Bethel, South Australia
Town in South Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bethel is a locality and former settlement in South Australia, west of Kapunda. Its name means Place of God.
Bethel | |||||||||||||
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Bethel Lutheran Church in 2015 | |||||||||||||
  Bethel | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates: 34.327840°S 138.837630°E | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | South Australia | ||||||||||||
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| Location |
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| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
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| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 52 (SAL 2021)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 5373 | ||||||||||||
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Bethel was settled by German-speaking people in around 1854 seeking to establish a Moravian Brethren community. From 1856 there was also a group of people of Wendish origin. They also spoke German.[2] Some of these settlers initially worshipped with the Moravians, however a new church was built named Steinthal and many worshipped there instead. The Bethel congregation severed its links with the Moravians and called a Lutheran pastor in the 1890s. The Steinthal church closed and combined in 1906.[3] The school was closed by the state government in 1917 along with many others that taught in German.[4]
