[3] The River Light has given its name to the region of the state spanning the mid and lower part of the watercourse, which doesn't dry up over summer.

The Light River rises on the northern slopes of the Mount Lofty Range below Waterloo and flows generally south through the localities of Steelton, Marrabel, Hamilton, and Hansborough.

Here, about halfway through its course, the river flows westerly past Kapunda, Linwood, Hamley Bridge, Mallala, and Lower Light.

[1] The Light River has an expansive catchment within mainly undulating hills, much cleared since European settlement for farming and grazing purposes.

In the late 1840s and early 1850s when bullock teamsters carted ore from the Burra copper mines to Adelaide the upper reaches above Hamilton were commonly known by them as The Dirty Light, gaining this unflattering epithet from the deep mud they encountered in crossing it.