In Willunga. The Hotel on right built in 1868. Centre building was the home of James Castle built around 1860. He owned the hotel.The building left was Castles General Store built around 1870. Upper floor added about 1890
Willunga.
Like McLaren Vale white settlers started arriving here in 1839 and the town of Willunga is one of the oldest towns in SA outside of metropolitan Adelaide (other towns of similar age include Mt Barker, Nairne, and Gawler.) Willunga claims to be the oldest town outside of Adelaide but this is difficult to substantiate. The area was bought in 1839 by Edward Moore. He had a private subdivision for a town carried out in 1840. The first structure in the town was a brush and thatch hotel called the “Lincoln Inn Hotel” in 1840 but it was soon changed to the “Bush Inn “and then finally the Willunga Hotel in 1870. The hotel you can see today was built in 1870 at the time of this name change.
The second structure in the town was probably the first police station (1839/40) which collapsed or was demolished a few years later. (But it is possible that a couple of the rooms of the caretaker’s cottage in the police complex are from this first building). In 1843 the first police station was in such a poor state of repair that the police were transferred to Noarlunga! The first police station was then sold as a residence. In 1854 the government built a second police station and court house complex at Willunga. Stables and cells were added in 1864 and more rooms in 1872 and this is the structure you can see today. Willunga grew and needed a police station as it was the main staging point on the road from Adelaide to Encounter Bay. Apart from travellers the police for Victor Harbor stayed at the Willunga police station overnight on their way each week to man the police station at Victor Harbor. Perhaps indicative of the period when Willunga was settled it favoured saint’s names for street names e.g. St Peters; St Mathews; St Lukes; St James; St George; St Marys; St Judes; and St Andrews. In addition Willunga has a Chapel Street; Church Street and Church Road; and Kirk Street. The churches in this “ecclesiastical town” date as follows: St Stephen’s Church of England 1880; first Roman Catholic 1868; first Uniting Church was a Bible Christian Methodist Church in 1853. The first Anglican Church had an attached cemetery which has graves dating from 1850. The Bible Christian Church also had a Methodist cemetery.
Willunga has a number of buildings dating from the 1850s. These include the old school room built in 1854 in St Lukes Street. This simple Georgian style stone building was constructed for James Bassett as a school for boys. Note the fine rounded door arches, voussoirs and the 16 paned windows. Up to eighty seven boys were schooled at a time in this tiny building. Bassett died in 1874 and the boys of Willunga had a break of two years of schooling until the new state school opened in 1877(following the 1875 Free, Compulsory and Secular Education Act.) Basset’s building then became the local Council Chambers for some years. Like most buildings in the town, and many around Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, the slate roof for Basset’s School was supplied from the local slate quarries. Three quarries were soon operating. Edward Loud discovered slate on his property in 1840. Soon 12 families were mining the slate, for roofing tiles and the Bangor Quarry was in existence by 1842. The next quarry was known as Martin’s Quarry and operated from 1846. Another quarry, the third was established in 1856 and it survived the others. It did close several times when demand for slate declined, but then it became the Australia Slate Quarries Ltd in 1917, and continued for many years after this. One small slate quarry still operates today albeit on a very small basis. The village of Delabole near the quarries and several kilometres from Willunga closed around 1890 with the last building being vacated in 1968. Cornish immigrants were the main slate workers and up to 20,000 roof slates were shipped out of Port Willunga each week during the 1870s and 1880s. Willunga slate was used for hearths, door steps, roofing, and school blackboards. It was shipped from Port Willunga to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Other early public buildings include the original post office and telegraph station and residence which was completed in 1857 as a single storey complex. The upper floor was added in 1865-67 and the slate roof was covered with iron. Away from the Main Street we will see the two storey residence built in 1855 for Mr Sara the owner of the Bangor Slate Quarry at number 17 St Lukes Terrace. It is noted for its fine wrought iron balcony and symmetry.
Almond cultivation did not begin in Willunga until 1901. The climatic conditions with higher humidity from afternoon sea breezes suited the almonds and made commercial cropping worthwhile. They became the major crop of the district and the Tourist Bureau of SA used the flowering almonds for tourism promotion from the 1940s. The first Willunga Almond Festival was held in 1969. It continues today despite few almonds being grown for commercial purposes. Vineyards have supplanted the almond tree as the major horticultural crop these days.
In Willunga. The Hotel on right built in 1868. Centre building was the home of James Castle built around 1860. He owned the hotel.The building left was Castles General Store built around 1870. Upper floor added about 1890
Willunga.
Like McLaren Vale white settlers started arriving here in 1839 and the town of Willunga is one of the oldest towns in SA outside of metropolitan Adelaide (other towns of similar age include Mt Barker, Nairne, and Gawler.) Willunga claims to be the oldest town outside of Adelaide but this is difficult to substantiate. The area was bought in 1839 by Edward Moore. He had a private subdivision for a town carried out in 1840. The first structure in the town was a brush and thatch hotel called the “Lincoln Inn Hotel” in 1840 but it was soon changed to the “Bush Inn “and then finally the Willunga Hotel in 1870. The hotel you can see today was built in 1870 at the time of this name change.
The second structure in the town was probably the first police station (1839/40) which collapsed or was demolished a few years later. (But it is possible that a couple of the rooms of the caretaker’s cottage in the police complex are from this first building). In 1843 the first police station was in such a poor state of repair that the police were transferred to Noarlunga! The first police station was then sold as a residence. In 1854 the government built a second police station and court house complex at Willunga. Stables and cells were added in 1864 and more rooms in 1872 and this is the structure you can see today. Willunga grew and needed a police station as it was the main staging point on the road from Adelaide to Encounter Bay. Apart from travellers the police for Victor Harbor stayed at the Willunga police station overnight on their way each week to man the police station at Victor Harbor. Perhaps indicative of the period when Willunga was settled it favoured saint’s names for street names e.g. St Peters; St Mathews; St Lukes; St James; St George; St Marys; St Judes; and St Andrews. In addition Willunga has a Chapel Street; Church Street and Church Road; and Kirk Street. The churches in this “ecclesiastical town” date as follows: St Stephen’s Church of England 1880; first Roman Catholic 1868; first Uniting Church was a Bible Christian Methodist Church in 1853. The first Anglican Church had an attached cemetery which has graves dating from 1850. The Bible Christian Church also had a Methodist cemetery.
Willunga has a number of buildings dating from the 1850s. These include the old school room built in 1854 in St Lukes Street. This simple Georgian style stone building was constructed for James Bassett as a school for boys. Note the fine rounded door arches, voussoirs and the 16 paned windows. Up to eighty seven boys were schooled at a time in this tiny building. Bassett died in 1874 and the boys of Willunga had a break of two years of schooling until the new state school opened in 1877(following the 1875 Free, Compulsory and Secular Education Act.) Basset’s building then became the local Council Chambers for some years. Like most buildings in the town, and many around Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, the slate roof for Basset’s School was supplied from the local slate quarries. Three quarries were soon operating. Edward Loud discovered slate on his property in 1840. Soon 12 families were mining the slate, for roofing tiles and the Bangor Quarry was in existence by 1842. The next quarry was known as Martin’s Quarry and operated from 1846. Another quarry, the third was established in 1856 and it survived the others. It did close several times when demand for slate declined, but then it became the Australia Slate Quarries Ltd in 1917, and continued for many years after this. One small slate quarry still operates today albeit on a very small basis. The village of Delabole near the quarries and several kilometres from Willunga closed around 1890 with the last building being vacated in 1968. Cornish immigrants were the main slate workers and up to 20,000 roof slates were shipped out of Port Willunga each week during the 1870s and 1880s. Willunga slate was used for hearths, door steps, roofing, and school blackboards. It was shipped from Port Willunga to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Other early public buildings include the original post office and telegraph station and residence which was completed in 1857 as a single storey complex. The upper floor was added in 1865-67 and the slate roof was covered with iron. Away from the Main Street we will see the two storey residence built in 1855 for Mr Sara the owner of the Bangor Slate Quarry at number 17 St Lukes Terrace. It is noted for its fine wrought iron balcony and symmetry.
Almond cultivation did not begin in Willunga until 1901. The climatic conditions with higher humidity from afternoon sea breezes suited the almonds and made commercial cropping worthwhile. They became the major crop of the district and the Tourist Bureau of SA used the flowering almonds for tourism promotion from the 1940s. The first Willunga Almond Festival was held in 1969. It continues today despite few almonds being grown for commercial purposes. Vineyards have supplanted the almond tree as the major horticultural crop these days.