The electorate of Frome in South Australia's mid-north will be renamed Ngadjuri ahead of the next election in 2026 after concerns from Traditional Owners about the electorates' namesake, Edward Frome, and his relation to retributive acts towards First Nations people in the 19th Century.
The announcement by the South Australia's Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission came in their final report before the 2026 vote.
The seat, which is currently held by Liberal MP Penny Pratt, will now be called Ngadjuri, meaning "we people".
The Ngadjuri people's traditional lands cover much of SA's mid-north region and were recognised last year as Native Title holders of more than 15,000 square kilometres - encompassing around half of the current electoral district.
Labor MLC Reggie Martin had long advocated for the renaming of Frome, named after the third Surveyor-General of South Australia, with concerns having been raised about involvement in retribution after what is known as the "Maria Massacre".
When the Maria shipwrecked off Cape Jaffa in 1840 and all 26 people on board managed to make it to shore, they received help from the local Aboriginal people.
However, in what is described as "the largest murder of Europeans by Indigenous people in Australia's colonial history" in the book Fatal Collisions, they were then all killed.
Then-Governor George Gawler sent a party - led by police commissioner Major Thomas O'Halloran - to the "the Elbow of the Goolwa" with instructions to identify up to three murderers and immediately execute them by hanging.
The eventual hanging of two Milmenrura men was controversial even at the time as South Australia was a colony from 1836 and Aboriginal people were therefore British subjects and should have received a trial.
Historian Dr Skye Krichauff told the commission that Frome was in Adelaide at the time of Major O'Halloran's expedition.
"...he [Frome] was not named in the list of men in Governor Gawler's instruction, nor was he named in either of Major O'Halloran's reports…" she said.
Nevertheless, she said Frome later "travelled along the shore of the Coorong and recorded that he did not meet any Aboriginal people, although he saw some Aboriginal people in the distance on the other side of the Coorong".
"He also saw the bodies of the men who were "hung for the recent murder of the passengers of the Maria," Dr Krichauff said.
She recorded Frome made several sketches, including ones titled Native Village on the Coorong deserted by the Milmenrura tribe after the murder of the crew of the Maria, burnt by me, Oct. 40 and 'Pilgaru' – two natives hung for murder.
Dr Krichauff concluded: "Frome was not responsible for the death of any Milmenrura or, as far as I have been able to determine, any other Aboriginal people. He was however responsible for burning an Aboriginal village".
Having decided to rename the district, the Commission said they considered it "appropriate" to use an Indigenous name, and comments were taken from a number of aboriginal organisations in the district.
Comments were sought from the Aboriginal Lands Trust, Ngadjuri Nation Aboriginal Corporation, Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC, River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation, Mannum Aboriginal Community Association Inc, and First Peoples of the River Murray Mallee Region #2 as to whether they would support "Ngadjuri" or alternatively the word "Cowie" - meaning "water" in the Ngadjuri language - as a new name.
"The Commission received responses from the Aboriginal Lands Trust and the Ngadjur Nation Aboriginal Corporation. Both responses strongly supported the use of the name 'Ngadjuri'," the commission said.
The late Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG was also considered, but the commission said whilst this was appropriate, the practice of someone having been deceased for at least one year made it unfeasible for renaming Frome.
