From Cornwall to the Bush Extracts from the Unpublished Second Edition

From Cornwall To The Bush Extracts from the unpublished Second Edition.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. This was probably part of the encouraged crop-rotation practise of that period. It is interesting to note that in the death notice of 1916 associated with great grandfather Curnow (Jnr1) it was said, --he attended ploughing matches and was always ready to comment on latest agricultural trends. This seems to suggest that while he battled with a drinking problem he continued an active interest in cropping. (12)

REFERENCES

(1) Centenary History of SA. Pub. Royal Geographical Society, 1936, p. 73.

(2) Farm Diary of John Nash 1859-65 (held by Mr Kevin Sheedy, 1986). He was building his home in 1862 and finished the walls at a height of 9 foot 2.

(3) Anthony Trollope ‘Australia,’ University of Queensland, Reprint. 1967, p. 654.

(4) W. S. Kelly, Rural Development in SA. Rigby. 1962.

(5) It was around this period that Nash purchased a reaping machine from Adams Bros, Adelaide for £72. This again confirmed his considerable wealth.

(6) Edited, Han Andrew Garran, Australia—The first Hundred Years. 1888.

(7) Oswald Pryor. Australia's Little Cornwall, Seal Rigby, 1962.

(8) Situated on the eastern corner of section 3056 and the Gawler Street/Commercial Road/Philip Highway intersection.

(9) Source: Mr Wilf Magor.

(10) L. Roberts, Methodism on the Gawler Plains, 1959. p. 7. Mrs K. Fatchen also refers to ﬂooding in the area.

(11) Source: Mr Wilf Magor.

(12) Source: Mr Arnold Brumfield. Thomas Curnow (Jnr 2) and Alfred Brumﬁeld had spoken of this early use of the section. Probably Thomas Curnow (Jnr I) planted in August, dug in November and could have sold his potatoes at the Friday Gawler market.

(13) Photo taken October 1976, supplied courtesy of Munno Para Library. Shows ‘Pise’ wall of cottage on allotment11, Section 4140, showing layered mud construction. Cottage since demolished. The pic. “Potato Diggers,” by Arthur Boyd, courtesy Bundanon Trust.

Chapter 8 Settlement of the Plains

(See also Edwin A. Curnow, ‘Pioneering Para Plains’, Uniting Church Historical Society, 2007.)

Although the Northern Plains were exposed to scorching summer northerlies; settlement was rapid. In fact, as already noted, it became a specialised grain and wheatland region overnight supplying much of the continent with wheat.

A new European industrial age was beginning to dawn. The Crimean War started in 1854 but it was a very innovative boom period with the mass production of iron and steel, the final development of the railway and a new range of farm machinery started appearing. A new land needed new equipment and ways of farming and so it is claimed the plains became the ‘culture hearth’ of the Australian wheat industry (1).

Gawler Town

The Gawler Special Survey took place as early as 1839. Colonel Light was impressed with the site and saw it as the stepping stone to the districts beyond on the way to the Murray. With the discovery of copper at Kapunda and Burra it became exactly that and more. Gawler became the gateway to the north and benefited greatly from the transport of ore from Burra and Kapunda through the region.

As time unfolds it is easy to overlook the early significance of Gawler and the Gawler Plains. In 1857 Gawler Town became a Municipal Government in its own right and on 5 October of that same year the South Australian Railways opened their rail line for trafﬁc to the hub of the northern areas. Over the next 10 years skilled colonists and an exceptional public spirit led to Gawler Town being described as the ‘Colonial Athens‘. It certainly became an industrial and cultural centre of national signiﬁcance.

Engineer, Jas Martin, who had been John Ridley‘s assistant at Hindmarsh arrived in Gawler in 1848 and erected a workshop. At first he produced wooden ploughs and bullock drays but this expanded into other farming and mining machinery. Before long he was building railway, locomotives and employing 1,000 men. Gawler Town was an agricultural centre next to none. Sutherland describes the area as the ‘granary of the colonies’ (p 76). It certainly played an important part in the expansion of the agricultural frontier in South Australia. Martin was of Cornish stock and Gawler also had a major concentration of Cornish people. (Dr Philip Payton, The Cornish Farmer in James Martin & Co Foundry 1906 Australia. p 65) It had a State Library of SA B63883 number of ﬂour mills and

6 its beautiful racecourse was recognised as the best in the colony. This was the tone of the times that set the pace for settlement and pioneering on the plains. Waterloo Inn—Gilbertsons

Boundaries were rather undefined and there was often rivalry between towns. Was Waterloo Corner located on the Port Wakefield road part of Virginia or Bolivar? The question was, “Are you a Virginia boy?” The Curnows often regarded themselves as Virginia people, probably because Thomas Curnow (Jnr2) and Harriet lived there in the early years of their marriage; their connection and friendship being with the Arthur King and the Ryan families. Another important friendship for the early Curnow family was that with the Gilbertsons. Thomas Gilbertson, his wife, Hannah, and their six children - Thomas, Hannah, John, William, Joseph and Mary Ann arrived at Port Adelaide on 18 February 1851. Children born after their arrival were Eleanor Emily on 3 April 1855. Elizabeth in 1857 and James on 20 May 1859 (2).

Thomas Gilbertson set up home on section 5024 on 10 April 1851 at the Pt Wakefield, St Kilda Rd intersection, known as Waterloo Corner. The Waterloo Inn was built on the same section as the home soon after their arrival.

Waterloo Inn

Built by Thomas Gilbertson on the corner of St Kilda Road and Port Wakefield Road in the early 1850s (Ref .11)

The Waterloo Inn was built in 1853 and it was in July of that year that 20 to 30 residents met at the Inn and decided to seek the formation of the Munno Para West Council. The boundaries were to be north of the Little Para to the Gawler River and from the Main North Road to the Port Wakeﬁeld Road. The Inn was later licensed from 1856 until 1875.

It appears that the Curnow and Gilbertson families both attended the Elim Chapel and it was to Thomas Gilbertson of Waterloo Farm that two of the original Curnow blocks (sections 5022 and 4245) were later sold for £900 in 1877 after the death of Thomas Curnow (Snr) (3).

By 1880 the Gilbertsons had acquired sections 4246, 4247 and 4258 from the Wait family. Thomas Gilbertson (Snr), clearly one of the significant early settlers, died on 2 December of that same year. The Gilbertson brothers of Peachey Belt were working extensive holdings by 1883 (4).

Georgina Gilbertson (nee White) Joseph Gilbertson (Jnr1) Son of Joseph Daughter of Thomas & Elizabeth White who set up Section 5024. Site of Married Joseph Gilbertson (Jnr 1) Waterloo Inn 1851 Burton See Burton Pioneer Cemetery Bio. Index P 49 Pioneer Cemetery Bio. Index. P 50

Penﬁeld The Local Council and Voluntary Militia

William Penfield acquired Section 4057 in 1850 as a Land Grant and in 1853 he opened the Plough and Harrow Hotel. Following the proclamation of the Munno Para West Council on 27 April 1854 all meetings were held in the hotel until 1862 (5). In February 1856 the property was sub-divided into the township of Penfield. The Plough and Harrow Hotel was a brick and stone building with a half thatched and half shingle roof. In 1859 it was occupied by Mr Cheeterman and was insured for £500. It had a blacksmith shop and became the general meeting place and central service centre for the Peachey Belt community. Bullockies carting to Burra continued to use the hotel as an overnight stop although it was not licensed to sell liquor until 1900.

The newly arrived Bible Christian Minister, Rev. Samuel Keen with his friends, Rev. James Rowe and Mr Butcher visited homes in the Gawler River, Angle Vale and Smithfield localities. On 19 March 1853 Reverends Keen and Rowe arrived in the Peachey Belt area to interview settlers. Rev. Keen preached under a tree on the following afternoon and that evening in the schoolroom at Smithfield.

The Zoar Chapel near Penfield was opened in March 1855 and the foundation stone of a larger Chapel replacing the original was laid in March 1865. By 1866 it was reported that Penfield was a postal/money-order town with a coach service, railway station, local court, public pound

8 and a volunteer rifle corps in the electoral district of Yatala in the Hundred of Munno Para and under the control of the Munno Para Council.

By 1867 Penfield was described as having a population of about 50 people and much of the low timber that had originally covered the area had been cleared. There was a daily mail coach from Virginia via Penfield to the Salisbury railway and passengers and parcels could also be booked for Kadina via Rounsevell’s coach. (6).

The Penfield School was opened and licensed in 1874. In 1878 it became a public school and at its peak enrolments averaged 38 students in the year 1885. (7)

The Volunteer Milita.

In 1854-56 saw the emerging of war scars across Europe including the Crimean War involving England, Turkey and France contesting with Russia. A Militia Act was promptly passed in 1854 when the Colonial government feared that the Russians may invade South Australia. A full- time mounted infantry of 60 men was raised to defend the colony. In addition, 1,800 served part time and 300 made up an artillery force. Volunteers became part of the Adelaide Mounted Rifles and were later mustered as a component of the 3rd Light Horse. A good number of residents joined the South Australian Volunteer Militia Force. Second Zoar Chapel 1865 Early in July 1861 the Advertiser reported that although the week had been rough with heavy hail a meeting of persons interested in the formation of a rifle corps at the Waterloo Inn had taken place;--- about 20 persons were present. “The chair was taken by R. Waite Esq; Lieut. Bradshaw, of Virginia Rifles, kindly attended to give the meeting any information they required. A Committee having been appointed, consisting of Messrs, Stewart, Waite, Curnow, March, Webster, Penfold and March, the company proceeded to elect officers, subject to approval of Government, the following gentlemen being elected unanimously: Captain Stewart, Lieut. Waite. Sergeant March, Corporal Webster. It was decided to call the company the Waterloo Rifle Corps, to meet every evening under Captain Stewart. A vote of thanks having been passed to Lieut. Bradshaw for attendance, who responded, and apologised for non-attendance of Captain McCord of Virginia Rifles. It was said, I believe that in course of a fortnight or so the Waterloo Rifles will make a very strong muster—several recruiting parties are going around the district.”

On Tuesday 9 July it was reported that the Waterloo Rifles held a meeting at the Waterloo Inn to receive names of candidates for enrolment as volunteers. About thirty people were present.

“The chair was taken by Captain Stewart, who having read the notice convening the meeting, proceeded to read the Government and company regulations, after which he briefly addressed the members, hoping they would be attentive and punctual at drill, and ended by hoping that if ever the service of the Waterloo Rifles were needed they would not forget the brilliant feats of arms performed by their predecessors, the old “Waterloo Heroes” Lieutenant Wait next

9 addressed the meeting, reminding them that it was for the safety of the homes and families that the volunteer force was organised, and hoped that all those that had the smallest particle of gallantry in them would join the force. Several other speakers addressed the meeting and a vote of thanks having been passed to the chairman, the meeting closed.”

On 8 August 1861, by adopting an oath of loyalty instead of cricket or football, drill practise became the top priority. (It was said they would not be called upon unless it was absolutely necessary

Some of those ‘locals’ involved included Thomas Curnow, George Brumfield. Robert Wait and John Davies. Of those in the Munno Para West company, up to 17 showed their address as Peachey Belt while others made the distinction of being from Penfield (8).

General Bolivar Hotel—Burton

General Bolivar Hotel on Pt Wakefield Road with a typical load of hay bound for Adelaide Mr John Winzor built ‘Deal Court' homestead as early as 1845 close to the Little Para River on Section 2280. Mr Henry Walpole purchased Section 3228 adjoining the Port Wakefield Road in 1850. It was upon this property that Walpole built the General Bolivar Hotel that was licensed in 1854. The Inn served as one of the early stopping places for teamsters en-route to the copperfields and as a calling place for the Moonta Mail Coach. It was later relocated as the Bolivar Hotel on the Port Wakeﬁeld Road. The original Inn was later used as a workman's cottage for some years by Mr Burdett. (The first home of Arthur and Hilda Curnow)

The area became known as Burton. perhaps after Burton Latimer in Northampshire, England, and the home of Henry Walpole. Thomas Abbott transferred a small portion of Section 3229 to the trustees of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1853 for a church and cemetery. The Burton Chapel was opened in 1855 and it was used as a school also in 1860.

Mr William Tupper was the first teacher at the school. Compulsory education in South Australia began in 1875 and in the following year, while having 70 pupils on the roll, the highest average attendance was 36 students. Most of the Curnows were educated in this little country school that eventually closed on 1 July 1950. Other families in this area west of Peachey Belt included Diment, Wright, Helps, Quick, White, Goodier and Beer. Angle Vale

Land along the Gawler River was settled in the late 1840s. ‘Carclew', the land granted to Jonathan Roberts, was dated 8 March 1848. The Gawler Plains and the area south of this point was surveyed in the early 1850s. During this same period Benjamin Heaslip purchased section 4140 in the Hundred of Munno Para on 29 September 1852. It was on this section that the village of Angle Vale 20th Century Remodelled Ebenezer Methodist Chapel, Angle Vale would be established. Headquarters of the Bible Christian Circuit Gawler Plains

In 1854 Rev. Samuel Keen chose the acute angle of Heaslip‘s section for his first Methodist Bible Christian Chapel (‘Ebenezer’) on the Gawler Plains. The area was known as Ebenezer until 1866. At that time it was central to the booming Gawler Plains and the base for the Gawler Circuit from which Keen reached out to the populated area.

The small township of Angle Vale at one time could boast of a mission house, post office, school, blacksmith, shoemaker, butcher and later a carpenter. It became another significant centre in the network of small communities on the Plains.

Virginia

Virginia was named after Mr Daniel Brady's home town in southern Ireland. He had 54 blocks surveyed for a township in 1858. A small building was erected by the road leading to Pt Wakefield and Wallaroo. It was erected as the Wheat Sheaf Inn and Mr David Parker was granted a liquor license in 1855-57. Aborigines still camped along the Gawler River at this time and they were known to have a meeting place in Virginia. A medical officer appointed by the Government to care for Aborigines in the Munno Para West area was still operating as late as 1889 (9).

Brady was a generous man. Although the area was always known a strong Roman Catholic district, and in that era there were times when the Catholic/Protestant tension ran high, yet, in

11 a significant gesture he donated land to the Bible Christians on which they built their ‘Bethlehem‘ Chapel’ in 1858. It became a strong cause with Mr Samuel Taylor providing local leadership as a lay preacher and Sunday School Superintendent.

In his Road Guide of 1867 R. P. Whitworth claimed Virginia had a population of 165 people in its township and outskirts, 73 being children. In April of 1996, Mr Alfred Menadue then living at Inkerman near Pt Wakefield said he had known local identity Mr Sam Taylor who had lived into his 95th year.

He also passed on the story of a Local Preacher in the Virginia area who was thrown off his pony while on his way to lead worship. It was pitch dark but a flash of lightening enabled him to spot the horse and to ride on to take the service. Doubtless the preacher used the illustration of how God meets us in the darkness of life to show us the way.

The grandson of Thomas Curnow (Snr) Thomas Curnow (Jnr 2) would later marry a Virginia girl, Harriet King and live for a short time in Virginia in a farm that the Fidge family later occupied. The Curnows also enjoyed a friendship with the Ryan family. (See chapter, Thomas Curnow (Jnr 2). ) The Curnows shared a love of Original Bible Christian Methodist Chapel, Virginia horses, typical of the local Irish community, although as far as the Curnows were concerned the horse was usually related to work rather than the well-known Peachey Belt Racing Club (10).

References:

(1) I. D. W. Meinig, 0n the Margins of the Earth. p 2. A & G Sutherland, History of Australia. George Robinson & Co, p 99. In the book Plain of Contrast, Willowie Book Committee, 1975, p 24 it was said that in 1890s it was written, “That there were no farmers in any part of the world who, in less than fifty years had been so successful as the farmers of South Australia.”

(2) Biographical notes supplied by Mrs Chris Weckert to the Salisbury\Library in April 1982. Another daughter at that time, her name unknown, was noted.

(3) We have no hard evidence but these sales may have been necessary to help pay off accumulated drinking debts.

(4) By 1883 their holdings included sections 5022. 4242. 4245. 4246. 4247. 4258. 4250. 4248 and 4244.

(5) Observer. 14July 1853.

(6) Bailliers SA. Gazetteer and Road Guide, 1866 & 1867. R. P. Whitworth—S.A. Archives

(7) Source: Alkmini Stames. Education Stats Unit, 1987.

(8) In 1860 there were 67 landholders listed as belonging to Peachey Belt. Other names of those in the Militia Force included. Fredrick Penfold. Amos Penfold. George Brobbins. Samuel Webster. William and Charles Stevens. G. and John Hill. Joseph and Beeton Buckly. and Patrick Flynn. A copy of the document is kept at Munno Para Library, 1987. Also see South Australian Advertiser 17 July 1861.

(9) Source: Miss Mary Ryan and S. A. Government Gazette. 9 July 1888. Section 176 Hundred of Port Adelaide was sold by auction 23 November 1854 as a very thickly wooded site.

(10) This statement may be questioned in light of the Wimmera horse Desert Rose. The Steeplechase course was near the Wheatsheaf Hotel. Also, Munno Para—a brief History. Pub. District Council of Munno Para, 1978, Angle Vale, p. 20. Mr William Fidge and wife Fanny. Children named Arch, Lionel, Gordon, Pansy. Source, Kate Ryan, Virginia 1986.