Angaston. The gracious Lindsay Park House. Architect Henry Evans. Built 1851 for George Fife Angas. Side additions date from around 1900.

George Fife Angas. 1789 – 1879

George Fife Angas was born in Newcastle into a business family. His father ran a coachbuilding business. In 1804 George was made an apprentice in his father’s business and in 1808 he was made the secretary of the Newcastle Sunday School Union. He married Rosetta French in 1812 and began his philanthropy with the Baptist Church before he moved his growing family to London in 1824 where he established his own enterprises. He started his own shipping firm and became involved in banking and finance simultaneously with continuing his philanthropic and missionary work. He remained a devout Baptist in London. As soon as he arrived in London, the political centre, he began working to free slaves. Recent attempts have been made to besmirch the reputation of G F Angas. Some websites say he was a slave holder with 121 slaves in British Honduras. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is listed in slave records as he acted as the London agent for several Honduras slave-owners who were seeking compensation, which they were legally entitled to, from the British government after it abolished slavery in Honduras (now Belize) and elsewhere in 1833. Around 300 Indian slaves in Honduras were freed in 1824 directly at the behest of Angas and he worked with the Earl of Bathurst to get legislation enabling this through the House of Commons. Angas’ company and shipping business worked extensively with Honduras agents for mahogany timber which did use slave labour. But he never owned slaves and these incorrect websites would have done well to consult a 1929 publication to learn that. In that 1929 publication on SA by Sir Grenfell Price he says “Angas was concerned about the miseries of slaves and Mayan refugees in Honduras. He promoted missionary work there and was an associate of British reformers and abolitionists like William Wilberforce who spear headed the 1833 British Act to abolish slavery internationally.” Angas never received one penny directly from slave holding but like so much early 19th century British trade it was dependent on slave labour. In 1826 he formed G. F. Angas and Company and after his father’s death in 1831 he took over all his father’s companies and shipping and formed, with his cousin, the National Provincial Bank. In 1832 he joined the committee of the SA Land Company. Two years later when the SA Colonization Act was passed in Westminster Angas stepped in to buy up land in the new province as the Act required since sales were slow. He bought 13,000 acres which he transferred to the South Australian Company when it was formed in 1836 and he was the director of it. In March of 1836 he despatched three ships to the new province before the Governor on the Buffalo and Colonel William Light on the Rapid set sail for the province. At this time he also met with Lutheran Pastor Kavel from Hamburg and negotiated to loan money for the transportation of Lutherans to the new province which was to eschew Anglican dominance and to entice non conformists from Britain to the province. Angas did not look favourably at Catholics. He also founded the South Australian School Society in 1836 which led to the first schools in SA. In 1841 in London Angas established the South Australian Banking Company which helped finance the colony and in 1843 he sent his son John Howard Angas to look after his investments in the colony. At this time in the 1840s Angas travelled extensively in southern England promoting the province and urging people to sail to the new lands. Angas was always a shrewd businessman and he found fortune by selling the lands he acquired for £1 per acre at £10 per acre to the German Lutheran settlers. It had cost Angas £20,000 to bring out around 700 German Lutheran settlers. He believed that his wealth was given to him to do the Lord’s work.

 

Angas finally migrated to the colony arriving in January 1851 where he continued his philanthropy and pastoral and banking interests and he soon became a member of the Legislative Council for the district of Barossa for fifteen years from 1851 to 1866. He had his rural mansion built on his lands at Angaston and the house was named Lindsay Park. He purchased a town house at the corner of Torrens Road and Fitzroy Terrace as his city home in 1865. This enabled him to attend legislative Council meetings easily. His Prospect Hall as it was known was sold to John Howard Angas before his death and George Fife Angas died at his beloved Lindsay Park in 1879 where he was buried in the family vault on that property. George Fife Angas was strongly opposed to horse racing and gambling so it was somewhat ironic that when Lindsay Park was sold out of the family in 1965 it went to a horse racing magnate. After his death the only biography of Angas was published in 1891 by Edwin Hodder who liaised with John Howard Angas about his father’s life. Some say it presents an overly favourable and biased impression of George Fife Angas. One other commentator says George Fife Angas was often known as “philanthropy plus ten percent.”

 

George French Angas. 1822 – 1866.

This eldest son of George Fife Angas and Rosetta French was given his mother’s family name. At the age of 21 in 1843 he sailed to South Australia. He explored several regions of the colony including the South East with Governor Robe, the Coorong and his father’s lands in the Barossa. After six months he travelled on to New Zealand before returning to SA. As an accomplished watercolourist he painted wherever he went. In 1845 his watercolours of SA were displayed in the Legislative Council. In 1846 on his return to London he held a major exhibition there which also included his travels in NZ, Brazil and his works on native peoples including the Maori. In 1846-7 he published three volumes of lithographs from his water-colours entitled: South Australia Illustrated, The New Zealanders Illustrated and Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand. After he married in 1849 he returned to Adelaide and set up a studio in King William Street. In 1851 he moved to NSW before returning again to the Barossa Valley in SA in 1860. In 1862 he took his family back to England where he published further illustrated naturalist books on South Australia. He died in 1886. His great legacy to SA was his detailed capture of life and landscapes in the early years of the colony.

 

John Howard Angas. 1823 – 1904.

John Howard Angas was born in Newcastle in 1823 but spent his childhood as a boarder in the village of Hutton in Essex to be near his school. He was sent to the colony of SA to manage his father’s lands and investments in 1843. At that time John Howard Angas was just 19 years old and he sailed with his sister Mrs Sarah Evans and his brother-in-law Henry Evans. Angas made his first home at Hutton Vale and later he moved to Tarrawatta where he later built Collingrove House for his new wife in 1856. By the time of his arrival he had mastered basic German to converse with his father’s tenants at Bethany and elsewhere and he soon began gathering a flock of sheep. Pastoralism was to become his major business interest. Apart from his pastoral interests he was community minded and served in the SA Legislative Council from 1871 to 1786 and later in the House of Assembly from 1887 to 1894. He developed some of his pastoral estates with his father but most were fully developed only by him and they ranged from the Flinders Ranges to Point Sturt on Lake Alexandrina but his main residence remained as Collingrove. He was interested in agriculture in general and education and he worked on building up animal studs for Shorthorn and Hereford cattle, Clydesdale, thoroughbred and carriage horses, Merino and Lincoln sheep and Berkshire pigs. He also experimented with pedigree donkeys and ostriches. He exhibited his stud stock in agricultural shows around Australia and won many prizes for the best animals over the years. He was involved with the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA for many years. Angas Hall at the show grounds is a tribute to John Howard Angas. He was president of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Show from 1886 to 1888 but a member and sponsor of it for decades. He died at Collingrove in 1904 leaving a wife and two offspring Charles Howard Angas born in 1861 and Lillian Angas (later White) born in 1862. It was John Howard Angas who chose a Peramangk word for his property which covered Lindsay Park, Collingrove and Hutton Vale. The whole property was called Tarrawarra. In Peramangk language “tarra” means land that rises such as a hill and “warra” means a person’s land or area.

 

Flaxman Valley Special Surveys and the Father of South Australia.

Charles Flaxman was the Chief Clerk of George Fife Angas. After Angas had invested £20,000 in financing Pastor Kavel and four ship loads of German Lutherans to South Australia in 1838 he wanted to protect that investment. Around six hundred German Lutherans were transported to SA and at first they rented land from Angas at Klemzig. Angas had purchased 208 acres at Klemzig. Charles Flaxman sailed on one of the ships with Pastor Kavel as Angas’ agent in SA. The German Lutherans later purchased surveyed land at Bethany and elsewhere. This came about because Flaxman over reached his authority and committed George Fife Angas to buy seven Special Survey in 1839 for £28,000.

 

The special surveys covered much of the Barossa Valley. They included all of the headwaters of the North Para River which rises near Eden Valley and turns southward near Truro back towards Tanunda and Bethany. The surveys also follow every creek and river east of the Barossa Valley such as the North Rhine and the Keyneton to Springton districts. Bethany and Tanunda are near the southern end of the surveys. The widest point is ten miles across from near Sheoak Log to Eden Valley. Basically the main highway from Sheoak Log in a straight line to Truro was the western boundary of Angas’ special surveys. North to south the special surveys ran nearly 15 miles from Truro to Mt Crawford Forest.

 

The £28,000 required for the surveys nearly bankrupted Angas. He had to get a loan for the first time in his life, sell off his shares in the Union Bank and to sell his lands and other assets. Flaxman purchased part of the Barossa Special Survey towards Mt Crawford in his own name and he stayed on in SA after 1843 when John Howard Angas arrived. Flaxman later moved to Victoria and died there in 1869. Flaxman valley was named after him. Angas went on to become the largest individual landowner in SA in the 1840s and 1850s when others, especially the early pastoralists held all land as leasehold land only with just one 80 acre section freehold around their homestead. Thus Angas was regarded as the major freehold land owner in SA.

 

But why was he regarded as the “father of South Australia”? There were several reasons but he was certainly not the only “father” of this colony. Others who surely could claim that title include Robert Torrens, Robert Gouger, William Light etc. George Fife Angas worked on creating South Australia from 1830 and became involved with reformers like Edward Wakefield and the SA Land Company from 1832. The SA Land Company for investors disappeared but once the SA Colonization Act was passed in Britain in 1834 Angas became a devotee of the idea of a new colony. As an amount of land to the value of £35,000 had to be pre sold before settlement, according to the terms of that Act, Angas bought 13,000 acres himself to help the Colonization Commissioners meet that requirement. He became one of the Colonization Commissioners and helped form the South Australian Company and he was its first Chairman. Without the SA Company obtaining pre colonization land sales the colony would not have been approved by the British parliament so he was the father of SA in a very significant and pragmatic way. Partly because of the work of Angas the SA Company was offered banking rights for the new colony and this bank was very successful and under pinned some for the SA Company’s success. This bank was separated from the SA Company in 1841 and became the SA Bank. Angas then spruiked the colony after 1836 into the 1840s to encourage English farmers to make the big move across the world to become pioneers. After 1839 he became the largest freehold land owner in the colony with the seven Barossa Special Surveys – 28,000 acres. Once his son John Howard Angas was in the colony George Fife Angas continued to buy more and more land in many locations. He then contributed to the colony with his legislative work and his philanthropy. Although he was generally respected and afforded the “father of SA” title as his motives and ideals were ethical he was not popular with many because of his dictatorial style on committees. But was not a dictatorial style expected of all fathers in the Victorian era?

 

Angas Family Structures and Memorial North Adelaide.

Apart from the amazing bronze memorial to the Angas family in Angas Gardens North Adelaide South Australia is littered with named locations and features commemorating the Angas family. The city has Angas Street, the Barossa Valley has Angaston, the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds has the Angas Hall, the suburb of Mitcham has Angas Road as George Fife Angas took out 134 acres here in 1839 and east of the Mt Lofty Ranges near Sanderston is Angas Plains. George Fife Angas owned much land around Springton with tenant farmers and thus Springton has an Angas Street and likewise Angaston has an Angas Street and near Strathalbyn is Angas Hill. Although George Fife Angas purchased sections of land around many of the settled districts he had no linkages at all with Macclesfield and the headwaters of the Angas River. A group of explorers going overland to Lake Alexandrina on 31st December 1837 discovered a river in the Adelaide Hills. The party led by Robert cock and William Finlayson named the river in honour of George Fife Angas who was Chairman of the South Australian Company in London and had been a tireless worker and promoter of the new colony. The Angas River is about 50 kms long and flows into Lake Alexandrina at Milang after flowing through Strathalbyn. Between Strathalbyn and Milang there is the district of Angas Plains named because of the river.

 

The most prominent memorial to the Angas family was not put up by public subscription which was usual in early years but by the Angas family itself. The complex bronze in an Italian marble canopy was sculpted by English artist William Colton and is called Fame. The winged figure Fame (not an angel) holds a laurel wreath above pointing to the four bas reliefs around the sculpture. One is about George Fife Angas with a bas relief of German immigrants arriving on a ship and the other is of John Howard Angas and a bas relief of a horse .The whole sculpture is based on a Rodin sculpture. Work began on the sculpture in 1909. When the sculpture was finished in 1915 the Angas descendants wanted it placed in Victoria Square. But this was a site reserved for the statue of Charles Sturt. As the Victoria Square site was opposed by the Trades and Labour Council and the Sturt Fund the family accepted a location on North Terrace in front of government House. It was moved to its present site in 1930 when it and other statues were moved from North Terrace. Not everyone saw the Angas family as great benefactors and the sculpture was vandalised in 1941. All the leaves were stripped from the palm frond. In sharp contrast to this great memorial is a charming small carved memorial to George Fife Angas in the Gruenberg Lutheran Church near Moculta put there in 1864 in recognition of Angas’ gift to that church’s building fund.

Angas Buildings Adelaide Children’s Hospital.

John Howard Angas left as big a legacy for South Australia as his father did if not bigger. Historian Douglas Pike described John Howard Angas as George Fife Angas’ best memorial to SA. Both George Fife and John Howard Angas gave £500 each in 1874 to the fund to establish the Children’s Hospital in 1876. John Howard Angas was a consistent donor and benefactor over many decades. By 1903 he had donated £7,752 directly to the Children’s Hospital. Apart from serving in parliament he served on several pastoral, agricultural, educational and medical associations. John Howard Angas was vice president of the Adelaide Children’s Hospital from 1876 to 1904. His legacy to the hospital was the Angas Buildings on King William Road. The Angas Building was the second major building of the hospital and is now the oldest part of it. The Adelaide Children’s Hospital was formed in 1876 by a group of doctors and benefactors including both George Fife and John Howard Angas. Sixteen years later in 1892 John Howard Angas said he was prepared to defray the entire costs, about £2,000, for the second building which was needed by then. When the new Angas Building opened it doubled the number of beds or cots in the hospital. Angas commissioned architect Alfred Wells in 1893 to design a building facing King William Road which would form a quadrangle with the first building. It would contain two surgical wards, an outpatients section, dispensary and quarters for the surgeons. It opened in 1894. As offshoots of his work with the Children’s Hospital John Howard Angas also gave £600 to establish a children’s convalescent home at Mt Lofty and earlier in 1890 he donated £1,900 to build a new wing onto the children’s convalescent home at Semaphore. Angas commissioned architects Garlick and Partners to design the new wing at Semaphore. By 1903 John Howard Angas had donated £7,572 to the hospital.

 

Angas Home for the Deaf and Dumb.

Another of John Howard Angas’ philanthropic interests was health and disability exemplified by his role at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He was also on the founding committee for the deaf society which was able to establish a home at Brighton in 1874. John Howard Angas donated £400 to the establishment fund and then became a regular donor giving around £200 annually. Then in 1898 he donated 280 acres of good farming land at Parafield to the SA Deaf Society. Its value was over £3,000. With his support two substantial stone accommodation blocks were built with them opening in 1899. It was the first institution in the world to cater for blind, deaf and mute people in one institution. Additions were made in 1904 to bring the total number of bedrooms to thirty. The residents worked on the farm which was more or less self-sufficient with dairy and beef cattle, pigs, sheep and cropping lands. There was a well provided excellent water supply for the home as it was not far from the Little Para River. SA Deaf Society sold the home in 1979. Part has been demolished but part remains as the central buildings of the Gardens Islamic College.

 

Belair Inebriates House and the Angas Missionary College North Adelaide.

George Fife Angas gave 80 acres of land to a group of trustees for the Belair Inebriates House in 1874 and a further £1,500 for the building this being from himself and his son John Howard Angas. But George Fife Angas died in 1879 and did not see the building completed. The original building was replaced with the a Gothic one in 1883 which cost over £6,000 to construct and it was able to accommodate 52 inmates. Reverend Morton a Presbyterian minister from Melbourne who was a friend of John Howard Angas visited Belair Inebriates Retreat in 1883 and then returned in 1893 to take charge of the facility. But Morton’s main focus was the theological training of missionaries. John Howard Angas had donated money in the early 1870s for a Baptist theological college but it only operated for a year or two. He re-activated a missionary training school at Belair in the Inebriates Retreat in 1893. It only operated at Belair until 1898 for at that time Whinham College in Jeffcott Street North Adelaide closed and John Howard Angas purchased that site for the Angas Missionary College. (Whinham College operated 1854 to 1898. The towered building was erected in 1882.) Missionaries were trained to work in the Pacific Island, India, China, Africa and South America at this North Adelaide site. By 1904 when John Howard Angas died some 210 missionaries had been trained. Although Belair had trained both men and women from 1893 that ceased in 1895 when a Ladies Missionary College was established at Kensington. From 1898 male missionaries were trained in Angas College North Adelaide. Angas Missionary College closed when World War One started and that site became the Lutheran theological seminary and Immanuel College from 1921 onwards. The City of Adelaide heritage plaque on this building fails to even mention the existence of the Angas Missionary Training College here from 1893 to 1914.

 

Bethany.

This very German village of Bethanian began in 1842 on land leased from George Fife Angas. (In 1917 it was Anglicised by act of parliament to Bethany.) It was not the first settlement in the Barossa as Lyndoch was but it was the first German settlement in the Barossa Valley. Most of the Bethany settlers were assisted migrants brought out to SA by George Fife Angas and they came from Hahndorf and from Lobethal. By 1843 around 200 people were living here and several hundred acres of land was ploughed and under crop. The village was laid out in a Hufendorf style with the houses on the street and the land in narrow strips behind the houses. Some of these early houses still remain. The land reached back to Tanunda Creek. The first settlers had to live a self-sufficient lifestyle growing their own grain, killing their own meat, growing their own vegetables, preserving meat and making sausages and making butter and cheese from their cows and gathering eggs from their poultry. The village was bypassed by the main road to Tanunda and it never developed into a major town. But a church and Lutheran cemetery was established. A Lutheran school began in 1843 led by a disciple of Pastor Fritzsche of Lobethal. By 1845 the village had its own pug and thatch church the Herberge Christi Church which was replaced with a fine bluestone Gothic church in 1883 for £723. English services were introduced here in 1924. This Bethany Church strongly supported the Hermannsburg Aboriginal Mission Station in the Northern Territory. Behind the church is the early Lutheran School which closed in 1917. Also at the church is a stone memorial to the missionaries who established Hermannsburg Aboriginal Mission from here in 1875. The pioneer cemetery has some interesting memorials and behind one cottage is an early slaughter house with a steeply pitched iron roof. At some stage in the 1860s, or later, the German settlers were able to purchase the freehold to their lands from the Angas family. Angas ended up selling land that he paid £1 per acre for at a good profit. A contract of 1839 signed by Pastor Kavel and the first Lutheran Synod was to purchase land from Angas at £10 per acre. This contract was eventually revoked and settlers were able to lease or buy land individually but most of the first German settlers paid £10 per acre for their farms at Bethany.

 

Angaston.

The town takes its name from George Fife Angas a Scot born in 1789. He was a Commissioner and shareholder in the SA Company and loaned money to Pastor Kavel to bring Lutheran migrants out to the new colony. He recovered the money loaned to Pastor Kavel by selling the land in the Barossa that he had paid £1 per acre to the German migrants at £10 per acre. Angas Town was developed from 1842. The first inhabitant was Gottfried Schilling and nearby Bethany was established in the same year on Angas’ land. Angas Town was soon changed to German’s Pass as it was a pass through the ranges to the Mallee plains and the River Murray. From 1857 German’s Pass was known as Angaston. Angaston always had a mix of English and German settlers. The town progressed greatly in the 1860s and beyond and a major employer was the Angas Park Fruit Company which was established in 1911. That was the year the railway arrived from Gawler. Several early wineries were other major employers in the town and district.

 

Among the buildings donated or supported by George Fife Angas in Angaston is the Union Chapel which he paid for in 1844. It was to be available for all religious groups but as the churches got their own buildings there was little need for it. After being used for storage for decades it was restored some years ago in 1994. It is one of the oldest churches in South Australia as it opened in February 1844. George Fife Angas’ daughter Sarah Evan of Evandale near Keyneton laid the foundation stone in 1843. John Howard Angas supervised the construction of the Union Chapel as George Fife Angas was still in England at this time. Similarly John Howard Angas donated land for a Union Chapel in Truro which was built in 1850. It was later replaced or incorporated into a new Truro Congregational Church in 1860.

 

Whilst in the Main Street look for the following as they should all be easily identifiable as you head up the hill towards the east.

Rose Villa- interesting old house opposite Zion Lutheran Church. It was built as a manse for the Baptists minister John Hannay who served 1855-1865. Hannay was the son in law of George Fife Angas. It is constructed of bluestone and soapstone. Daniel Garlick was the architect.

Zion Lutheran Church. This Romanesque style church was built as a Baptist Church in 1855. George Fife Angas donated the land and other funds for the church. The Baptists closed the church in 1929. The Lutherans purchased it in 1941 calling it the Zion Lutheran. The soapstone in the quoins came from Lindsay Park estate the home of George Fife Angas.

Old Post Office. It was built in 1880 although mail was delivered to the town from 1846. Telegraph arrived 1866. Telephone service arrived in 1911. It is still the post office. Note the weeds in the gutters.

Former offices of Fiest and Fiest Land Agents. There is a date on the building of 1903 which is late for a partly classical style building. The Marseilles tiled roof was ultra-modern when this was built in 1903. It is now a wine cafe and bar.

Angaston Hotel. The original 1846 structure was added to in 1879 and then rebuilt with an upper story in 1914 in typical Art Nouveau style with lots of woodwork. The decoration above the door is worth noting.

Turn right here into Sturt Street.

Turn right again into South terrace to reach the old railway station.

Go west to the Angaston Railway station. This timber framed station was erected in 1911 when the railway reached Angaston from Gawler.

Continue up Sturt Street to the town Hall and behind it the Congregational Church.

“New” Institute Town Hall Building. This is up the side street from the hotel. It was also built in 1911 of local grey marble and bluestone with the village green in front of it. It has perpendicular gothic features with good symmetry and fine detail to the window surrounds. The central pillars and gable accentuate the best features of the building. The Angas family assisted financially with the costs of construction.

Just behind the Institute is the Congregational Church. The architect was Daniel Garlick. The foundation stone was laid in 1877 by John Howard Angas the major donor and patron of the church. It is now the Uniting Church.

Return to the Main Street and turn right.

The Masonic Lodge. Erected in 1867 as a joint enterprise with the Mechanics Institute. Angas donated the land and £100 towards the cost. It operated as a Mechanics Institute Library until the new Library/ Town hall opened in 1911. Then the old Mechanics Institute was sold to the Masons. That is why the façade says 1910. It was actually built in 1867.And that is why it does not have small half rounded windows and a look of secrecy like most masonic Halls.

First Cemetery. This is beyond the car park behind the Masonic Lodge and the public toilets. The old cemetery opened in 1847. Many early burials were of children who died of diseases like typhoid and dysentery. Over 200 people were buried here. Return to the Main Street.

The old Flour Mill. Edwin Davey of Truro established this is 1885. Lauckes bought the mill in 1933 and operated it until 1976. It is a good 3 storey example of a mill with huge unsawn gum tree supports on the veranda and the adjoining building which is now the Machinery Preservation Society building. The mill is made of blue stone.

Doddridge Blacksmith Shop. This was established in 1876 by a Cornish migrant. It produced horse shoes, wrought iron carts, ploughs, tools and farm equipment. It did not close until the 1970s when the smithy was then 86 years old. A community effort purchased it in 1981 to operate as a tourist attraction.

The Bank of Adelaide. Built in 1885 with and Italianate facade with perfect symmetry, roof top balustrade, central entrance with triangular pediment above porch etc. Some additions made in 1894. It was the bank and the upper floor was the residence for the bank manager.

The former Wesleyan Methodist Church. Built in 1864 but it closed in 1977 when the Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist churches were united. At the rear the Davey Methodist Hall was built in 1911 like so many other buildings in the town. 1911 was clearly a year of great optimism and change in Angaston. For many years it was an antique centre.

 

Collingrove and the Angas family Church.

John Howard Angas emigrated to SA in 1843 to oversee some of his father’s business interests. In 1854 John Howard

Angas returned to England, married and then returned to Angaston where his brother-in-law designed and built Collingrove homestead in 1856 for John Howard Angas and his wife Suzanne Collins. Hence the house was named Collingrove. In 1874 John’s father, a devout Baptist, had a small chapel built for his employees and family to worship in. It opened as a Congregational Church. The Congregational minister from Keyneton usually conducted the services there. Angas supported all protestant denominations but he was openly hostile towards Catholics. John Howard Angas was buried from this church in 1904. He left £2,000 in his estate to the Congregational trustees to continue to run the church. When the Anglican Bishop took over the church in 1911 a court case was threatened as the trustees had possibly breached the trust placed in them by the will of John Howard Angas. The church became St. Faiths Anglican until it closed. It was closed by the time Ronald Angas, grandson of John Howard Angas donated Collingrove to the National Trust in 1976.

 

Hutton Vale.

John Howard Angas was born in Newcastle in 1823 but raised in the village of Hutton from the age of four - at first as a boarder and then with his parent who moved there too. At the age of 20 John Howard Angas was sent to South Australia by his father and his first home and residence he called Hutton Vale farm. It was on part of his father’s seven Special Surveys along the North Para River. The current owner of Hutton Vale farm is John Angas whose great great grandfather was John Howard Angas. The property is on Hutton Vale Road which runs from Collingrove to Moculta. Upon arrival in 1843 John Howard Angas had a stone house built at Hutton Vale which was his residence until Collingrove was erected in 1856. Today Hutton Vale’s 2,000 acres is the last of the original 28,000 acres still owned by the Angas family in the Barossa Valley. John Angas has lived in the house at Hutton Vale all of his life. It is a mixed farm with fruit trees, vines sheep and grain. The old 1850s grain store is now the kitchen for John’s residence. The farm has tourist accommodation, garden produce and cellar door sales of wine from Riesling, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache Mataro grapes. Only the roof top of Hutton Vale house is visible from the road.

 

Lindsay Park.

This house was built in the late 1840s as a home for George Fife Angas with the architect being his son-in-law Henry Evans. Henry Evans had married a daughter of George Fife Angas and he was the one who designed Collingrove homestead and Lindsay Park homestead for the Angas family. Henry’s wife was so opposed to alcohol and wine making that she made Henry have his grape vines grafted with currents rather than grapes for wine. Thus, almost by accident Henry Evans founded the dried fruit industry in the Angaston district! When George Fife Angas came out to SA Henry Evans and his family moved to Keyneton a mile or so away. From 1851 Lindsay Park was used as the family home of the “founder of SA” George Fife Angas. It was extended several times. After George Fife Angas’ death the house and property remained in the Angas family until 1965 when the last inheritor of the Lindsay Park, Sir Keith Angas, sold the property to horse breeding trainer Colin Hayes. It was then developed into the preeminent horse training facility and breeding stud in Australia. Even Queen Elizabeth visited there on one of her trips to SA. When Colin Hayes retired in 1990 the stud and training facility was continued by his son David Hayes. David Hayes sold his share of Lindsay Park facility to his nephew and business partners in 2008 when he moved to Euroa in Victoria. The property was then sold to winemaker David Powell for $10 million in 2013 to become an exclusive tourist resort. Recently in 2023 this property has been sold to the Brendan Smart family from Keith who want to return the property to its original use as a sheep and cattle property. The mansion is not visible from the road. Both George Fife Angas and his wife and John Howard Angas and other family were buried in the family vault at Lindsay Park estate. There is no public access to this private family vault of one of the main pioneering families of South Australia or to the estate.

 

Done