Australian Imperial Expeditionary F
17 August 1914 Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force On 17 August 1914 work of medically examining volunteers for the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force began at the Parade Ground on King William Road. The pay for a private was 4s a day and 1s deferred pay while in Australia and 5s a day with 1s deferred pay plus rations while overseas. Criteria included height 5 feet 6 inches and age between 19 and 38 years. Two men aged 34 and 36, both ex-servicemen, walked from Port Pirie to enlist. A tent city at Morphettville was set up to cope with the expected enlistments. This followed a large gathering of some 20,000 people in Elder Park on 10 August where the Governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Galway, spoke of the patriotic spirit of South Australians. A procession of 4000 children civil servants and retired soldiers, with bands playing, had marched down King William Street where flags flew from nearly every building. More speeches from the premier and other ministers all added to the stirring of patriotic fervour. Although the leader of the Labor party asked for sympathy for the German colonists who, he said, were ‘all Australians’ this appeal was not in all cases adhered to and many Germans were in interned at Torrens Island for the duration of the war. In all about eight per cent of South Australia’s male population of a quarter of a million served overseas in the armed services. Advertiser , 10,18,19 August 1914.
Escaped Convicts
18 August 1852 Escaped convicts On 18 August 1852 the Superintendent of Convicts, A. J. Murray, wrote in his report: ‘All the officers on the establishment have conducted themselves very well with (one) exception’. The ‘establishment’ was an iron building erected at Cox’s Creek (Bridgewater) to house 12 convicts serving longer sentences. Prior to this period South Australia had sent her worst convicted felons to Van Dieman’s Land, but this had ceased and it was realised that the colony would need another penal institution in addition to Adelaide Gaol. It was planned to build a labour prison at Yatala, originally known as the Stockade, but until this could be completed a temporary stockade was built at Cox’s Creek where it was intended to put the prisoners to work on the construction of roads in the area. However, after settling in at the new prison and the initial good report, the Superintendent, on the next day 19 August, had to report that three convicts had escaped, and on the 24 th that three more had gone. By the 27 th the six escapees had been rounded up and sent back to Adelaide. These events must have prompted the early closure of the camp for it was discontinued later that year. ‘Eating from a Tin Bowl’, Police Journal , December 1972, pp.18-20. Newspaper Cuttings Book, Vol. III, pp.142-46, SLSA.
Charles Sturt
19 August 1853 Charles Sturt On 19 August 1853 Charles Sturt and his family left their home at the Grange to sail to England for a visit. However, the temporary visit turned into a permanent absence and Sturt died there in 1869. Sturt had come to New South Wales in 1827 as an officer in the 39 th Regiment. After his explorations down the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers in 1829/30 he returned to England, but in 1833 sold his commission and came back to Australia as a settler. In 1838 he sold his property in NSW and moved his family to South Australia April 1839, taking a position with the Survey Department. At first the Sturts lived in a cottage on East Terrace but sometime in 1840 moved to the large brick dwelling house with 80 acres of land at the Reedbeds which he called Grange. There in 1843 his fourth child was born and while his home life was happy Sturt was not at ease in the Public Service and with increasing financial difficulties in the young colony Sturt again turned his mind to exploration. He undertook an expedition into the interior, but his health was badly affected from the privations he endured. After a leave of absence he returned to the Public Service until he retired at the end of 1851. M. Casson, ‘Captain Sturt and the house called “Grange”’, Walkabout, 1 October 1956. Newspaper Cuttings Book Volume III, p.52, SLSA.
Glenelg Railway
2 August 1873 Glenelg Railway On 2 August 1873 the Adelaide, Glenelg and Suburban Railway Company opened a line between Adelaide and Glenelg via King William Street and South Terrace to Moseley Square, Glenelg on the route of the present tramway. There was some delay in starting the operation as the locomotives to be used had not arrived and horses were substituted to take officials on an inspection run on the 29 May. Another company, the Holdfast Bay Railway opened a line from the North Terrace Railway Station to Glenelg via Richmond and Plympton on 25 May 1880. The two companies were amalgamated in 1881 and formed the Glenelg Railway Company and this in turn was taken over by the government on 15 December 1899. What were termed ‘P’ class engines were imported from England for use on these passenger lines as they could run at 60 mph and later more were built locally by James Martin of Gawler. The last train from South Terrace to Glenelg ran on 2 April 1929 and from North Terrace on 16 December 1929. The new tramway system began operations on 14 December 1929 on the same route from King William Street to Moseley Square and is still running. R.E. Fluck, R. Sampson and K.J. Bird, Steam Locos and Railcars of the South Australian Railways , Railway Museum, 1986, p.47.
First Radio Transmissions
21 August 1924 First radio transmissions On 21 August 1924 the Advertiser reported that successful tests by the South Australian Radio and Broadcasting Company had been carried out at the Grosvenor Hotel. The musical programme transmitted was heard clearly by all receivers around Adelaide and by some ships at Port Adelaide and Outer Harbour. The station broadcast mainly music programmes, but as the operating costs were high and no revenue was coming in the station closed down in October. Another company, Central Broadcasters, was registered on 4 November and on 20 November the call sign 5CL was allocated. At first 22 ½ hours per week were broadcast and this was gradually increased. The station moved to Brooklyn Park and then to Franklin Street until 28 October 1928 when it moved to its long-time home in Hindmarsh Square. In 1930 the station became part of the National Broadcasting Service. 5DN began in 1924 from studios in Parkside, 5KA opened on 25 March 1927 in Prospect and 5AD on 2 August 1930. All these commercial ventures followed experimental radio transmissions carried out by amateurs from the early 1920s. Jo n F. Ross, A History of Radio in South Australia 1897-1977 , Ernsmiths, 1978.
Murray Floods
22 August 1956 Murray floods At midnight on 22 August 1956 the level of the River Murray at Renmark reached 30 feet 6 ¾ inches. It was thought this was the peak but the next day the water rose a further ½ an inch although for the first time since 15 June it then remained stationary. For weeks people along the river had been raising levees but damage from the flood waters amounted to millions of pounds. From Renmark to Meningie the river wreaked havoc flooding homes and properties and many hundreds of families were evacuated as well as the hospital at Renmark. In Mannum, as in the floods of 1896, the water rose to the first floor balcony of the Mannum hotel and was almost at that level at the Pretoria. It was a natural disaster of massive proportions which brought all South Australians to the aid of the river people. One side effect of the floods was reported from near Meningie where a dairy farmer killed 1032 tiger snakes driven on to his property from their normal swamp habitat as the waters spread inland. Advertiser , 11-31 August 1956.
Beltana
23 August 1872 Beltana On 23 August 1872 two men sat in a tin hut amid the saltbush at Beltana waiting for a sound. Just after 1 pm they were rewarded by the chattering of the telegraph and the Beltana Telegraph and Repeater Station, part of the new Overland line was open. The first person to travel this area was Edward John Eyre who was not impressed with what he saw, but later the pastoralists came and it was Thomas Elder who held the Beltana run. With the coming of the Overland Telegraph line Beltana station, which had been a resting place for travellers of all kinds, became the centre for Charles Todd’s crew and later the site of a repeater station. In 1873 the town was surveyed and people began to move there. The railway reached the town in 1881. Between 1875 and 1920 Beltana was a thriving little town of up to 500 people but with the closure of mining ventures in the area, the drought of the 1920s and the depression in the 1930s, it began to decline. The final blows came in 1956 when the standard gauge railway was built to the west and much later, in 1983, when the new bitumen road was also sited to the west, leaving the town virtually isolated. It came to life for a day when, as part of Australia’s Bi-centennial celebrations, a race day followed by ‘Opera in the Outback’ with Dame Kiri te Kanawa was held on 3 September 1988 and some 10,000 people came to the ‘ghost’ town. Graham Aird and Nic Klaassen, Beltana The Town That Will Not Die , 1984, pp.7-17.
Adelaide Railway Station
24 August 1926 Adelaide Railway Station The foundation stone of the new railway Station in Adelaide was laid by the Premier, John Gunn, on 243 August 1926 and the building was finished in June 1928. This was one of the main improvements made to the South Australian railway system by W.A. Webb, the Commissioner for Railways from 1922 to 1930. When the American born railway man took up his appointment he immediately set about changing the old rundown system into a modern and efficient service. His rehabilitation programme extended from locomotives to bridge construction, the reconstruction of the Islington works and his most visible legacy the Adelaide Railway Station. The old building was too small for all the administrative staff who were scattered in five other buildings around the city. Webb began demolition almost before the new plans were finalised and the cost of the new project far exceeded original estimates although actual costs are not known as many of the accounting dockets were ‘lost’ and no-one knows who authorised the construction. However, the handsome building with its Ionic columns and polished granite has served Adelaide well. The ‘marble hall’ off Railway Road was used in the film Gallipoli and is now the entrance to the Casino. R.I. Jennings, W.A. Webb , Nesfield Press, 1973, Chapters 3-7.
Glen Osmond Mine
25 August 1838 Glen Osmond Mine On 25 August 1838 the South Australian register reported that copper had been discovered on Section 295 at Glen Osmond. This was the property of Osmond Gilles, the Colonial Treasurer, where some galena had been found by accident. It was some time before a mine, reputed to be the first in Australia, was operational but from about 1844 the silver lead mine was worked with the ore yielding 64% lead and 9½ ounces of silver to the ton. The Glen Osmond Mining Company, with a paid-up capital of £30,000, was formed in London and over the years of operation £30,000 worth of silver and lead was extracted, although this was roughly equivalent to the costs of setting it up and running the mine. In 1844 167 tons were exported and a further 1009 tons in the following years. A smelting works was erected in the first gully east of the quarry, with an underground flue to the chimney; in 1847 two blocks of miners’ cottages were built. Osmond Gilles’ brother, Lewis, came from Tasmania to manage the mine. The exodus of miners to Victoria in the gold rush and a dispute over the royalties paid to Osmond Gilles put an end to the mining and the property reverted to Gilles. The stone chimney on the hill at Glen Osmond is the only visible reminder of this short-lived venture. V.S. Hicks, O.G. The Colonial Treasurer , 1985.
Dr John Harris Browne
26 August 1844 Dr John Harris Brown On 26 August 1844 Dr John Harris Browne was somewhere north of Moorundie on the River Murray with Captain Sturt on his last expedition to the north. The party also included Poole as Sturt’s lieutenant and John McDouall Stuart. Edward John Eyre accompanied the group for a while along the river from Moorundie where he was serving as Protector of Aborigines. The trip later became a nightmare as heat and drought took their toll. Poole died and the others suffered badly from scurvy. Sturt was very ill and nearly blind and for much of the return journey was carried on a dray; he probably only survived through Browne’s devoted care. John Harris Browne had come to South Australia in 1840, two years after his brother, William, who was also a doctor educated in Edinburgh. After his return from the north John Harris continued with his pastoral interests in partnership with his brother and they jointly owned the Booborowie and Canowie properties in the 1860s. In 1856 they bought Buckland Park where John Harris lived for several years. They had other properties in the north and on the west coast and Moorak at Mount Gambier. John Harris settled in England in the 1870s but made several trips back to South Australia to visit his properties. He died in England in 1904. R. Cockburn, Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia, Volume 1, 1925, pp.32-3.