%XUQVLGH+LVWRULFDO6RFLHW\,QF NEWSLETTER - December 2012 Volume 32, No 4 Website: www.burnsidehistory.org.au From the Editor’s Desk Another year has come and gone. Throughout 2012, as Editor, I have had much support from the Newsletter committee and from all the reporters and contributors to the Newsletter. My thanks go to all of you. Additionally, your Newsletter would not get into your letter box without the coordination and posting by Shirley Sumerling and her husband Mike. They drop bundles off to the deliverers who walk and drive about the nearby suburbs putting them in the letterboxes. The delivers for 2012 have been Margaret Beare, Jo Cowley, Peter Davies, Isabel Williams, Colin Harris, Meredith Ide, Margaret Sando, John Love, Shirley Copley, Irma Steele, Margaret Preiss, Sharan Northcott, Brian and June Ward. This saves postage costs, but there are still about 50 to be posted to addresses outside the Council area. We are grateful for the support from Council through their Community Grant to offset these costs. Wishing you a happy Christmas time and looking forward to seeing you all again in 2013. I am always looking for photos and articles so if you can help next year please contact me at [email protected], telephone 8332 8019, or see me at a meeting. * Deadline for March 2013 issue of Newsletter is Friday 18 January 2013. IN THIS ISSUE President’s Message 3 Program for 2013 4 Eastern Region Historical Societies Seminar report 8 Meeting Reports 10 Plaques in the City of Burnside 15 Monreith—the first 90 years 17 The Society gratefully acknowledges annual grant funding from the City of Burnside to support the production of this Newsletter. 2 President’s Message What a busy year we have had in 2012, and successes! Our website www.burnsidehistory.org.au is now available to the public. I hope you will have a look at the thirty year history of our Society recorded on the site – our past meetings, activities and projects we have been involved in, some with the Burnside Council, as well as future events. During 2012 we have celebrated events and trips and worked with the City of Burnside, one of the collaborative outcomes being the unveiling in May (History Month) by Mayor David Parkin of interpretive signage for the former Bell Yett/ Barton Croft estate off Hallett Road in Wattle Park. The bus tour of parts of Magill – the cemetery and Magill Stone Mines was popular. Thanks to Sandra Lachlan and Colin Harris and staff at Pepper Street Arts Centre for afternoon tea. Members guided walks of Knightsbridge, Burnside, Waterfall Gully, Eastwood and Rose Park. Thanks to Margaret and Ally Preiss, Colin Harris, and Isabel Williams. These events help publicise our Society and will be included on our website in the future so the public can also attend. Recently the Burnside Historical Society brochure, including membership form, was reprinted. Please take some to give out to you friends to encourage them to join our activities. We are fortunate to have Colin Harris on the committee. His knowledge and skills greatly benefit the Society. He coordinated the wording of the plaque and impressive interpretive sign in Bell Yett Reserve. He also organised an informative, relaxing historical, socio-geographical meander through the Fleurieu Peninsula in October. He and Ross Both are always available to meet Council members in relation to the future of Wheal Watkins Mine. I want to thank the Committee –Richard House our indefatigable Treasurer with much knowledge of our Society, who has just completed a thorough index of Elizabeth Warburton’s The Paddocks Beneath; Margaret Beare who is a member of the 2013 Program committee and manages the name badges and notices at the Community Centre; June Ward who records the minutes and delivers them on time; Sandra Lachlan as Secretary collects the mail and conducts guided tours of the Magill Cemetery; Anne Both, a new member in 2012, updated the Index,contributes to both the Oral History Project and the 2013 Program; Glen Cowley, another new committee member, collects the key for meetings and as a skilled photographer records our events and trips; John Love is the main recorder of our meetings and has organised the transfer (commercially) of the recordings to digital form. They will be available in the Local History Room, Finally, Chas Grimes who’s made useful suggestions at our meetings. The Society’s Newsletter is always of a high standard. We thank Elaine Smyth as Editor and subcommittee, Peter Davies, Barbara Parker and Elizabeth Rogers; 3 and Shirley Sumerling (distribution organ iser) for their valuable contribution. The 2013 Program Subcommittee is Meredith Ide (Chair), Colin Harris, Margaret Beare and Anne Both who contact speakers and organise trips to places of historic interest. Thanks to Brian Ward who assisted as recorder and to Rick Moore, Glen Cowley, Bob Steele and others who helped set up the hall for meetings. We appreciate Glen Woodward’s floral decorations. Thank you also to Hazel Newton as Supper Convenor and her helpers. In 2012 we have made two donations to Burnside Council ± nearly $2,500 for the new filing cabinets in the Local History Room and $750, half the cost of a heritage style seat for Magill Cemetery, to be installed before Christmas. We are currently advising Council about new signage at the Magill cemetery. As a Society, our aim should not be just to maintain our numbers, but to grow our membership. My challenge to you is to bring at least one new person to our February or March meetings. I hope they will enjoy the experience so much that they will want to come to the next meeting! The Committee appreciates your consistent membership and participation and hopes you will all have an enjoyable Festive Season. We welcome you back to an interesting 2013 Program. Meredith Ide, JP ******************************************************************* Program 2013 Monday 21 January±6.30 – 7.30 pm Guided tour of Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery Optional dinner afterwards at Sussex Hotel from 7.45 pm For details see the enclosed flyer. Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery, opened on 8 May 1849, is heritage-listed and a diversity of occupations are represented in those interred ± shepherds, academics, brass founders, explorers, flour millers, doctors, ministers of religion as well as children, wives and husbands. It is a social commentary, too, on early life in Adelaide' s history, some tragic, like the major infections due to poor sanitation. Guides will talk to us about the life and times of some of those buried in the cemetery, a number of whom once lived in parts of the current City of Burnside, developed land and businesses and were diligent and successful in their careers. 4 Prominent among them was Sir Samuel Davenport of Beaumont House fame. Others include John Fullerton Cleland, who lived at Beaumont and became Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages in Adelaide. His son, William Lennox Cleland, was appointed Medical Officer of the then Parkside Lunatic Asylum, establishing a silkworm industry for the inmates. Sir John Burton Cleland, son of William Lennox, was appointed the first Marks Professor of Pathology at the University of Adelaide. He was a passionate student of South Australian flora and fauna and Cleland Conservation Park is named in his honour. Monday 18 February—Dr Ross Both The Gilles brothers and the Glen Osmond Mine dispute The Glen Osmond Mine was one of a group of silver-lead mines that were Australia' s first metaliferous mines. The mine was located on property belonging to Osmond Gilles, the first Colonial Treasurer of South Australia. Mining commenced in 1842 and Osmond Gilles' brother Lewis came from Tasmania in 1844 to direct operations. Work on the mine was suspended in January 1849 when a writ was issued by the Supreme Court of South Australia on behalf of Osmond Gilles, seeking to have the Glen Osmond Union Mining Company ejected from the lease. This presentation will review the reasons behind, and the outcome of, the court case and the role of the personalities involved in the dispute, particularly the Gilles brothers. Dr Ross Both is a retired geologist with an interest in mining history. He is a long-time member of the BHS and was a guide for the Wheal Watkins tours until 2005 when the mine was forced to close following a rock fall. In 2008 he co-authored a paper on the history of the Glen Osmond mines published in the Journal of Australasian Mining History. He is currently Vice- President of the Australian Mining History Association. Monday 18 March—Rick Moore Now v’s Then: Rambling after Explorers It is well recognized that Australians are mainly coastal dwellers. The great interior of the country was unknown by Europeans for some time after they had established their early coastal settlements. In South Australia and the Northern Territory this aspect was even more pronounced and remains so, partly due to the arid nature of these regions. Rick Moore has travelled extensively in these areas for some years. In an illustrated talk he will reflect on the nature of the country both from the perspectives of explorers and that of a modern day traveller. 5 Rick’ s understanding of exploration history comes not from research alone, but from driving countless miles to view locations in an attempt to frame the achievements of early explorers. Along the way he has been to a few out of the way spots and cooked a few campfire meals. He has looked at tiny, life- saving waters, thought about the difficulties of camel and horseback expeditions and talked to many station people about various aspects of not just survival, but potential prosperity in the interior.