[1][7][8][9] A brief history of Tilley Swamp was compiled by the South Australian historian Geoffrey Manning:[7] ...

It lies 48 km north of Kingston, SE and the Aborigines knew the district as kopanopintar - kopan - ‘one’ and pintar - ‘stone axe’.

199 (previously an occupation licence issued to him on 22 April 1847 and known as ‘Miserable Creek’) calling it ‘Tilley’s Swamp; he sold out to James Thompson in February 1854.

Rodney Cockburn attributes its nomenclature to Thomas Tilley ‘who succeeded John McIntyre as manager for the Leake brothers at Glencoe.

‘Later he joined George Ormerod in pastoral partnership which included a lease of the Avenue Range run and other properties…The principal land use in the locality is "primary production",[10] although some land has been granted protected area status under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 as the Gum Lagoon Conservation Park in the locality's north-east corner and as the Tilley Swamp Conservation Park in the locality's south-west.