King Omalley
29 April 1899 King O’Malley The colourful and loquacious politician King O’Malley lost his seat in the election of 29 April 1899. O’Malley claimed that he was born in Canada, of American parents, and grew up in the United States. He worked as a shoe salesman and then sold land on the west coast before coming to Australia in 1888 to sell insurance. In 1889 he moved from Melbourne to Hobart and first appeared in Adelaide in 1893, probably via Western Australia. In 1896 he was an Independent candidate for the electorate of Encounter Bay which he won. An advocate of the temperance movement, he was also concerned with protecting the status and respectability of women and in particular tried to have barmaids banned from work in public houses. This failed at the time, although it was achieved later after O’Malley had left South Australia. Following his defeat in 1899 he went back to Tasmania and in 1901 was elected to the new Federal Parliament. During his time in parliament he served as Minister of Home Affairs in the early Labor Governments and is credited with instituting old age pensions as well as founding the Commonwealth Bank and the transcontinental railway. He was defeated in the election of 1917, stood again in 1919 and 1922 but failed to regain a seat. An interesting and at times controversial figure, his background in America was always something of a mystery. He died in Melbourne in 1953 aged 99, the last of the 1901 parliamentarians. His memory is perpetuated in the King and Amy O’Malley Trust scholarships for home economics, and in a play entitled The Legend of King O’Malley . A.R. Hoyle, King O’Malley ‘The American Bounder’ , MacMillan, Melbourne, 1981. Hansard, SA House of Assembly, 11 August 1992, p. 75.
Joseph Hawdon And Charles Bonney
3 April 1838 Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney When Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney arrived in Adelaide on the 3 April 1838 they were greeted with some jubilation by the settlers as there had been a shortage of meat for some time and the herd of cattle they had brought was a welcome sight. Hawdon arranged to buy 335 head of cattle in New South Wales and he met Bonney on the River Goulburn on the 23 January. With nine in the party they set out on an overland route to South Australia, travelling for a large part of the journey along the banks of the River Murray in very hot weather. Although they met many Aborigines they had no trouble. On the way they found two lakes, one they named Victoria after the Queen and the other was named Bonney. When they reached Mount Barker they kept a little too much to the south and came through the hills at Noarlunga and thence to Adelaide. They had travelled nearly 1000 miles in ten weeks and only lost four bullocks who had been killed by lightning in a violent thunderstorm. The men were later honoured at a dinner presided over by the Resident Commissioner, James Hurtle Fisher, and an ox was roasted for the occasion. Hawdon returned to his property in Victoria and eventually went to New Zealand. Bonney became the first Commissioner of Crown Lands and was the first mayor of Kensington and Norwood. He also pioneered a route from Portland to Adelaide along the Coorong in 1839. R.M. Gibbs, A History of South Australia, Balara Books, 1969, pp. 59-60.
Catherine Helen Spence
3 April 1910 Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence died at the age of 81 years on 3 April 1910. Born in Scotland, she came to South Australia with her family in 1839. From her youth she was interested in politics and in the 1860s she met her mentor, John Stuart Mill, in England. She was Vice President of the Women’s Suffrage League in 1892, the main force behind the achievement of the enfranchisement of women in South Australia in 1894. She created history when she became the first female political candidate to stand for election on 6 March 1897. This election was for delegates for the second Federal Convention to be held in 1897/98 to discuss the federation of the Australian Colonies. Of the 33 candidates who stood all but six had served in the Legislature and four Ministers and one ex-Minister were amongst them. Although Spence failed to be elected she paved the way for other women to aspire to political office. In her younger years she wrote several novels, the most well known being Clara Morison . Her major interest was the introduction of proportional representation and for years she worked to have this system accepted. She spoke on this subject, and female suffrage, in Australia, Canada, the United States and England. For many years she also worked tirelessly for charitable organisations as well as for social reforms. She was still working for her goal of proportional representation when she died. Helen Jones, ‘South Australian Women and Politics’, in Dean Jaensch (ed), The Flinders History of South Australia Political History, 1986, pp. 414-448.
John Rankine And Strathalbyn
30 April 1839 John Rankine and Strathalbyn On 30 April 1839 Dr John Rankine, his two brothers and other immigrants from Scotland, arrived in South Australia. The Rankines settled in the district south of Adelaide around what is now the township of Strathalbyn. Some of the families who travelled out with the Rankines also settled in the area. Dr Rankine later purchased land on Hindmarsh Island, which he stocked with cattle, and built a large house there. In 1855 the doctor, who suffered from a heart condition, retired from active work and returned to Scotland for a holiday; he died there in 1864. His brother, William, continued to live near Strathalbyn. He married three times and six sons survived him to continue the family name in the district. The town of Strathalbyn grew slowly, but by 1854 it was large enough to be proclaimed a local government area, the second, after Mitcham, outside the city. The town was linked to Victor Harbor by a tramway in 1869 and to Mount Barker by rail in 1884. Strathalbyn has retained many of its colonial buildings and for this reason it was used for some of the scenes in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock. Harold J. Stowe, They Built Strathalbyn , Investigator Press, 1973. Nancy Gemmell, Old Strathalbyn and its people , National Trust. Historic Places of Australia, National Trust, 1978, pp. 570-583.
Kanyaka
30 April 1863 Kanyaka The first allotments in the newly surveyed township of Kanyaka, 26 kms south of Hawker, were offered for sale on 30 April 1863
South Australian Football Associatio
30 April 1877 South Australian Football Association The South Australian Football Association was founded at a meeting of representatives of most clubs in the colony on 30 April 1877. They accepted a code of laws almost identical to those drawn up in Melbourne the previous year. The first reference to a game of football in South Australia appeared in the Southern Australian on St Patrick’s Day 1843, when a few colonists ‘from the Emerald Isle’ enjoyed themselves in a game of football. This could have been a variety of Gaelic football. In 1877 the clubs involved in premiership matches were: South Adelaide, Victoria, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Woodville, South Park, Kensington and Bankers. In 1878 North Adelaide, Willunga, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers and Woodville dropped out of the Association and Norwood came in to form a seven team competition. Norwood won six premiership flags in a row, but in 1884 Port Adelaide won its first. South Adelaide won in 1885, when there were only four teams competing, and Adelaide in 1886. For twenty years Norwood, South Adelaide and Port Adelaide dominated the scene with other teams not up to standard dropping out. The Association began to stabilise from 1897 on. Other clubs were admitted over the years until there were ten teams in the SANFL competition. Bernard Whimpress, The South Australian Football Story , SANFL, 1983.
Peter Waite
4 April 1922 Peter Waite Peter Waite, a great benefactor of the University of Adelaide, died at Victor Harbor on 4 April 1922. Born in Scotland in 1834, he arrived in Melbourne in 1859 and then went to his brother James’ station at Pandappa near Terowie. He later bought the adjoining Paratoo run and took over his brother’s lease in 1863. In 1883 he was chairman of Elders Wool and Produce Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Elder Smith. When the companies amalgamated in 1888 he became chairman of directors. Waite was also involved in other pastoral companies and had directorships of various others. In 1874 he purchased the ‘Urrbrae’ property at Glen Osmond and in the 1880s he rebuilt the old house, erecting a 35 room, two storey mansion. He also added the 165 acre Claremont and Netherby properties and a further 114 acres of adjoining land to the 135 acre Urrbrae estate. In 1913 he decided to leave the estate, after his death, to the University of Adelaide for use as an institution for agricultural research. The Waite Agricultural Research Institute came into being in 1924, following the handover of the estate by Waite’s children on 3 February 1923. Waite also left 5880 shares in Elder Smith to provide funds to enable the University to utilise the land for the purpose intended. His other wish, for a school to be established, was realised in 1932 with the opening of the Urrbrae Agricultural High School. The total value of his gift to the University was estimated at £100,000. Bede Nairn (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, pp. 336-337.
George Tinline
5 April 1853 George Tinline On the 5 April 1853 a public dinner, presided over by George Elder, was given for George Tinline. Tinline was deemed to be the saviour of South Australia when the colony was in deep financial trouble due to the exodus of many men to the Victorian goldfields, and the heavy withdrawal of specie from the colony. The legislation known as the Bullion Act, which was passed on the 28 January 1852, was largely the work of Tinline, a shrewd banker. The Act authorised the assaying by the Government of uncoined gold and its purchase by the banks at £3 11s an ounce, the banks issuing notes as legal tender over and above ordinary circulation. The diggers in Victoria were getting £3 per ounce so the attraction to send it to South Australia was there. The legislation limited the buying to 12 months and in that time, (the Government Assay Office opened on 10 February 1852) gold to the value of £2 million was introduced into South Australia from Victoria and New South Wales. Public and private credit had been restored. Mail, 10 December 1927, Newspaper Cuttings Book, Volume 1. SLSA.
City Refuse Destructor
6 April 1910 City Refuse Destructor The Refuse Destructor for the Adelaide City Council in the Halifax Street Depot was completed on 6 April 1910, and incineration of the city’s and inner suburb’s refuse commenced on 20 June. Garbage was burnt in two furnaces designed to give perfect combustion. The hot gases then passed through two water tube boilers which generated power for use in other buildings and plant on the site. Surplus power was sold to the Adelaide Electric Supply Company (later the Electricity Trust). The site also contained a flag-making plant for footpath paving slabs, and a laundry and steam disinfector station to handle hospital linen.Residue from the furnaces was dumped in a pughole at Brompton. This method of disposal was used until May 1954; since then all the city’s rubbish has been taken to the Wingfield dump. Of the entire complex only the chimney remains although the site has recently been developed as medium density housing. Susan Marsden, Paul Stark, Patricia Sumerling (eds), Heritage of the City of Adelaide, Corporation of the City of Adelaide, 1990, pp. 213-214.
Archibald Peake
6 April 1920 Archibald Peake Archibald Peake, three times Premier of South Australia, died suddenly at his home at Parkside on 6 April 1920. Peake was born in London in 1850 and was only three years old when his family emigrated to Australia. They lived in Victoria for two years and then moved to South Australia. When Peake left school he worked for the District Council of Naracoorte from 1878 to 1897. In the elections of May that year he won the seat of Albert in the House of Assembly by two votes, but lost it in a case in the Court of Disputed Returns. He was re-elected by a greater majority in a by-election in July. He was appointed Treasurer and Attorney-General in Tom Price’s government (a coalition of Labor, Liberal and Democratic Union) in 1905. On Price’s death in 1909, Peake formed a coalition government without Labor. This government was defeated by Labor in 1910, but Peake was again Premier in 1912. In 1913 he lost his seat, but returned to politics in 1917 when the seat of Alexandra was made available to him. He became Premier again in 1917, once more in a coalition of Liberal and Liberal- National. The Advertiser 7 April 1920 p.7; 8 April 1920 p.7.