The area beside the creek in the suburbs of Mitcham and Brown Hill Creek was known to the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains as Wirraparinga, meaning "creek and scrub place".[3]
The suburb of Brown Hill Creek extends southwards for about 4 km (2.5 mi) from Mount Osmond, in the right of the picture.
The creek valley south of Brown Hill is home to Brownhill Creek Recreation Park[4] and has been the site a recreation park since the late 1800s. A bathing hole was established at a constructed dam on the creek near Mitcham village in 1894 but was removed eight years later to protect the interests of market gardeners upstream.[5] A a stone plaque declaring a "pleasure resort" from the early part of the 20th century still stands at the entrance to the valley, where Mitcham borders the suburb of Brown Hill Creek. The recreation reserve extends several kilometres upstream into the main creek valley through the heart of the suburb.
^"Placename Details: Brown Hill Creek". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. 8 February 2012. SA0009971. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2017. Derivation of Name: After the adjacent hill; Dual Name: Brown Hill Creek / Willawilla; Other Details: Also known as Willawilla or Wirraparinga. Kaurna people advised that the traditional name is Willawilla. Shown as Brownhill Creek on 1:10 000 & 1:50 000 Mapsheets. Full extent of creek not determined due to the construction of drains along the creek line. Colonel William Light's plan of Adelaide published in 1839 shows the spelling as Brown Hill Creek. Dual named 3/2/2011.
