Gold Escort
19 March 1852 Gold Escort On 19 March 1852 the Commissioner of Police, Alexander Tolmer, and his party of troopers trotted down King William Street to the Treasury Building to deposit the gold, valued at £18,456, they had brought back from the diggers in Victoria. This was the first of several gold escorts which, under the Bullion Act, helped to restore South Australia’s dwindling finances. The idea of providing the escort was Tolmer’s, and he suggested to the Lieutenant-Governor that he could find a shorter route to the Victorian fields by taking a direct line to Mount Alexander from Wellington, through what he called the 100 mile scrub, in all a distance of something over 300 miles. The return trip took 14 days and, apart from a brief encounter with ‘half a dozen of the most cut throat looking scoundrels I ever beheld’, as he described them, the journey was uneventful. For his enterprise Tolmer was honoured with a public meeting to express the thanks of all South Australians. The second escort arrived on 4 May with £70,000 worth of gold. The journey was re-enacted as part of the Bicentenary celebrations in 1988. Alexander Tolmer, Reminiscences, Volume II, Sampson Low, London, 1882, pp. 19, 148.
Caroline Herbig
19 March 1927 Caroline Herbig Caroline Herbig died on 19 March 1927. Caroline came to South Australia from Germany, at the age of 16 years, with her two uncles and their families. Within a short time one uncle, Johann Leske, was killed in an accident. On the day of the funeral Caroline was left to look after the two young Leske children at the farmhouse when a man, who thought there was money hidden in the house, attacked her, hung her from a tree and stabbed her in the chest. The tree bent with her weight and she was able to struggle free and, in spite of her injuries, run to neighbours for help. The next year, at 18, Caroline married Johann Friedrich Herbig, a tailor by trade, who had taken up some land near Springton in the Barossa Valley. There they lived in the base of a large, old gum tree for several years. The tree was 70 feet high and 20 feet across the base at its widest. On 4 August 1859 Caroline gave birth to her first child, a son. With the birth of a second son Friedrich built a two roomed pine and pug house, and Caroline went on to bear another 14 children. Friedrich died in 1886 but Caroline lived another 40 years, and outlived seven of her 16 children. She could write only her name and speak just a little English yet this child of peasant stock displayed amazing strength and durability. On 24 November 1968 the descendants of Caroline and Friedrich Herbig held a reunion, and unveiled a plaque on the knotted and gnarled old tree as a memorial to a remarkable woman. The plaque reads: ‘This tree served as the home of Johann Friedrich Herbig in the years 1855-60’. The tree is a memorial to Caroline, and her family, and a reminder of the hardships many early settlers had to endure. David Herbig, Once there was a very old Gum Tree, 1979. Judith Brown, Country Life in Pioneer South Australia, Rigby, 1977, pp. 81-85. Eric Gunton, Memorial in Stone , 1984.
Lionel Hill
19 March 1963 Lionel Hill Lionel Laughton Hill died at Norwood on 19 March 1963. Hill was born in Adelaide on 14 May 1881, the son of a farmer, and lived in Maitland until he was 12 years old. He first worked for a city chaff merchant and then at the railway workshops at Islington from 1901-1914. Known as ‘Slogger’, he came to prominence as a footballer, playing for Norwood, West Adelaide and North Adelaide, and played in the first interstate match in Melbourne in 1901. From 1910 to 1924 he was State Secretary of the Tramways Employes’ Union and Federal President from 1912 to 1924. He was President of the SA Branch of the Labour Party 1917-18. He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1915 for East Torrens, but from 1918 -1933 he represented Port Pirie. He became Premier of SA in 1926 on the resignation of John Gunn, but was defeated at the polls in 1927. He was again Premier from 1930-33 when he left to become Agent-General in London. From 1934 to 1943 he was Chairman of the ACT Industrial Board. The Advertiser, 20 March 1963, p. 3. Bede Nairn, Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9.
First Agricultural Show
2 March 1840 First Agricultural Show The first competitive Agricultural Exhibition was held at Fordham’s Hotel in Grenfell Street on 2 March 1840. Some two years later, on 24 January 1842, a meeting was held to discuss the formation of a permanent Agricultural and Horticultural Society. The Governor, Sir George Grey, became the Patron and the first show of this Society was held on 16 February 1842 in the Schoolroom on North Terrace. The show attracted a large crowd and was said to be ‘a most creditable one’. Two years later in February 1844 the show was held in the parklands towards the eastern end of North Terrace. A pavilion, 100 feet by 40 feet, was erected under old gum trees. Large samples of wheat and other cereals were arranged on two sides. Two rows of tables, each 80 feet long and six feet wide were ‘crowded with the rarest and most valuable fruits, vegetables, dairy produce and samples of various colonial manufactures and minerals’. Twelve hundred people attended. Prices for fruits at this time were: 1s 9d – 2s per pound for grapes, while peaches sold for 1s 6d, 2s – 3s per dozen. James Blacket, History of South Australia , Adelaide, 1911, pp. 128-130
Moores Fire
2 March 1948 Moore’s fire Charles Moore’s department store in Victoria Square was destroyed by fire on 2 March 1948. The building was reduced to a shell three and a half hours after the fire broke out at about 6.30 p.m. The fire began in the space between the roof and the second-floor ceiling and spread quickly causing an estimated £500,000 damage. It was a most spectacular fire with flames leaping 20 feet high through the roof before it collapsed. By morning the building, built in 1916, was a scene of devastation, although amazingly the marble staircase, a well known feature of the store, survived relatively unscathed. Luckily, as the fire started after closing time, no-one died in the inferno although a number of firemen were treated for injuries and the effects of smoke. The store was rebuilt and continued trading as Charles Moore’s until 1980 when the business closed down. The State Government bought the building and turned it into law courts, adding a central dome above the handsome staircase. This is now the Samuel Way Building, named for a former Chief Justice of South Australia. It is an impressive example of how historical buildings can be ‘recycled’ rather than destroyed and replaced. The Advertiser, 3,4 March 1948.
Thomas Diver Derrick Vc
20 March 1914 Thomas ‘Diver’ Derrick VC Thomas Currie ‘Diver’ Derrick was born at Medindie, Adelaide on 20 March 1914. He left school in 1928, the beginning of the depression, and managed to get a job in Lamb’s bakery at Port Adelaide, but was put off 18 months later. After riding his bike to the riverland he worked on fruit blocks and did a bit of boxing in the travelling tent shows. In June 1940 he enlisted in the 2/48th Battalion, and in November the unit left for the middle east. In 1942, by then a sergeant, he was awarded a DCM for his courage and leadership at Tel el Eisa. After the battle of El Alamein the unit returned to Palestine, but in January 1943 they left for Australia and were later sent to New Guinea. In 1944 Derrick attended the officer training course at Seymour, Victoria, graduating as a lieutenant. On the island of Tarakan, off Borneo, he fought his last battle. Leading a platoon against a Japanese machine gun post he was badly wounded from his hip to his chest, but stayed at his post for hours. He died later after two operations. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his action in knocking out eight Japanese bunkers and foxholes at Sattelburg ridge in November 1943. Murray Farquhar, Derrick VC, Rigby, 1982.
John Shaw Neilson
22 February 1872 John Shaw Neilson Poet and balladeer John Shaw Neilson was born in Penola on 22 February 1872. He attended the school there for about 18 months when he was eight years old. In 1881 the family moved to the Wimmera district of Victoria, but there was no school there until four years later at which time Neilson again attended school for a further 15 months. In between these times he had access to the Bible and a book of Robert Burns poems, his father being of Scottish ancestry. The family moved again, to Nhill, in 1889 where John began to write verses, some of which appeared in the local press and one in the Australasian in Melbourne. In January 1893 he won the junior prize for poetry at the Australian Natives Association competition, while his father won the senior prize. Neilson was not blessed with good health and he wrote very little for a few years, but from 1901-06 the Bulletin accepted some of his verses. Then in 1906 his sight began to fail and he could not read much. Some of his best poetry was published in Heart of Spring in 1919 and another volume, Ballad and Lyrical Poems , followed in 1923. Later publications were New Poems in 1927, Collected Poems 1934, and a small volume entitled Beauty Imposes in 1938. Not a robust man the physical work he had to do for a living took its toll, but in 1928 a position was found for him in the office of the Victorian Country Roads Board and he remained there until his retirement in 1941. He died on 12 May 1942. Geoffrey Serle (ed), Dictionary of Australian Biography, Volume 11, pp. 184-185.
Jervois Bridge
6 February 1878 Jervois Bridge On 6 February 1878 the Jervois Bridge at Port Adelaide was opened by the Governor Sir William Jervois. This iron-swing bridge replaced an old wooden one which linked Le Fevre Peninsular to the Port at the Copper Company’s wharf. Although the new bridge was responsible for a quicker turn around of shipping it caused inconvenience elsewhere because gas and water mains had to be disconnected every time it was opened. To maintain these services on the peninsula, a water tower was built at Semaphore and a gasometer at Peterhead. The water tower closed when a 12 inch main was laid from Happy Valley reservoir and it was sold in 1936. In 1915 a fixed bridge for the railway was built half a mile south of the Jervois Bridge. After many deputations to the Commissioner of Public Works dating from the 1890s, procrastinations and delays, the second opening bridge, the bascule type Birkenhead Bridge was built and opened on 14 December 1940. It was the first of its type in Australia. Centenary History of Port Adelaide, 1956, pp. 51-52.
Free School Text Books
7 February 1967 Free school text books The State Government issued free text books to primary school students at both state and independent schools for the first time on 7 February 1967. Advertiser, 7 February 1967, p.6.
West Lakes
8 February 1968 West Lakes On 8 February 1968 the Advertiser reported that the Premier, Don Dunstan, had indicated the proposed new Western Lakes project would be almost entirely residential and that a Bill seeking to ratify the agreement between the government and the developers would be put before parliament soon. For years the problem of what to do with the swampy, mosquito infested area of the Old Port Reach had been talked about and put aside as too difficult. During World War II Premier Tom Playford suggested that the area should be reclaimed and used as a seaplane base and aerodrome, but the alternative site at West Beach was selected. In 1949 the Harbors Board included ideas for reclamation in its Greater Port Adelaide Plan, but this was far in the future, although by 1959 there was a tentative plan for a controlled tidal basin. By 1963 the plans had been modified with the scheme to be jointly developed by the Harbors Board and the Housing Trust, but in 1965 the government decided it could not afford it. In 1967 Premier Dunstan negotiated with a consortium of private developers and finally an agreement was reached with Development Finance Corporation to form West Lakes Limited to administer and develop the area. Work on the dredging of the lake and inlet from the sea began in 1970 and the lake was filled by October 1974; the first sales of sites were made in early 1971. Since that time West Lakes has become a most attractive suburb. The Advertiser , 8 February 1968. Susan Marsden, A History of Woodville, 1977, pp. 287-95.