Paddle Steamer Avoca
18 September 1922 Paddle-steamer Avoca On 18 September 1922 Captain J.G. Arnold took the ageing and somewhat decrepit paddle-steamer Avoca from Port Adelaide on a hazardous sea voyage to the Murray mouth and thence up river to Morgan to be slipped and repaired. Built in 1877 the 112-foot boat was said to be one of the largest on the river and was used for carrying cargo. After several mishaps, by the 1920s with paddle boxes gone and with masts added she was used in the Port River and nicknamed Squid because her decks were usually half awash. When Captain Arnold reached Murray Bridge he had to remove the masts to get under the railway bridge, having already dragged down a number of telephone lines across the river. After re-fitting in Morgan the Avoca was used for various purposes; fitted out as a show boat she was used on excursion trips from Murray Bridge. Avoca is now moored at Mildura. Ian Mudie, Riverboats Sketchbook, Rigby, 1975, p.16.
Horse Racing
19 September 1888 Horse Racing On 19 September 1888 the government passed a Bill allowing the Commissioner of Police to give racing permits to use the totaliser. This ended a period of four years when betting in South Australia was prohibited and racing throughout the colony had been abandoned. The South Australian Jockey Club, which had the Morphettville racecourse since its opening in 1875, was faced with a dilemma in 1885 as entries in the Adelaide Cup had already been taken when the ban came into effect. However, the Victorian Racing Club offered the Flemington course for the meeting and the Adelaide Cup race was run in Melbourne from 1885-89. During the enforced break in horse racing in Adelaide the Morphettville course fell into the hands of the Queensland Mortgage Company who sold it to a syndicate who ran pony meetings there and then leased the course to the newly formed SA Jockey Club. The freehold of the property was not gained by the SAJC until 1895. Racing was again banned in South Australia from February 1942 until July 1943 during the Second World War. Alison Dolling, The History of Marion on the Sturt, Peacock Publications, 1981, pp.247-48.
St Gill
2 September 1846 S.T. Gill Through the night of 1-2 September 1846 Sam Gill sat with his friend John Horrocks, who had been accidently shot, while the third member of the group hurried through 70 miles of scrub to the depot where the main exploration party was camped. Gill had accompanied Horrocks on the expedition to the northern parts of the colony as a draftsman to do sketches of the area. He had arrived in South Australia with his family in 1839 and settled in Coromandel Valley where his father, a Baptist minister, established a school. On 7 March1840 Samuel placed an advertisement in the paper in which he offered to teach sketching and painting at rooms in Gawler Place. On his return from the ill-fated northern trip he held an exhibition of his work and continued to do sketches around Adelaide while he lived in Grenfell Street. But he was drinking rather heavily and in 1850 suffered a severe infection in his hand which prevented him from using it. Then in 1851 he was declared insolvent and soon after headed for the goldfields in Victoria. He was not a successful digger, but his sketches were published in a book in Melbourne in 1852. He stayed in Victoria and continued hi sketching; he died in Melbourne after a long illness on 27 October 1880. The worth of his work in sketching the early days in Adelaide and South Australia is invaluable. Keith Macrae Bowden, S.T. Gill , 1971
Torrens Flood
21 September 1844 Torrens flood On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September 1844 the Torrens flooded causing widespread damage. Colonists watched the angry river eat away the foundations of Shand’s brewery; casks and other utensils were carried to safety but by Sunday afternoon the foundations had been undermined and the building came down with a crash. Part of the bank collapsed too and casks, bottles and brewing equipment floated away on the raging waters. Those watching had to scramble for their lives. Perhaps the river was showing just what it could do in reply to scathing criticism over the years. The Register, in February 1838, wrote: What the River Torrens may be capable of or performing for a week or two of the rainy season beyond the sweeping down to the swamp the summer filth of Adelaide we cannot guess, but the Torrens at other times is not a river at all but merely a chain of fresh water pools. The flood in September 1844 saw bridges at Hahndorf and near Onkaparinga swept away, market gardens, other gardens and a dairy further downstream flooded and the city bridges damaged. Further floods in 1847 also damaged bridges and the first dam built was washed away in 1867. It was not until the weir was built in 1881 that there was some control over the river. South Australian Register, 25 September 1844, p.4. The Mail 30 January 1937, Newspaper Cuttings Book Volume 2, p.56.
Living In Burra
22 September 1849 Living in Burra On 22 September 1849 a report in the Register stated ‘The unwholesomeness of these holes without ventilation and on the banks of a creek nearly stagnant … must be apparent to everyone’. The ‘holes’ referred to were the homes of many miners at Burra who excavated the banks of the Burra Creek to form their living quarters and by 1850 over 1500 people were living on Creek Street. One description of these dug-outs indicated that some were kept very clean – the one room white-washed inside and sometimes with a paling verandah, the chimney being just a hole to the footpath above. Nevertheless the conditions were unsanitary and typhus, smallpox, and typhoid fever were common especially among the many children. Another danger was flooding and in February 1850 nearly 80 of these homes were destroyed. More disastrous floods in 1851 left many homeless and news of the discovery of gold at Bathurst induced many to leave. But it was a cheaper way of living than paying rent for a cottage to the SA Mining Association and families continued to live this way for some time. Ian Auhl, The Story of the ‘Monster’ Mine , Investigator Press, 1986, pp.129-33.
Osmond Gilles
23 September 1866 Osmond Gilles Osmond Gilles who died on 23 September 1866 was one of the early officials of the colony. He arrived on the Buffalo in 1836 to take up his position as Colonial Treasurer. A colourful and volatile man, he was wealthy in his own right and generous in many ways, giving land for churches, hospitals and other public use, and using his own funds when the colony’s own ran short. He brought with him from England an iron safe, actually his own property, in which to keep the new colony’s funds and an armed marine stood guard at the entrance to the tent (the first home of the treasurer). One night Gilles found the man drunk and incapable, but listening to the man’s pleas for mercy, did not have him court-martialled. He later revealed that the total assets of the colony locked away in the safe amounted to 1s 6d. Ironically, in 1847 Gilles himself was charged with being drunk and disorderly, but the case was dismissed. By that time Gilles was no longer Colonial Treasurer having been relieved of his position for incompetence. In 1838 he had bought property at Glen Osmond which he called Woodley, built his house there in 1844 and planted vines. He also had property to the north of the city where he bred sheep – now called Gilles Plains – and with Edward John Eyre purchased a special survey at Moorundie on the River Murray. Eric Gunton, Gracious Homes of Colonial Adelaide , Adelaide, 1983, pp.145-46.
Lord Howard Florey
24 September 1898 Lord Howard Florey Lord Howard Florey, one of Adelaide’s most notable sons, was born on 24 September 1898. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and was Rhodes Scholar in 1921. This took him to Oxford where he achieved a science degree and won a number of fellowships including one in America in 1925. Back in England, after several appointments he became, in 1935, Professor of Pathology at Oxford. In collaboration with Professor Chain, a refugee from Nazi Germany, he began research to develop a chance discovery by Dr Alexander Fleming in 1929 of a mould which destroyed certain bacteria. After years of experimental work and testing, penicillin came into being. The new drug was used first to treat the war wounded and in 1945 the three men involved in its discovery and development were awarded the Nobel Prize. Florey was instrumental in establishing the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University in Canberra, but declined an invitation to be its director. However, in 1965 he did become Chancellor of the ANU. He died on 21 February 1968. 100 Famous Australian Lives , Paul Hamlyn, 1969, pp.443-60.
Maralinga Atomic Tests
25 September 1957 Maralinga Atomic Tests On 25 September 1957 the second of three explosions of atomic bombs took place at Maralinga, yielding six kilotons, eleven days after the first and smaller bomb which yielded one kiloton. The testing of these weapons, code named ‘Antler’, followed an agreement between the Australian and British governments. After earlier tests held at Woomera in 1953 and Maralinga in 1956 Prime Minister Menzies decided that a more permanent organisation was needed which would give Australia more political as well as administrative control over the Maralinga range and this resulted in a new body: the Maralinga Board of Management under the control of the Department of Supply. Another body, the National Radiation Advisory Committee, was also set up to monitor safeguards at the testing site. The third bomb in the series, called ‘Taranaki’, was detonated from a balloon at a high altitude and fallout from the explosion was reported, in the form of acid rain, as far away as Adelaide. In fact at least one of the bombs contained a highly radioactive component and this resulted in the high radiation levels discovered in the area after the tests. After further so-called minor trials, which went on until 1963, Maralinga was closed down and in spite of a major clean-up in 1967 it remained virtually deserted. Robert Milliken, No Conceivable Injury, Penguin, 1986, pp. 222-24.
West End Brewery
26 September 1980 West End Brewery The last beer to be delivered from the West End Brewery left the Hindley Street premises on 26 September 1980. The brewery was built in 1859 by W.H. Clark who became bankrupt the following year. William Knox Simms who had been involved in breweries in Pirie Street and Halifax Street took over the business in 1960. In 1888 Simms and Sir Edwin Smith of the Kent Town Brewery joined forces and formed the South Australian Brewing, Malting & Wine & Spirit Company which included Rounsevell and Simms’ Wine & Spirit business. In 1893t the company had disposed of the wine and spirit component and became The South Australian Brewing Company Limited. At the time of the amalgamation it was decided that brewing would be done at the newer Kent Town brewery, but this was changed and brewing continued at West End while Kent Town became the maltings. In 1938 SABCo took over the Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company at Southwark. The move to have all SABCo’s operations at Southwark brought about the closure of West End brewery in 1980. It was the last of the city breweries. M.H. Ward, Some Brief Records of Brewing in South Australia , Pioneers Association of SA, Series 1950-51, No.5
Alexander And George Murray
27 September 1839 Alexander and George Murray Alexander Murray arrived in South Australia from Scotland on 27 September 1839. In 1842 he bought property at Magill from his uncle Sir James Malcolm. He also had property at Mount Crawford where he planted what, but as this was not very successful, owing to problems of wheat smut, he resorted to his knowledge of sheep flocks. He also had land at Wirrabara where his name is remembered in Murraytown. He was MHA and MLC for nearly 25 years. On his death on 17 March 1903 his son George Murray, a lawyer who became an associate of the Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Way, and later Chief Justice himself, took over the properties and had extension made to the house at Magill. By 1910 ‘Murray Park’ was a show piece and Sir George as Lieutenant Governor entertained many distinguished visitors there. A great philanthropist he gave many thousands of pounds to the University and Teachers College. He died on 18 February 1942. ‘Murray Park’ became part of the Magill campus of the SA College of Advanced Education (now University of South Australia). Eric Gunton, Grac ious Homes of Colonial Adelaide , Adelaide, 1983, pp.83-4.