The area was originally settled by the Ngarrindjeri Aborigines, who lived along the Coorong and extended across the Murray River to the present day site of Goolwa.
The first European to make contact with this stretch of coastline was the French explorer Nicolas Baudin who discovered Lacepede Bay in 1802.[3] In 1840, the Brigantine Maria was shipwrecked near Cape Jaffa after leaving Port Adelaide.[4] All 25 people aboard were massacred by Aborigines along the Coorong.[4]
The town of Kingston was established in 1856, the town being named after the government surveyor, George Strickland Kingston by Governor McDonnell, in 1858 and renamed as Kingston SE in July 1940.[5][6]
The District Council of Lacepede was established on 4 July 1873 to serve the growing area.[7][8] The name was changed to the present designation on 1 July 2000.[9] Mayor Legoe justified the change at the ceremony, stating; "The decision to change the name of the Council was not a decision to change for the sake of change. It is a decision to change the image and identity of the Council to propel itself into the 21st Century".[10]
^Sydney Morning Herald Travel (8 February 2004), "Kingston SE", The Sydney Morning Herald, retrieved 26 May 2007
^ ab"A Famous Wreck". The Evening News. Sydney: National Library of Australia. 5 October 1895. p. 1 Supplement: Evening News Supplement. Retrieved 29 May 2013. This reference quite credibly states the bodies were stuffed down wombat holes, where others coyly refer to "shallow graves". It is also one of the few to touch on the contentious possibility of cannibalism.
^"NEW TOWN NAMES APPROVED". The Chronicle. Vol. LXXXIII, no. 4, 728. South Australia. 1 August 1940. p. 13. Retrieved 31 August 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
