Edward John Eyre
1 May 1839 Edward John Eyre On 1 May 1839 Edward John Eyre left Adelaide with a party of five men on an expedition to the north. At that time no-one had been further north than the head of Spencer Gulf. On his way he discovered a river which he named the Broughton, but north of the gulf he found the country more barren. He continued along the edge of the ranges, first seen by Flinders in 1802, but the outlook from one of the peaks was discouraging and he turned back. In August that year Eyre again set out to explore the inland. This time he decided to sail to Port Lincoln and begin his trek from there. With four white men and two Aborigines he followed the coast to Streaky Bay where he set up a depot. He and one Aborigine rode on for another 100 miles, but finding inhospitable country and little water, they were forced back. The party then struck east across the peninsula, which now bears his name, and made for their old camping site in the Flinders Ranges. From there Eyre travelled further north than on his first trip and sighted the large lake now called Lake Torrens. He returned to Adelaide in October. In June 1840 Eyre set out on his third trip to the north, this time reaching what is now known as Lake Eyre. He was convinced that there was one large horseshoe-shaped lake which blocked access to the centre of the continent through that area and again returned south. His most arduous journey was undertaken the following year. On 25 February 1841 he left Fowlers Bay with only his friend Baxter and three Aborigines, having sent the rest of the party back to Adelaide. They followed the coast around the Great Australian Bight in a determined effort to reach Western Australia. The journey with scant provisions through this virtually waterless and treeless country was made even more miserable by the heat, sandflies and mosquitoes. Eyre, like many early explorers had set off at the height of summer. Also, he had no idea of the Aboriginal attitude towards survival in the bush and was unaware that the Aboriginal men, Joey, Yarry and Wylie were increasingly unhappy with the dwindling daily rations. One night, while Eyre was watching the horses, Joey and Yarry shot Baxter and went off with most of the stores. Eyre and the remaining member of the group Wylie, struggled on. When nearly at the end of their meagre rations and in desperate need they sighted a whaling ship, the Mississippi , anchored near the shore. Captain Rossiter took care of them while they recovered their strength; then, with new provisions, Eyre and Wylie continued their journey to the west, reaching Albany, 1000 miles from Fowlers Bay, on 7 July 1841. Eyre returned to Adelaide by sea while Wylie, suitably rewarded, went back to his tribe in Western Australia at Albany. Eyre contributed to the financing of these expeditions himself. In 1845 he returned to England and was later made Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, then Governor of Jamaica. He died in 1901. Hans Mincham, The Story of the Flinders Ranges, Rigby, 1964, pp. 24-40.. M. McEwan, Great Australian Explorers, Bay Books, Sydney and London, 1985, pp. 230-238. Australian Junior Encyclopedia , Volume I, Georgian House, 1951, p.286
Haighs Chocolates
1 May 1915 Haigh’s Chocolates On 1 May 1915 A.E. Haigh placed the name ‘Haigh’s Chocolates’ on the window of a shop at 34 King William Street, in the Beehive Building. Seven years later, in 1922, he moved to the corner shop which is still selling Haigh’s Chocolates more than 70 years later. Alf Haigh was born in Jamestown, and as a young man he made sweets at night to sell in his store. About 1900 he moved to Perth, but in 1905 returned to South Australia and settled in Mount Gambier. There he had a mixed store and made his own ice cream and soft drinks. In 1912 he established another shop in Pinnaroo. His enterprises prospered and he decided to move to Adelaide where he purchased the business of Carl Stratman in King William Street. By 1919 he had a small factory operating in Parkside. Again he prospered and was able to build Haigh’s Building at 41 Rundle Street although he retained his business in the shop on the corner. In the 1920s the factory at Parkside was extended to cope with his expanding trade. By this time he had shops in Hindley Street, Glenelg, Port Adelaide and country centres. He died suddenly on 14 August 1933, but his family continued making fine chocolates. Haighs 50 Years 1915-1965.
Sir Thomas Elder
6 March 1897 Sir Thomas Elder Sir Thomas Elder, one of South Australia’s richest men and a great philanthropist, died at his home at Mount Lofty on 6 March 1897. Born in Scotland, he came to South Australia in 1854 and worked for a year with his brother George, who, with another brother, Alexander Lang, had established an agency here. Thomas formed a partnership with Edward Stirling, Robert Barr Smith and John Taylor, which as Elder, Stirling and Company invested in the Moonta copper mines. This brought great wealth to all the partners. Stirling and Taylor retired and the new firm became Elder Smith and Company. This well known firm became one of the largest wool-selling and pastoral companies in the country. Elder built up huge pastoral properties in his own right. He was the first to bring out camels for use in the outback and he financed a number of expeditions into then unknown territory. He served in the Legislative Council from 1863-69 and again from 1871-78. He was knighted in 1878. He bought Birksgate at Glen Osmond where he built a gas plant for lighting, grew bananas in his conservatory, and made wine from his own grapes. In 1885 he built a new house, in the Scottish baronial style, at Mount Lofty. His sister married his partner, Robert Barr Smith, but Thomas remained a bachelor. In 1874 he gave £20,000 towards the establishment of the University of Adelaide, and on his death he left further large bequests to the School of Medicine and School of Music, to the Presbyterian Church, to the Anglican Church for St Peters Cathedral, and to the Methodists for Prince Alfred College, as well as others. The Rotunda in Elder Park is also one of his gifts to South Australia. Douglas Pike (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 4, pp. 133-134
Flinders University
7 March 1966 Flinders University The first academic year at Flinders University began on 7 March 1966 with the enrolments of 382 first year under graduates and 35 graduate students. In the late 1950s it became apparent that the University of Adelaide was reaching its absolute capacity at North Terrace. In 1961 the government of South Australia decided to make some 370 acres of land available at Bedford Park for the establishment of a new university which would be known as the University of Adelaide at Bedford Park. Construction work began in October 1963 and the first staff were appointed. Towards the end of 1965 the Government decided that the institution should be a fully autonomous university under the name The Flinders University of South Australia. The first Chancellor was Emeritus Professor Sir Mark Mitchell and the Vice-Chancellor was Professor R.H. Karmel who had been responsible for the development of Bedford Park from its inception. The University was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 25 March 1966. South Australian Year Book, 1967, pp. 163-168.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
8 March 1864 Adam Lindsay Gordon It was on 8 March 1864 that Adam Lindsay Gordon purchased his home ‘Dingley Dell ‘near Port McDonnell. Gordon, who was born in the Azores in 1833, arrived in South Australia in the Julia on 14 November 1853. He joined the mounted police and was stationed in the south-east at Penola and Mount Gambier for two years. Renowned as a great horseman, he rode in steeplechases on country racecourses and is said to have jumped his horse over a fence, and back, on a narrow section around the Blue Lake at Mount Gambier just where the ground falls away steeply. After leaving the police force Gordon worked for a time as a horsebreaker and was persuaded to enter Parliament. But he was not a good politician and only stayed a short time. Following an accident while horse-breaking at Lake Hawdon Station near Robe, he was nursed back to health by Maggie Park, the niece of the proprietor, at the Caledonian Hotel. The young 18 year-old girl from Glasgow later married Gordon in Mount Gambier. They left South Australia in 1869 to live on a pastoral property in Victoria. Gordon used his experiences as a horseman in the bush to write poetry which was much-loved by Australians. Yet, he was a complicated and introverted man. One of his best poems, ‘The Sick Stockrider’, shows the inner depression which often gripped him, while it also shows his love of the bush. The depression finally brought him to despair and he shot himself on a beach near Brighton in Victoria on 24 June 1870. ‘Dingley Dell’ was bought by the SA Government in 1922 and is now a museum. Lorraine S. Smith, ‘Adam Lindsay Gordon’, 100 Famous Australian Lives, Paul Hamlyn, Sydney, 1969, pp. 146-153. Eric Gunton, Memorial in Stone , 1984.
Municipal Tramways Trust
9 March 1909 Municipal Tramways Trust The first electric tram to run in Adelaide made its debut on 9 March 1909. The General Manager of the Municipal Tramways Trust, William Goodman (later Sir) accompanied by Mrs Tom Price, the wife of the Premier, took the controls of the flower bedecked tram for the official inauguration of the route between Adelaide and Kensington. The report said that ‘the car looked symmetrical and handsome’ and the test was successful. The MTT was formed when an Act of Parliament was passed in December 1906 which authorised the Trust to provide an electric tramway system for Adelaide. William Goodman, from New Zealand, was appointed Engineer and General Manager in May 1907. The first sod for the new system was turned by Theodore Bruce on Hackney Road, on 17 May 1908, for the route which was to take the cars along Hackney Road to North Terrace, King William Street, through North Adelaide to Avenue Road, Melbourne Street and Walkerville Road. Other routes soon followed to Marryatville, Payneham and Kensington, and west to Hindmarsh, Thebarton and Henley Beach. The electric cars replaced the horse trams which had operated on these routes since 1878. There were two types of car: the metropolitan half open and the closed, which were built by Pengelleys at Edwardstown. The capital outlay for the new system was £951,800. Trams were phased out of service in the 1950s and since 1958 only the Glenelg tram has remained. Colin and Margaret Kerr, The Vital Spark, Unpublished MS, ETSA, p. 45. The Tramways of Adelaide ,1909.
Sir William Henry Bragg And Sir Will
31 March 1890 Sir William Henry Bragg and Sir William Lawrence Bragg. William Lawrence Bragg was born in Adelaide on 31 March 1890. William Henry Bragg arrived in South Australia in 1886 to take up the post of Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. He was also to give instruction in physics although he was not trained in the subject which was to become a major part of his life in later years. On 1 June 1889 he married Charles Todd’s daughter, Gwendoline. William Lawrence was the first born of his three children. In 1895 Ernest Rutherford visited Adelaide and he and Bragg became firm friends. The following year Bragg learned of W.K. Rontgen’s discovery of X-rays. Excited by this discovery he, with his able assistant, A.L. Rogers, set about producing a new radiation. William Lawrence Bragg was educated at St Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge and after graduating became a fellow and lecturer in natural science. By this time his father was back in England and the two worked together on X-rays. They were both awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. During World War I both men worked on different problems for the war effort. Bragg senior was appointed to the Chair of Physics at University College, London. He was knighted in 1920 and died in London on 12 March 1942. In 1938 William Lawrence succeeded Rutherford as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge. He also received many honours in his career and was knighted in 1941. He died on 1 July 1971. Bede Nairn, Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, pp. 387-389.
Lunatic Asylum North Terrace
31 March 1902 Lunatic Asylum, North Terrace The old Lunatic Asylum on North Terrace was closed on 31 March 1902 although it was used as a consumptive home for a time afterwards. The asylum was commenced in 1850 and served until the Parkside Asylum opened in 1870. On 11 August 1866 134 acres at Parkside were purchased for a new complex. Architect Robert Thomas (son of Robert Thomas of The Register ) designed a building modelled on the latest asylums in England which were fireproof for safety and surrounded a central quadrangle. The buildings were constructed of iron girders with the spaces filled with concrete, the passages were partly paved and partly cement, the staircases were of colonial slate, and Glen Osmond stone was used for the walls, while there were fire proof ceilings beneath the timber and galvanised iron roof. Walls of stone were built around the buildings with a Ha Ha (deep trench or moat) on each side to discourage any escape attempts. Much of the ground was cultivated for vegetable gardens and fruit trees. The eight foot high stone wall surrounding the property was built in 1885. It was reduced in height to three feet in 1962. The rather grim looking institution was known as the Parkside Lunatic Asylum until 1913 when it changed its name to Parkside Mental Hospital, and this was again changed in 1967 to Glenside Hospital. Other buildings have been added over the years and the changing attitudes to mental illness and modern treatment has seen improvements within the hospital. Although the exterior of the original buildings looks much the same these are now used mainly for administration. The North Terrace Asylum was demolished in 1938 and the ground absorbed into the Botanic Gardens. 1870-1970 Commemorating the Centenary of Glenside Hospital, 1970.
Sir Richard Hanson
4 March 1876 Sir Richard Hanson Sir Richard Hanson died on 4 March 1876 and was given a State funeral in recognition of his service to South Australia. Hanson had worked in Canada and New Zealand before arriving in South Australia in 1846. A capable lawyer, he helped to draw up the constitution and other important measures, and became the colony’s first premier, serving from 1857, the year South Australia gained responsible government, to 1860. However, his term of office was not without problems. On 27 May 1859 the government faced a motion of no confidence over its conduct of the Babbage exploration expedition. The government had financed the expedition which was to examine and survey the country between Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner. Not happy with the way Babbage was conducting the exploration, the government sent Captain Warburton to take over. Reports about the unsatisfactory nature of the expedition led to questions in parliament. As a result the Hanson Ministry resigned, but after a week of negotiations, which failed to produce a new Ministry, Hanson was asked to return. In 1861 he was appointed Chief Justice. Knighted in 1869, he acted as Governor from November 1872 to April 1873. He was the first Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, but died before he could give the inaugural address. Douglas Pike (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, pp. 336-340.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
5 March 1958 Queen Elizabeth Hospital The Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woodville was officially opened on 5 March 1958 by the Queen Mother who unveiled a portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the foyer. In the early 1950s it was realised that a new public hospital, preferably in the north-western area of Adelaide, was needed to relieve the demands on the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The site at Woodville was chosen as it was centrally situated in the fast expanding industrial area between the city and the Port. The first building to be completed was the Nurses Home in 1954, and this was used partly as a maternity block. The main maternity block was completed by the Architect-in-Chief’s Department in May 1957 and was opened for patients on 6 September. With extra work for the Government the work on the General Hospital block was contracted to a private firm and this was opened in 1959. The final cost of the hospital was £7 million. It is the state’s second largest teaching hospital and is affiliated with the University of Adelaide. In the last 30 years the hospital has been added to and updated and operates one of the best renal units in Australia. The first successful kidney transplant was performed there on 21 February 1965. Sunday Mail, 29 February 1964, Newspaper Cuttings Book, Volume 3, p. 104. SSLM. usan Marsden, A History of Woodville, 1977, pp. 220-222.