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.
Kingoonya
9 February 1937 Kingoonya 9 February 1937 was an important day in Kingoonya as it was the day the hotel was licensed to open. Kingoonya was a railway town, some 750 kilometres north west of Adelaide and in its heyday consisted of 16 houses, shop, school, Post Office, police station and roadhouse as well as the pub. Named after the Kingunya Aboriginal tribe around the turn of the century, its lifeblood was the east-west railway line, for it was the home of the fettlers, and it was also a watering hole on the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs. Many outback people came into Kingoonya for their social get-togethers, the dances and the once a year picnic race meeting. But in the late 1970s new cement sleepers and better technology reduced the need for fettlers and later, when the Stuart Highway was re-routed 40 kms to the east through Glendambo, Kingoonya was destined to become a ghost town. The licence of the hotel was transferred to Glendambo in December 1982 and the empty buildings and dusty streets were left to the ravages of time, except for a hardy couple named Smith and the odd kangaroo shooter. Alec and ‘Smithy’ had their moment of fame when they featured in the bi-centennial television link-up around Australia, on 1 January 1988, to usher in Australia’s 200 birthday celebrations. Trevor Gill, Ray Titus, South Australians: Profiles of People and Places, Wakefield Press, 1986, pp. 33-34.
Amalgamation Of The Register And
17 February 1931 Amalgamation of the Register and the Advertiser On 17 February 1931 two of Adelaide’s leading newspapers, The Advertiser and The Register, amalgamated. This was brought about partly through the increased duty on newsprint, and the effects of the Depression which reduced advertising revenue. The Register dated from the founding of the colony when it was called The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register. The Advertiser was begun in 1858 by the Reverend John Henry Barrow. Barrow, who was the editor, also published the South Australian Weekly Chronicle. The first South Australian Advertiser appeared on 12 July 1858 and consisted of four pages at a price of fourpence. The first offices and printing works were situated at 117 Hindley Street. In 1869 a four storey stone building was erected on the corner of King William and Waymouth Streets. In 1872 another clergyman, the Reverend William Harcus, became editor and he was followed in 1876 by Jefferson Stow, the son of a parson. The first rudimentary rotary press, the four-feeder Hoe, was installed that year. John Langdon Bonython became editor in 1884 and it was on 1 January 1884 that the price of The Advertiser was reduced to one penny which resulted in a trebling of the circulation that year. In 1893 Bonython became sole proprietor and remained so until 1929 when a new company, Advertiser Newspapers Ltd, was formed. It was not until 16 February 1942 that news appeared on the front page of the paper, prior to that the Advertiser lived up to its name and had advertisements on page one. On their centenary day, 12 July 1958, the foundation stone for the new building, on the same site on King William Street, was laid by the Governor-General, Sir William Slim. 125 Years of The Advertiser, Advertiser Newspapers Limited, 1983.
Monuments To Colonel Light
18 February 1844 Monuments to Colonel Light The foundation stone of the monument to Surveyor-General Colonel William Light, over his grave in Light Square, was laid on 18 February 1844. Light was 54 when he died from tuberculosis, just after midnight on 6 October 1839; he was buried in the Square on 10 October. This first monument crumbled away and a replacement was unveiled on 21 June 1905. The statue of the Colonel, which was unveiled in Victoria Square on 28 November 1906, was moved to Montefiore Hill in 1938. On 6 August 1927 a plaque commemorating the site of Colonel William Light’s cottage in Cawthorne Street, Thebarton was unveiled. The plaque, which is now on a building in the Southwark Brewery, reads: Near this spot stood ‘The Berton Cottage’ the old home of Colonel William Light, the first Surveyor-General of the State and Founder of Adelaide. Erected by order of the Council June 1927 C.E. Wyett Town Clerk Light arrived in South Australia in the Rapid in August 1836 to commence his task of selecting a site for the capital. By 31 December, three days after the arrival of the Buffalo carrying Governor Hindmarsh, Light informed him of his choice. Although Hindmarsh and some other settlers were not entirely happy with the site, Light’s decision prevailed and on 11 January 1837 he began the survey of the Town Acres. At that time he lived in a camp on the corner of North and West Terraces. Early in April he and his men began the survey of the country acres, that is the surrounding area outside the parklands and North Adelaide. Light chose for himself land on the edge of the west parklands, south of the River Torrens. There he built his home which he named Theberton after Theberton Hall in Suffolk where he lived for a time as a child. On 22 January 1839, before the house was finished, his hut on North Terrace burnt down, destroying all his belongings. Light lived in his Theberton cottage until his death. The cottage was demolished in 1926. David Elder, William Light’s Brief Journal and Australian Diaries, Wakefield Press, 1984.
Stump Jump Plough
19 February 1877 Stump jump plough On 19 February 1877 Richard Bowyer Smith patented his invention, a new kind of plough called the ‘Vixen’. He first exhibited the stump jump plough at the Moonta Agricultural Show on 9 November 1876 where it won first prize. The initial inspiration came from a broken bolt. Smith was ploughing in rough and stumpy ground when a bolt broke, but to his surprise the plough continued to work efficiently, riding easily over hidden rocks and roots. With the help of his brother, Clarence, he worked on developing a prototype and by 1876 the brothers had developed the first three furrow plough. Strangely farmers were not greatly impressed. In spite of this Richard Smith continued to produce his plough but ran into financial difficulties. Clarence took over the work, solved some of the problems, and began manufacturing his own version, in Ardrossan where the business expanded. Richard was rewarded by the South Australian Government in 1882 with £500, a gold medal and 260 hectares of land at Ardrossan. But in 1884 he moved to Western Australia and set up an implement works there. Clarence continued in Ardrossan until his death in 1901; his sons carried on the business for another thirty or more years. An article in the Observer in 1907 stated that the factory was one of the largest and best equipped of its kind in the Commonwealth. Robert Ingpen, Australian Inventions and Innovations, Rigby, 1982, pp. 16-18. The Observer, 2 March 1907. The Smith Brothers and the Stump Jump Plough , National Trust, 1976
Adelaide Benevolent And Strangers
2 February 1849 Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers’ Friend Society On the 2 February 1849 a public meeting was convened for the purpose of forming a society to provide help for the needy of Adelaide, especially newly arrived immigrants. The result of the discussion of the 14 men present was the formation of the Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers’ Friend Society which still operates today. The aim of the Society was to aid those people who were not considered to be wholly the responsibility of the government welfare agency, the Destitute Board. These included the families of widows, deserted wives, the sick, unemployed, and the old and infirm. In 19th century fashion they felt it was necessary to differentiate between the ‘deserving’ and the ‘undeserving’ poor, and then encourage them to overcome their difficulties by inculcating in them a spirit of independence and the ideals of self-help, thrift and sobriety. The Society received generous gifts from benefactors including a large bequest from Sir Thomas Elder. Their hall in Morialta Street, built in 1898, was named in his honour. The funds allowed the Society to build, buy or lease properties to provide needy people with cheap housing. This group was only one of a number of charitable organisations which were formed in Adelaide in the latter part of the 19th century, many of which are still in existence. K. R. Theakstone, The Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers’ Friend Society 1849-1914, 1983. Susan Marsden, Paul Stark, Patricia Sumerling (eds), Heritage of the City of Adelaide, Corporation of the City of Adelaide, 1990, p. 173
George Michell
2 February 1918 George Michell George Henry Michell, patriarch of the Michell family, died on 2 February 1918. Michell bought a property, ‘Undalya’, near Kapunda and began a wool scouring business there in 1870. As it expanded he moved to larger premises in the city and established a factory at Hindmarsh in 1896. In time his four sons entered the business. In the late 1960s the company moved to a new factory at Salisbury South which was completed in 1973. Over the years the company moved into wool trading and processing, leather manufacture, crop and pastoral production, international trade and merchant banking. The Michells are regularly listed as one of South Australia’s wealthiest families. Six Generations of Michell, 1988.
Ash Wednesday Bushfires
20 February 1980 Ash Wednesday bushfires It is a strange coincidence that two of the worst bushfires in South Australia occurred on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. On 20 February 1980 a fire, believed to have started from smouldering rubbish in the Heathfield dump, swept through the hills destroying 51 homes but fortunately with no loss of life. The second Ash Wednesday fires, on 16 February 1983, were even worse. At lunchtime on that dreadful day, with the temperature around 40 degrees Celsius and with a strong, hot northerly wind blowing, fires in the hills, Clare Valley, and the South East raged out of control. During the afternoon more fires broke out in different locations through the hills and by mid-afternoon the South East freeway and all roads to the hills were closed. In all 26 people died, 14 in the south-east and 12 in the metropolitan area, including four at Yarrabee Road, Greenhill. Many homes and buildings were destroyed including Eurilla, Mount Lofty House, St Michael’s, the Church of England Seminary at Mount Lofty, the Eagle-on-the-Hill Hotel, old German houses at tiny Paechtown, and other landmarks. In all 118 houses through the hills were burnt down. At 9 p.m. light rain began to fall on the blackened devastation. Advertiser, 21 February 1980; 17,18 February 1983.
Elizabeth Webb Nicholls
21 February 1850 Elizabeth Webb Nicholls Elizabeth Webb, eldest daughter of Samuel Bakewell, a grocer, was born in Rundle Street on 21 February 1850. In August 1870 she married Alfred Nicholls, a warehouseman, and raised five children as well as two orphaned relatives. Both parents were devout Methodists and active in teaching Sunday School. Elizabeth made her first public speaking debut at a Methodist women’s conference in 1885. Inspired by the American temperance worker, Frances Willard, she became a founding member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1886, and in 1891 was one of the first women admitted to the Temperance Alliance. She was president of the WCTU from 1889 to 1897 when she resigned because of the demands of her position as Australasian President from 1894-1903, but was State president again from 1898-1904. She attended conferences in Paris, London and Edinburgh in 1906. Elizabeth was also involved in the women’s suffrage movement which resulted in the granting of the vote to women in South Australia in 1894. From 1909 she was a member of the Women’s Non-Party Political Association and was its president in 1911. Later she became vice-president of the League of Women Voters and in 1920 attended the 10th World Convention of the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance at Geneva. She was a strong advocate of female appointments as jurors and Justices of the Peace, and, following legislation in 1915 allowing women to be JPs, she appeared often in the Children’s Court in this capacity. She was also a member of the Adelaide Hospital Board from 1895-1922. Her major concern and interest was always the WCTU which had its greatest success in the referendum of 1915 which resulted in the closing of hotel bars at 6 p.m. After her husband died in 1920 she lived for years at Willard House, the headquarters of the WCTU. She died in North Adelaide on 3 August 1943. Geoffrey Serle (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 11, p. 22.
Queen Elizabeth Visited Elizabeth
21 February 1963 Queen Elizabeth visited Elizabeth On 21 February 1963 Queen Elizabeth II visited the new town of Elizabeth, established to the north of Adelaide, which was named after her. This planned satellite town was first announced by the Premier, Tom Playford, on 4 May 1950 when 3000 acres of open farmland near Salisbury were purchased by the South Australian Housing Trust. With increasing immigration it was realised that moderately priced public housing was needed and with its broad acres Tom Playford hoped to attract industry to the area as well. The Housing Trust could no longer build large, rental housing estates on land closer to Adelaide, and so planned a new town instead, close to employment at the weapons Research Establishment and in the direction Adelaide’s suburbs were likely to expand. The town was officially inaugurated by the Premier on 16 November 1955. The next day the first families moved into their new homes. With encouragement from the Housing Trust industry began to move to the area, and in May 1958 General Motors Holdens poured the foundations for its new factory. Over the years the town has grown into a city and with its many sportsgrounds, reserves, parks and gardens, and the thousands of trees which have been planted, it is a far more attractive place than the treeless, dusty plain of the 1950s which greeted the eyes of its first inhabitants who were genuine twentieth century pioneers. Margaret Galbraith and Gillian Pearson, Elizabeth The Garden City, Corporation of Elizabeth, 1982. usan Marsden, Business, Charity and Sentiment: the South Australian Housing Trust 1936-1986, Adelaide, 1986, Chapter 5.