Barossa Valley - Hill of Roses Anu Mihkelson The Barossa Valley in South Australia derives its name from the Barrosa Ridge in Andalusia Spain, where Colonel Light, the first Surveyor General of the Colony of South Australia fought in a battle won by the British against the French in 1811. He had found similarities in the landscape of rounded hills and valleys but registered the miss-spelt name. Despite this mistake there are now thousands of roses growing in the Barossa Valley! Today the Barossa Valley is a tourist destination famous for its wines and gourmet foods. It is about 40 km from Adelaide and 725 km from Melbourne where we began our journey. Adelaide friends of the Melbourne Swedish Church, Karin and Ian Parson, had invited the Scandinavian Choir of Melbourne’s Swedish Church, to sing during the Barossa Valley Vintage Festival and a busload of friends of the Church were going along too. The road northwest from Melbourne passes through the former goldmining region near Ararat with its wide main street and solid 19th century buildings. Our bus stopped outside the grand former Town Hall, now gallery and library, and we walked up the main street for a morning coffee break. In 1857 a group of Chinese walking from Port Adelaide, also known as Port Misery, on their way to the Bendigo-Ballarat goldfields, found gold at Ararat and it became a boomtown until the mid-late 20th century. The countryside then changed to wheat fields, now showing burnt black stubble after the harvest. The silos were full and after a bumper harvest, additional storage was made possible under giant blue plastic covers. Horsham, and Nhill with its delicately painted silos, and the Giant Koala - a cafe stop with its concrete replica - are part of this, the Wimmera region. Driving a little further on we passed the Seppelts Great Western Estate, known for its champagne-style wines that grow in the cooler ranges. We caught glimpses of the Grampians, crossed the Murray River into South Australia which brought a time change, the clock being turned back 30 minutes from EST. Taking a trip through this country brings reminders and discoveries of early pioneering, present day large-scale agri- business including sheep and cattle, and a vastness and diversity in a small section of the Australian continent. The sun was setting as we began a slight descent into the Barossa Valley. The evening light on the particular eucalypts growing here cast their silhouettes against the yellow hills, making the last section of the drive and close of day, quietly blissful. It was late when we arrived at Tanunda and we headed straight for dinner and then onto our accommodation passing arched signs synonymous with famous, familiar wine labels along the route. For my friend, Irina and I, the room was at Lyndoch Hill, while others stayed at Tanunda. Next morning, waking to the warbles of magpies we took a walk among the extensive gardens of our establishment that stretched to vineyards in the distance. Roses 1 everywhere, some 30,000 according to the welcome letter, in 22 acres of property, with 5 km of paths, archways of wisteria, rose archways being planted, beds of other perennials and tall pines and eucalypts scattered shade, and a rose garden opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. Each day before breakfast we explored a new section - the vegetable garden, the wedding garden, even encountered some wallabies nibbling on the periphery, parrots flying from tree to tree, and in the evening gazed at the scattered spill of diamonds in the sky- the Milky Way, found the Southern Cross and felt lucky. We had experienced visions that are forbidden to us living among the city lights. After a breakfast of Bircher muesli, yoghurt, homemade apricot jam and rhubarb compote, toast and coffee we joined the others and headed for a welcome at Angaston Uniting Church. The church is a bright cream coloured stone and blue stone church. A concert by our choir will be given here the following day. A little further down the road was the Zion Church where a wine press stood in the corner near the altar! We were returning here for our Sunday Service but now we headed for a guided tour to learn a little about the settlements and history of this part of the Barossa Valley. Colonel Light arrived in South Australia and chose the sight on the Torrens Rivers, Adelaide, for the first free settlement in 1836. Britain's reigning monarch was King William IV and his consort, Queen Adelaide. She was by birth from the duchy of Saxe- Meiningen and christened Adelheid Amalie Luise Therese Carolin. Today Adelaide has a population over 1 million and has been known as the 'City of Churches' since the 19th century. This was the beginning of many German connections in South Australia. Our motel, Lyndoch Hill, was close to the town of Lyndoch named by Colonel Light in 1837 after his friend Lord Lyndoch. Lyndoch claims to be the first settlement and by 1840, consisted of '100 souls'. One of the valley's early settlers was Dr Ferdinand von Mueller, a geographer and botanist who explored and travelled in South Australia for 5 years collecting 800 flora specimens, then moved to Victoria where he soon became government botanist for Governor La Trobe. He became the founder of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens and National Herbarium. He had arrived in Adelaide in 1847, worked with a chemist in Rundle St but the abundance of new plants attracted him more. He took part as a botanist in expeditions in Australia including journeying to Moreton Bay. He promoted the ill- fated Burke and Wills expedition though he didn't approve of Burke as leader. A German, Becker, who was a talented scientist and artist, accompanied Burke and Wills but died on route to cross the continent. George Fife Angas was a British businessman who sought to invest in South Australia. He bought land hoping to sell it on to settlers. One group of settlers that approached him were German Lutherans from Prussia seeking religious freedom from oppressive decrees made by King Frederick William III. In 1836 Angas agreed for his South Australian Company to meet the cost of transport for a whole congregation accompanied by their pastor to travel from Hamburg to South Australia. Angas funded another two shiploads and other groups followed, including Moravian Protestants who had migrated to 2 Germany after fleeing religious persecution there. Tanunda has a long tradition dating back to 1840s of Germans arriving from Posen, Brandenburg and Silesia, many having already travelled by road, canal and river to reach Hamburg. Some were farmers others were carpenters, blacksmiths, craftsmen, tradesmen and miners from the Hartz Mountains and there were 'economic' refugees too. Mainly Cornish miners on the other hand settled at Angaston and by 1860 it had a population of '2435 souls living in 406 houses'. Nuriootpa, originally called Angas Park, now the commercial centre for the Barossa, attracted a mix of German and British settlers. Its origins came with the establishment of an inn attracting bullock teams as well as settlers on the route between Adelaide and the copper mines at Kapunda. In 1849 Coulthard opened Red Lion Inn, a gum slab hut, on the site of the present Vine Inn where we were to dine on our final night of our trip. Life was tough, droughts occurred, and many died. Crops failed and animals perished. Poor roads also hampered taking produce to Adelaide for sale. Nevertheless the communities established schools and provided medical help as best they could while forming congregations around a Lutheran Church.. There had been some 80 churches at one time, with only one Catholic Church in the Valley. Many were now closed or accommodated other congregations. Our lunch stop was at the cafe of the South Australian Company, the business initiated and chaired by GF Angas. A highlight of our tour was Mengler's Hill Lookout and Sculpture Park, named after a local vine grower according to the plaque which also indicated we were 56km from Adelaide. Another plaque commemorated Johannes Menge, a German who had lived in England and had met GF Angas. I wondered if there was a miss-spelling here, where 'Mengler' was 'Menge'? Angas encouraged him to travel to South Australia and work for his South Australian Company. Menge arrived in Adelaide and found exploration of greater interest. As a geologist, he recognised the soil in the Barossa area was well suited to agriculture and assisted the new arrivals to go on to Barossa. And so the planting began. German settlers brought with them cuttings of grape vines wrapped in wet hessian to survive the long voyage and started the present day industry where the Barossa Valley produces some of the world's best wines. The wine labels today are indicative of the German family origins. Johannes Gramp planted vines at Jacob's Creek in 1847 and produced the first wine 3 years later. Also in 1847 Menge helped produce the first bi- lingual newspaper. Menge went on to predict the discovery of gold and opals and wrote Australia's first book on this country's geology. The sculptures on Mengler's Hill are recent invited artwork and add flavour to the expansive view of the hills, settlements and farms below. The village of Bethany, our next stop, was directly below our viewpoint. Our group photo was taken on top of the hill. Bethany was the first village together with Angaston to be established in the Barossa Valley. Bethanien, later changed to Bethany, was settled by a group of 28 German families, including 34 children and 83 adults, who originated from Prussia, arrived on the vessel, Skjold, in 1842.