Aims. We investigate the properties of the polarised radio population in the central 6.5 deg² of the XXL-South field observed at 2.1 GHz using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in 81 pointings with a synthesised beam of FWHM 5.2″. We also investigate the ATCA’s susceptibility to polarisation leakage. Methods. We performed a survey of a 5.6 deg² subregion and calculated the number density of polarised sources. We derived the total and polarised spectral indices, in addition to comparing our source positions with those of X-ray-detected clusters. We measured the polarisation of sources in multiple pointings to examine leakage in the ATCA. Results. We find 39 polarised sources, involving 50 polarised source components, above a polarised flux density limit of 0.2 mJy at 1.332 GHz. The number density of polarised source components is comparable with recent surveys, although there is an indication of an excess at ∼1 mJy. We find that those sources coincident with X-ray clusters are consistent in their properties with regard to the general population. In terms of the ATCA leakage response, we find that ATCA mosaics with beam separation of ≲2/3 of the primary beam FWHM have off-axis linear polarisation leakage ≲1.4% at 1.332 GHz.