Monarto, South Australia

Monarto is a locality in South Australia 16km west of the Murray River. It is north of the South Eastern Freeway between the Callington and Murray Bridge exits 63 km from Adelaide.Most of the residents of Monarto run small hobby-like farms, raising cows, sheep and horses. Crops in the area include wheat, oats and barley.In the late 1970s Monarto (or "New Murray Town") was proposed to be the site of a new satellite city of Adelaide. By the turn of the century the proposal had been completely abandoned.HistoryThe locality of Monarto was originally a private subdivision of section 210 of the Hundred of Monarto, from which it took its name, the hundred having been gazetted in 1847. The township was laid out in 1908. The name of the hundred was after an aboriginal woman, "Queen Monarto", who lived in the area at the time of its proclamation.Monarto projectIn 1970 the Labor-led South Australian government headed by Don Dunstan was concerned that Adelaide would become overpopulated, after a rapid increase in population growth caused by high rates of birth and immigration that occurred in 1960s.In total the population growth rate had excess of 3% per annum and the government estimated the city would reach 1.5 million by the end of the century. Further, the authorities believed that the growing population would sooner or later become a threat to the quality of urban life (social and environmental) which at the time was relatively high.