From Cornwall to the Bush Extracts from the Unpublished Second Edition

From Cornwall To The Bush Extracts from the unpublished Second Edition. “After the Golden Cockatoo.” Chapter 7 & 8 Celtic people have a strong heritage and tradition of both land and sea. The mild climate of Cornwall was suited to farming although there were great tracts of moorland and poor acidic soils. Farming was predominant in the north-east and coastal areas on the lowland, extending up the river valleys. Small scattered farms supported one family and were worked by tenant wage earners. Not all land-owners were hard on their tenants but wages for the labourer averaged 6/- a week in the 1840s. Wheat and barley were used as stock feed during winter. The keeping of a cow or a goat was a sign of prosperity. The potato crop usually provided a heavy yield and formed a main part of the family diet. Sometimes miners grew their own food and if things went well, gradually extended into farming. It is interesting to note that for hundreds of years the farmers of Cornwall had the legal right to cart shell grit, rich in carbonate of lime to use on their farms. This would be a practice the Curnows would continue in various ways in Australia. Over the years the family would cart many loads of shell grit from the backblocks of St Kilda for their land, home garden, and during roadmaking. Cornish farmers whose land had been nicely confined within stone fences suddenly confronted a different world with different soils and seasons. They were often compelled to eke out a hard living on the Plains by carting stone for roadways, copper ore and supplies between Adelaide and the Burra mines or to start by taking up any other opportunity. (1). House built in 1846.The Underdown home located where the Edinburgh Airfield is now situated. Mary Elizabeth Underdown married Charles White. The standard of living was primitive, and people learnt to live to a great degree on what they could produce. Most farms had a few cattle, working horses or bullocks and pigs. Dairy products and poultry were sold at low prices and cooking was done on an open fireplace. The harsh environment of the Gawler Plains with an abundance of flies and dust would not have been easy. The real challenges for the migrant however came from the heat. Surface water 1 vanished before their eyes! What clothing did you wear amid the high temperatures and how could you keep food from spoiling and the garden from withering? This was all Thomas (Snr) would have experienced of South Australia until the time of his death in 1877. The fact that the first section of land was acquired for lease in the name of young Thomas (Jnr) largely speaks of the vision and expectation that his father, Thomas (Snr), had for his only son. However, it appears that his son struggled to fulfil the dream of being a progressive farmer; a disappointment that probably remained with Thomas (Snr) until his last day. Housing We know that William Barker who married into the March family in 1853 was so pre-occupied with clearing the land and planting a crop that rather than building a house for shelter he dug a hole in the ground to live in and covered it with branches. (See Clarence F. Hore, Joseph and Sophia March and their Descendants 1846-1996, Open Book, 1996) Others erected a tent or a windbreak and after turning the horses loose they addressed the business of establishing a more permanent home. In keeping with the itinerant nature of the mining community the Cornish were known for their hastily erected shanties. The first houses didn't last long because they were made of mud-clay mixed with straw. This mixture was called ‘Pise’ and it was used by placing one mixture upon another, layer upon layer. Mr John Nash of Virginia is recorded as carting a load of pine from Barraba Scrub containing rafters and batons around the time he was building his own home (2). With plenty of natural growth and native grasses around, this was used as thatch on the roof. Building with more permanent material from locally quarried stone took more time and money, as did a superior shingle or slate roof. The layered mud constriction of a Pise wall. This example was once located on Section 4140 (13) Cropping The districts of Peachey Belt, Bolivar, Virginia had a cereal beginning with wheat lands stretching up to Gawler. Wheat prices were good and an increased concentration of wheat growing took place on the open plains leading to the copper mines. Many were ready to give farming a go during the 1850s and it was through this period that the iron plough began to replace the wheelless wooden plough, although the single furrow remained the norm into the 1860s. In line with an old Cornish saying, “Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep.” Newspapers were full of discussion about science and medicine along with tillage and rotation methods for crops. The ‘Farm and Garden Magazine’ published in 1856 offered advice to farmers on the Plains and in the hills along with details of local ploughing matches. However, 2 after clearing, intense cropping occurred in the initial stage. Wheat tended to be sown year after year so that by the early 1870s the average yield per acre dropped from 12 bushels to 9 bushels. One commentator put it bluntly: ‘He is a bad farmer and unless he mends his ways soon the land which he now ploughs will cease to give the plenty he desires. (3) In fact, a few years later some farmers sold worn out farms and moved to other areas. (4) Generally, the yield on the plains with its light soil and low rainfall was better than the heavier country with more rain in the south of the State. In 1865 Mr John Nash was sowing with bullocks and ploughing with horses. In February of the previous year his harvest amounted to 435 bags of wheat from 118 acres, a good average of 15 bushels an acre. He then carted his bagged wheat to the Salisbury railhead. (5) Flour Mills South Australia was Australia’s biggest wheat producer and the Gawler Plains had been significant enough to be described as the national ‘wheat bowl’. The quality of the grain had been confirmed when South Australia won first prize at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. However, there was an overtone of ‘past tense’ in the way the district was described in 1888: ‘In the triangle framed by the railway. the River Gawler and the coast, some of the finest wheat in the world has been grown. The principal town in this area is Virginia on the old coach road to Wallaroo. Virginia is centrally situated and in good seasons fairly prosperous’ (6) Flour mills sprang up throughout the agricultural districts to solve the problem of transporting heavy loads over long distances. Oswald Pryor claims that 27 mills existed as early as 1850. (7) The Curnow’s Section 4257 had direct access to Mill Road, a route to the flour mill built in Salisbury around 1853-54 and later known as the Munno Para Roller Mill. (8) Available Water In the area north of Salisbury towards Virginia it appears that surface or soakage water from winter rains could be obtained by digging a well 15 or 30 feet deep. Brackish water usable by stock was usually a little closer to the surface. Indeed, the waterline was so high in some places that springs of water could be discovered while digging a post hole. (9) At the last burial to take place at Elim Chapel for instance the coffin had to be lowered into water as a spring filled the open grave. (10) On Section 3079, close to the Curnow sections, there was good quality water available at 40 feet. Indeed, most homes had wells or underground tanks. In wet winters, the underground water level could rise to an arm’s length from the surface. During summer months, the level could drop dramatically so that with the introduction of windmills, wells could be pumped dry. However, there are many early references to scarce 3 water on the plains. One comes with the arrival of the Moyle family in 1876. As farm hands to the Curnows they reported they needed to sieve tadpoles from their drinking water. (11) When the Brumfield family moved onto Sections 4257 and 4265 there were still artesian bores operating but ground water started going salty and a strong salt stream was discovered at around 30 feet. To obtain the best flow Arnold Brumfield claimed the family bore was sunk to a depth of 375 feet, a startling contrast to the earlier artesian flows. Potatoes Conditions and soils in Australia were different and it must have taken time to adjust to new methods of farming and to change long established food and eating patterns. In Cornwall it was usual for potatoes and other rotation crops to be grown in sequence with wheat so this was not new, but soils, tillage and seasons were different. With others like James Sparshott, (the first The typical scene associated with the Curnows on Section 4257. Chairman of the Munno The Potato Diggers” (13). We can imagine the Chapel in the background as being Elim Bible Para West Council) the Christian Chapel Curnow’s grew potatoes. The soil probably contained more moisture in those days. Oral tradition says the Curnows grew potatoes on the early leased Section 4257 almost opposite the Bible Christian Chapel.

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