 Nantawarra is recognisable from a distance by the presence of grain silos immediately just east of the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line.The name Nantawarra may derive from the word "nantuwara" (meaning a northern yerta, or family group) in Kaurna, the language of the indigenous people of this part of South Australia.According to the "Manning Index of South Australian History" the "Nantuwwara [sic] tribe of some 25 to 30 once occupied the country from the River Wakefield, north to Whitwarta and west to Hummock Range", an area which would encompass the modern localities of Bowmans, Whitwarta, Goyder, Beaufort, Nantawarra and Mount Templeton.