Magdala is a former settlement and current locality about 20 km north of Gawler. There was formerly a church and Lutheran school, but all that remains is the cemetery. Magdala is on the road from Templers to Hamley Bridge. It was established in the 1890s and had a school from 1903 to 1940.
There was a famous mine at Bendigo called the 'Magdala' which was operating when the school opened in South Australia - by the 1880s it had reached the depth of 2,400 feet - see Trevor Sykes, Two Centuries of Panic (1988).