Nangkita Village Settlement Scheme of 1894. A wattle and daub Methodist church which was used as a state school opened here in 1894 95. closed 1931. Only the stone fireplace remains. The Village settlment closed around 1898.
Nangkita and the Village Irrigation Scheme.
One of the most amazing episodes of SA history occurred with the setting up of communistic village irrigation schemes. Partly as a response to the great depression of the early 1890s and high unemployment the SA government made amendments to the Crown Lands Act in 1893 to allow communes to set up villages along the River Murray and elsewhere. Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, New Zealand and Canada all had similar acts at that time. Eleven village communities were set up along the River Murray and one at Melrose in the Southern Flinders Ranges and one at Nangkita near Mt Compass on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The communes leased Crown Land from the government. The rules were fairly uniform across the villages and the control of the villages rested with the village Trustees, not the government. Single members paid around £40 to join a commune and couples around £60. They were allotted 5 acres of land or more to grow crops and produce fruit. No unmarried people could cohabit; no alcohol was allowed. Both these regulations were flouted. Jealousies and rivalries doomed most villages and all were hamstrung because they seldom could raise sufficient money to install a large enough pumps for irrigation or they found work cooperation difficult. The communes ran up huge debts for which the government was ultimately responsible! The most successful villages were along the River Murray where they moved away from a commune type settlement to individual perpetual leases and a form of village cooperative. Overall the program was a disaster and many communes disappeared quickly in the mid-1890s. In 1900 they held a Royal Commission into the scheme which proposed closing down the scheme. The 1902 Village Settlement Act repealed the 1893 legislation. Most villages closed down in 1903. By the end of 1894 across all the Village Settlement schemes there were 1,748 people living on the settlements in 389 houses with 5,602 acres cleared and with 2,623 acres planted in wheat. Within this one year works had been constructed to provide 305 irrigated acres with vines, citrus and stone fruit trees, 43 irrigated acres in potatoes and 27 irrigated acres in vegetables with 1,063 chains of irrigation channels built.
Nangkita was not one of the successful settlement villages. The land was allotted along the swampy but fertile river flats of Tookayerta Creek which flows down to Currency Creek and Lake Alexandrina. Although the Hundred of Nangkita had been declared in 1846 little surveying was undertaken in the Hundred until the 1890s because it was so swampy. Mt Compass district was surveyed in 1892. The settlement began in 1894 and one of the first structures was a stone chimney and wattle and daub walls for a Methodist Church. The state government rented this church for use as a weekday state school from the end of July 1895. The school opened in 1895 and the church began services in 1894. Today all that remains of this structure is the stone fireplace. There are few structures left from the entire village settlement scheme in South Australia except for a chimney flue at Pyap and an old school room at Kingston-on-Murray.
In February 1894 125 people signed up to form the village settlement including 25 men and their families from Port Adelaide. 1,600 acres of land was granted initially by the government with a further 500 acres promised in six months’ time. The first settlers arrived in March 1894 by train to Strathalbyn and then overland with horses, cattle, supplies and tents. Tobacco seeds were distributed at the end of April for planting but before this could occur the hard work of clearing reeds, ti-trees and wattles was required. The first roofed house was completed in late May. The settlers at Nangkita planted tobacco, potatoes and onions but they only managed to harvest the tobacco. They had greater success with the vines and fruit trees that they planted but a harvest was still years away for that. By March 1895 500 aces had been fenced, a new 7 acre crop of potatoes planted and almost an acre of onions and maize. A 60 acre crop of wheat was also planted in the winter 1895. But by November 1895 there were only 9 settlers families left of the original 25 families. The debts of those remaining was over £100 per person. The debt to the government was far exceeding any income of the settlement despite the hard work of the settlers. By June 1896 the future of the village settlement was in doubt. To increase income the village settlement tried a crop of flax but by January 1897 the village settlement had collapsed and was over. It was abandoned but some stayed on leased farm blocks and the state school and Methodist church persisted. Gradually the district was settled by freeholders and leaseholders with some money of their own. The memorial cairn at the church site in Nangkita was erected in 1994 the centenary of the settlement. The school closed in 1931 but reopened in 1936 in the new Methodist Church built a mile or so down the road. The Nangkita school finally closed in 1963.
Nangkita Village Settlement Scheme of 1894. A wattle and daub Methodist church which was used as a state school opened here in 1894 95. closed 1931. Only the stone fireplace remains. The Village settlment closed around 1898.
Nangkita and the Village Irrigation Scheme.
One of the most amazing episodes of SA history occurred with the setting up of communistic village irrigation schemes. Partly as a response to the great depression of the early 1890s and high unemployment the SA government made amendments to the Crown Lands Act in 1893 to allow communes to set up villages along the River Murray and elsewhere. Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, New Zealand and Canada all had similar acts at that time. Eleven village communities were set up along the River Murray and one at Melrose in the Southern Flinders Ranges and one at Nangkita near Mt Compass on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The communes leased Crown Land from the government. The rules were fairly uniform across the villages and the control of the villages rested with the village Trustees, not the government. Single members paid around £40 to join a commune and couples around £60. They were allotted 5 acres of land or more to grow crops and produce fruit. No unmarried people could cohabit; no alcohol was allowed. Both these regulations were flouted. Jealousies and rivalries doomed most villages and all were hamstrung because they seldom could raise sufficient money to install a large enough pumps for irrigation or they found work cooperation difficult. The communes ran up huge debts for which the government was ultimately responsible! The most successful villages were along the River Murray where they moved away from a commune type settlement to individual perpetual leases and a form of village cooperative. Overall the program was a disaster and many communes disappeared quickly in the mid-1890s. In 1900 they held a Royal Commission into the scheme which proposed closing down the scheme. The 1902 Village Settlement Act repealed the 1893 legislation. Most villages closed down in 1903. By the end of 1894 across all the Village Settlement schemes there were 1,748 people living on the settlements in 389 houses with 5,602 acres cleared and with 2,623 acres planted in wheat. Within this one year works had been constructed to provide 305 irrigated acres with vines, citrus and stone fruit trees, 43 irrigated acres in potatoes and 27 irrigated acres in vegetables with 1,063 chains of irrigation channels built.
Nangkita was not one of the successful settlement villages. The land was allotted along the swampy but fertile river flats of Tookayerta Creek which flows down to Currency Creek and Lake Alexandrina. Although the Hundred of Nangkita had been declared in 1846 little surveying was undertaken in the Hundred until the 1890s because it was so swampy. Mt Compass district was surveyed in 1892. The settlement began in 1894 and one of the first structures was a stone chimney and wattle and daub walls for a Methodist Church. The state government rented this church for use as a weekday state school from the end of July 1895. The school opened in 1895 and the church began services in 1894. Today all that remains of this structure is the stone fireplace. There are few structures left from the entire village settlement scheme in South Australia except for a chimney flue at Pyap and an old school room at Kingston-on-Murray.
In February 1894 125 people signed up to form the village settlement including 25 men and their families from Port Adelaide. 1,600 acres of land was granted initially by the government with a further 500 acres promised in six months’ time. The first settlers arrived in March 1894 by train to Strathalbyn and then overland with horses, cattle, supplies and tents. Tobacco seeds were distributed at the end of April for planting but before this could occur the hard work of clearing reeds, ti-trees and wattles was required. The first roofed house was completed in late May. The settlers at Nangkita planted tobacco, potatoes and onions but they only managed to harvest the tobacco. They had greater success with the vines and fruit trees that they planted but a harvest was still years away for that. By March 1895 500 aces had been fenced, a new 7 acre crop of potatoes planted and almost an acre of onions and maize. A 60 acre crop of wheat was also planted in the winter 1895. But by November 1895 there were only 9 settlers families left of the original 25 families. The debts of those remaining was over £100 per person. The debt to the government was far exceeding any income of the settlement despite the hard work of the settlers. By June 1896 the future of the village settlement was in doubt. To increase income the village settlement tried a crop of flax but by January 1897 the village settlement had collapsed and was over. It was abandoned but some stayed on leased farm blocks and the state school and Methodist church persisted. Gradually the district was settled by freeholders and leaseholders with some money of their own. The memorial cairn at the church site in Nangkita was erected in 1994 the centenary of the settlement. The school closed in 1931 but reopened in 1936 in the new Methodist Church built a mile or so down the road. The Nangkita school finally closed in 1963.