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Adamson, James (1790-1864).

A Scottish wheelwright and agricultural implement maker,  J Adamson operated a factory in Hanson Street (the southern portion of present-day Pulteney Street), Adelaide, after arriving in South Australia during 1839.

Adelaide.

On Christmas Eve 1836, South Australia’s first Surveyor-General, William Light, walked towards the tent of one of his assistant surveyors camped beside the Torrens River.  Light suddenly realised that this was the perfect spot for the capital city.  He named the settlement Adelaide, after the consort of King William IV, on the British throne at the time.

Angas, George Fife (1789-1879).

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England,  GF Angas worked in the family coachmaking industry there until his father’s death, the moving to London, where he took a great interest in banking and insurance.  Later, Angas became one of the prime movers in the formation of the South Australian Company set up to promote the colonisation of the new province of South Australia.  A Baptist by conviction, Angas sympathised with a group of persecuted Prussian Lutherans and lent them money to travel to South Australia in 1838.  GF Angas and his wife moved to South Australia permanently in 1851, where he spent much time enlarging his business interests, belonging to the South Australian parliament and fostering various religious and charitable movements.

Bailey, John (1800-1864).

Born at Hackney, at that time a ‘populous village north-east of London’.  Following thorough training with Messrs Conrad Loddiges & Son, proprietors of the most extensive botanical nursery in England,  J Bailey emigrated to SA 1839 Buckinghamshire, and took up the post of first Colonial Botanist.  After the position was abolished when the province faced near bankruptcy in 1841, John established the Hackney Nursery (mostly nicknamed Bailey’s Gardens) beside the Torrens River on the main Adelaide-Payneham road.  With the vines, dates, damsons, olive and other trees he brought out with him from England, as a gift from his employers,  J Bailey was tireless in propogation of these and many other plants to build up stocks for colonial horticulture.  He advertised regularly in the press and many people from the government down sought his advice on gardening matters.

Balhannah.

 

Bank of South Australia.

Edward Stephens arrived aboard the Coromandel in January 1837, with all the equipment (including a wooden frame office) to open South Australia’s first bank, which stood on North Terrace.  Under the control of the South Australian Company, this bank made private loans for business development and kept depositors’ money in the first iron safes seen in the colony.

Bank Street, Adelaide.

Takes its name after the head office of the Bank of South Australia (SAs first bank), which was established on the corner of Bank St and North Tce in March 1837.  The bank eventually shifted to King William St and continued trading until 1892, but the street name has endured.

Bartlett, Samuel.

A Waymouth Street carrier in 1840, the year that the Royal Victoria Theatre opened.  Samuel Bartlett established the Balhannah Inn in March of 1840 and also cultivated an acre of potatoes nearby.

Battersby, Thomas Junr (c1827-1914).

Born St Johns Wood, London, England.  He emigrated to SA 1838 Prince George, with his parents, upholsterer Thomas Battersby, and his wife, Christiana.  The Battersbys established themselves in turn at Millbrook and Houghton, where Thomas Senr ran his own blacksmithing business.  Thomas Junr’s mother died 1842.  He worked variously as a sawyer, contractor and postmaster in different parts of SA, before becoming a farmer near Orroroo and then retiring to Terowie.  T Battersby Junr had a difficult, but challenging life, and wrote short reminiscences of his resourceful experiences.

Bean, George

Leased 11 acres of Section 46, near Thebarton from Robert Torrens Senr.  Bean was a Thebarton farmer at the time.  7/5/1855. £27/10/- for 30 years. shall well and sufficiently repair amend maintain and keep in repair all erections buildings and fences which now are or at any time hereafter during the said term shall or may be erected built or placed upon the said premises ... and shall manage and cultivate the same in as proper and husbandlike manner so that the same may not be impoverished but improved ... In 1859, when Bean gave up his lease to Walter Ridpath, he was a currier.

Beaumont, Samuel Davenport

Laid out the village of Beaumont on Section 296, Hundred of Adelaide, in 1848.  The origin of the name is uncertain, but perhaps to do with Davenport’s mother, who had Christian names of French origin.

Beaumont Spur, The.

Perhaps Samuel Stephens came down what is now known as the Beaumont House Spur or Gleeson’s Hill, between the plains and the Adelaide Hills.  Gleeson’s Hill is north of the Glen Osmond Spur.

Bethanien (Bethany).

Twenty-eight German refugee families from the ship Skjold founded Bethanien against the Barossa Ranges in early March 1842.  This was the first township to be established in the Barossa Valley.  The land was an outlying portion of the extensive Special Surveys taken out by Charles Flaxman on the floor of the Valley proper.  Pastor Daniel Fritzsche walked regularly between Bethanien and Lobethal to minister to his scattered flock.  From 1918, the name of this settlement became Bethany.

Black Swan, Adelaide.

Known as the Hotel Centralia since 1940, the old Black Swan premises are the oldest continuous hotel on North Tce (No 65), Adelaide.  A John Shand opened the hotel in 1845.  Probably he is to be identified with John Shand the brewer on the Torrens River, near Klemzig, who declared insolvency in 1843.  An 1844 spring flood washed the brewery building away.  For many years, a black swan etched onto the front facade made the hotel a well-known landmark.

Blyth, Arthur (1823-1891).

Birmingham-born Arthur arrived in SA with his parents aboard the Ariadne in 1839.  His father, William, gained influence as a JP and a member of the first Adelaide City Council in 1840.  Arthur Blyth worked industriously as a Hindley St ironmonger and took on extensive pastoral interests.  In time, he became President of the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, a Director of the SA Company and the National Bank of Australasia.  In 1857, as a very conservative member for Gumeracha, Blyth was elected to the first responsible SA Parliament.  He rose to become a Cabinet minister, and also Premier several times during the early 1870s.  From 1877 until his death, A Blyth was SAs Agent-General in London.

Breakneck Hill.

Several remarkably steep hills by this name exist on various roads in the Adelaide Hills.  On the Mt Barker Road, Breakneck Hill is the long grade leading up to Crafers from the Adelaide side.  From the late 19th century, the name Measday Hill supplanted the older name. William Measday and his family operated their Dunrobin general store clinging precariously beside the main road.

Brown, John (1801-1879).

To SA 1836 aboard the Africaine, where he remained for the rest of his life.  Brown became SAs first Emigration Agent, but his government career came to an end when he opposed the Governor too violently.  One of the original shareholders of the Burra copper mine, Brown used his new-found wealth to expand his mercantile interests.  A contemporary of N Hailes, J Brown died three weeks after his friend.

Buckingamshire.

A three-mast East India Co vessel constructed in Bombay in 1816.  Owned by Mangles & Co, of London, the boat brought 512 new citizens for South Australia on its only voyage here in 1839, under charter to the South Australian Company.

Bucks Head Hotel, Adelaide.

This hotel, on the corner of Gray St and North Tce, opened in 1848 as the Dolphin.  George Gandy was the first publican.  The business changed names a year later under its second landlord, James Hill.  Trade continued until the hotel closed in 1964.  Directly after Adelaide was established, a post was placed in the top of a pile of stones near the site of the later Bucks Head.  At noon every day, someone rang a bell attached to the post.

Buffalo, The.

A three-mast ship built in Calcutta in 1813 and called the Hindostan.  The Royal Navy bought this vessel in the same year and re-named it the Buffalo, for use as a storeship/timber carrier.  Captain Hindmarsh had the boat fitted out at Portsmouth for the long voyage to South Australia in 1836.  The Buffalo came again to Australia in 1840 with convicts for Hobart Town.  Soon afterwards, the ship took British troops to New Zealand, but unfortunately was wrecked off the South Island while loaded with kauri spars bound for England.  The wreckage is still seen occasionally when sea conditions allow.

Buffalo Row, Adelaide.

Many of the passengers who arrived in SA on HMS Buffalo in late 1836 pitched their tents together in a row along the Torrens River, near the site of the later Adelaide Gaol.  Coromandel Row, for the Coromandel passengers, was erected a little east of this area.

Bull Creek.

A short tributary of the Finniss River, a few kilometres south of Meadows.  While searching for stock pastures in the Adelaide Hills, John Bull spent one night camped on the site of the present Strathalbyn, in the company of Stone, a notorious horse thief.  As a recompense for not having revealed his identity to the authorities,  Stone guided Bull to an ideal location further to the south for fattening cattle.  In this lush, sheltered river valley, JW Bull and his partner, EB Gleeson, conditioned stock after their long overland journey from NSW, in preparation for sale at the Adelaide market.  To JW Bull’s understandable annoyance, Charles Flaxman’s Meadows Special Survey of 31 January 1839 displaced him from his prime spot.

Bull Family.

JW Bull brought his wife, Mary, nee Brant, and two sons, John jun. and Robert, ashore with him from England.  JW Bull’s brother, Joseph, and sister, Lucy (later Mrs TH Beare) also accompanied the family.

Burnside.

In 1849, pastoralist and merchant William Randall laid out Burnside on a section of land he bought from the SA Company, naming the new sub-division after his father’s estate in Northants, England.  N Hailes became the selling agent, inserting lyrical advertisements in the newspapers: Citizens! For one day, exchange noise, dust and heat for fresh air, shady groves and rippling streams...  In her book, The paddocks beneath, Elizabeth Warburton produces evidence that Hailes’ host beside the stream was Alexander Paterson, landlord of the Catherine Wheel at Kensington.

Canton.

A three-year old three-mast ship when the Bull family sailed in 1838. In 1840, the boat brought convicts to Australia, and another group of emigrants to SA in 1846. Captain - J Mordaunt.

Cape Jarvis.

The tip of Fleurieu Peninsula received its name from Matthew Flinders on 23 March 1803.  Admiral, Sir John Jervis, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and created the first Earl St Vincent in 1801.

Chapman, William (c1831-1895).

Surrey-born William Chapman arrived in SA 1849 Ascendant, with his parents.  After a short time on the new family farm at Echunga, William left for the Victorian gold fields.  Upon his return, he continued panning for gold around Echunga.  In August 1852, William found paying gold and the Government declared a field amidst great excitement.  684 miners had taken out a 30s licence within the next couple of months.  W Chapman made a trip to the New Zealand gold fields in 1855, but upon his return to SA, he established a grain and seed store in Mt Barker.  He belonged to the Mt Barker Agricultural & Horticultural Society and was the first librarian of the Mt Barker Institute.

Chittleborough, James Junr (1832-1918).

Born Portsmouth, Hants, England, from where his father worked on RN vessels.  James Senr brought his family to SA 1836 Buffalo, with many significant officials for the new colony, including the Governor, John Hindmarsh.  Almost immediately in SA, the Chittleboroughs operated a hotel in Buffalo Row, Adelaide, and then shifted to Hindley St - the Buffalo’s Head, now the Princess Berkeley .  Later, James Senr farmer at Hurtle Vale, Reynella.  His wife died in March 1840.

J Chittleborough Junr

Went farming and goldmining until his marriage.  Following some years as a hotelkeeper in and around Adelaide & Greens Plains, he also operated a Wallaroo general store and then returned to Adelaide to successive clerical, management and partnership positions in Horwood’s foundry and the Hindmarsh Brewery.  Skilled at many sports, James Junr also took a great interest in the annual Proclamation Commemorations at Glenelg.

Cock, Robert (c1801-1871).

A native of Fifeshire, Scotland, Robert emigrated to SA with his wife and six children aboard the Buffalo in 1836.  He was soon hard at work at his professions of carpenter and millwright.  R Cock built a permanent home, which he turned into a store and land saleroom, and continued to live with his family in the temporary structure.  Besides acting as Government auctioneer, Cock conducted his own agency and did much exploration in the Adelaide Hills to find suitable stock and agricultural land - this information he sold.  R Cock and companions discovered Cox Creek (site of modern Bridgewater), which in corrupted form commemorates him, and the Hindmarsh River (modern Strathalbyn).  In late December 1837, the men became the second group of Europeans to climb Mt Barker.  Also during 1837, Cock explored Yorke Peninsula and country around Pt Lincoln.  For some years, Cock farmed on Onkaparinga River-side property (Mt Annan) between Balhannah and Oakbank, before finally shifting to Mt Gambier, where he died.

Colonial Camp, Adelaide.

Evidently a collective name for the various groups of government and residential tents beside the Torrens River and North Tce, Adelaide, in the earliest colonial years.

Congregational Chapel, North Tce, Adelaide.

The first Congregational minister, the Rev’d TQ Stow, arrived in SA on the Hartley in October 1837.  Initially, he lived in a tent by the Torrens River and here the first Congregational service was held.  Governor Hindmarsh sat on a box for the service.  During 1838, Mr Stow organised a church built out of pine logs on North Terrace, a little to the west of Morphett Street.  He journeyed to the Reedbeds (the mouth of the Torrens River near Glenelg) to cut reeds to thatch the roof.

Coromandel Row, Adelaide.

Many of the passengers who arrived in SA on HMS Coromandel in January 1837 pitched their tents together in a row along the Torrens River, near the site of the later Adelaide Gaol.  This development lay somewhat east of Buffalo Row, built earlier for many of the passengers of the Buffalo, who arrived in late 1836.

Cox Creek.

A small tributary beginning near Uraidla and flowing into the Onkaparinga River not far from Hahndorf.  Hahndorf’s miller, FW Wittwer, operated a water mill at the junction during the early 1840s.  The name is a corruption of Robert Cock’s surname.  He was an early explorer and farmer in the Adelaide Hills.

Crafer, David (c1796-1842).

Born at Buxton, nr Norwich, Norfolk, England.  Shortly before emigrating to SA aboard the Lord Goderich in 1838, Crafer married Mary Ann Leggatt at East Dereham, Norfolk.  During March 1839, he opened the Sawyers Arms at what is now Crafers in the Adelaide Hills to serve the scattered numbers of farmers and woodcutters living in the neighbourhood.  Only days afterwards, the Germans passed by to establish Hahndorf, the first township in the ranges. From late 1840, David called his business the Norfolk Arms Hotel, in honour of his native county. Crafer gave up his inn in April 1841 and took on the licence of the South Australian Hotel in Hindley St, Adelaide, for some months. David died at Brighton, after a lingering illness. He left no sons and therefore the name of Crafer no longer kept going in the colony.

Crafers, David

Crafer opened his hotel, the Sawyer’s Arms, beside the bush track later known as the Mt Barker Road in March 1839.  The public house soon became known familiarly as Crafer’s place.  Two sub-divisions, Crafers Park and Crafers Summit, were laid out in 1880 by Richard Searle and Edward Ashwin, and RA Patterson respectively.

Cuddy.

Another name for a ship’s cabin.  The Register listed only 35 cabin and 100 steerage passengers on board the Canton.  Bull put the total number much higher.

Currie Street, Adelaide.

Named after Raikes Currie, a wealthy British banker and member of Parliament, who combined radical thought with a tendency to gamble money as well as ideas.  He became a foundation member of the South Australian Association set up in 1834 to instigate the formation of the colony.

Davis, Abraham (1796-1866).

Surrey-born Davis arrived in SA aboard the Lord Goderich in 1838, with his wife and three children.  He established himself on prosperous Moore Farm, at the Reedbeds, from where his grain and vegetables won notable prizes at the agricultural shows.  In 1840, Davis joined N Hailes as a member of the first Adelaide City Council, and later served as a JP.  During the early 1860s, A Davis edited a short-lived newspaper, the Thursday Review, which preached a very conservative view of colonial life.

Debney, George (c1817-1897).

Born in Whitechapel, London, England, George emigrated with his parents to SA in 1838.  At first a farmer at the Reedbeds, George had the good fortune to invest wisely in the new Burra copper mine and used his profits to open a furniture factory on the site of the present-day Adelaide Arcade.  Respected for his seductive sofas and other works, G Debney won the contract to furnish the new Legislative Council Chambers in North Terrace in 1855.  Unfortunately, a disastrous fire destroyed the factory and its contents; George had to start again quickly to re-do the order.  Without incident, he made the furniture for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Government House bedroom during the 1867 Royal visit.  G Debney also conducted many society funerals in his capacity as an undertaker, performed property valuations, became Chairman of the Burnside Council and acted as trustee for many deceased estates.  Further reverses caused him to sell his business in 1876-1877 to Patrick Gay (hence Gay’s Arcade); author and politician Simpson Newland bought the Debney house at Burnside and built the well-known Undelcarra homestead.  More tragedy pursued George - his wife and daughter drowned when their rowing boat overturned in the sea at Glenelg during 1860.  G Debney died more or less in poverty, after a life of dramatic changes of fortunes.

Draper, Ambrose.

To SA 1837 Lady Emma, with wife Rose; a son, Richard, born after arrival.  Ambrose became a bootmaker in Hindley St, Adelaide, in the late 1830s.  It is likely that he left SA fairly soon again, as the 1841 Census, the 1840s Directories and other records make no reference to him.

Duff, Captain John (1799-1868)

Scottish-born John Duff brought his own ship, the Africaine, to South Australia several times before deciding to settle there permanently.  He acted as Port Adelaide harbour master and developed extensive commercial links with neighbouring colonies, especially Van Diemen’s Land, using his own fleet of vessels.  J Duff took part in many public affairs.

Dutton, William (1805-1849)

Born in Hanover, where his father held a diplomatic post, WH Dutton emigrated to Sydney and then Adelaide.  He brought some stock overland and more by sea.  In January 1839, W Dutton took out the colony’s first Special Survey with two partners.  Too many business interests in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to exercise efficient supervision led to WH Dutton’s bankruptcy in 1841.  Eventually, William’s only surviving son, Henry, inherited Anlaby Station near Kapunda, established by William’s bachelor brother, Frederick.

East Terrace, Adelaide.

The distinctive step-pattern street laid out by Colonel Light on the eastern side of central Adelaide’s square mile.  Purely residential in colonial times, this quiet area rapidly attracted prosperous residents to build mansions there; no doubt the attraction being their close proximity to busy commercial quarters.

Echunga.

In 1849, wealthy Quaker businessman Jacob Hagen laid out Echunga in the Hundred of Kuitpo, a few kilometres south of Hahndorf.  Three years later, the quiet agricultural hamlet became the scene of South Australia’s earliest gold rush, when the population grew fast.  In 1854, the Hagens returned to England , but retained much property at Echunga, which they left in the care of their land steward, George Sanders.  Echunga’s Hagen Arms Hotel commemorates the efforts of the township’s founder.

Echunga Road.

The Echunga Road which JW Bull mentions left the Old Mount Barker Road in the vicinity of the Crafers Inn and crossed the Onkaparinga River just beyond Mylor.  Joseph Hawdon forded the first cattle to come overland from NSW across this point in 1838.  The ford itself became known as Warland’s Crossing, probably after William Warland, who ran the nearby Wheatsheaf Inn.  During 1844, a well-publicised flood washed away the bridge which had just replaced the ford.  Again, the ford served alone until the more durable Hack’s Bridge appeared c1848.

Elder, Alexander (1815-1885).

Scottish-born Elder arrived in South Australia during 1840, aboard his father’s vessel, the Minerva, which was loaded with merchandise to begin a commercial firm in the young colony.  Gradually, the business developed into the well-known pastoral enterprise, Elder, Smith & Co.  Alexander Elder returned to England in 1853, where he acted as the London representative for the firm he had founded in the Antipodes.

Elphinstone, Charles.

Born Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.  To SA by 1839, when he married the widow Elizabeth Nicholls, nee Elsherton.  Listed variously as a builder and carpenter in Hindley St, Adelaide, until 1844.

Emigration Agent.

A recent graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, John Hutt became the SA Company’s Superintendent of Emigration to SA between 1836-1838, at £250 a year.  Using sub-agents, as well as his own contacts, Hutt encouraged a wide range of people to emigrate to the new colony.  At one stage, it appeared likely that J Hutt would succeed Hindmarsh as the second Governor of SA.  After this disappointment, Hutt apparently lost much interest in the project, although he was a member of a 1849 syndicate which hoped to build a railway line in the province.

Emigration Square, Adelaide.

A large area of land on West Tce, Adelaide, in the vicinity of the present-day Adelaide High School, where rows of temporary wooden cottages containing two rooms had been erected.  Newly-arrived colonists could rent a single room divided by a three-quarter wall partition into two areas.  Homes were primitive enough to encourage people to move out as soon as possible.  Aborigines made quite a living by cutting up trees for firewood for Emigration Square inhabitants.  Water came up in water-carts from the Torrens River.

Encounter Bay.

On 8 April 1802, the British maritime explorer Matthew Flinders in the Investigator met a French ship, the Geographe, off the SA coast west of the Murray Mouth.  Both vessels greeted each other civilly, a remarkable event, because their two nations were at war in Europe.  Flinders gave the bay its name as a result of this exchange.  In the late 1830s, the South Australian Company established whaling stations on the shore of Encounter Bay.

Exchange Hotel.

Adelaide. Samuel Payne, the founder of Payneham, established the hotel on his own Town Acre in 1839 as the Australian Arms, in Hindley St.  Following several more name changes, the inn became the Exchange Hotel from 1854, under which name the hotel still trades.  Exploiting its central position in what was then the city’s central business district, successive enterprising landlords built up a large patronage.  A meeting of corn factors in the hotel dining room during 1843 resulted in the development of Ridley’s stripper to aid SAs infant wheat industry.

Falmouth, England.

A sea port at the mouth of the Fal River in southern Cornwall.  Two castles guard the entrance to a spacious harbour.  Few emigrant boats departed for SA from this port.  The town became famous as the departure point for packet-ships leaving Britain with foreign mail.  A special mail coach plied regularly along a fast mail-road between London and Falmouth to carry HM Mails to and from the wharf-side.  Favourable winds and currents often made Falmouth an easier place than Plymouth and Portsmouth to use as a port.

Fenden, Francis (1810-1892).

A shipbuilder, F Fenden established one of Glenelg’s first hotels, the Reed Hut, in 1838.  This establishment became The Glenelg in 1839.  His partner in the venture was Francis Henning.  Fenden bought a number of Port Lincoln allotments when that township was laid out in 1839.  Later, Fenden grew vines and farmed near Salisbury.

Fenden, Francis gent Thebarton, and Sarah, nee Jenkins, his wife.

Rented a Torrens-side part of Section 46 (B) at Thebarton. Insolvent by 1/12/1857, they surrendered their lease to George Bean currier Thebarton, their neighbour.

Ferguson, William (1809-1892).

Born in Roxburghshire, Scotland, W Ferguson emigrated to SA 1836 Buffalo, with his wife of only a few months.  On arrival, William went into various business partnerships with fellow passenger Robert Cock.  Besides building the province’s first auction room, the men also laid out the Magill Estate, where W Ferguson took charge of the farming aspects.  Unfortunately, the Fergusons lost their property in the 1841 economic crash, and retired to a farm at Myrtle Bank, with some of the stock which well-wishers bought for the family at the mortgage sale.  William saw his children marry into prosperous pastoral families - Cudmores, Hawkers, Mortlocks, AB Murray, Tennants - and enjoyed a comfortable old age.

Finke, William (1815-1854).

A Londoner, W Finke arrived in South Australia during 1836, aboard the Tam O’Shanter.  He obtained a clerk’s position in the Colonial Treasurer’s office and early owned property near Gilles Arcade in Currie Street, Adelaide.  In time, W Finke became a prosperous sheep owner.  During 1854, William managed James and John Chambers’ inland exploration expedition.  His deputy, JM Stuart, named the Finke River after his former boss, while leading his own Northern Territory expedition during 1860.

Finnis, John (1802-1872).

Finnis first came to South Australia in 1838 with Captain Sturt, in charge of overlanding cattle.  He established a station on the present site of Hahndorf for fattening beasts for market.  Early the next year, Finnis joined with WH Dutton and L McFarlane in the purchase of the First Special Survey, which included the Hahndorf station.  The first Hahndorf settlers worshipped in one of Finnis’s stockman’s huts.  During the 1840s, he captained vessels trading passengers and goods between Britain and Australia and New Zealand; later, his ship took South Australian miners bound by sea to and from the Victorian gold diggings.

First Special Survey.

GF Angas, Chairman of the South Australian Company, had insisted on the inclusion of Special Survey land sales in the South Australian land regulations issued in 1835.  However, Governor Gawler was the first person to put this idea into action.  He sold the First Special Survey to Messrs Dutton, Finnis and McFarlane on 11 January 1839.  The partners paid £4,000 in advance for the survey of 15,000 acres in the vicinity of present-day Mount Barker; these men had the first choice of 4,000 acres and the rest was sold to the public at the uniform price of £1 an acre.  Nearly forty Special Surveys were made until Governor Grey successfully urged the abolition of the scheme.

Galatea Hotel, Adelaide.

Opened in Hindley St, as the Star Inn, during 1845, it changed its name to the Galatea in 1867, to honour the ship which brought Australia’s first royal visitor, the Duke of Edinburgh, to SA.  The name Galatea remained until 1907, when the inn became the Kalgoorlie.  Following many more name changes, it has been known as the Rio International since 1984.  The Galatea had an excellent concert room for popular community singing, where only songs of a strictly moral character were allowed.

Gawler.

Colonel William Light modelled Gawler on his previous Adelaide town plan, with squares and surrounding park lands.  Light’s assistant, William Jacob, laid out the new town in late 1839.  Gawler was the first permanent settlement to the north of Adelaide.

Gawler, George (1795-1869).

South Australia’s second Governor (1838-1841), his term of office both began and ended amid high controversy.  He drew freely on South Australian Company funds to inaugurate an unparalleled era of economic expansion, which ended ingloriously when the Directors refused to honour the credits.  It was during Gawler’s time that the Prussians arrived to settle Klemzig.  The Governor highly valued these settlers, but the British authorities disallowed their May 1839 naturalisation oath.

Gawler, Maria (nee Cox).

Born in Derbyshire, in the English Midlands.  Maria Cox was a daughter of John Cox of Friar Gate, Derby, and his wife Mary, a niece of the noted English novelist Samuel Richardson.  A very religious person, Maria married George Gawler in September 1820.  As elsewhere wherever George happened to be based, Maria did much evangelistic and charity work in Adelaide.  She insisted on the whole Government House staff’s attendance at morning prayers and relied on formal dinners for entertaining - dancing and cards were out.  Only five of Maria Gawler’s twelve children survived to adulthood.

Gawler River.

From the junction of the North and South Para Rivers at Gawler, the united stream is known as the Gawler River until it reaches the sea at Pt Gawler.  The upper reaches of the North Para River, in Flaxman Valley high in the Barossa Ranges behind Gawler, are often known as the Gawler River as well.

Gilbert Street, Adelaide.

Named after Thomas Gilbert, the colony’s first Colonial Storekeeper, who arrived by the Cygnet in 1836.  It was Gilbert’s job to distribute equipment to Government Departments as required.  By the time of N Hailes’s death in 1879, self-employed craftsmen and merchants in small business crowded Gilbert St houses.  These people had a choice of either the Draper Memorial Wesleyan Methodist Church near King William St, or the Duke of Brunswick Hotel by West Tce, in which to spend time on Sundays.  Two years earlier, in 1877, Methodists had led a successful campaign to restrict Sunday hotel trading to two hours in the middle of the day.

Giles, William (1791-1862).

Born in Great Staughton, Hunts, England, William emigrated to SA aboard the Hartley, with his second wife and large family.  The Giles lived on Kangaroo Island for a time, then moved to the mainland, where Governor Hindmarsh appointed W Giles a Stipendiary Magistrate, a terror to evil doers and a praise of them that do well.  In 1841, William succeeded D McLaren as a very competent Resident Manager of the SA Company.  During 1851, W Giles became member for Yatala in the Legislative Council and made a vital contribution in drawing up the new constitution for SA responsible government in 1857.  Sincere Congregationalist that he was, Giles campaigned strongly against state aid to any religious denominations.  A large concourse of distinguished colonists attended his funeral in the Clayton Congregational Chapel, at Kensington; the press remarked that even the Governor’s carriage was there, although having arrived in the colony only several months previously, Governor Daly did not know Giles personally.

Gilles, Osmond (1788-1866).

SAs first Colonial Treasurer, O Gilles had many business interests in land and commerce, and was reputed to be the wealthiest of the early settlers.  Whenever Treasury funds ran out, he lent his own money to keep the Government running.  Of very excitable temperament, Gilles made many enemies in official circles, yet he was extremely philanthropic.  Numbers of prominent SA localities honour O Gilles.

Gilles Arcade, Adelaide.

A narrow lane between Currie and Waymouth Sts, where many important businesses operated and famous people lived.  The Colonial Treasurer, Osmond Gilles, owned the land on which this development took place.  Emanuel Solomon built the Royal Victoria Theatre there in 1840.

Gleeson, Edward Burton (1803-1870).

Irish-born from Co. Clare, Edward Gleeson took his family to Calcutta, where he had extensive commercial interests.  In 1838, the family moved to South Australia.  Here, Gleeson went into a stock partnership with JW Bull.  Before the Glen Osmond Road to Mount Barker was built in 1840, people travelling to and from the Mount Barker District used Gleeson’s Spur, which came down to EB Gleeson’s property, Gleeville, now part of suburban Beaumont.  Somehow surviving his 1842 bankruptcy, Edward laid out the township of Clare in the 1840s and ended his days there, revelling in the affectionate nickname, the King of Clare.

Gleeson, John (c1798-1840).

A native of Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Ireland, J Gleeson and his family emigrated to Calcutta, India, and then moved to SA aboard the Emerald in 1838.  With his brother, Edward, he established a stock agency on their farm, Gleeville, at Beaumont, using progeny brought out with them from India.  As well, J Gleeson took up a partnership with a number of other investors to operate a quarry on Section 267, near Waterfall Gully.  John was also a liberal supporter of Trinity Church, North Tce.  The Gleesons shifted to a home on East Tce, where John, usually in somewhat indifferent health, died.

Glenelg.

Named after Lord Glenelg, recently retired Secretary of State for the Colonies, who was famed for his masterly inaction, for either good or bad, so long as colonies paid their way.  During March 1839, the South Australian colonial government organised a lottery to sell the section on which Glenelg is situated.  William Finke, the Chief Clerk in the Treasury, won the draw and laid out the town.  A portion of the land was reserved for a government customs house, plus a signal station to announce the arrival of ships.  The general area was apparently called Glenelg, long before the town was formed.

Glen Osmond.

Osmond Gilles laid out Glen Osmond on Section 295, Hundred of Adelaide, c1857.  The village lay at the entrance of the long gully through which the Mount Barker road began its steep ascent into the Adelaide Hills.

Goodiar, James (c1813-1887).

Born at Chichester, Sussex, England.  To SA 1839 Lord Goderich.  On arrival, James formed a contracting partnership with Richard Borrow, another passenger.  The firm built the Adelaide Gaol, eventually for which they had to sue the Government for payment.  Goodiar spent his life in SA variously as a building contractor, surveyor and timber merchant.  At last, he settled at Stirling North, near Pt Augusta, where he became a JP.

Goodwood Park.

The SA Company established the Village of Goodwood c1839-1840.  Businessman Arthur Hardy bought two adjoining sections in 1841.  Between 1842-1849, he leased this land to Borrow & Goodiar, who called the property Goodwood Farm.  In 1849, Hardy began the business of sub-dividing the area under the name of Goodwood Park.  Borrow & Goodiar apparently gained a contract to complete a number of buildings on the new sub-division.

Gordon, JM.

Practised as an architect in Gouger St, Adelaide, during 1841-1842.  Possibly James Montgomery Gordon (1810-1842), born Edinburgh, Scotland.  Arrived SA 1840 Augustus.

Gouger, Robert (1802-1846).

A Lincolnshire man, Gouger worked with EG Wakefield from 1829, for the cause of systematic colonisation.  Fair-minded and honest, R Gouger had to suffer in reputation and pay out of his own pocket for others’ mistakes at times.  Gouger arrived in SA aboard the Africaine in 1836, with the post of Colonial Secretary.  He worked hard for philanthropic societies, but deserved similar aid himself when the colony became depressed in the early 1840s.  Broken in health and wealth, R Gouger returned to England, where he died soon after.  Gouger Street in Adelaide is named after him.

Government House, Adelaide.

Governor Hindmarsh lived in a humble reed-thatched home on the site of the present Government House.  On 12 February 1841, Old Government House caught alight and burnt to the ground.  Inspector Alexander Tolmer tried unsuccessfully to rescue the Governor’s great chest containing many irreplaceable Government records.  Suspicions fell upon a certain individual, but no prosecution was made through lack of direct evidence.

Gray Street, Adelaide.

Today, this street links North Tce through to Grote St, the first important north-south street after leaving West Tce.  Colonist William Gray had the initial portion (from North Tce to Currie St) constructed, so that he could develop his three adjacent Town Acres.  Before Colonel Light laid out Adelaide, W Gray helped the surveyor burn off the high kangaroo grass which covered the site.  A thoughtful person, amongst other initiatives, Gray suggested that the Royal Adelaide Show be held in September, instead of February.

Greenhill.

Colonel Light named Green Hill Rivulet, now First Creek.  Henry Nixon, one of his surveyors, bought land at the foot of Greenhill, the spur immediately north of Gleeson’s Hill.  During the mid-nineteenth century, a wooden dwelling called Greenhill House stood there.  Much of modern Greenhill is the Cleland Wildlife Reserve.

Greenhill Road, Adelaide.

A major road leading directly from the Greenhill spur in the Mt Lofty Ranges foothills, through some of suburban Adelaide’s most reputable real estate, to Anzac Highway.  Formerly, the

Green Slips.

The twenty-six acres of land remaining from the survey of two adjacent eighty-acre sections, out of which 134 acres were taken to fulfil one preliminary land order (qv).  On the survey maps, these remainder acreages were coloured green - hence their name.

Hack, John Barton (1805-1884).

Born in Chichester, Sussex, England, JB Hack emigrated to SA 1837 Isabella, with his wife and young family.  A person of vision, Hack suffered great misfortunes with his ventures, including a cattle station on the Adelaide Plains, the Three Brothers Survey (Echunga and surrounds) in the Adelaide Hills and many choice Adelaide Town Acres.  He ended his working life as accountant for the SA Railways Goods Department, after taking part in some of the most significant events in colonial SA.

Hack, Stephen.

The younger brother of well-known JB Hack, both of whom lost out badly in many commercial ideas for investment in SA.  The Hack brothers arrived in the province from Van Diemen’s Land in 1837, bringing with them stock for a North Adelaide dairy and market garden they called Chichester Gardens, after their birthplace in Sussex, English.  S Hack operated as a Hindley St merchant for a time, before returning to Britain to marry.  Once more in SA (1842-1844), he farmed at Echunga with brother John, but finally went back to Europe again for good.

Hahndorf.

Captain DM Hahn negotiated with the three landowners in January 1839 to obtain the site of the present township of Hahndorf for his Zebra passengers to settle.  They named their new home after the captain who had done so much for them.  Between 1918-1935, Hahndorf was known as Ambleside.

Hallett, John (1804-1868).

A native of Essex, England, J Hallett emigrated SA 1836 Africaine, with his wife and several young sons.  For a few years, Hallett engaged in commercial speculations with the ship’s captain, John Duff, who also remained in SA.  Then, J Hallett turned with varying fortunes to the pastoral and mining industries.  During 1837, he discovered Hallett Cove, while searching for a lost flock of sheep.  The township of Hallett in SAs north is situated on Hallett’s sheep station, Willogoleechee.  From 1857-1862, John was one of the Members for Sturt in the new House of Assembly.

Hardeman, Thomas (c1829-1905).

Probably a native of Worcestershire, England.  To SA 1838 Lady Goderich.  Eldest son of Richard Hardeman (who died 1868), a sawyer, splitter and market gardener in the New Tiers during the 1840s, before he took up land at Echunga.  Until his 1864 marriage, Thomas helped on the family property, besides following his goldmining exploits.  His wife, Mary, nee Washington, was the eldest daughter of William Washington, of Dusky Farm, Richmond.  Convinced Wesleyan Methodists, the Hardemans lived for the rest of their lives at Milner St, Hilton, where Thomas was a carpenter.  Almost invariably, the colonial press rendered the family surname as Hardiman.

Harz Mountains.

A mostly forest-clad high plateau land covering much of the border area between the traditional German provinces of Brunswick, Hanover and Prussian Saxony.  Many of the wild legendary tales of German literature have their origins in the Harz Mountains.  Great mining towns such as Goslar, Osterode and Zellerfeld formerly created prosperity from copper, iron, lead and silver deposits; alabaster, granite and marble quarries; and tree felling.  Numbers of Harz miners and their families emigrated to SA in the 1840s and early 1850s to find employment in the recently-established colonial silver-lead and copper workings.

Henning, Francis.

In partnership with Francis Fenden, F Henning established one of Glenelg’s first hotels, the Reed Hut, on the corner of what is now known as Colley Place and Anzac Highway, in 1838.  Renamed the Glenelg a year later, this hotel had a rapid turn-over of publicans until the business closed in 1859.

Hilton.

Brother of Penny Postage pioneer Rowland Hill, criminal law reformer Matthew Hill bought Section 49, Hundred of Adelaide, as an absentee owner in 1839.  While MP for Hull, he had been responsible for conducting the SA Foundation Bill through the House of Commons in 1834.  c1849, Hill’s local attorney, GM Stephen, laid out the village of Hilton (perhaps to be Hillton?), before returning to England himself.

Hindley Street, Adelaide.

Charles Hindley was a very religious member of the House of Commons.  He belonged to the South Australian Society, a powerful lobby group which kept official support going for South Australia during the late 1830s and early 1840s.  For many years, Hindley St was Adelaide’s principal commercial area.

Hindmarsh, Captain John (1785-1860).

South Australia’s first Governor (1836-1838) shared power with the Resident Commissioner of the SA Company.  Hindmarsh quarrelled badly with Fisher and also with Surveyor-General William Light.  Never-the-less, the Governor bought numbers of allotments in Adelaide and on the Fleurieu Peninsula and continued to keep in touch with SA affairs during his lifetime.  After South Australia, Hindmarsh became Governor of Heligoland (1840-1856).  In retirement, John lived in Brighton (Sussex) and London.

Holdfast Bay.

Surveyor-General W Light gave Glenelg’s harbour this name, after his survey ship, Rapid , had safely ridden out two days of storm there in September 1836.

Houghton.

Land agent and surveyor John Richardson laid out the village of Houghton on Section 5519, Hundred of Yatala, in 1841.  The township quickly became an important staging post on the Torrens Valley road to Gumeracha, Blumberg and Mt Pleasant.

Jack Tar.

Nickname for a British sailor, especially in the nineteenth century and beforehand.

Jenkins, William

labourer Hindmarsh, took over the rest of the lease of Daniel Lyons of part Section 46, Thebarton. 4/3/1854.

Jickling, Henry.

Arrived with Governor Hindmarsh on the Buffalo in 1836.  Jickling practised as a barrister in Gilles Arcade (qv) until the mid-1840s, when he removed to Gawler Place.  In time, he became Master of the Supreme Court of South Australia.  For a short while after Judge Jeffcott drowned in a boating accident at the Murray Mouth in 1837, H Jickling was Acting Judge of the colony.

Kangaroo Island.

Captain Matthew Flinders and his crew replenished their fresh meat supply from kangaroos they killed after going ashore during February 1802.  Flinders named the spot Kangaroo Island on the 22nd, in gratitude.  The haunt of sealers and whalers for some years soon afterwards, Kangaroo Island became the first area for official permanent European settlement in 1836.  For immigrants arriving by sea, a sight of Cape Borda signalled almost the end of their long voyage.

Kavel, August (1798-1862).

Born in Berlin and one of the earliest pupils in the new University there, A Kavel later became a Lutheran pastor in Klemzig, Brandenburg, south-east of the capital.  Dissatisfied with a Protestant Church union which the Government forced upon the country, Kavel at last received permission for him and his congregation to emigrate to SA during 1838.  He was the pioneer pastor in Klemzig and Hahndorf, and in the end settled at Tanunda, where he died.  Fluent in English from working for several years in the London docks, Kavel often represented his people in dealings with the Government and private British settlers.

Kavel, Ann Catherine.

A native of Leytonstone, Essex, formerly part of Epping Forest, Ann Catherine Pennyfeather emigrated to SA in 1840 aboard the City of London.  She must have met August Kavel during his two-year stay in England between 1836-1838.  Pastor Teichelmann, one of the Lutheran Missionaries to the Aborigines, married the couple on 28 April 1840 at Klemzig.  Mrs Kavel died in childbirth with her stillborn baby son, at Klemzig, on Christmas Day 1842.  The Hailes family possibly visited Klemzig in the 1840-1841 summer, or at the beginning of the 1842 summer shortly before Mrs Kavel died.

Kensington.

One of the earliest of the ring of small villages which were soon established around Adelaide, Kensington quickly became popular as a near-country retreat for prosperous city merchants and tradesmen.  Charles Catchlove, an Adelaide builder, laid out the sub-division in 1838, and named it after the borough of Kensington, now part of London.  Catchlove had arrived in SA aboard the Tam-o-Shanter in 1836 and became a publican in Adelaide and Gawler.

King William Street, Adelaide.

Adelaide’s main thoroughfare, named after King William IV, the reigning British sovereign when SA was founded in 1836.  Early on, various banks, insurance companies, importing firms and land agencies set up between North Tce and Victoria Square.  Between 1853-1856, a bridge was constructed across the Torrens River to link King William St with King William Rd and North Adelaide, without the necessity of crossing via a ford.

Klemzig.

Refugee Prussians established Klemzig SA in December 1838, on two sections of land belonging to GF Angas on the banks of the Torrens River upstream from Adelaide.  The settlers and their spiritual leader, Pastor Kavel, named the place after their homeland village in Brandenburg.  The spot soon became an important source of fresh vegetables for the people of Adelaide.

Lady Wellington.

Built at Falmouth, Cornwall, England, in 1813, this brig came to South Australia in 1838, where it remained for Van Diemen’s Land trading until becoming wrecked off Pt Adelaide.

Langmeil.

Langmeil was founded by German farmers and gardeners from Klemzig SA, who settled on strips of land on both sides of the North Para River from 1843 onwards.  Only after a Lutheran Church had been erected in the district in 1846 did Pastor August Kavel shift permanently to live there.  Gradually, the area became merged with Tanunda, laid out adjacent to Langmeil in c1848.  Langmeil-Tanunda formed the central township of a region the pioneer Germans termed Neu-Schlesien (New Silesia).

Leigh Street, Adelaide.

During 1840, William Leigh, of Little Aston (south-west of Lichfield), Staffordshire, presented two Adelaide Town Acres for the use of the Church of England.  The street adjoining these properties became known as Leigh St, in consequence.  Today, the Anglican Church still owns this valuable estate, known as the Leigh Trust.

Light, Colonel William (1784-1839).

Born in Penang, W Light later served with distinction for the British army in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars.  While on later military naval duty in Egypt, Light met John Hindmarsh, who became the first Governor of SA.  William went with him as the colony’s first Surveyor-General.  After laying out Adelaide and surveying much of the surrounding countryside, Light resigned his post in 1837, upon a severe quarrel with the Colonial Commissioners.  W Light continued in private surveying practice until his death of consumption in 1839, a few months after N Hailes arrived from England.

Lights Passage.

The entrance to the Port River from Gulf St Vincent.  Governor Hindmarsh named this spot in a Government Gazette notice of 3 June 1837.  It is likely that the Lady Wellington grounded in Light’s Passage, while on a voyage between Pt Adelaide and Launceston.

Lindsay House, Angaston.

Built by Henry Evans, a son-in-law of GF Angas, near Angaston, Lindsay House eventually became the property of GF Angas himself after he arrived in SA during 1851.  The Evanses moved to nearby Keyneton.  Now, the property enjoys renown as a horse breeding stud.

Lobethal.

Ferdinand Müller, a German shepherd employed by the SA Company, found the township site while seeking new pasture for his flock.  Eighteen families from amongst his fellow emigrants, who had arrived in the Skjold in late 1841, established themselves there.  Their spiritual leader, Pastor Daniel Fritzsche, named the settlement Lobethal or Valley of Praise, on 4 May 1842, the day the founders took over their property.  Between 1918-1935, the town was known as Tweedvale.

Lord Goderich.

A three mast ship of 400 tons, built by Dikes & Gibson 1828 Kingston upon Hull, Lincs, England.  During mid-October 1837, the vessel departed Gravesend, London, with general cargo and 126 passengers bound for Pt Adelaide.  During the voyage, a drunk cabin passenger died during a meal.  As a result, an extremely bitter feud broke out between others of the cabin passengers and Captain Andrew Smith.  The master sailed to Brazil, where the British Consul in Rio (Mr Hesketh) appointed Stephen Whettem as superintendent of the emigrants in place of EC Gwynne (the Register wrongly reported that the captain had been replaced).  Unfortunately, the Lord Goderich remained in Pt Adelaide for several months longer than necessary because of delays in unloading cargo.  Local newspapers featured advertisements from both parties, who continued to feud until the ship left for Hobart in July 1838.  The Lord Goderich returned to Australia with a complement of convicts during 1841.

Lubasch, Gottfried (1789-1856).

A native of Brandenburg, Prussia, Gottfried Lubasch had served in Napoleon’s army in Russia in 1813, where he saw the burning of Moscow.  Twice married, Gottfried had a family of five daughters, all of whom eventually came to live in SA.  The Lubasch family emigrated aboard the Zebra to the colony in 1838.  Gottfried was Hahndorf’s first hotelkeeper, mailman and policeman.  Later, he farmed between Hahndorf and Balhannah.

Lunatic Asylum, Parkside.

Until 1846, mentally ill people had treatment at the Adelaide Gaol.  Then, the Government opened a hospital facing Greenhill Rd, which removed to North Tce during 1852.  Overcrowding caused new premises to open in 1870 at Parkside.  Formerly behind a high stone wall, these buildings are still used in conjunction with other sites in the metropolitan area.  Today, the Lunatic Asylum is known as the Glenside Mental Hospital.

Lyons, Daniel gent Thebarton.

Lease from Robert Torens Senr of 4 acres of Section 46, against the Torrens River in a strip back to a private road. 3/10/1851 rent for 31 years at £10 pa.

Mann, Charles (1800-1860). 

Arriving aboard the Coromandel in 1837, as SAs first Advocate-General, Mann resigned after quarreling with Governor Hindmarsh.  C Mann resumed government appointments in 1844 and held many such positions at various times, right up to the date of his death.  He was a very active person and took a prominent part in colonial life.

Mauritius.

A small tropical island in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Madagascar and continental Africa.  From 1815, Mauritius was a British colony.  During SAs early colonial times, vigorous trade occurred between the two places.  In fact, during February 1843, one of the first exports of SA wheat was made to Mauritius.  FR Nixon, who surveyed much of the Mt Barker District and had the windmill built on the watershed between Hahndorf and Mt Barker in 1842, lived in Mauritius after he left SA.

MacFarlane, Duncan (1793-1856).

Scottish-born MacFarlane arrived NSW 1824 as a sailor, and then began squatting in the mountains near present-day Canberra.  Duncan came to SA 1838 with his friend, William Dutton, on the brig Parland. MacFarlane joined Dutton and Dutton’s father-in-law, John Finnis, in taking out the Mt Barker Special Survey during January 1839, the first such land sale in the colony.  The men had brought with them substantial loans from a wealthy Sydney merchant, Thomas Walker, apparently to snap up property in such a fashion should it become available.  MacFarlane established a station, using his own stock brought over by sea from NSW.  Dependable Scottish shepherds came to live in a row of stone huts almost upon the later Mt Barker township, which Duncan and his partners laid out on part of MacFarlane’s sheep run during 1840.  A sales office opened next to the homestead.  Soon, scab and closer settlement made the area unsuitable for sheep and Duncan shifted his pastoral interests to the South-East.  He also took up shares in the Glen Osmond silver-lead mines.  In old age, D MacFarlane retired to his home at Glen Osmond.  He was a JP and presided fairly over trials.

McGee, Michael.

About 10pm on the night of 27 March 1838, two armed men bailed up SAs Sheriff, Samuel Smart, as he sat working at his desk at home.  Later, S Smart identified Michael McGee, who fired a musket and grazed Smart’s cheek.  Some 500 people watched the long murder trial, the first in the colony.  The execution took place from a gum tree in the North Parklands, in front of the Colonial Store, on 2 May 1838.  After McGee had admitted to the crowd how wicked he was, the signal was given, and the cart drove off.  He struggled a good deal...the executioner having performed his part in rather a slovenly manner... Some of the mounted police and marines were present.

McLaren, David (1785-1850).

Scottish-born David McLaren early varied a prosperous accountancy business with Christian mission work in the numerous ports along the Clyde River.  Through this activity, he met GF Angas, who arranged his appointment as an emigration agent at Glasgow and Greenock for the newly-established colony of SA.  Almost immediately afterwards, David secure the important post as second Resident Manager of the SA Company.  He moved the firm away from shipping and whaling, instead to concentrate on stock raising on extensive Special Survey lands the SA Company bought in the Onkaparinga and Torrens River valleys.  Under McLaren’s supervision, the firm did so well that he accepted the London management of the company in 1841 and so left SA for ever.

Monarto, Queen.

The last recorded Queen of one of the local Murray River Aboriginal tribes.  By the 1860s, German farmers from Hahndorf had begun to grow wheat in the Hundred of Monarto, through which the former main road between Mt Barker and Murray Bridge passes.  During the 1970s, a satellite city called Monarto was planned for the area.

Montefiore Hill, North Adelaide.

The high point of the suburb, with magnificent views over the North Parklands to South Adelaide.  John McDouall Stuart’s 1861 inland expedition left from Montefiore Hill, and a huge crowd of working class people held a mass meeting there during 1892 to discuss the Broken Hill miners’ strike.  Jacob Montefiore (1801-1895), the wealthy City of London Jew who gave his name to the hill, was one of the original SA Colonisation Commissioners appointed in 1835.  For a period in the 1840s-1850s, he lived in Adelaide, conducting a mercantile warehouse with other members of his family in King William St.

Morgan.

One of three runaway Van Diemen’s Land convicts, who tried to kill Sheriff Samuel Smart in his tent one night.  Police captured two of the three, but Morgan escaped to the Encounter Bay coast, near two whaling stations where other ex-convicts from Van Diemen’s Land worked.  Guided by a blacktracker, a small party of troopers eventually captured Morgan.  On the subsequent return journey to Adelaide, he proved too obdurate to move and so the police left him handcuffed firmly to a young gum tree some distance south of the Onkaparinga River estuary.  A relief party found the man still handcuffed to the tree, but he had suffered dreadfully from prowling wild dogs, mosquitoes and flies, while his flesh was badly cut from attempts to cast off the handcuffs.  At his subsequent trial, Morgan was sentenced to transportation for life.

Morphett, John (1809-1892).

London-born J Morphett, a land agent, arrived SA 1836 Cygnet, as a favour for having sold so many SA preliminary land orders amongst his family’s wealthy British friends.  He continued this record in the province (besides helping to survey Adelaide) and married the daughter of JH Fisher, the Resident Commissioner.  During 1837, Morphett belonged to European-led expeditions which discovered the Torrens River and first climbed Mt Barker.  In time, John Morphett was keen to establish a colonial aristocracy.  He joined the SA Parliament and held many high offices over the years.  Morphett made his property, Cummins, near Glenelg, into a fine estate.

Mount Barker District.

For South Australian colonists in the 1840s, the old Mt Barker District stretched from approximately Macclesfield and Meadows in the south to Mt Torrens in the north.  The District’s eastern borders were the Bremer-Scott Creek headwaters, while the New Tiers directly across the Onkaparinga River marked the boundary to the west.  Mt Barker township lay strategically in the centre of the region.  Captain Collett Barker was the first European to make a recognised sighting of the Mt Barker summit, during his ill-fated coastal journey to the Murray mouth in April 1831, when Aborigines speared him to death.

Mount Lofty.

Captain Matthew Flinders named the highest peak in the Southern Adelaide Hills, a feature on the way to Mt Barker.  He could see the mountain from his ship, Investigator, anchored near Kangaroo Island on 23 March 1802.  Government survey teams erected a trigonometrical cairn on the summit in 1840 to aid in the survey of land in the neighbourhood.  Quickly, the point became a landmark for seamen.

Mount Lofty Ranges.

Captain Matthew Flinders named Mt Lofty, the highest peak in the Southern Adelaide Hills, a feature on the way to Mt Barker.  He could see the mountain from his ship, Investigator, anchored near Kangaroo Island on 23 March 1802.  Government survey teams erected a trigonometrical cairn on the summit in 1840 to aid in the survey of land in the neighbourhood.  Quickly, the point became a landmark for seamen.  The mountains surrounding this peak became known as the Mt Lofty Ranges.  In earliest colonial times, these hills were often referred to as the Hay Ranges, named after Robert Hay, the permanent Under Secretary in the Colonial Office at the time SA was settled.

Municipal Council, Adelaide.

Formed in 1840, the first Adelaide City Council was renowned for being the oldest such organisation in Australia.  N Hailes was elected as a Councillor.  Unfortunately, many causes, though principally to do with lack of funds, led to the suspension of the Council in 1843.  Between 1849-1852, the Council was gradually revived, and has operated with full powers continuously since June 1852.

Murray Street, Gawler.

The main street of Gawler takes its name from Henry Dundas Murray, one of the original proprietors of the Gawler Special Survey of 1839.  For years, the thoroughfare was frightfully dusty in summer and outlandishly boggy during winter.

Neales, John Bentham (1806-1873).

Reared by the influential political philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, JB Neales emigrated to SA aboard the Eden, in 1838.  Mixing from the first in power-broking circles, JB Neales became involved in many business interests, principally in banking, mining and real estate.  Between 1851-1870, he was a member of one or other of the two elected Houses of Parliament, or of the earlier nominated Legislative Council.  JB Neales took part in many property deals in the Adelaide Hills, as he lived for a period at Woodside soon after its foundation in 1849.

North Adelaide, Adelaide.

Colonel Light laid out North Adelaide on a hill across the Torrens River from the main city of Adelaide.  North Adelaide quickly became popular as a residential area for the colony’s prosperous professional and merchant classes.

North Terrace, Adelaide.

Laid out by Colonel Light to form the northern-most east-west street in the new city of Adelaide, North Tce gradually became the centre of many government and cultural organisations for the youthful colony.

O.G. Cutter.

Most probably named after Osmond Gilles, the Colonial Treasurer, who was also Treasurer of the Glenelg syndicate.

Old Port, The.

An arm of the Port River near the ocean.  Also known as Pt Misery (qv).

Onkaparinga River.

Rises near Mt Torrens in the Adelaide Hills and flows out to sea at Port Noarlunga.  While at Balhannah, JW Bull lived by one of the many tributaries of the river.  Its name is a Kaurna Aboriginal word meaning the women’s river.  Many of SAs earliest productive farmlands were developed along both the upper and lower reaches of the stream.

Park Lands, Adelaide.

Unfortunately, Surveyor-General Light made no references to Adelaide’s unique Park Lands in his Journal.  On a map of the Adelaide Plains, which he drew up in February 1837, Light commented, The dark green round the Town I proposed to the Resident Commissioner to be reserved as Park Grounds.  For a time in 1839, it appeared as though the original 2,300 acres reserved by Colonel Light might be sold off, as he had exceeded his powers in putting the area aside.  Quick thinking on the part of the Colonial Secretary, Robert Gouger, averted this catastrophe.  By the time that the Park Lands were fenced in and tree replanting commenced during 1857, most of the original gums and peppermint trees had been cut down for firewood and building purposes.

Patawalonga Creek.

Discovered by Colonel Light in 1836, this waterway was first called the Thames.  However, the present name gradually superseded it.  Patawalonga is Aboriginal for swamp of snakes.  The Patawalonga flowed out to sea at Glenelg.

Payne, Samuel (1803-1847).

A native of Wilts, England, S Payne left his occupation as a Poor House supervisor to emigrate to SA 1838 Lord Goderich, with his wife, Ann, and small family.  Upon arrival, Payne immediately showed a flair for real estate.  He laid out the village of Payneham, with sublime prospects of the Mountains, and induced both capitalists and working men to purchase land at reduced rates for immediate cash settlement.  Soon, within a stone’s throw of each other, were the residences of William Bartley (a leading Adelaide solicitor and land agent), Samuel’s travelling companion EC Gwynne (prominent lawyer and later Judge) and TQ Stow (SAs first Congregational minister).  Probably, a good deal of Payne’s quick handsome profit went into purchase of a Town Acre, on which he built and operated the Auction Mart Tavern, Hindley St, Adelaide (wife Ann was an inn-keeper’s daughter).  The hotel was near JB Neales popular auction rooms and also Gilles Arcade, one of the chief concentrations of business firms in the infant city.  When just about to retire and live the life of a country gentleman himself, in 1847, S Payne died of a bout of influenza, leaving a sizeable estate for his widow and children.

Pedler, William Junr (1829-1909).

Born Kea, Cornwall, England.  To SA1838Royal Admiral, with parents, William Pedler Senr & Elizabeth, nee Nicholls.  William Senr made unwise decisions re his shoemaking and other careers, before farming with some success at Salisbury.  William Junr followed his father at Trevalsa Farm with grain growing and horticulture projects.

Port Lincoln.

Named by Matthew Flinders in 1802, after his home county of Lincolnshire, England.  BP Winter laid out the town in 1839 as part of the Pt Lincoln Special Survey, and the sale of allotments caused great excitement.  South Australia’s infant police force had great difficulty in keeping the peace between the first permanent settlers and the Aborigines.

Port Misery.

The old Pt Adelaide, abandoned because the water was too shallow for ships to berth close to shore.  Passengers had to go ashore by small boats through mangrove swamps.  Such difficult conditions for loading and unloading vessels gave rise to the nickname Port Misery.

Pratt, Mr .

As yet unidentified.  Only the surname Pratt appears in the Buckinghamshire passenger list.  The young man must have died soon after he arrived in South Australia.

Preliminary Land Orders.

Under the terms of the 1835 SA land regulations, 130 land buyers purchased land in SA before surveying had even begun.  The surveyors in the province by 1836 had to complete the survey of this property before any one else could obtain land.  Many unforeseen difficulties arose in trying to carry out this policy.

Prince George, The.

The Prince George was built in H Wright’s dockyards in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, during 1828.  Ten years later, GF Angas chartered the vessel to bring portion of the Prussian Lutheran refugees he was settling in SA.  Some two-thirds of the passengers established Klemzig on the banks of the Torrens River; the remainder joined the Zebra passengers to form Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills.  The Prince George had already been to Australia with a complement of convicts in 1836.  On 21 July 1841, the ship was wrecked during a storm in the China Seas and not recovered.

HMS Prince George.

A three-mast 482-ton vessel built 1830 at Bristol, Gloucs, England.  Under the command of Capt J Young, the ship left London on 12 September 1838, with emigrants bound for SA.  The Prince George dropped anchor at Holdfast Bay on 26 December 1838 and passengers disembarked at Pt Misery on 1 January 1839.  A great deal of confusion exists between this vessel and an earlier Prince George, which brought German immigrants to SA over a month beforehand.

Queen's Birthday.

Queen Victoria celebrated her nineteenth birthday on 24 May 1838, her first birthday since succeeding to the throne.  Governor Hindmarsh held an afternoon levee and evening ball at Government House to commemorate the event.  At the time, a significant number of prominent people, led by the Resident Commissioner, James Fisher, stayed away, because their quarrel with the Governor was at its height.  Exactly a month later, news of the Governor’s recall to Britain reached the colony.

Queen Victoria celebrated her twenty-first birthday on 24 May 1840, to mark which occasion, the infant SA army gathered with other prominent colonists at Government House, Adelaide.

The Register.

SAs oldest newspaper had the distinction of being older than the province.  The first edition, produced on 18 June 1836, was printed in Lambeth, in London’s East End.  Colonists had to wait another year before the next edition appeared, when SA was well proclaimed.  For some years, all sorts of troubles plagued the newspaper, which often appeared at very irregular intervals as a result.  In 1854, a consortium headed by WK Thomas, a son of Robert Thomas, the Register’s first printer, bought the business.  Until the the Advertiser in turn took over the firm in 1931 and the Register disappeared, many people recognised its influence in the state as something of a public trust.  Numbers of influential SA citizens wrote either regular or occasional columns, which readers eagerly sought to study.

Resident Commissioner.

Under the terms of the 1834 SA Act, local control of the province had to be shared between the British Government’s representative, the Governor, and the Board of Colonisation Commissioners’ nominee, who was known as the Resident Commissioner.  The other Commissioners lived in Britain.  Their first representative in SA, James Hurtle Fisher, quarrelled bitterly with the first Governor, John Hindmarsh, which made the division of power unworkable.  As a result, the British Government combined the two positions in the one person - the Governor of the day.  After the financial disasters of the next Governor, George Gawler, the system of Commissioners was abolished and the province administered like any other British colony.

Richardson, John (c1808-1886).

A native of Southwark, Surrey, England, J Richardson emigrated to SA 1838 Lord Goderich.  Within a couple of months, he had built rooms on North Tce, Adelaide, where he opened an auctioneering and land agency business.  By the end of the year, John had removed to Hindley St, where briefly he was Government Auctioneer.  During 1840, J Richardson bought a large property from JB Hack in the Adelaide Hills foothills; in 1841, John laid out the village of Houghton on part of this land.  His own farm, he named Houghton Lodge.  Joseph Barritt, the founder of the well-known Barritts of Lyndoch, became overseer. Richardson prospered.  Despite the claims of a large family, he had acquired town houses on South Tce and then in North Adelaide by the 1850s.  In time, J Richardson retired to Upper Norwood, a London suburb, where he died.  At the turn of the century, the former Houghton Lodge estate was divided into orchards, on whose produce much of the later fame of Houghton rested.

Ridpath, Walter gentleman Pt Lincoln.

On 23/12/1859, he took over the rest of George Bean’s lease of Section 46, Thebarton.

Rosina Street, Adelaide.

Originally a private thoroughfare formed before 1841 to service a sub-division between Currie and Hindley Sts,  Rosina St became a public road in May 1850.  The road apparently takes its name from Mrs William Ferguson, nee Rosina Forsyth.  She and her husband were the first people to live there.  W Ferguson was near his work as auctioneer in partnership with Robert Cock.

Royal Oak Hotel, Adelaide.

Already operating in June 1838, the Royal Oak, Hindley St, is one of the city’s oldest hotels and also notable for retaining its name throughout the whole time.  It is likely that William Joule, a passenger in the Lady Emma during 1837, established the business in a Manning house, one of those transportable wooden homes imported from England.  An ST Gill lithograph of 1851 shows an inn sign commonly seen in England hanging out the front.  The name Royal Oak commemorates how King Charles II hid for half a day in an oak tree following the Battle of Worcester in 1651, where his enemies, the Roundheads, could not find him.  Even though in memory of such a far-off event, Royal Oak is currently the second most popular hotel name in Britain.

Rufus River.

An eight-kilometre long creek draining from Lake Victoria to the Murray River, just over the SA border in NSW.  By the stream, early in 1841, a group of Aborigines speared two shepherds taking stock overland between NSW and SA.  Governor Grey despatched four punitive expeditions from Adelaide to the region, in that same year.  Some forty Aborigines were killed in the Battle of the Rufus, understandably a well-remembered event in early colonial SA.

Russel(l), John.

A Rundle St merchant, who advertised his imported stock freely in the local press.  It appears that by the mid-1840s, Russell had become an accountant.

Saint John's Church, Adelaide.

St John’s Anglican Church, Halifax St, opened for public worship on 24 October 1841.  Because it was in what was then such an undeveloped area of Adelaide, the building was known as St John’s-in-the-wilderness.  Some of its prominent pioneer members included William Bartley, the SA Company’s solicitor; Dr Benjamin Kent, who founded the Kent Town brewery; and Alfred Mundy, the colony’s first Colonial Secretary, who married Governor Hindmarsh’s daughter, Jane.

Saint Peters College, Hackney.

This school, the oldest of SAs colleges, began in the schoolroom of Trinity Church, North Tce, Adelaide, principally through the publicity of Dr Short, the first Anglican Bishop of Adelaide, and colonial philanthropist William Allen.  Severely interrupted by the exodus of labourers to the Victorian gold diggings, the first of the buildings on the school’s present Hackney Rd site were erected between 1849-1853.  From the start, the school organisation proceeded on English public school tradition, though with inevitable colonial modifications.  Quickly, the college made a name for itself and old scholars and others continue to support the school in many ways.  Old Boys have made significant contributions to state, national and international life.

Semaphore Jetty.

Semaphore was selected as a signal station and landing place c 1837.  The first buildings of the town of Semaphore were not erected until 1850.

Shepherd, HJ, grocer, of Hindley St, Adelaide.

No positive identification at this stage; confusion over exact initials a distinct possibility.  A Thomas Shepherd, merchant, signed the June 1838 petition regretting the removal of Governor Hindmarsh from office.  Bennett’s 1840 Directory lists a J Shepherd, grocer, Hindley St.  Later 1840s Directories feature Thomas Shepherd, draper, Hindley St.

Shepherdson, John (1809-1897).

Born at East Heslerton, nr Scarborough, Yorks, England.  Trained as a schoolteacher, JB Shepherdson arrived SA 1837 Hartley, with his wife and family.  Grandly appointed Director of Schools in SA, John organised the first classroom around a wooden building formerly used by the Bank of SA in North Tce, Adelaide, opposite Trinity Church.  Heat and worry caused Shepherson’s health to give way and he renounced teaching for the post as Manager of the SA Joint Stock Cattle Co between Echunga and Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills.  When this venture failed momentarily during 1840, JB Shepherdson farmed at Nairne until 1847.  Then he acted as Clerk of the Mt Barker Local Court until 1861, when he became Stipendiary Magistrate at Wallaroo.  Here Mr Shepherdson stayed until his death in active old age, respected throughout the region.

Smart, Samuel.

Appointed SAs first sheriff on 18 May 1837.  A solicitor, he owned a farm at what is now Cowandilla, but later died in Melbourne.  One evening, a Van Diemen’s Land ex-convict named Michael Magee tried to shoot the sheriff dead in his tent.  After Magee’s trial and conviction, his bungled execution took place on 2 May 1838 under a tree in the Park Lands near the Colonial Store.

Smith, Matthew (c1793-1858). 

A solicitor from Co. Durham, England, who arrived in SA aboard the Africaine in 1836.  He had his offices in Gawler Place, Adelaide.  Later, Smith was a squatter for a time on Poonindie Station, near Pt Lincoln.  Besides Glenelg, M Smith also had important links with the foundation of Pt Lincoln and Pt Pirie.

Solomon, Emanuel (c1800-1873).

London-born brothers, Emanuel and Vaiben Solomon, were transported to NSW in 1818, as youthful clothes stealers.  During 1838, Emanuel arrived in Adelaide, where he became a Currie St merchant and financed the colony's first theatre - the Queen - in 1841.  During these early colonial days, Emanuel traded a great deal with his brother, Vaiben, still in Sydney.  The brothers were in business together in Adelaide from the beginnings of the 1840s.  In 1847, Emanuel established an auctioneering firm, which specialised in city and metropolitan properties.  From the early 1860s, until shortly before his death in 1873, E Solomon belonged to one or other of the two colonial Houses of Parliament.

South Australian Commissioners.

The 1834 SA Act provided for a division of power between a Board of Commissioners and the Governor (representing the Colonial Office) in the new province; the Commissioners would preserve a continuity of policy against all the changes in the Colonial Office.  Unfortunately, the two sets of responsibility were not made clear and the Commissioners’ representative, JH Fisher, and Governor Hindmarsh quarrelled constantly, into which trouble the leading colonists got themselves involved as well.  The nine Commissioners, under Chairman Col Torrens and Secretary Rowland Hill, operated from rooms in Adelphi Tce, in the City of London.  Those august gentlemen, seated in their armchairs in a snug board-room, made too many careless decisions.  As part of a package to clear SAs huge debt, the British Government abolished the Commission in 1841 and took over the province as a regular Crown Colony.

South Australian Company.

GF Angas was the prime mover in establishing the SA Company on 22 January 1836, with a subscribed capital of £200,000.  The firm pledged to provide the comprehensive commercial infrastructure required to make the new colony of SA succeed.  By the 1850s, the company had lost most of its commercial power after a decade and more of vital assistance to the pioneering province.  At the turn of the century, the firm began to sell off its considerable tenant farm lands in the Adelaide Hills and the nearby Adelaide Plains.  In 1949, all the Company owned was some twenty-one Adelaide town acres between East Terrace and Pulteney Street, out of an original city holding of over 1,000 acres, or one-sixth of the total city area.  The SA Company went out of existence on 17 March 1949.

Southern Cross Hotel, Adelaide. 

Fred Allen took over the Southern Cross Hotel in 1838.  A very popular innkeeper, he quickly made his premises the gathering place for businessmen in the vicinity of Gilles Arcade both for business deals and convivial chat.  Several passenger and mail carts bound to and from Pt Adelaide and Glenelg used the Southern Cross as their city terminus.

South Terrace, Adelaide.

The southern-most street of Adelaide, the city which Colonel Light laid out during late 1836-early 1837.  In colonial times, the district was mostly a fashionable residential area.

Stephens, Samuel (1809-1840).

Son of a London clergyman, Samuel Stephens came to SA aboard the Duke of York in 1836, as the first Resident Manager of the SA Company.  After the voyage out, he married Charlotte Beare, a fellow passenger, whose father (Thomas Beare) was the Company’s Assistant Manager.  Extremely energetic and popular, the young executive was buried in the West Tce Cemetery, alongside the colony’s first Anglican (Rev’d CB Howard) and Methodist (Rev’d W Longbottom) ministers.  Samuel belonged to Mr Longbottom’s congregation.

Stow, Thomas Q (1801-1862).

A native of Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, TQ emigrated to SA 1837 Hartley, with his wife and family.  A Congregational minister (the second minister of any denomination in the province), immediately he held well-attended services in a large field officers’ army tent.  Soon afterwards, Stow helped labourers cut down and cart pines and reeds to build a Congregational Chapel in North Tce, Adelaide, somewhat to the west of Morphett St.  Later, Thomas took charge of the Freeman St (Gawler Pce) Chapel, where he exerted a tremendous influence throughout a long ministry.  Following TQ Stow’s death, a new Congregational Church in Flinders St, Adelaide, was named the Stow Memorial Church.  Several of Stow’s sons became explorers, judges and politicians, prominent in SA public life.

Surveyor-General.

Colonel William Light was SAs first Surveyor-General, the person in charge of Government surveying in the colony.  The post still exists.

Tasmania.

About the size of Ireland, Tasmania was long believed to be part of the Australian mainland.  During 1803, the first European inhabitants arrived - convicts and their guards, who made Tasmania part of the NSW penal settlement system.  From the early 1830s, free colonists came in increasing numbers to cultivate barley, oats, potatoes and fruit and establish prosperous sheep and cattle properties.  Sheltered harbours became bases for diverse fishing and whaling fleets.  Until its own farms began to flourish in the early 1840s, SA relied heavily on Tasmanian foodstuffs to survive and regular shipping services quickly began to ply between Pt Adelaide and Hobart and Launceston.  Numbers of energetic British pastoralists re-emigrated from Tasmania to help found SAs sheep industry, and the colony also unwillingly hosted runaway convicts from across the Tasman, whose various continued crimes made greater headlines than the men’s honest work as useful timber splitters.

Taylor, John & Joseph fellmongers Thebarton.

Lease from 31/10/1863 (Robert Torrens Senr) six acres of Section 46 30 years at £15 pa. Portion of Section 46.  John had previously leased five acres of land against the main road and Torrens River from 8/9/1851 for 31 years at £15.  By 1862, Taylor was bankrupt and EJ Spence of Adelaide seized the estate and sold it (Taylor owed him £1,000).  Green & Wadham auctioned the land on 21/5/1862 to Richard Hicks gent Adelaide.

Teetulpa Goldfields.

Explorers G and J Williams were the first white people to climb Teetulpa Hill (several kilometres north of Yunta), in 1853.  John Chewings gave the Aboriginal name Teetulpa to his 1863 pastoral lease in the area.  During 1886, fossickers found alluvial gold on the hill, whereupon some 10,000 excited miners converged on the site in the coming months.  Press interest remained intense for a time, but lack of constant returns, together with the high cost of living and almost no water, caused most adventurers to leave again.  Fitful gold mining continued until after the turn of the 19th century.  The old Teetulpa fields are north-west of Yunta on the Barrier Highway to Broken Hill.

Thebarton.

Named after Colonel Light’s nearby farm, Theberton Cottage, which in turn commemorated an farming estate in Suffolk, where he spent much of his boyhood.  The SA suburb was laid out in 1839, but in the naming, the word Theberton was transcribed inaccurately as Thebarton.  Included in the area is the first section of land surveyed outside of the city of Adelaide.

Thomads, Robert (1781-1860).

A Welshman, R Thomas prospered as a London law stationer in Fleet St, before bringing his family to SA in 1836, aboard the Africaine.  The printing press he brought with him published the Proclamation of SA, read on 28 December 1836.  Thomas established the colony’s first newspaper, the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, which combined government notices with general news; despite equipment and staffing shortages, the newspaper became a weekly publication.  Colonists also appreciated the 1838 SA Church Hymn Book.

Various business difficulties caused Thomas to declare bankruptcy during 1842.  For a time in the 1840s-1850s, he worked as a government inspector of weights & measures and initiated various private enterprises of his own.  From 1852, Robert had the pleasure of seeing his second son, William, become chief shareholder in a company which acquired the Register and continued to publish until 1931.  Robert Thomas took a great interest in the growth of SA.  His wife, Mary, kept a detailed diary of her activities, which, in published form, have become a valuable resource for SAs colonial beginnings.

Three Brothers Special Survey.

Quaker entrepreneur JB Hack took out the Three Brothers Survey on 23 January 1839, after he had endured the disappointment of not securing the Mt Barker Special Survey immediately to the north.  Sometimes thought to be named after three of the sons of George Sanders (JB Hack’s overseer), it is more likely that the survey commemorates three well-rounded hills on Section 3531, Hundred of Kuitpo, adjacent to the main road between Echunga and Meadows.  Popularly, colonists referred to the survey as the Echunga Survey.  Hack lost title to his share of the Special Survey after he went bankrupt during 1840.

Tiers, The.

The old name given to the western slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges particularly around Mt Lofty itself.  Here, the ridges rose in distinct rows covered with dark, silent stringybark forests.  Soon, the area rang to the sound of log cutters, many of them Tasmanian ex-convicts, who felled masses of timber for building and fencing.  During the 1840s-1850s, it became customary to speak of the Old and New Tiers.  The Old Tiers stretched from Glen Osmond eastward to Cox Creek; the New Tiers sloped east from the ridges between Mount Lofty and Norton Summit.  A further set of Tiers, the Company Tiers (after the SA Company), fell westward from these same ridges.

Torrens River.

This river rises in the watershed between the Hundreds of South Rhine and Talunga behind Mt Pleasant.  Confusion about the river’s source caused Mt Torrens further to the south to gain its name incorrectly.  GS Kingston’s thirsty dog reputedly led its master and Messrs WG Field and John Morphett to discover the stream, possibly near its mouth on 6 November 1836.  During colonial times, the Torrens often flooded during winter, causing tremendous damage at various places along its course.  Col William Light chose an elevated site along the Torrens to establish SAs capital city, Adelaide.  The river takes its name from Colonel Robert Torrens, Chairman of the SA Colonisation Commission.

In 1838, the Torrens was Adelaide’s main water supply.  People washed themselves and their clothes in the river, as well as using its water elsewhere for drinking and cooking purposes.

Trinity Church, Adelaide.

When the Adelaide Town Acres were ready for selection in 1837, the colonists agreed that the Anglican Church should have first choice of the sites.  Mr P St Leger Grenfell, an English philanthropist, had given enough money to buy the city land, plus forty acres of glebe on which the suburb of Trinity Gardens now stands.  Col W Light chose a central position near the Torrens ford on North Tce, which led to Pt Adelaide.  The temporary wooden building immediately put into place gave way by mid-1838 to a stone church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, but familiarly known as Trinity Church.  A year later, the SA Commissioners gave the landmark clock still keeping time in the church tower.  Many notable events and famous people are connected with the history of this, SAs oldest church.

Unley.

After purchasing some 400 acres near Adelaide, as an absentee landbuyer, Thomas Whistler emigrated in 1840.  He decided to lay out his property as a village, called Unley, after Undley Hall, an estate near his former home in Suffolk.

Van Diemen's Land.

The name which Abel Tasman, the discoverer of Tasmania, gave to the island when he landed there on 24 November 1642.  Tasman thus honoured his patron, Anthony van Diemen, Governor of the Dutch East Indies, who had sponsored his voyage.  During 1798, the journey of Bass and Flinders though Bass Strait proved that Van Diemen’s Land was not part of the continent of Australia.  Because Van Diemen’s Land developed some of the worst excesses of penal settlement cruelty, the new free colony after 1851 petitioned the British government successfully for a name change to Tasmania, which came into effect on 1 January 1856.  Until the Australian colonists campaigned for the transportation system to stop, SA despatched its own convicts to Van Diemen’s Land.

Walkerville.

A former British naval officer and East India merchant, John Walker arrived in South Australia during 1838.  Soon afterwards, he joined a syndicate which bought the site of the present suburb of Walkerville from Governor Hindmarsh, who left the colony in mid-1838.  J Walker became the Treasurer for the syndicate, which named the new sub-division after him at a meeting more numerously than respectably attended.  Walker lost all his assets during the hard times that overwhelmed SA in the early 1840s and moved to Van Diemen’s Land, where he found a job as Harbourmaster at Launceston.

Wall.

An area beside the Murray River, some ten kilometres south of Mannum.  John Baker, a prominent pastoralist and politician, leased the property as a sheep station from 1853, until his death in 1872.  The name itself is of uncertain origin.

Watts, Captain Alfred (1814-1884).

Born in Bristol, England, Alfred Watts came to SA, aboard the Hartley, in 1837, as accountant to the SA Company.  Watts married Jane Giles, daughter of a later Manager of the South Australian Company, who, with his family, also arrived on the Hartley.  Alfred became a respected businessman and in time entered the colonial Parliament.  Prominent organisations and individuals often sought his advice concerning financial matters.

Wellington Boots.

High riding boots said to have been brought back to England by the Duke of Wellington, who wore them in his military campaigns against Napoleon.

West Terrace Cemetery.

Colonel William Light allowed for a public cemetery on West Terrace in the original Adelaide plan published in March 1837.  Soon afterwards, burials took place, but none appeared in an official register until 1840, when up to 500 graves had been dug already.  Officially, the site was named the Adelaide Public Cemetery, but soon, the popular title West Terrace Cemetery took over.  Before the Government established the West Terrace Cemetery, interments had occurred in a very haphazard fashion.  Many notable colonial S. Australians are buried here.

Whitford, Christopher

Cornfactor Rundle St leased 50 acres and 38 acres adjoining + 32 acres against the Torrens, sparated by a small road from the larger two pieces of land, of Section 46 (District B) from Robert Torrens (Pall Mall) on 9/7/1853.  The Torrens land had been divided into 4 strips.  Whitford took the biggest of the 4.

Wicksteed, Frederic (c1814-1877).

To SA 1838 Lord Goderich.  Shropshire-born Wicksteed became clerk to Messrs Smith & Shaen in Pt Lincoln, but on the failure of that business, he returned to Adelaide to become confidential clerk to JB Neales the auctioneer.  When Neales retired, Frederic bought the business and operated it with W Samson.  In 1856, Mr Wicksteed went into partnership with Messrs Neales, Botting & Townsend and became Government Auctioneer.  He was Secretary to the Anglican Synod and the Leigh Trust, and also belonged to several Lodges.  F Wicksteed was noted for his cheerful conduct of meetings and ability to be a good mixer on social occasions.

Wigley, Henry (1794-1876).

Landed with his wife and children in SA aboard the Shah in 1837.  He almost immediately became Stipendiary Magistrate for the District of Adelaide and held several other important legal appointments.  Henry also had the luck to be one of the syndicate which applied to found Glenelg.  However, H Wigley died in obscurity at Grünthal (now Verdun), near Hahndorf.  JW Bull and many others confused the father with the much more prominent son, WR Wigley, who became a Member of Parliament and Mayor of Glenelg.  WR Wigley was only ten years old when the family arrived in SA.

Zebra, The.

Built in 1818 for JN Dede, a merchant from Altona, in Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark.  By the 1830s, ownership had passed to F Nicolaus Dede, a ship-building materials merchant, who engaged a fellow Dane, Dirk Hahn, to captain the vessel between 1836-1840.  GF Angas chartered the boat in 1838 to take portion of the Prussian religious refugees he had sponsored to settle in SA.  It was these people who founded Hahndorf in 1839 and named the settlement after Hahn, who had done so much to see that the emigrants had a safe journey and settled down as well as they could in their new land.