The District Council of East Torrens was a local government council of South Australia from 1853 to 1997.
It was gazetted on 2 June 1853, on the same day as Onkaparinga and Hindmarsh. Local government had only been introduced in South Australia in 1852, and only the City of Adelaide (1852) and District Council of Mitcham (12 May 1853) had been created earlier.
At the time of establishment the East Torrens council covered 12 square miles (31 km2) and was bounded by the Adelaide Parklands to the west, the River Torrens to the north, the Adelaide Hills to the east, and Mount Barker Road to the south. The council's first five members were Dr David Wark, James Cobbledick, Charles Bonney, Daniel Ferguson and George Müller, as appointed by the Governor alongside the proclamation under the District Councils Act 1852 pending subsequent elections. It was subsequently divided up into five wards: St Bernards, Uraidla, Norwood, Glenunga and Stepney. The councillors met for the first time at the World's End Hotel in Magill on 12 June 1853.
In 1855 the population of the council area was 3,705, higher by a thousand than the adjacent Corporate Town of Kensington and Norwood.
The huge area of East Torrens was not to prove as stable as Kensington and Norwood. Ratepayers were frustrated as to where their money was going; councillors did not have the administration or funds to operate effectively and the interests of the area were hugely varied. On 14 August 1856, the district councils of Payneham and Burnside were formed to the north east and north west, respectively, by separation from East Torrens. East Torrens council was further divided in 1858 with the secession of the District Council of Crafers. The original East Torrens council had broken up into eight separate councils or partial councils (including the remainder East Torrens itself) by 1930.
The District Council of East Torrens, though drastically reduced in size by the 1930s, existed until 1997, when it amalgamated with the District Council of Gumeracha, the District Council of Onkaparinga and the District Council of Stirling to form the Adelaide Hills Council.