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.
Kingsford Smith And The Southern Cr
27 August 1928 Kingsford-Smith and the ‘Southern Cross’ After an all night flight from Perth Squadron-Leader Kingsford- Smith and the crew of the ‘Southern Cross’ landed at Parafield at 7.48 am on 27 August 1928. They were returning from a non-stop flight from Melbourne to Perth which took 23 ½ hours and was described as ‘a feat unparalleled in Australia’. An official party and some 2000 people were present to welcome Kingsford-Smith and his crew and later in the morning they visited the Governor and the Lord Mayor and were given a luncheon at Parliament House. It was in the ‘Southern Cross’ that Kingsford-Smith, Flight-Lieutenant Ulm and two Americans made the remarkable flight across the Pacific just a few months earlier. Kingsford-Smith and Bert Hinkler helped to pave the way for the civil aviation industry. The report in the Advertiser on the flight stated: we have had a practical demonstration of the possibility of aerial travel over sea and land on a scale which a few years ago would have been a mere subject of dreams. In the 1980s a group of enthusiasts built a replica of the ‘Southern Cross’ which was flown to various places in Australia on exhibition. 125 Years of The Advertiser , Advertiser Newspaper , 1983, p.119.
Womens Suffrage League
28 July 1888 Women’s Suffrage League As reported in the register of 28 July 1888 the constitution of the Women’s Suffrage League, which had been formed at a public meeting on 20 July, contained the clauses: That the women of the country should have a voice in the choice of representatives to the House of Legislature. The League also believed that women should have the dame voting rights as men although they did not specifically claim the right to sit as representatives. Dr Stirling was the chairman of the Council of 24 elected members and Mary Lee was one of the secretaries. It was seven years before the women won their fight for the right to vote, but it was another 30 years before a woman was endorsed as a candidate for a political party. This as Agnes Goode who stood for the Liberal Party in 1924, the first woman endorsed as a Labor candidate was Marie Skitch in 1938. Nancy Buttfield, daughter of Sir Edward Holden, became the first South Australian woman to enter federal politics when she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Senate in 1955 and retained her seat at the next election. In 1959 two women won seats for the Liberal Party in the SA Parliament; they were Jessie Cooper in the Legislative Council and Joyce Steele in the House of Assembly. In 1963 Joyce Steele was appointed Government Whip and in 1968 Minister for Education. The first female Labor member was Molly Byrne in 1965. These women paved the way for others to follow into a political career. Helen Jones, In Her Own Name , Wakefield Press, 1986, pp.86 & 277-79.
Sir Thomas Elder
29 July 1903 Sir Thomas Elder On 29 July 1903 a statue of Sir Thomas Elder, a benefactor of the University of Adelaide was unveiled. Elder arrived in South Australia in 1854 as a partner in the firm of A.L. Elder & Company which had been established by his brother Alexander Lang Elder who came in 1839 and returned to England in 1856. Thomas soon held large pastoral leases at Paratoo, Beltana, Umberatana, Mount Lyndhurst and Blanchewater, totalling about 7000 square miles. The success of copper mines at Kapunda and Burra gave him great faith in mineral resources and the firm of Elder, Smith was one of the financiers of the Wallaroo and Moonta mines. Through this investment and the commercial pursuits of Elder Smith he became very wealthy and also a great benefactor of the colony. His donation of £20,000 for the foundation of a university in 1874 was followed by further bequests of £10,000 in 1884 for a medical school and he was largely responsible for the establishment of a Chair of Music and a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London. He gave the Rotunda in Elder Park to the city and £2000 to Chalmers (Scots) Church and many other gifts to other institutions and charities. On his death many of these beneficiaries received more bequests to the total of £155,000 and Elder Hall was built for the University. For a quiet man he achieved great wealth in the country of his adoption and contributed generously to its enrichment. J.J. Pascoe (ed), History of Adelaide and Vicinity , Hussey & Gillingham, Adelaide, 1901, pp.282-85.
Mitchell Building University Of Adela
30 July 1879 Mitchell Building, University of Adelaide The foundation stone of the first building of the University of Adelaide, now known as the Mitchell Building, on North Terrace was laid on 30 July 1879 by the Governor, Sir William Jervois, in front of a large gathering. This only eventuated after much controversy over the design of the building. On 17 May 1876 the Building Committee recommended that a design competition be held and the winner, decided in February 1877, was James MacGeorge. However, this was an unpopular choice and one of the most upset was Melbourne architect Michael Egan who wrote many letters to the University Registrar expressing his dissatisfaction and his view were supported in the press. In January 1878 the Committee decided to appoint Egan as the architect, but by May found they could not afford his plan. Adelaide architects Woods and McMinn (who had entered and then withdrawn from the competition) were appointed advising architects to the Committee and the final design, by McMinn, which was accepted and for which he received the credit, was apparently remarkably similar to Egan’s. McMinn estimated the building would cost £10,200 but the final tender accepted was £24,736 from Brown and Thompson. The building, in modern Gothic style, was officially opened by the Governor on 5 April 1882. City of Adelaide Heritage Survey, Vol. 7 Parklands, pp27B/E.
Ocean Boulevard
31 July 1984 Ocean Boulevard When Ocean Boulevard, the continuation of Brighton Road, was widened the War memorial which had stood near the cement works had to be moved. At the time of the opening of the new road y the Minister for Transport, the Hon. Mr Abbott MP, on 31 July 1984 he also unveiled a plaque, placed near the memorial to commemorate the old Portland cement works. The plaque, on a base of crystal calcite, the main component of limestone from which cement is made, reads: Near this place a syndicate led by William Lewis established a cement works in 1882 which produced the first Portland cement made in Australia. The SA Portland cement company Ltd grew out of this enterprise which eventually became merged in the Adelaide Brighton Cement Company Ltd. Averil Holt, Brighton Council.
Paralana
4 July 1926 Paralana On 4 July 1926 a number of people were enjoying the benefits of the thermal springs at Paralana in the northern Flinders Ranges. Earlier that year a company called Paralana Hot Springs Syndicate issued a brochure extolling the virtues of these thermal waters: A Wonderful Radio-Active Thermal Spring Possessing Remarkable Curative Properties … Nowhere in the world has Nature provided such wonderful mineral impregnated waters as at Paralana. The climate and scenery of Paralana Spa are so delightful, so restful, that they alone would be sufficient recommendation to stay a while at this beautiful place for health’s sake, quite apart from the rare thermal spring waters flowing there. … The glowing description of the area was undoubtedly true but the provisions for guests were far from amenable. Buildings erected for accommodation were of galvanised iron and apparently meals were terrible. Although the staff included a medical officer, the remoteness of the area and the lack of good facilities saw the venture fail and it closed in 1927. No trace of the buildings remains and the solitude of that part of the Flinders is left to the wild life to enjoy. Hans Mincham, The Story of the Flinders Ranges , Rigby, 1964, pp296-97.
Kapunda Copper Mine
5 July 1845 Kapunda copper mine On 5 July 1845 the Adelaide Observer gave a description of the Kapunda copper mine that stated ‘£3600 worth of ores have been raised in the short space of six weeks’. Copper had been discovered in 1842 when Francis Dutton of ‘Anlaby’, while looking for sheep during a storm, noticed some green rock. He consulted his neighbour, Captain Charles Bagot of ‘Koonunga’, who produced a similar piece of rock found by his son. The two men kept the discovery secret until they could purchase the land on which it was found and then agreed that Bagot would have a 75% share and Dutton 25% in the mine. Bagot decided to manage the mine himself and had little trouble in getting experienced Cornish miners to come and work. The mine did well, and by 1846 smelting operations were begun and the town of Kapunda started to grow. With the discovery of gold in Victoria in the 1850s many miners left slowing production for a time, but the mine continued to operate until about 1880 after which only tributers, miners working for themselves and paying a percentage of their earnings to the proprietors, worked on. Rob Charlton, The History of Kapunda , Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1971, pp5-21.
Trolley Buses
6 July 1963 Trolley buses On 6 July 1963 the Advertiser announced that trolley buses would run for the last time on Friday 12 July, ending a service that began on 2 May 1932. The first trolley bus in Australia was an open top, double-decker, purchased from the South Australian Railways, affectionately dubbed the ‘Green Goddess’ which ran on an experimental route along the Lower North east road between Payneham and Paradise. The experimental line closed on 11 August 1934 and the Green goddess was stored until it became a trolley wire greaser and later a tow-away kitchen for workers. Twenty new trolley buses were built by J.A. Lawton & Sons and were commissioned with the opening of the City of Tusmore service on 5 September 1937. In April 1938 the Tusmore route was connected at Morphett Street with a service to operate to Semaphore and Largs Bay. This had necessitated changing the superstructure of the Jervois Bridge and the building of two converter stations to supply electric power. In 1960 the Jervois Bridge was declared unsafe for heavy vehicles and buses were re-routed over the Birkenhead Bridge, but problems occurred with the wiring and motor buses were used from Port Adelaide until the problems were overcome and the trolley buses returned to the Largs Bay run on 25 September 1960 and Semaphore on 13 February 1961. After World War Two the trolley bus system was extended and operated until 1963 when motor buses replaced them. Advertiser, 6 July 1961. Newspaper Cuttings Book, Vol.3, p100, SLSA.
South Australian Gas Company
8 July 1861 South Australian Gas Company On 8 July 1861 22 people met in White’s Rooms in King William Street and agreed that it was ‘desirable to proceed with the undertaking called the South Australian Gas Company’. The prospectus of the new company had been issued in May, but by July only 943 of the original 6000 shares had been sold. However, the promoters who included some of Adelaide’s leading businessmen – Henry Ayers, Arthur Blyth and George P Harris – were confident that the venture would be a success. In fact Adelaide lagged behind the eastern cities in the provision of this utility for Sydney had gas lighting as early as 1841, Melbourne turned on the lights on 1 January 1856 and Hobart’s Gas Company was incorporated in 1854. The next step was to gain the approval of parliament and this was achieved on 29 November, despite the opposition of George Fife Angas who apparently disliked the use of gas. The Bill gave the Gas Company the right to distribute gas throughout the metropolitan area within a radius of 12 kilometres of the GPO. The building of the gas works on land acquired at Bowden proceeded and on 23 December 1862 the foundation stone of the ‘great’ chimney was laid by Ayers and the furnaces were lit for the first time on 30 May 1863. Peter Donovan and Noreen Kirkman, The Unquenchable Flame , Wakefield Press, 1986, pp12, 17-25.