City of Mitcham: History
Before the arrival of European settlers, the Kaurna people lived in the region. The first Europeans to settle in the area were a group of sailors who jumped ship in 1837 and founded a settlement at Coromandel Valley as a hiding place. Mitcham village was established on Brown Hill Creek in 1840, named after Mitcham, a village in Surrey.
The council was founded on 10 May 1853 as the District Council of Mitcham and was the first local government area formally founded in South Australia after the City of Adelaide. The council initially covered an area of 108 square kilometres, stretching from the Adelaide Park Lands in the north to Mount Barker Road in the east, with the Sturt River forming the southern boundary. It lost the part of the council west of South Road to the District Council of Brighton (later the City of Marion) on 19 December 1854. In 1871, Unley and surrounding areas were severed from the Mitcham council to create the Corporate Town of Unley. It lost another area on 25 October 1883, when portions of the council around Stirling were detached to form the new District Council of Stirling.
From 1854 to 1869, the council rented offices in the Adelaide City Centre to conduct their business, only relocating to within the council itself in 1870. Its current council chambers in Torrens Park were first built in 1934. The District Council become a Corporation in 1944, and it gained city status in 1947, becoming the City of Mitcham. The state government planned to dissolve the City of Mitcham in 1989, but the council was able to lobby to prevent its dissolution.
In February 2021 the City of Mitcham became the first local council in South Australia to officially oppose the date of Australia Day. It generally no longer holds Australia Day celebrations on the official date.
Colebrook Home, first established in Quorn in the Flinders Ranges in 1927, moved to Eden Hills in the 1940s to secure better water supply. The home was an institution for Aboriginal children, with the intention of removing them from the influence of their Aboriginal families so they could be better assimilated into white society as part of the Stolen Generations. In 1972 the children were relocated to Blackwood due to low numbers and Colebrook Home was demolished in 1973. It was officially closed in 1981.
The former location of Colebrook Home is now the Colebrook Reconciliation Park, a memorial to the children and families impacted by Colebrook Home. The Blackwood Reconciliation Group and the Colebrook Tji Tji Tjuta (a number of former residents of Colebrook Home) combined to organise community gatherings on the site starting in 1997. Two statues have been sculpted to commemorate the Stolen Generations (the 'Fountain of Tears' in 1998 and the 'Grieving Mother' in 1999).