Volume 15 Issue 2 Winter 2007 Opening of the Walking Season and promotion of Newsletter of the the Pioneer Walking Federation of Women’s Trail South Australia Inc 14a Stuart Road, Dulwich All correspondence to Post Office Box 6067 Linden Park SA 5065 Phone (08) 8361 2491 Webpage: www.walkingsa.org.au Email: Walkers in the grounds of [email protected] Beaumont House John Eaton John Eaton Mayor of Burnside Wendy Greiner receiving Uniting all Certificate of Appreciation to Burnside Council people actively from Walking SA’s President Chris Bushell concerned with bushwalking. Featured in this edition of Walking SA News :- ◊ Words from the President ◊ History of the Pioneer Women’s Trail Walking SA is supported through ◊ Walking Access Report the Office for ◊ Report on the Opening of the Walking Season 2007 Recreation & Sport and the Government of South Australia President’s words I am honoured to be the new President of We hope that we can continue the Trail Walking SA. For those of you who don’t from Verdun to Hahndorf. That requires a foot- know me, I have been Coordinator of the ARPA bridge over the Onkaparinga River. The road Bushwalkers for the past three years. My hope bridge between the Hahndorf exit from the free- for the Federation is to raise our profile as we way and Hahndorf was a danger to pedestrians have been doing of recent years and to help and has become worse with the addition of crash continue the work of my predecessors. rails. We were pleased to see Ann Ferguson, The Opening of the Walking Season was Mayor of the District Council of Mt Barker, at the particularly successful and a credit to all those opening and we understand the council recognises who helped organise it. The attendance was the need for this footbridge. It is somewhat considerably above what I expected. beyond our capabilities. Combining the season opening with the We will continue to undertake trail analysis official opening of the Pioneer Women’s Trail and development programmes. Our problem is added to the attraction of the day. Annie Luur that there are a limited number of volunteers cur- Fox and her colleagues from the Hahndorf rently available on and around the committee. Chapter of the National Trust reminded us that We need to expand the number of volunteers and we had only recently become involved and that develop a structure to enable the work to be com- they had been working on the project for a mere pleted. You will see a request for helpers from 28 years. All comments about the map have John Eaton elsewhere in this newsletter. If you been most favourable. It is a great credit to all have the time and inclination to help in any of our those who worked on it. activities please contact the office or a member of We were delighted that Wendy Greiner, the committee. Mayor of Burnside, came to declare the Season and the Trail open. As you may know we presented the Burnside and Adelaide Hills Councils with framed certificates of apprecia- Chris Bushell tion to acknowledge their assistance in the April 2007 establishment of the Pioneer Women’s Trail. Walking SA Volunteers at the Opening of the Walking Season (Chris Bushell (WSA President), Mary Denton, Myra Betschild, June Boscence, Liz O’Shea, Peter Beer) The history of the HAHNDORF PIONEER WOMEN’S TRAIL: 25th Anniversary of the first National Trust Walk from Hahndorf to Beaumont House. by Anni Luur Fox, Hahndorf Branch, National Trust of SA. January 2005 If life truly is “a pudding full of plums” as Sir The Hahndorf Pioneer Women’s Trail com- W.S. Gilbert once opined, the saga of the Hahndorf memorates these first efforts to supply Adelaide with Pioneer Women’s Trail fits into both plum and pud- fresh farm produce from the Mt Barker region which ding categories as the following overview of our ef- later became the “breadbasket” of the colony. In 1839 forts will reveal. On the 20 April 1980 when the first Hahndorf had been the first village established east of public National Trust re-enactment took place, the Mt Lofty. Its impoverished settlers immediately Hahndorf Branch was almost four years old and over- cleared ground and planted seed and like their coun- loaded with seemingly endless battles with develop- trymen at Klemzig, were quick to take advantage of ers, lawyers and government authorities. Gordon the lack of fresh food in Adelaide. Because Colonel Young’s Hahndorf Survey (1979-81) was gathering Light’s rural surveys had stalled, most immigrants had information that later substantiated our claims for the been stuck in the city speculating on town acres and town as a heritage site. We had played a major role in patronising the many pubs. The little food grown lo- th stopping demolition of a group of three 19 Century cally had to be supplemented through importation. buildings a developer wanted to replace with a shop- According to an early newspaper report flour was of- ping centre and we were trying to ensure that conser- ten contaminated with seawater and other undesirables vation principles were upheld in Neill Wallman’s new such as whiting, bonemeal or Plaster of Paris added to Supplementary Development Plan for Hahndorf…….. the casks by unscrupulous merchants. No wonder Mrs as well as trying to fix the windmill. Watts complained in her diary about bread being as Mrs Elizabeth Simpson’s enthusiasm to develop hard as bricks. Fresh produce from Hahndorf’s rich a re-enactment along an early supply trail from the Mt. soil in those very early days of the colony must have Barker region to Adelaide resulted in the Beaumont been a special treat. House committee’s invitation to join them in organis- The women and older girls feature in early ac- ing this event to mark the Silver Jubilee of the S.A. counts of transportation of Hahndorf’s produce to National Trust in 1980. It seemed like fun! They even market, probably because the men were away working supplied us with a copy of Frederick Nixon’s map of for landholders clearing the bush and fencing. The 1841 showing trails in the region which would help us women tended the animals and the gardens, made the determine the route from Hahndorf to Crafers while butter and cheese and other items they carried on their they would work on the shorter section via Eagle on backs for sale in Adelaide to pay off their ship and the Hill to Beaumont. land debts. Some of them are recorded as carrying 35 Our Chairman John Storey, a veteran of the kilograms of farm produce before works on the Great Kokoda Trail during World War 2, declared it “a Eastern Road had improved conditions for wheeled cinch”. He rushed off to the Woodside Army camp traffic by 1854. As more villages were developed at where he and Major Ian Ferguson converted the map Grunthal (now Verdun), Mt Barker, Lobethal, to the same scale as a recent one from the Department Echunga and Balhannah more people joined of Lands for comparison. They found that the Onka- Hahndorf’s women on the produce trail to Adelaide. paringa and Old Mt Barker roads were part of the To check the route which may also have been a original rough track but at least the route also trav- means of communication between the Peramangk ersed bushland where it could be possible to imagine Aboriginal people of the hills region and the Kaurna the first group of women setting off for Adelaide at on the plain, I joined John Storey, Clare Ferguson, midnight with their eggs and radishes for sale soon Lyndell Davidge and Rodney Allen on 29 March 1980 after Hahndorf was settled in March 1839. It must for the first hike to Beaumont House. After six hours have been a frightening prospect for them, given the we stumbled scratched, footsore and weary despite our awful tales of fierce Tiersmen, some of them outlaws “You Beaut” modern sneakers and lightweight back- living rough along the way at Crafers. packs, into the gorgeous dining room where the Com- mittee had prepared afternoon tea for us in elegant style. Hahndorf Pioneer Women’s Trail cont A creek near the Beaumont House site had been Like giving birth, the pain of it all soon passed the place where pioneer women, barefoot to save shoe in the euphoria of a successful event. Our Branch re- leather, had stopped to rest and tidy themselves be- peated the scenario, minus police, in 1983, !985 and fore the last stretch to Adelaide’s markets. What a 1986 in partnership with the Beaumont House Com- contrast! For us, a sumptuous spread of cucumber mittee. The success of these events had spawned in- sandwiches and Queen Mother’s Cake awaited, as creasing requests for more. Each time, John Storey well as motor cars to transport us up the hills to and I virtually had to walk the route thrice to hammer Hahndorf in comfort where a hot bath filled by turning in the markers, lead the walk/ensure no one got lost, a tap would ease the effects of such unaccustomed remove the markers. The Branch began supplying exertions. They didn’t remain unaccustomed for long! maps. Lyndell Davidge led the biennial walks by Fully expecting no more than three men and a Hahndorf Primary School. Our persistent requests for dog to turn up at the Pioneer Park on 20 April to regis- official marking by the SA Department of Sport and ter and actually pay money for the privilege of follow- Recreation came to naught until the Centenary of ing members of the Hahndorf Branch along the Trail Women’s Suffrage in 1994 when Terry Lavender to Beaumont, we had marked the route on the previous must have got sick of my nagging while following day but had organised few drink stops.