Barabba on the Adelaide Plains. The cemetery is surrounded by Mallee scrub which was burnt in a bushfire in 2015. Headstones include Fidge family.
Barabba and cemetery.
Barabba was surveyed as a small town in 1879 called Aliceburgh. The land here was first taken up as a pastoral lease in 1845. The Hundred of Grace was declared in 1868 and farming settlers began to move into the area after that. David Dow of Scotland took up the first farming blocks here in 1865. Aliceburgh ceased to exist in 1897 and the area was resurveyed into five acre Working Men’s’ Blocks but with no great success. Barabba was the name used for the locality well before 1897 but no town of Barabba ever formally existed. The Barabba Post Office opened in 1877 in a corner of the school room. In 1875 a small school opened in Barabba on a five acre site. It was a government school that cost £799 to build in the Gothic style which was identical to the schools built at Dublin, Gawler River and many other Adelaide Plains towns. The new Gothic school opened in 1877 with 37 pupils. A government headmaster’s house was built next to the school in 1885. Sadly the school closed in 1960 and the school was destroyed by the Pinery bushfires in 2015. The Post Office however survived until closure in 1972 after the then current post master said he could not continue because of health reasons. Today a small roadside unattended Post Offices suffices for the district. A Primitive Methodist church was built in 1867. Among the trustees of the church was James Dow a relative of the pioneer David Dow. It was a simple pug and pine structure that was still standing in 1876 when a new stone Primitive Methodist Church was built and the opening service was conducted by Reverend Stuart Wayland on 26th November 1876. It cost £220 and after collections on the day only £83 was left owing. Farmers expected to pay that off when the harvest had been reaped. A third church was built in 1925 and opened in 1926. The final service was held in 1967 and then the church was later demolished. Only a stone cairn records its existence now. In its heyday from the 1920s to the 1980s Barabba had a very active tennis club and for a few years it also had a football team club and a women’s’ basketball team. The Barabba cemetery opened in 1876 and contains about 1,000 burial plots. The native bushland surrounding it was destroyed by the Pinery bushfires.
Barabba on the Adelaide Plains. The cemetery is surrounded by Mallee scrub which was burnt in a bushfire in 2015. Headstones include Fidge family.
Barabba and cemetery.
Barabba was surveyed as a small town in 1879 called Aliceburgh. The land here was first taken up as a pastoral lease in 1845. The Hundred of Grace was declared in 1868 and farming settlers began to move into the area after that. David Dow of Scotland took up the first farming blocks here in 1865. Aliceburgh ceased to exist in 1897 and the area was resurveyed into five acre Working Men’s’ Blocks but with no great success. Barabba was the name used for the locality well before 1897 but no town of Barabba ever formally existed. The Barabba Post Office opened in 1877 in a corner of the school room. In 1875 a small school opened in Barabba on a five acre site. It was a government school that cost £799 to build in the Gothic style which was identical to the schools built at Dublin, Gawler River and many other Adelaide Plains towns. The new Gothic school opened in 1877 with 37 pupils. A government headmaster’s house was built next to the school in 1885. Sadly the school closed in 1960 and the school was destroyed by the Pinery bushfires in 2015. The Post Office however survived until closure in 1972 after the then current post master said he could not continue because of health reasons. Today a small roadside unattended Post Offices suffices for the district. A Primitive Methodist church was built in 1867. Among the trustees of the church was James Dow a relative of the pioneer David Dow. It was a simple pug and pine structure that was still standing in 1876 when a new stone Primitive Methodist Church was built and the opening service was conducted by Reverend Stuart Wayland on 26th November 1876. It cost £220 and after collections on the day only £83 was left owing. Farmers expected to pay that off when the harvest had been reaped. A third church was built in 1925 and opened in 1926. The final service was held in 1967 and then the church was later demolished. Only a stone cairn records its existence now. In its heyday from the 1920s to the 1980s Barabba had a very active tennis club and for a few years it also had a football team club and a women’s’ basketball team. The Barabba cemetery opened in 1876 and contains about 1,000 burial plots. The native bushland surrounding it was destroyed by the Pinery bushfires.