= [[University of Newcastle (Australia)]]| url=https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=695 | access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> Hayward said that he was obliged to defend his men, due to the absence of police, and that he was attempting to "capture the murderers", firing at them in "self-defence". Sergeant Major Rose, who was in the district at the time with the [[Protector of Aborigines]], [[Matthew Moorhouse]], arrested two Aboriginal men called Bill and Jemmy, but they were released after being held for some time owing to lack of evidence and problems finding an interpreter.<ref name=saf>{{cite web | title=Aroona case study | website=The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies |publisher= [[University of Adelaide]] | url=https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/4755c59ae93447a9b0acf9b2b0b265f6/page/Aroona-Case-Study/#data_s=id%3AdataSource_1-18dc3aabbf7-layer-13%3A58 | access-date=8 June 2024}}</ref> In the early 1860s Hayward returned to England, and purchased an estate near [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], which he called Aroona.<ref name=aroona1/>

====Later settlement====
In 1852 [[Kanyaka Station]] was established by Hugh Proby.{{cn|date=November 2022}}

William Pinkerton is credited as being the first European to find a route through the Flinders Ranges via Pichi Richi Pass. In 1853 he drove 7,000 sheep along the eastern plains of the range, to where [[Quorn, South Australia|Quorn]] would be built 25 years later (Pinkerton Creek runs through the Quorn township).{{cn|date=November 2022}}

During the late 1870s the push to open agricultural land for wheat north of the [[Goyder's Line]] had met with unusual success, with good rainfall and crops in the Flinders Ranges. This, along with the copper mining lobby (copper was mined in the Hawker-Flinders Ranges area in the late 1850s and transported overland by bullock dray), induced the government to build a narrow gauge railway line north of [[Port Augusta railway station|Port Augusta]] through Pichi Richi Pass, [[Quorn railway station|Quorn]], [[Hawker, South Australia|Hawker]] and along the west of the ranges to [[Marree railway station|Marree]], to service the agricultural and pastoral industries.
[[Image:Kanyaka homestead.jpg|right|thumb|Abandoned [[Kanyaka Station]] homestead between Quorn and Hawker]]
However, rainfall returned to a normal pattern for the region, causing many agricultural farms to collapse. Remnants of abandoned homes can still be seen dotted around the arid landscape. Wilpena station, due to its unusual geography, along with areas around Quorn and Carrieton, are now the only places north of [[Goyder's Line]] to sustain any crops.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}} Wilpena has now been left to the wild and is only a tourist location. As of 2009, kukri, unpopular with most Australian farmers as it yields 10–15% less grain than other varieties of wheat, is being grown for export to India.<ref>Prue Adams. {{cite episode | title = Flour Power
 | url = http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/landline/old-site/content/2008/s2545729.htm | series = Landline | series-link = Landline (TV series) | airdate = 2009-04-20 }}</ref>

Mining exploration continued in the region, but coal mining at [[Leigh Creek, South Australia|Leigh Creek]] and barytes at Oraparinna were the only long-term successes. Pastoral industries flourished, and the rail line became of major importance in opening up and servicing sheep and cattle stations along the route to [[Alice Springs, Northern Territory|Alice Springs]].{{cn|date=November 2022}}

Hawker townsite was surveyed at a bend in the railway line where the train line left the main road to [[Blinman, South Australia|Blinman]], and named in 1880 after South Australian politician and pastoralist [[George Charles Hawker]].{{cn|date=November 2022}}

Quorn was surveyed by Godfrey Walsh and proclaimed a town on 16 May 1878. The township covered an area of {{convert|1.72|km2|abbr=on}} and was laid out in squares in a manner similar to the state's capital city, Adelaide. Governor [[William Jervois|Jervois]] reputedly bestowed the name 'Quorn' because his private secretary at the time had come from the parish of [[Quorn, Leicestershire]] in England.{{cn|date=November 2022}}