A Glossary of South Australian Place Names - from Aaron Creek to Zion Hill
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A Glossary of South Australian Place Names - From Aaron Creek to Zion Hill A We are said to be making history, but are we not lacking in courtesy in effacing the history of a less fortunate people whom we have displaced… It surely is not necessary to close the annals of this inoffensive simple race, certainly it is not generous of us to destroy their only records, nor is it wise to exclude from mental view the panorama of their past. (Charles Hope Harrris (1846-1915), (Colonial Surveyor} Aaron Creek - It runs through section 34, Hundred of Waitpinga, and recalls Aaron Bennett, who arrived in the Indian in 1849, aged forty, owned section 111 in the same Hundred which he sold to James Collins for £28/10/0 in January 1857. In December 1920, Mr W. Bennett of Delamere, the second son of Aaron Bennett, celebrated his diamond wedding. He came to South Australia with his parents… following which his father was employed as a wheelwright by Mr J.G. Coulls in Blyth Street. Within a few years he had accumulated sufficient funds to purchase land in southern Fleurieu Peninsula and it was there he engaged in mixed farming. The family travelled from Adelaide in a bullock dray over rough tracks and the journey occupied a fortnight. There were no improvements on the place of any kind - neither house, fencing nor cleared land. The first work was to build a house, of slabs, with thatch roof and earth floor, calico windows and containing three rooms in which the family lived for a number of years. The next job confronting them was to clear the land that was thickly timbered. It was long and expensive work and to clear 20 acres a year was considered to be an achievement. However, they had their reward when the land produced heavy crops that were hand-reaped. The wheat was threshed out by bullock power and cleansed by the wind, as there were no winnowers or threshers in those far off days, while the nearest post office and store was at Yankalilla, 15 miles away. As the population increased at Delamere the settlers clubbed together and built a Methodist Church; a Sunday school opened and Mr Bennett became one of the first scholars. Later, the day school was built. Abattoirs - A French word for ‘slaughter house’ applied to a railway station and changed to ‘Pooraka’ in December 1940. (See Dry Creek & Paraville) When the metropolitan abattoir was established, in the second decade of the 20th century, it was considered that it would be ‘the making of Gepps Cross’ - ‘already the transformation of this comparatively insignificant township is becoming apparent.’ The contract for the building was let to Messrs Wadey & Co. of Melbourne and amounted to £106,000, while spoil from the excavations was used to fill up low lying land in the direction of the Cavan Arms Hotel. Abattoir workers skinning sheep – circa 1910 The initial work consisted of surveying 486 acres, together with the taking levels for water, drainage, building and railway purposes, while the Gepps Cross railway station was built adjacent to the slaughter house: The problem of water supply was solved effectively by the sinking of three bores that yielded upwards of 7,000 gallons per hour. The water was excellent for stock, irrigation and washing-down purposes, but unsuitable for boilers or domestic purposes. To meet this need a new steel main was laid down from the Barossa. The land not required for the buildings was farmed and thatched stacks of hay testified to the success of those operations. When completed the cattle yards were capable of holding 2,000 head of cattle and 50,000 sheep which was nearly double existing facilities in Adelaide. Sixteen working men’s cottages were constructed on the Gawler road north of the abattoirs and there were three villas and a manager’s residence on the southern side. The first Arbor Day at the Abattoirs School was reported in the Chronicle, 3 June 1916, page 30 and the opening of a public school in the Register on 18 October 1924, page 10e. Abbeville - A railway station 8 km south of Georgetown, the name being adopted on 15 May 1922 from a town in France at the suggestion of a local resident, J.A. Lyons, who was hospitalised there during World War I. Until then its post office had been called ‘Broadview’; it closed on 1 February 1948. The Abbeville School, opened in 1920 as ‘Myrtle Bank’ on section 125, became ‘Killarney’ in 1921 and closed as ‘Abbeville’ in 1937. Abbotsford - In 1878, this subdivision of 30 acres in sections 407-8 ‘north of the railway line’ at Jamestown was advertised. The name was, no doubt, adopted from Sir Walter Scott’s home on the River Tweed in Scotland which is still in possession of his descendants. Abbotshall - In 1913, Abbotshall was described as a subdivision of part section 234, Hundred of Adelaide, ‘laid out as Lower Mitcham’, bounded by Bernard Street and Main, Grange and Angas Roads; it was not recognised, officially, in the Lands Titles Office. Rodney Cockburn says it was disposed of in 36 sites to the order of Robert Wemyss, an ex-chief of the Caledonian Society, in 1917. The name was taken from a house built by the South Australian Company in the early days of the colony and called, at first, ‘Shingle Hall’. It was demolished in 1966 and, today, the name is perpetuated in Abbotshall Road, Hawthorn. Abbots (sic) Track - On section 149, Hundred of Goolwa, recalls Giles Abbott, who held land at Freeman’s Nob. He arrived in the Buffalo, aged thirty. Abbot(t) Flat - Mr Geoffrey Chard of Cannonsvale, Queensland, advised that Geoffrey Bishop, in Stringybark to Orchards, mentions the name. Further, records show that members of his ancestral family were born at ‘Abbott’s Flat, nr. Lobethal and Tiers nr. Lobethal’ over the period 1869-1873. (See Tiers) Their residence was located on section 5144, about midway between Forest Range and Lobethal. He concluded with the suggestion that ‘Abbott’ may have been a shepherd who worked for an early landholder. A.B.C. Range - In the Flinders Ranges, and looking southwards from Wilpena Pound, there is a fine view of a succession of curious hills, the most northern side of each being steep and generally capped with rocks, while the south side is gently sloping: This is called the ABC Range from an idea that the number of the separate hills is the same as the letters of the alphabet. There is a beautiful valley, well grassed, and containing some good timber on either side of the range. Saint Mary’s Peak, one of the highest points of the Wilpena Pound range, towers away in the distance. I think the 20 miles of country, including Aroona and Wilpena, contain more subjects for the artist’s pencil than any other part in the north. Although dwarfed by the wall of Wilpena Pound, it has many beautifully regular hills, with a singular charm. Abercwn - A school opened at a mine, circa 1860. Its precise location is unknown. Aberdeen - This subdivision, on the west bank of the Burra Creek, opposite Redruth adjacent to the Bon Accord mine, was laid out on section 4, Hundred of Kooringa, by Robert A.A. Morehead and Matthew Young in 1849. Tom and Catherine Gregg and daughter, Grace, in the bar of the Bon Accord Hotel in 1913 It was advertised ‘lots in this rising township to be let on lease…’ and to take place on Saturday, September 15: The minerals being reserved, prevented the Burra company from attempting to monopolise the place, as they pretty well did the township of Redruth, sold on the 29th August. The number of lots offered for sale was 144, but the eloquence of the auctioneer could not dispose of more than about 20. The impression among intending purchasers was that the prices required were much too high. The proprietors, doubtless, had in their minds the high prices that the Redruth allotments were sold for, but in that township no reservation of minerals existed, consequently the Burra proprietors bid against all those who were likely to purchase for building purposes. There is no doubt that had the prices been moderate the entire of the township would readily have found purchasers and have been speedily covered with buildings. Flood at Aberdeen in 1915 Included in Burra since September 1940, it has a namesake in Scotland derived from its situation near the mouth (aber) of the River Dee. A graphic description of a mail coach trip from Pekina to Aberdeen is in the Register, 18 October 1870: We left Pekina at 3.45 p.m. on Tuesday, September 6 by McDonald & Hoskin’s coach, carrying, besides Her Majesty’s mails, nine passengers, exclusive of the driver and guard. The first stage was accomplished without anything to mar the enjoyment of a drive of some 18 miles over what is known as the Pekina Plains; but as evening set in the sky appeared overcast, heavy clouds hung about the ranges of hills on either side, the lightning became more vivid, and the peals of thunder, which were at first scarcely perceptible, increased with such vehemence that we no longer entertained any doubt of an approaching storm. Looking southward the ‘windows of heaven’ had already opened, and at a considerable distance ahead the rain appeared to be falling in dense masses. At 6.16 p.m. we changed horses, and had not proceeded more than two or three miles when our predictions were verified.