Burfords Signal Soap advert on the old wheat store in Auburn South Australia. In the Clare Valley. Burfords were the major soap and candle makers in Adelaide in the 19th century.
Burfords.
They advertised soaps and candles their main stays. William Burford arrived in SA in 1838. Started soap and candle making in Grenfell Street in 1840. Moved his factory to Flinders Street in 1881 and later to Hindmarsh (1887) and eventually to dry creek in 1922. They produced glycerine, starch, etc. as well as soap and candles. The company later had branches in Kadina, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Mt Gambier. They had Signal soap Globe Candles etc.
William Tateham (or Tatum) established himself on the Wakefield River where the town of Auburn is now located. These early settlers soon had annual occupation licenses over the land. The land was finally surveyed by the government and put up for auction in 1849 because they were establishing a bullock dray route for carting copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. An Adelaide surveyor planned the route from Burra to Port Wakefield with nine selected stopovers along the way for the bullocks and their drivers. The stopovers had to have suitable water and pasture. Speculators then moved in to establish villages at these stopover points, which were one day’s travel apart. Auburn township was surveyed and registered in 1850 and the first allotments were sold to teamsters, storekeepers, clergy, a teacher, and a number of tradesmen including a blacksmith. Many of these first settlers came from Burra.
The first hotel, the Rising Sun Inn was opened in 1851, but it would have been nothing more than a bush hut in those days. The copper route to Port Wakefield only lasted until the railway from Adelaide reached Gawler in 1857, and after that boom period, Auburn reverted to a rural service centre. Yet it was a prosperous agricultural area and many fine buildings were erected in the town. It grew partly because it was on the main road north to Clare and Burra. One particular person influenced many of the buildings in town, and that was Joseph Meller, a stonemason who quarried local sand stone, and was contracted to build a number of the town’s major structures. Most of the solid buildings still standing date from the period when Meller was active in the 1860s and 1870s. The closure of the Burra mine in 1870 meant that the town “stood still” for much of the next century, but the legacy of fine buildings is still here for us to appreciate.
Burfords Signal Soap advert on the old wheat store in Auburn South Australia. In the Clare Valley. Burfords were the major soap and candle makers in Adelaide in the 19th century.
Burfords.
They advertised soaps and candles their main stays. William Burford arrived in SA in 1838. Started soap and candle making in Grenfell Street in 1840. Moved his factory to Flinders Street in 1881 and later to Hindmarsh (1887) and eventually to dry creek in 1922. They produced glycerine, starch, etc. as well as soap and candles. The company later had branches in Kadina, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Mt Gambier. They had Signal soap Globe Candles etc.
William Tateham (or Tatum) established himself on the Wakefield River where the town of Auburn is now located. These early settlers soon had annual occupation licenses over the land. The land was finally surveyed by the government and put up for auction in 1849 because they were establishing a bullock dray route for carting copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. An Adelaide surveyor planned the route from Burra to Port Wakefield with nine selected stopovers along the way for the bullocks and their drivers. The stopovers had to have suitable water and pasture. Speculators then moved in to establish villages at these stopover points, which were one day’s travel apart. Auburn township was surveyed and registered in 1850 and the first allotments were sold to teamsters, storekeepers, clergy, a teacher, and a number of tradesmen including a blacksmith. Many of these first settlers came from Burra.
The first hotel, the Rising Sun Inn was opened in 1851, but it would have been nothing more than a bush hut in those days. The copper route to Port Wakefield only lasted until the railway from Adelaide reached Gawler in 1857, and after that boom period, Auburn reverted to a rural service centre. Yet it was a prosperous agricultural area and many fine buildings were erected in the town. It grew partly because it was on the main road north to Clare and Burra. One particular person influenced many of the buildings in town, and that was Joseph Meller, a stonemason who quarried local sand stone, and was contracted to build a number of the town’s major structures. Most of the solid buildings still standing date from the period when Meller was active in the 1860s and 1870s. The closure of the Burra mine in 1870 meant that the town “stood still” for much of the next century, but the legacy of fine buildings is still here for us to appreciate.