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A family holiday is a great time to relax, but for me it is also a great time to get out with the camera, without the rush of normal life.
Early summer morning, 2011 on Bluestone Lake. This lake is formed by the Bluestone Dam on the New River. The Bluestone River also runs into this lake. The Bluestone Wildlife Management Area and Bluestone State Park border this lake.
Middleton.
In one sense white settlement here began in 1849 when the first 80 acre section of land was purchased by Thomas Higgins for land speculation. Higgins had taken up a large estate along Currency Creek further inland in 1840 upon which he built his Higginsbrook homestead. But when a canal was proposed to link Goolwa and Freeman’s Knob (Port Elliot) and then a railway he took the opportunity to indulge in some land speculation along its coastal route. He purchased one 80 acre section. Work began on the railway in 1851 (long before the feasibility of river transport up the Murray was resolved) and it was completed in 1853 with a crossing point which needed double tracks so that the horse drawn trains could pass. This spot was named Middletown. In 1869 when the horse railway was extended to Strathalbyn its track bypassed Goolwa and joined the Port Elliot tracks at Middleton. With a siding constructed in 1854 a small town began to emerge here and Higgins’ land speculation paid off when he subdivided some land for town blocks in 1856. He named it Middleton (not Middletown). A small store had opened in 1854 and the largest building in Middleton the Bowman flourmill was completed in 1855 before the town was created. Bowman’s flourmill was added to in the 1860s. The town of Middleton took shape from 1857 with an early Congregational Church (1859) and the Bible Christian Methodist church opening in 1863, a brickworks being established in 1857 and the Middleton Inn opened in 1859 and the original town school room started up in 1861 at 6 William Street. Much later the Education Department was established in 1875 and a fine bluestone Gothic style state school was erected in the town in 1880. It closed in 1968 and became part of the pioneer hall – the original institute erected in 1901.
The large three storey flourmill still exists in Middleton next to the important railway siding. It its heyday wheat milled here was shipped as flour up the Murray River from Goolwa to the Darling and to the goldfields of Bendigo from Echuca. The extension of the railway line to Strathalbyn in 1869 expanded the wheat growing areas that could service the flourmill. When the train line was converted from horse power to steam engines and linked to Port Adelaide through Mt Barker Junction in 1884 Middleton declined and the flourmill with it. At that time the Strathalbyn line was redirected to Middleton through Goolwa. The original flourmill owners was William Bowman. William had cropping acreages at Finniss along the Finniss River and he farmed in the Milang area from 1844 to 1854 before he set up the flourmill in 1855. William Bowman appears to have created Bowmans & Co around 1869 with Alexander Bowman to operate the mill into the 1870s. William Bowman and his mill went into insolvency in January 1886 when competition from Port Adelaide saw its gradual demise. William was dead by March 1886. New millers took over and the mill finally closed in 1915 when the labour supply dwindled as men enlisted for World War One. The last miller was Henry Ellis. When the rail line came from Strathalbyn the station was directly opposite the flourmill. Public meetings were held as early as 1858 in the Bowman flourmill urging a railway line from Strathalbyn to Middleton.
The notable buildings of Middleton are Fortuna a superb Georgian house with symmetry and simplicity that looks as if it was erected in the 1860s. After the inauguration of the Strathalbyn to Middleton railway in 1869 a new general store with five sides in a Romanesque style with rounded windows was attached to Fortuna House. It later became a post office, a temperance hotel, a shop and in more recent decades a cafe and gallery. Fortuna is now privately owned as a residence. Mindacowie House was built as a Temperance Hotel. John Abbott of Glenford farm at Middleton built Mindacowie for his sisters Jessie and Ruth in 1899. They ran it as a Temperance Hotel for several decades. In latter years it has been a bed and breakfast establishment but is now a residence. The old Bible Christian Methodist Church has closed (1971) as a church but was operated as a restaurant a few years ago but is now a residence too. It opened in 1863.
Bluestone Lane
(Financial District)
New York, New York
(May 10, 2014)
the ulterior epicure | Twitter | Facebook | Bonjwing Photography
A Town of One, Two, Three.
The story of Gawler, the first town developed outside of Adelaide in 1839 is the story of numbers. Colonel William Light, after he resigned as Surveyor General for SA, formed a private surveying company with his friend and former Assistant Surveyor Boyle Finniss. (Remember Boyle Finniss became our first Premier in 1854.) They did some commercial surveying; they surveyed a sort of village along the Sturt River at what is now Marion; but the only other town apart from Adelaide that they surveyed and laid out was Gawler.
•Their township of Gawler had three squares- Light, Orleana and Parnell. Light had planned for the squares to be the centres for the Anglican, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. It did not quite work out like that!
•Light carefully sited this town on a ridge of high ground between three rivers –the North Para, South Para and Gawler Rivers. The first two rivers join just below Light’s town to form the Gawler River which flows out to the sea. The town grew quickly for a non mining town and became the 19th century industrial hub of SA.
•The first settlers around the town grew wheat and consequently flour milling became the first industry with three flour mills –the Albion Mill, the Victoria Mill and the Union Mill.
•The farmers needed plough disks, windmills, strippers and winnowers and other farm machinery. The Gawler residents wanted fancy wrought iron lace work to adorn the verandas of their houses and cottages. So from the mid 19th century Gawler became a town of three foundries- the May Brothers Foundry, the Eagle Foundry and the Phoenix Foundry.
•Like all country towns in the 19th century Gawler was dominated socially by a select group of business and social leaders. In Gawler the well respected and known leaders of the 19th century were three prominent men- Walter Duffield - the flour miller, James Martin - the foundry man and John McKinley - the explorer.
Some Unique Aspects of Gawler’s History.
The origins of Gawler are unique in SA. When the Special Surveys of 1839 were offered for those with £4,000 to select 4,000 acres in an area of the person’s choice, a group of farming settlers who had voyaged out together on the ship the Orleana clubbed together to purchase a Special Survey at the junction of the North and South Para Rivers. Those settlers were John Reid, Henry Dundas Murray, E. Jerningham, Stephen King, William Porter, Patrick Tod, James Fotheringham, John Patterson, Thomas Stubbs, John Sutton, Robert Tod and the Reverend Howard. You will see many of these names on the street signs of Church Hill. These pioneering men came to a strict agreement and each donated a certain number of acres for the township of Gawler (named after the Governor of the day) in proportion to the total number of acres they had purchased from the 4,000 acres. Most of this group purchased around 300 acres and donated 7½ acres for the town and parklands but John Reid, Henry Murray, E Jerningham and
Stephen King purchased between 530 and 932 acres each. Hence the main street of Gawler is Murray Street. John Reid was the first to settle in the town and built a house called Clonlea. Stephen King built his sandstone mansion, Kingsford along the North Para a couple of miles out of Gawler. It was used for the TV series McLeod’s Daughters but is now an upmarket bed and breakfast establishment. Some of the others from this Special Survey appear to have sold their land and moved on quickly rather than settling in the emerging township. Fotheringham stayed and set up the town’s first brewery.
Social aspects and a sense of civic pride were always strong in Gawler. It was remarkable that in 1859 this small “gateway to the north” sponsored a competition for a national song to be conducted by the Institute Committee. As we all know Mrs Caroline Carleton won the competition. The Song of Australia was sung in all SA primary schools and was one of the options voted upon for the new national anthem in the 1970s. The music for the song was written by German born Carl Linger and the lyrics and music were first presented in the Gawler Oddfellows Hall in December 1859. The town also offered a prize for a written history of SA in 1861. Henry Hussey won that award. Also in 1859 the township opened the first museum in SA. At one time Mr Schomburgk, who later became Director of the Botanic Gardens, was the curator of this museum. Gawler also formed the Humbug Society in 1859 to consider social and political issues of the day and in 1863 the town established its own newspaper, which is still published, called the Bunyip. In later years it was unique in building so many steam railway engines that were used in SA or exported for use in other states.
Bluestone Lane
(Financial District)
New York, New York
(May 10, 2014)
the ulterior epicure | Twitter | Facebook | Bonjwing Photography
Queenscliffe (pop 3,000). After the pastoral era the Borough of Queenscliffe was declared in 1863 when the town was already sizeable. Its location at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay was strategically important. Pilot boats helped ships navigate the dangerous entrance. The town had two lighthouses by 1863 as the early sandstone one of 1844 had been replaced by a white painted stone lighthouse in 1863. At the same time a black basalt second lighthouse was erected within the fort precinct. Some sources say with imported Scottish bluestone, however, other sources say the black basalt came from Footscray! The first pilot to tend his services to shipping began work in 1838 and by 1840 the settlement had four pilots. They lived in tents on the shores and they helped with six major shipwrecks before 1863. It was a treacherous place during a storm. By the late 19th century pleasure boats plied the waters mainly across to Sorrento. But Queenscliffe was also fortified to protect Port Phillip Bay. In 1863 three guns were placed here and the first part of the fort was built between 1863 and 1869. Once the railway from Geelong reached the town in 1879 and troops could be quickly moved there if needed further fortifications were erected. Two gun batteries and the Fort were completed in 1882. Then a garrison of troops, engineers and naval men were stationed there. The keep was finished in 1885 and the defensive trench was dug in 1886. The colonies especially feared attack from Russia in the 1880s. The troops remained in place from 1883 to 1946. It became a museum in 1982. The fishing village of Queenscliffe was surveyed and named after Queen Victoria in 1853. A town pier followed shortly after land sales. The first houses, a group of ten, were built in 1853 for the pilot service men. A school, hotel and church opened in 1854 and the post office gained a telegraphic link to Melbourne in 1855. The first Mechanic’s Institute was erected in 1859. When the borough council was formed in 1863 it had 250 residences. The town has three museums – the Historical Museum in the Info Centre (free); the Maritime Museum (about $10); and the Fort Museum highlights the strategic and military history. In the 1880s Queenscliffe became a popular summer retreat for Melbournians and hotels and guest houses dotted the town. Holidaymakers arrived by train or steamer.
Vue Grand Hotel 46 Hesse St. This prime town location has been a hotel site since 1859. The Vue Grand was built in the early 1880s with polychromatic brick work, a central three storey squat tower and rounded windows. But a fire in 1927 destroyed part of the hotel which was rebuilt with a Mediterranean terracotta tiled roof in Art Deco style.
The Post Office was built in its present location at 47 Hesse St in 1887. Colonial architect G Austin designed the lavish building which cost of £3,000 to build. Additions in 1915 destroyed the symmetrical façade. Note the oriel window above the central entrance door and its Italianate appearance with the horizontal white rendered bands. The Public Library 55 Hesse St. This classical style 1880s building with Corinthian pilasters on the façade, perfect symmetry, rounded windows and entrance and balustraded roof line.
58 Hesse St. A classical style Victorian shop and upstairs residence. Note pediment along austere roof line.
Uniting Churches formerly Methodist. 79 to 83 Hesse St. This complex contains three churches – the original rendered Wesleyan Methodist of 1868, the adjoining Gothic Methodist Church of 1888 with buttress and arched central entrance and across the side road the St Andrews Presbyterian Church built in the late 1890s. An earlier built 1862 Presbyterian Church was demolished to make way for this new church.
Seaview House 86 Hesse St. was built in 1875 as a single storey greengrocer shop. In 1890 an upper floor was added and the house became the Seaview Coffee Palace to promote temperance and avoidance of alcohol.
Coombe Lodge 90 Hesse St. A typical 1880s two storey house. Occupied for many years by doctors for the town.
The timber railway station and master’s residence was erected in 1881. It was an unusual design for a rural location as the large waiting room was built to accommodate holiday throngs from Melbourne.
The Royal Hotel 38 King St. The first hotel opened on this site in 1854. This impressive Italianate structure with four storey tower, bay windows on each end, arcaded veranda and good symmetry typifies the hotels of the 1880s.
The Ozone Hotel 42 Gellibrand St. Built in 1881 as Baillieu House for wealthy banker, businessman and pastoralist James George Baillieu. This fine Italianate rendered building has a four storey tower, is mainly a three storey structure with a slated mansard roof and widow’s walk on the tower. The iron veranda post are exceptionally high giving a grander appearance. As tourists flocked to the town in the early 1880s Baillieu had it converted into the Ozone Hotel in 1887 and two more wings were added to it.
Lathamstowe House 44 Gellibrand St. This pair of two storey Italianate duplexes was built next to Baillieu’s house in 1883. It was built by successful brewer Edward Latham as a seaside house for Anglican clergymen and their families. Latham was related to the Baillieu family. Like Baillieu House it had a four storey tower and widow’s walk. The arcaded verandas with the end bay windows are typically Italianate in style.
Anglican Church 20 Hobson St. This architect designed church was built in local limestone in 1864. The stuccoed brick tower was added in 1878. The roof line is exceptionally steep and dominates the appearance of this fine Gothic building as it covers the nave and the side aisles. Work began on a parish hall in 1870 but this was not completed until 1902. The land for this church was donated by Governor La Trobe who loved Queenscliffe and had a cottage of his own there in the 1840s and 1850s.