Occasional Essays on South Australian History Researched and Written by Geoffrey H. Manning Contents Part I - Former South Australian Settlements Angepena Colton Hammond Inneston Silverton Ulooloo Waukaringa Part II - The Role of Women in the Community Introduction Women in Industry Education of Women Women in the Work-Place Women and the Pulpit The Tide Turns Part III - Social Matters Industrial Relations Among the Working Class - 1837-1900 Destitution, Unemployment, Riots and Soup Kitchens - 1837-1900 The Trials of Workers in the Last Two Decades of the Nineteenth Century Charity at Work in the 1880s The Aborigines of the Adelaide Plains Education in Early South Australia The Alleged Massacre of Aboriginals at Waterloo Bay An Anecdotal Essay on Marriage and Divorce. Part IV - Tales of Adelaide and Environs Colonel Light - Surveyor of Adelaide Colonel Light - His Final Days The Reminiscences of John Chambers The Adelaide Gaol A Day in the Life of an Adelaide Suburb in 1907 Old Time Memories - Amusements The Streets of Adelaide Street Musicians Prostitution Housing and Domestic Life in Early Adelaide On the Beaches Sources for Water Supply The Markets of Early Adelaide Statuary of Adelaide Alms Across the Seas - A Tale of Two Towns Settling in the Mount Lofty Ranges Among the Mountains - The Eagle-on-the-Hill - The First Sixty Years Mount Lofty and Its Summit V - Sport and Recreation in South Australia Football Horse Racing Pigeon Shooting & Boxing and Wrestling Cricket Boxing & Wrestling Beauty Contests Roller Skating Part VI - Tales of Port Adelaide and LeFevre Peninsula under Port Adelaide,, Birkernhead and Glanville) An Unjust Law A Burning in Effigy The Glanville Truant School Mudholia - A Place of Pestilence The Birkenhead Ferry Part VII - Flora and Fauna of South Australia The Rabbit Pest Part VIII - Random Notes on Politicians (See Manning’s Data Base) Part I - Former South Australian Settlements Essay No. 1 - Angepena Introduction "Mining - Ways That Are Dark" and "Salting a Mine" were headlines of the Advertiser in the 1890s in respect of the Golden Treasure mine at Angepena in the North Flinders Ranges in which several prominent members of parliament were interested but, in the fullness of time they realised they had been swindled: They talked about the wonderful mine that was going to pay so handsomely, and at nights when tired eyelids dropped over tired eyes it [was] said that the Angepena Treasure... rose up before them and in their sleep they were deceived into imagining that they were wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice... [They now] go seriously on their way convinced that there is more money in dry as dust politics than in dazzling Angepena Treasures. The Angepena Run was taken up by John Baker (1813-1872) on 28 March 1856, his head station being Pernunna, that adjoined Angepena to the north. In 1858 he went to England and became involved in a scandal over the contents of a prospectus for the Great Northern Copper Mining Company in which he was intimately involved - such was the hue and cry of many dubious claims made in the document, the South Australian Government appointed a Select Committee at which Mr Baker refused to give evidence. Mining in the Angepena District The short-lived Mochatoona Mine, about five kilometres NNW of Angepena station, was worked in 1859-1860; at first it was considered to be a wonderful copper discovery warranting "vigorous developmental work" but, as with most of the copper "shows" in the Flinders Ranges, the surface lode did not extend to greater depths. Late in 1892 a report of an alluvial gold find in the area prompted a visit by Mr J.V. Parkes, Inspector of Mines, who reported finding 40 prospectors on a field that, in his opinion, was "worth prospecting". The land was "about five miles east of Angipena (sic) old station"; the majority of the diggers managed to scrape together enough gold to supply their necessary wants and in this regard meat in the form of wethers from the local station was freely available until non-payment by some diggers led to the cessation of that facility. The embryo town emerged in 1893 when 50 men were living in tents and crude huts, two stores were open for business and two butchers plied their trade. The nearest water supply was obtained from Nolla Nollina Spring about a mile from the town. In winter months the local creek ran occasionally and to prevent its spoliation a quarter of a mile of its banks was reserved for domestic water purposes. By August 1893 there were over 300 men on the field when Mounted Constable Brown took up residence; no cells were provided for prisoners but chains driven into blocks of wood served the purpose - an Angepena Police Station had been manned from the 1850s until the prolonged drought of the 1860s found the law enforcers retreating to Blinman. To complete the services provided to the inhabitants a post office opened in July 1893 with Mr Doig as postmaster. A month later it was reported that Mr McPherson had made a "splendid find" which assayed about 6-8 ounces to the ton, while Mr Mailey, a local storekeeper, had been shown a nugget estimated to weigh "fully 50 ounces" - to this 30 diggers responded by telegraphing the Commissioner of Crown Lands and expressing their disbelief. However, it would appear that these reports, which time proved to be false, set the minds of two prospectors working on a scheme that would lead one of them to gaol with a sentence of eighteen months hard labour. In September 1894 a company, the Angipena (sic) Treasure Mining Company issued a prospectus for 40,000 one pound shares - 20,000 fully paid-up to be paid to the vendors in part payment for the mine (together with a cash payment of #700) and the balance to be offered for public subscription - the directors' names read like a "Who's Who" of the local parliament - namely, Messrs G. Riddoch, A.R. Addison, J.H. Howe and A. Poynton. Their expectations were based on what they had every reason to believe was most reliable and authoritative evidence of the presence of an "unusually rich lode". Further, they were only too proud to state that their speculation had a patriotic element in that they were promoting a genuine and promising gold mine in South Australia! Both Mr White and Mr Poynton had visited the property in August 1894 and from samples taken personally from the shafts by Messrs Howe and Addison they concluded that the reef closely resembled the Great Boulder Mine at Kalgoorlie which was making a fortune for its proprietors. Then to seal the matter the "late Inspector of Mines" concluded that it was "one of the best surface shows I have met with in South Australia." A parcel of ore taken from the main shaft gave an average return of over four ounces to the ton. The matter duly came to trial early in 1896 when, in sentencing the "salter", the Chief Justice said that if a guilty verdict had not been forthcoming it was possible that nothing would have been heard of "matters in connection with the floating of the company." His Honour "felt constrained to speak strongly in reference to the omission from the prospectus of certain facts which might have considerably influenced the share- investing public had they been made known" and he commented adversely on the "liberal provisions made by the promoters" which, if realised, would have benefited them to the detriment of shareholders. In a final tilt the Judge referred "not unfairly", to the candid dealing which the public naturally expects from gentlemen holding high public positions that was not apparent in the case before him - but as a politician would say - "Regrettable facts remained" - to this indictment the humbled, and temporarily impecunious, politicians declined to respond! Sources Register, 31 August 1863, page 3f, 17 December 1867, page 2d, 20 May 1872, page 5a, 29 November 1887, page 7g, 21 January 1893, page 5a, 3 February 1893, page 3b, 13 February 1893, page 6e, 4 May 1893, page 6h, 11 July 1893, page 5a, 20 July 1893, page 6g, 27 July 1893, page 5b, 12 August 1893, page 6b, 17 August 1893, page 7b, 28 December 1893, page 6e, 22 and 23 November 1895, pages 3c and 4g, 14 December 1895, page 5b, 29 January 1927, page 18f, Observer, 25 October 1879, page 3b, Advertiser, 5 March 1896, page 4e, Hans Mincham, The Story of the Flinders Ranges. Occasional Essays on South Australian History Researched and Written by Geoffrey H. Manning Part I - Essay No. 2 - Colton Michael Kenny was born in County Clare, Ireland on 24 December 1809 and sailed in the Brakenmoor for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) where he arrived on 6 April 1842. After many adventures on the island and in the Gippsland district on the mainland he was enticed to South Australia by his brother who was farming at Morphett Vale. In the years that followed he "brought all [his] relations from unfortunate, famine stricken Ireland and assisted to build at Morphett Vale the first Catholic Church that was built with stone and mortar in the colony." By 1855 he had purchased 500 acres of land near Shea-oak Log where he remained for twenty years and, during that period, he and John Barrow of Ashwell started the Light Farmers' Club that played an important part in bringing a reform Land Bill into public notice. In 1871 he went to Yorke Peninsula where he "secured" farms for several of his sons; late in 1876 he sailed from Oyster Bay (Stansbury) in the Selector for Port Lincoln from whence he trekked overland to the Hundred of Colton where he established "Balla McKenny", a property of some 9,000 acres.