It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler.

[4] It is about 40–44 km (25–27 mi) north of the state capital, Adelaide, and is close to the major wine producing district of the Barossa Valley.

Gawler was established through a 4,000-acre (1,600 ha) "special survey" applied for by Henry Dundas Murray and John Reid and a syndicate of ten other colonists.

The parkland along the riverbanks and a Victorian preference for public squares are present, but Light was aware that he was planning a village, not a metropolis.

Later, it developed industries including flour milling by Hilfers & Co, and the engineering works of James Martin & Co manufactured agricultural machinery, mining and ore-processing machinery and smelters for the mines of Broken Hill and the Western Australian goldfields, and steam locomotives and rolling stock.

[7] With prosperity came a modest cultural flowering, ("The colonial Athens" was its nickname in the late 19th and early 20th centuries[8]), the high point of which was the holding of a competition to compose an anthem for Australia in 1859, four decades before nationhood.

[9] Boyle Travers Finniss recounts an incident during Colonial Light's travels before the Gawler survey.

While camping at the Gawler river, they stumbled upon a deceased man buried upright and coated in clay.

Allegedly, while travelling north with a dray, a distressed man emerged from the scrub west of the road and collapsed from hunger and thirst near the Gawler river ford.

[15] The match is played at Curdnatta Park (Sandy Creek) which is considered one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in all of South Australia.

The Sturt Highway runs northeast from the north side of Gawler, leading to Nuriootpa, the Riverland, Mildura and Sydney.

It passed the James Martin & Co engineering factory, providing a convenient way to deliver heavy equipment such as locomotives manufactured there.