The name was taken from a property comprising 800 acres which comprised one fifth of a special survey claimed by Sir Montague Lowther Chapman in 1840.
In 1842 Baronet, Member of Parliament for Westmeath, Ireland, and High Sheriff of Co. Westmeath, Sir Montagu Lowther Chapman received a grant of land in London in 1842 of Section 7599 about 800 acres. He devised a scheme for settling Irish workers in South Australia. This may well have been a scheme intended to provide relief for Irish families suffering during the Potato Famines in Ireland during the 1840s. Charles Hervey Bagot was his agent in South Australia.
In 1851 Chapman transferred this section to Bagot for a token sum of ten shillings in appreciation of his services. Captain Charles Bagot called his own 800 acre property, part of a Special Survey, which was to be his head station, “Koonunga” and the district took its name from this property. The Council met at Dimchurch (now Neukirch) until 1875 when a council chamber was built at Koonunga.
There was a post office situated on Section 329 Hundred of Belvidere south east of Kapunda. A school opened in 1881, ran between 1880-1902 with 20 pupils, and closed in 1948.
References
- Heritage Survey of the Light Regional Council
- Manning Index of Place Names of South Australia