Balhannah Hotel c1898 in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia
There have always been hotels in Balhannah – one in particular has a very sad history.
Balhannah was established on section 4208 in the Onkaparinga Valley: James Turnbull Thomson owned the section and named it Balhannah using his mother’s name.
She was Hannah and the Celtic prefix ‘bal’ signifies town or village.
The first survey maps of the Hundred of Onkaparinga in 1844 show “The Township of Balhannah”.
Thomson also built the first hotel in the township and let it but the tenant soon shot through.
He left and went to Sydney and London returning in 1850. He was at war with the family who built a pub next to his, accusing them of smashing 54 panes of glass in his establishment.
In 1855 Thomas applied for a general and storekeeper’s licence and was refused. His neighbour’s application for his own pub was granted.
As a consequence of continuing accusative behaviour his neighbour sued for slander and Thomson was sent to trial. The verdict was an order for £150. Thomson was granted a new trial but ordered to pay the costs. He had no money, couldn’t pay, and went to gaol for twelve months.
Little is known about him from that time except his journal entry in 1863 records that he was going blind. Thomson appears to have been a gloomy and temperamental man for whom things never went right.
On August 26 1876 two men exploring scrub near the North Arm in Port Adelaide discovered Thomson’s body. He had died alone of exhaustion and exposure. Cash of £39 and a £5 cheque was found in his pocket. The money was not used for a decent burial.
He was given a pauper’s grave in the Woodville Cemetery.
*Thomson’s hotel was a substantial two-storey brick building with a gable roof. There were eight or nine rooms, three of which were upstairs. In later years his property was purchased and pulled down with his ‘slandered’ neighbour’s hotel being extended across the site.
Thomson’s journal is held by the Mortlock Library, State Library of South Australia.
Ref: Manning’s Place Names of South Australia
Balhannah Hotel c1898 in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia
There have always been hotels in Balhannah – one in particular has a very sad history.
Balhannah was established on section 4208 in the Onkaparinga Valley: James Turnbull Thomson owned the section and named it Balhannah using his mother’s name.
She was Hannah and the Celtic prefix ‘bal’ signifies town or village.
The first survey maps of the Hundred of Onkaparinga in 1844 show “The Township of Balhannah”.
Thomson also built the first hotel in the township and let it but the tenant soon shot through.
He left and went to Sydney and London returning in 1850. He was at war with the family who built a pub next to his, accusing them of smashing 54 panes of glass in his establishment.
In 1855 Thomas applied for a general and storekeeper’s licence and was refused. His neighbour’s application for his own pub was granted.
As a consequence of continuing accusative behaviour his neighbour sued for slander and Thomson was sent to trial. The verdict was an order for £150. Thomson was granted a new trial but ordered to pay the costs. He had no money, couldn’t pay, and went to gaol for twelve months.
Little is known about him from that time except his journal entry in 1863 records that he was going blind. Thomson appears to have been a gloomy and temperamental man for whom things never went right.
On August 26 1876 two men exploring scrub near the North Arm in Port Adelaide discovered Thomson’s body. He had died alone of exhaustion and exposure. Cash of £39 and a £5 cheque was found in his pocket. The money was not used for a decent burial.
He was given a pauper’s grave in the Woodville Cemetery.
*Thomson’s hotel was a substantial two-storey brick building with a gable roof. There were eight or nine rooms, three of which were upstairs. In later years his property was purchased and pulled down with his ‘slandered’ neighbour’s hotel being extended across the site.
Thomson’s journal is held by the Mortlock Library, State Library of South Australia.
Ref: Manning’s Place Names of South Australia