Louis Freycinet Exploration Of Spe
20 January 1803 Louis Freycinet – exploration of Spencer Gulf On 20 January 1803 Louis Freycinet, in his ship Casuarina , sailing up the larger of South Australia’s two gulfs, was in the vicinity of what is now called Moonta Bay. Freycinet was accompanying Nicolas Baudin in his ship Le Geographe on a voyage of exploration around the southern coast of Australia. After circumnavigating Kangaroo Island Baudin sent Freycinet to survey the two gulfs, particularly the west coast, and to examine carefully the Port Lincoln area, which had already been explored and named by Matthew Flinders. Freycinet was given twenty days to complete the task and then was to meet Baudin near St Peter Island in Denial Bay. Somehow the ships missed each other and Freycinet decided to go on to King George’s Sound in Western Australia where he waited for his colleague. The two Frenchmen, naturally gave French names to the bays, capes, and other points of interest sighted on their voyage, many of which survive today, particularly on Kangaroo Island and along the south-east coast. Freycinet named Cape Thevenard, and Murat Bay after Joachim Murat, King of Naples and Marshal of France under Napoleon. Murat Bay was changed to Ceduna in 1922. Denial Bay was named by Flinders in February 1802. Frank Horne, The French Reconnaisance Baudin in Australia 1802-1803, Globe Press, 1987, pp. 278-287.
Captain Collett Barker
21 January 1903 Captain Collett Barker A memorial to Captain Collet Barker was unveiled in Mount Barker on 21 January 1903. In 1831 Captain Collet Barker came from NSW, on the orders of Governor Darling, to explore the area that Sturt had discovered on his journey down the River Murray in 1829/30. It is believed that the ship anchored in Holdfast Bay and a party set out on foot, climbing Mount Lofty and Mount Barker from where they were able to see Lake Alexandrina. The party returned to their ship and sailed to Rapid Bay where they went ashore again and travelled overland to the mouth of the Murray River. Once there they began a search for a link between Lake Alexandrina and Encounter Bay. Barker left the main group and, with a compass fastened to his head, swam a channel, climbed a high sandhill for a better view, and disappeared. When he did not return a search was made, but nothing was found and it was believed that he was killed by Aborigines and possibly his body was thrown in the water and carried out to sea. This was on the 30 April. The party were the first white men to traverse the country between Mount Barker and the Murray mouth. George Loyau, The Representative Men of South Australia, Howell, Adelaide, 1883, pp. 53-4. R.M. Gibbs, A History of South Australia, Balara Books, 1969, p.18
Central Market
22 January 1870 Central Market The Central Market in Adelaide was officially opened on 22 January 1870. At the early hour of seven in the morning the Mayor and Councillors were at the market when, after a short speech by the Mayor to the assembled crowd of growers, stall holders and citizens, the market was declared open for the sale of produce, marketable commodities, hay and wood, in accordance with the regulations laid down by the Market Act of 1847. After the formalities the representatives of the Corporation adjourned to the Metropolitan Hotel nearby for breakfast where several toasts were proposed. The Artillery Band provided entertainment throughout the proceedings. The two acres for the market were purchased in 1869 and a further two acres were added in 1889. The Market Arcade was erected in 1915 and completed in 1923. Further development was considered in 1956 but was not completed until 1966, with more work done, including the building of a car parking deck above the arcade, in 1968. 125 Years of The Advertiser , Advertiser Newspapers Limited, 1983, p. 23. City of Adelaide Municipal Year Book , 1971-74, pp. 260-261
Kensington Sports Field
23 January 1965 Kensington Sports Field The Governor, Sir Edric Bastyan, officially opened the £50 000 Olympic Sports Field at Kensington on 23 January 1965. There was march past of nearly 400 athletes from 17 clubs around the state. A crowd of 8000 then saw a first-class athletics program which featured twelve members of the 1964 Olympic team at Tokyo and South Australia’s top athletes. South Australian Olympian, Dianne Bowering won the 100 and 300 metre run. Sir Edric and Premier Tom Playford ran a 30 yard challenge race in which the Premier just pipped the Governor. At the time the Field was considered to be the finest athletics arena in Australia. Advertiser ,23, 25 January 1965
Thomas Worsnop
24 January 1898 Thomas Worsnop Thomas Worsnop died on 24 January 1898 at his home in Barnard Street, North Adelaide. Worsnop arrived in South Australia on 12 November 1852. He first settled at Port Elliot with his family and worked as a storeman, for seven years, for Elder, Stirling and Company. In 1859 he was appointed a sergeant in the South Australian Volunteers. For a time he worked on the land but not with great success. Then he tried work as a publican and in 1863 he was lessee of the Globe Inn in Rundle Street, but he was declared bankrupt in 1864. Next, Worsnop took up the drudgery of work as a teamster in the north. Finally, in September 1866 he became a clerk in the Town Clerk’s department in Adelaide and on 11 January 1869 was appointed acting town clerk taking over permanently later that year. Somewhat surprisingly, given his previous failures, Worsnop proved to be a good administrator and he was able to reduce the debt of the City Council. He was also most concerned with protecting the parklands and fascinated by the history of city and colony. In 1878 he wrote the detailed History of the City of Adelaide and later had published several papers on Aboriginal artefacts and weapons. Bede Nairn (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 6, p. 440
Captain Hahn
25 January 1839 Captain Hahn On his arrival in South Australia late in 1838 Captain Dirk Hahn met William Dutton who spoke German fluently having spent his childhood in Germany. It was agreed that the German immigrants Hahn had brought to the colony should settle in the area at Mount Barker where Dutton and his partners held land. Hahn and a party went to view the country. This is an extract from his reminiscences: On January 25th at 8 in the morning I climbed Mount Barker. From its top I saw Lake Alexandrina as well as the River Murray. The land on the other side of this mount again lay there before me wonderfully beautiful, although not quite so level, and not so heavily timbered. I cut the following letters in the topmost and largest tree of the mount: D.M.H. of the ‘Zebra’ Altona 1839. Apparently Hahn so was so taken with the country that he wanted to settle there himself, but had to return to his ship, and to his wife in Europe. He did not return, but his name is perpetuated in Hahndorf. The village was established along the lines of the old Prussian pattern: a long straight road with equal-sized farmlets placed on either side. The plots were narrow but deep and were divided into segments to be used for the various mixed farming activities of the peasants. The people suffered badly in the first winter due to poor housing and lack of good food. But the hard working Germans, determined to establish themselves, tilled their fields, built their homes of local stone, and by 1840 had built their first church. Hahndorf is the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia. A plaque commemorating Captain Dirk Hahn was unveiled on 15 August 1982. Extracts from the Reminiscences of Captain Dirk Meinertz Hahn 1838-39, Volume 1, 245; translated from the German by Dr F. J. H. Blaess and Dr L. A. Triebel, South Australiana , Volume 3 No 2, September 1964. Anni Luur Fox, Ian Harmstorf, Gordon Young, ‘Hahndorf’, in Historic Places of Australia , Australian Council of National Trusts, 1978, pp. 532-543.
Black Sunday
The 2 January 1955 is known in South Australia as ‘Black Sunday’. Terrible bushfires swept through the Adelaide Hills, blackening 600 square miles of country from One Tree Hill in the north to Strathalbyn in the south. Forty homes were lost as well as many other buildings, including the Upper Sturt railway station and Marble Hill, the Governor’s summer residence on Norton Summit. On that hot weekend the Governor, Sir Robert George, and his family went to stay at Marble Hill. By Sunday afternoon the smoke and heat showed that the fire was very near and in spite of the efforts of the staff with garden hoses the building suddenly caught alight. The family and staff narrowly escaped by throwing wet blankets over themselves. They huddled near a bank as the elegant old home burnt fiercely and the tower collapsed at the height of the blaze. Since then the impressive ruins have been partly restored by the National Trust but the Governors have never returned. There was great loss of property and stock in the fires in the hills and in the south east, but only one man died, at Inglewood. Until the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 this was the worst bushfire in the State’s history. Advertiser, 3, 4, 5 January 1955. Alison Painter
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.
Martindale Hall
The foundation stone of Martindale Hall at Mintaro was laid by Edmund Bowman on 3 May 1879, but it was two years before the Italianate style house was completed. All the furnishings, from carpets and wallpapers to dinner services and crystal, came from England, along with a housekeeper. At the time Edmund was a single man, but in January 1884 he married Annie Cowle in St Peter’s Cathedral and, after a honeymoon in New Zealand, took her to live in the opulence of Martindale Hall. In the 1880s the Bowmans fell on lean times, and in 1890 Elder Smith advertised the property for sale. On 16 March 1891 W.T. Mortlock paid £33,000 to the Bowman family for the Hall. When Mortlock died in 1950 he left the house, after the death of his widow, jointly to the University of Adelaide for the Waite Institute, and the Libraries Board of South Australia. In 1974 it was used as Mrs Appleyard’s College for Young Ladies in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock. Elizabeth Warburton, The Bowmans of Martindale Hall, Department of Continuing Education, University of Adelaide, 1979.
‘Star of Greece’
The sailing ship Star of Greece a three-masted, full rigged, steel hulled vessel of 1227 tons left Port Adelaide at 7 pm on 12 July 1888. She was loaded with 16,002 bags of wheat and was bound for Belfast. As she was beating down the gulf the weather turned nasty and she hove to off Port Willunga to wait for the weather to abate. About 3.30 am with her anchor dragging she was driven on to a reef only 200 metres from shore. The ship began to break up and the ten men who survived were washed ashore on some of the wreckage where the people of the village helped them. The Captain, H R Harrower, aged 29 years was lost along with another 26 of his crew. The bodies of those found, including the captain, are buried in the tiny churchyard of the nearby Aldinga church. Journal of the Historical Society of SA, No 6, 1979, pp 4-5.