Pioneer Posters
- ruwoltjon
- Jun 3
- 22 min read
Updated: Jun 4
Here are a dozen unpublished Pioneer stories which reference the Clare Valley.
They come from a dozen posters exhibited for History Month in May 2025.
The Pioneers Association of S.A.'s "Pioneers SA Poster Project" began in 2014 with the aim of sharing the stories of pioneers with a wide audience. Pioneer Membership is open to all persons who have at least one ancestor who arrived in the province, now the State, of South Australia, on or before 28 December 1846.
Initially the emphasis was to encourage members to write their own ancestors’ stories, which they had thoroughly researched.
Due to the popularity of this project it has continued as a regular project each year. The tally is now over 300 posters which can be loaned to community organisations, displayed at history events or form part of a larger exhibition.
The focus of the project has evolved over the ensuing years to ensure women’s and children’s stories are now retold.
These are the stories that don’t appear in published accounts and are more difficult to research.
While the Pioneer Posters include important details relating to major life events and their date of arrival in South Australia, they are not a day by day account of a pioneer’s life, but a snapshot of family and events shaping their personal history through a 300-word story.
Posters which are produced each year are displayed publicly during History Month.
This year in History Month 2025, a dozen Pioneer Posters relating to Clare and the Mid-North were displayed in the Foyer of the Clare Town Hall. Here they are:
From Calcutta to Clare: Fanny Eliza Gleeson & Jonathan Filgate
The Community-minded Baker of Stockport: David Weir (Snr)
From Matron to Landowner: Charlotte Mills & William Baker Ashton
From Somerset tailor to Farmer of Skillogalee Creek: Malachi Brain & Louisa Masters
A Highly Regarded Gentleman: Alfred Hallett
Irish-Born Sheep Farmer: Thomas Colbert & Honora Curren
The Mintaro Methodists: Thomas Miller Snr & Rebecca Taylor
Named son John Rapid, an early colonial birth: James Hoare & Sarah Angel
The Plasterer Who Became a Respected Farmer: Joseph Brinkworth & Isabella Annie Clode
Station Manager in Northern S.A.: James Commyns & Ellen Ashby
Artist, Inventor and Implement Maker: James Hazel ADAMSON
James arrived with his family in 1839 at the age of 10, and chose to work as a water colourist, lithographer and portrait painter, with a studio in Flinders Street, Adelaide.
He moved to Melbourne for three years, as an artist and photographer then returned to Adelaide, winning a First Prize at the 1859 Annual Exhibition of the SA Society of Arts.
James and brother John moved to Kapunda where they set up the 'Adamson Brothers Farm Machinery'
business for which he designed and improved farm machinery.
Relating to the Clare Valley, James set up his own branch of Kapunda's 'Adamson Brothers Farm Machinery' at Auburn in 1865.
In Kapunda and in Auburn, James participated in both Town Institutes, and was President of the Auburn Total Abstinence and Auburn Mutual Improvement Societies.
He then became interested in overseas licensing and exporting. He dissolved the Auburn business in 1872, and travelled to California, where his South Australian machines were considered too small. California also offended his Presbyterian beliefs "...the Lord's Day is awfully profaned".
He returned to business in Melbourne, and later resumed painting. He died in Adelaide, aged 72.
From information provided by Hugh Adamson, James Hazel Adamson's great-great nephew May 2020
Read more:
AUBURN SLAUGHTERYARD, 1870 -- Northern Argus (Clare, SA), Friday 21 January 1870, page 4, Adamson V. Adamson Brothers is located in the south-western portion of the (Auburn) township, and judging from the Adamson deposed -- I know the defendant. I remember the day I laid the information in this case... Adamson's yard, and alarmed them. Adamson's bell rang.
Another industry which thrived in the early days was the coachbuilding factory of Adamson Bros.,
Heard about the great Hill River Stone Wall? The seed was planted the first week in June with six of Adamson's 21 foot broadcast machines.
An influential Irish pioneer of Clare
Patrick Butler was a shepherd from Country Wicklow, and he and his wife, Sarah, travelled to S.A. with twenty other Irish immigrants in 1839 on the ship Prince Regent.
After initially working for Paddy Gleeson, (Edward Burton Gleeson) at 'Gleeville' (now Beaumont in Adelaide), Patrick became one of the first settlers in the Clare Valley.
Upon Gleeson's insolvency and owed £36.4.9 by Gleeson, Butler subsequently moved north with Gleeson.
The township of Armagh (west of Clare) became the home to Patrick Butler (1818-1876) and his wife Sarah Naulty (1819-1871).
By 1843 he had 'six acres of wheat, half acre of maize, quarter acre garden, and twenty-eight cattle'. The Butler family had three children in their Armagh home of “red gum slabs, thatched with a straw and grass roof.”
In 1844, the then Archbishop of Adelaide, Dr Murphy, assisted by Father Michael Ryan, celebrated the first Mass in the Clare district at the Butler residence.
After his first wife Sarah died, the local Catholic priest suggested Bridget Kelly to be a suitable wife. Patrick agreed, but after learning she had debts, and hearing that 'she was free in drinking brandy and that she was fond of tattling', he reneged!
Patrick then married Bridget Sexton. Shortly afterwards Bridget Kelly, in a rare colonial 'breach of promise to marry' case, successfully sued him and was awarded £50.
Court evidence revealed he had been lonely and sought a housekeeper.
Councillor
Patrick Butler was also an original council nominee. Gleeson became first Chairman, a position he held until his 1857 resignation.
Butler (chairman from 1859) was joined in 1854 by Mintaro Irishman Peter Brady; John Hope too stood for council in 1857.
The election of Irish councillors reflected the nature of the active voting community, especially in areas such as Armagh, Sevenhill, and Mintaro.
In 1855 Patrick Butler was re-elected, receiving the second highest vote in the contest. Butler and Brady then constituted half the councillors, and Gleeson served as chairman.
Sadly, Patrick was accidentally crushed between a wagon of wheat and fence, near Hanson, and died 12 April 1876 in Clare, South Australia.
Read more:
Clare Museum | The Last of the Butlers
The Thesis: BECOMING SOUTH AUSTRALIANS? THE IMPACT OF THE IRISH ON THE COUNTY OF STANLEY, 1841-1871 By M. Stephanie James
Northern Argus (Clare, SA) Fri 12 Nov 1943 Page 4 LINKS with THE PAST
(as above) Rosemary Owens, AO, Pioneer Memorial for Patrick Butler May 2019 Rosemary is the Great-great-grand-daughter of Patrick Butler.
From Calcutta to Clare:
Fanny Eliza Gleeson & Jonathan Filgate
Fanny and her father Paddy (Edward Burton Gleeson) with his wife Harriet and extended family arrived in South Australia from India in on 27 July 1838 on the "Emerald Isle".
By 1840 Gleeson was reported as owning 7,300 sheep, 55 cattle and 24 horses.
The Gleeson family arrived with an entourage of a dozen Indian servants, a horse, a complete, packaged, wooden house, which was erected on their property at Beaumont, which they named 'Gleeville'.
Gleeson was adversely affected during the colony's financial crisis in the late 1830s, and indeed was charged by the Insolvency Court in 1845.
Most of their property was auctioned off, and they moved north to Clare (named by Gleeson), to start again. Some of their Indian servants remained with them. Here their original house and extensive garden was gradually rebuilt to become the large mayoral dwelling of Clare, named 'Inchiquin', for an Irish barony in County Clare, Ireland. Gleeson owned about the North half of Clare.
Clare Museum | Founder Paddy Gleeson: "King of Clare"
"Inchiquin is the earliest of Clare's larger houses and properties to have survived.
Our present Mayor of Clare, Allan Aughey and wife Lyn now live in Inchiquin House. Of course his majesty of "Inchiquin" was the first mayor."
At just 24, Fanny married Jonathan Filgate, a Clare brewer. They had seven children, of whom three died as babies. In 1866, after eleven years of marriage, husband Jonathan died of typhoid. Fanny decided to keep the Clare Enterprise brewery and ran it with a manager.
"The first brewery in Clare was built by Mr. Filgate who later built a brewery in Main street. Mr. W. Davis was manager of the brewery."
They produced soft drinks, soda water and lemonade, and (of course) 'Racecourse' beer. She went into partnership with William Richardson, who married her daughter Harriet Sarah Filgate, in May 1879.
"The firm's name became Filgate and Richardson, and in 1880 a new brewery and aerated waters factory was erected outside the northern boundary of the town."
Mr. Richardson left the firm, and (ex-Mayor) Mr. John Christison became the active partner and manager and later bought the business in 1905. Mr. Christison and wife Diana (nee Hope) lived at "Weroona" ('Bleak House'), then the social centre of Clare. Under his able control the business continued to expand and at various times owned at least 13 hotels throughout the Mid North. When John Christison died in 1911, his wife expanded the business with new equipment and formed the Business into a Company.
Read more:
Clare Museum | Generous Mrs. Christison
Clare Museum | 'Continentals' at 'Bleak House'
The Community-minded Baker of Stockport: David & Martha Weir (Snr)
David, Martha Weir, and their two young sons (also) arrived on 5th September 1839 on the 'Prince Regent'. They travelled for five hours on bullock dray to reach Adelaide.
David worked as a baker for the first 18 months at Port Adelaide, where on high tide, boats could come right up to the shop for supplies.
Unfortunately wife Martha died less than eight months after arriving, and David remarried only a few months later to Catherine Wyse McNab.
In July 1948, David was working for Mr. Thomas in Grenfell Street bakery, and while living in Adelaide their five children were born.
In 1858, they moved to Stockport where David was running his own bakery and became involved in a number of local activities:
David was chairman of the School Trust, appointing a new teacher for their new school,
He was elected chairman of a committee to get an extension of the railway through to Stockport.
In 1862 he was appointed superintendent for setting up a cemetery in Stockport,
In 1866 he was involved in petitioning for a local court and also for a local mail service via Freeling.
The family remained in Stockport where David later died on 21 October 1879 aged 77. Catherine died the following year in Mallala, and both were buried at Stockport Cemetery.
From Matron to Landowner:
Charlotte Mills & William Baker Ashton
Charlotte and William were married on 28 April 1829, in London, and arrived on 16 November 1838 on the 'Rajashtan'.
Charlotte was 24 when she married police office William Ashton, with three sons when they embarked to sail to S.A. and heavily pregnant, welcoming a daughter a few days into the voyage.
Upon their arrival in Adelaide in 1838, the family set up home in a small cottage in the parklands, near the first Adelaide 'stockade' gaol. Another son was born before the family moved into an apartment in the new gaol in 1841. Two more children arrived.
William concerned himself with the business of the gaol (Ashton's Gaol/Hotel), while Charlotte was officially appointed Matron of the Adelaide Gaol in 1850 and continued in this role until William died of cardiac arrest in 1854.
The gaol became known during the period of their tenure as ‘Ashton’s Hotel’, perhaps because of William’s well-documented generosity to inmates, such as providing them with Christmas dinner each year at his own expense.
Ashton was also known as a judicious manager and was commended in the press for the ‘efficient manner’ in which he performed his duties. He was the target of misconduct allegations nevertheless and in early 1854 was accused of transgressions including drunkenness, misuse of government property, trafficking with prisoners, stealing rations and withholding prison earnings.
It was in the midst of the legal proceedings relating to these charges that Ashton died, as a result of cardiac failure, in April 1854. Adelaide Gaol is still held by some to be haunted by his ghost.
The family was now without a main income and homeless. A public appeal was launched and enough money was raised for Charlotte to purchase land at Leasingham, in the Clare Valley. Two sons returned from the Victorian goldfields to accompany the family on their trek to the mid north. Here they established their own farm, 'Ashgrove', owned by the family for many years.
In 1869, Charlotte was listed for a time as owner of the Leasingham Hotel.
Her son Henry Hamilton Ashton died on September 30 1923, at the age of 90 years, and six months. He was born in London and came to South Australia at the age of five years.
At the age of 24 he came to live at Leasingham and two years later married Miss Jean Hicks at the Bible Christian Church at Watervale, the Rev. Thomas Hillman officiated.
Many will remember the hospitable home of the Ashtons of Leasingham, great cheerful heroes in pioneer work, true servants in the Master's cause.
Mr. Ashton was superintendent of the Leasingham Wesleyan Sunday school for many years, and steward until it was closed at Union, and the work undertaken, was always faithfully done.
From Somerset tailor to Farmer of Skillogalee Creek:
Malachi Brain & Louisa Masters
Malachi and Louisa were married on 12 May, 1831 in Somerton, Somerset.
They departed 4 May 1840, from London, and arrived on 24 August 1840 on the 'William Mitchell'.
Malachi was a tailor, working in his home county of Somerset, when they decided to emigrate. They departed with their three daughters and with a modest inheritance from Malachi's family.
By 1844 they were living on a small farm of eight acres in Coromandel Valley, S.A. Three children were born during this time, Henry, George, and John. Sadly, Henry died before his first birthday.
In June 1847 Malachi began to extend his real estate holdings by buying eighty-one acres at Skillogalee in the picturesque Clare Valley. This area benefitted from the boom in copper mining at Burra. Malachi continued to expand his holdings, purchasing one thousand and thirty three acres during 1851 to 1862. Most of this land was at Skillogalee, where he held six hundred and seventy seven acres. Two more children, Jane and Edith arrived in this period.
In 1863 (?) Malachi donated a small parcel of land from this holdings at Skillogalee to the Bible Christian Church to build a chapel. This land was on the crest of a small hill, overlooking the Gulf Road in the Skillogalee valley.
From the CRHG Federation CD:
"Mr Malachi Brain had cattle roaming through the Skillogolee Hills as early as 1843. His home was Bromley Park, now a shell amid these Skilly Hills.
Malachi Brain was a progressive Bible Christian layman and he donated the land on section 490 for a Bible Christian Chapel back in 1855. This was a strategic spot close to the Gulf Road traffic through the Skilly Hills at the time of his donation.
It was not until 1862 however, well after the closure of the Gulf Road, that the sturdy stone Chapel, with ZION AD 1862 carved into the stone above the front door, was opened. The Chapel overlooking the wooded hills and valleys of Skillogolee was opened on 2 November 1862 when Rev. Thomas Hillman preached in the morning and Mr Parkin from Riverton in the evening.
The first Upper Skilly services were held under a large red gum tree which still stands today in the valley directly in front of the Chapel and a little to the left."
Sadly, on 20 January 1865, Malachi died from cancer of the tongue, aged 54 years, and was the first buried in the cemetery adjoining the Bible Christian Church.
A Highly Regarded Gentleman:
Alfred Hallett
Mr. Hallett arrived in the colony on 2 October, 1838 on the 'Africaine' with his brother John Hallett.
He returned to England and married Emma Gibson on 20 March 1839 in Yorkshire.
Alfred and Emma arrived on 17 December 1839 on the 'Duchess of Northumberland'.
Alfred settled at the Worthing Copper Mine as manager, and afterwards managed the Bremer Mine at Callington till a fall in the price of copper caused its operations to be stopped. In 1863 the inhabitants of Callington and the surrounding townships have made arrangements for a complimentary dinner for Alfred Hallett, Esq., the Manager of the Bremer Mine.
Bremer Copper Mine, Callington, looking west. Posing with the workers are the manager, Alfred Hallett, and mine captain, Thomas Prisk, who ran the mine for most of its working life. c1875 Emma died in 1845. In 1851 Alfred married Catherine Young at O'Halloran Hill.
Alfred (1875) and Catherine Hallett (1860)
Alfred was appointed a Lands Titles Commissioner on the 12th December, 1868, and in his time saw several changes in the list of the Commissioners.
For many years he held the position of Chairman of the Central Road Board, and during all that period attended the meetings with great punctuality, and conducted the business of the Board in a very satisfactory manner.
He was also a Director of the Bank of South Australia, a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Licensing Bench, and was one of the members of the Railway Commission which took evidence and recommended a railway system for the colony, of which some of the lines constructed form a part.
He acted for the Government as valuator for the Wallaroo Mines when the fine on renewal of their leases was fixed.
He was largely engaged in mining pursuits, and was also interested in sheep stations with the late Mr. John Hallett, from Arno Bay on the Eyre Peninsula to Arno Vale in the Barossa, Willogoleeche, Wandilla, Caroona, Mutooroo, as well as Winninie Station, about 120 miles north-east of the Burra.
Since the death of brother John in 1868 Alfred has carried on the business on behalf of his nephews and nieces.
Alfred was married twice, and by his first wife had one son, who was on the Hallett Station, near the Burra. The eldest son by his second wife was connected with the Central Road Board Office. Of the same family two daughters are grown, and he leaves also two boys and two little girls.
Those who knew Mr. Hallett intimately speak highly of his kindliness in his family and amongst his friends; and being a hard worker and very useful man his loss will doubtless be widely felt.
Alfred died in November 1877 from heart disease. He left an estate of 97,000 pounds in 1878. The town of Hallett is named after both Alfred and John Hallett, as is Hallett Cove and the Hundred of Hallett.
Beneficiaries of his estate were: John Charles Hallett, Catherine Hallett, Henry
Archibald Price, John Ogle Carlisle, and Sarah, his wife, Frank Rymill, Walter Reynell, Emma Goldsmith, Richard Hallett, Henry Hallett, W. Little, and Jessie Little his wife, Julia Hallett, and Selby Hallett, among others.
Irish-Born Sheep Farmer:
Thomas Colbert & Honora Curren
Married on 27 November 1841, a year later in Waterford, they had a son, John, and a daughter Catherine, in 1844. During the early years of their marriage, the Great Famine was sweeping Ireland, a period of starvation and disease which displaced much of the population.
The Colberts and their two children arrived in S.A. on 31 July 1846, aboard the 'Canton'. Adelaide must have seemed a place of opportunities compared to Ireland.
Sadly, a few months after their arrival their daughter Catherine died. A second son, Edmund, was born in Thebarton, and then followed a daughter, Mary, in Morphett Vale.
In late 1853, Thomas Colbert took up 160 acres of land in the new Hundred of Gilbert, north-west of Kapunda. Here, along the Gilbert River, he ran a farm, mainly of sheep. Over time, Thomas and Honora built up their land holdings in the area and also had five more children.
During the 1860's the township of Tarlee was established with a railway line, station and road running through portions of Thomas' farm. This land was purchased by the Government and allowed them to name this new township. In 1875 Thomas donated some land for the building of the St. John's & St. Paul Catholic Church in Tarlee.
A few years later, in 1877, Thomas decided to retire, and sold his farm of 795 acres. He used this income to buy houses in Kapunda to rent, until he died on 12 October 1900.
The Mintaro Methodists:
Thomas Miller Snr & Rebecca Taylor
Thomas Miller (Snr) married Rebecca Taylor on 21 Jan 1839 in Hungerford, England. They arrived at Port Adelaide on the 'Fairlie' on 7 July 1840. Thomas was employed by the South Australian Company as a soldier to protect the colonists from the threat of attacks by the troublesome 'natives'.
The family first moved to Gumeracha, then to the Barossa Valley. Here Thomas worked as a haulier between the Burra mines and Port Adelaide with his team of four bullocks and a wagon.
The Miller family moved to Mintaro around 1851, among the original settlers in Mintaro, eventually owning several sections of land both in the hills and in the township. The hills by the Mintaro Creek are still called the Miller Hills.
In the year 1853, in connection with the Burra Circuit, the Rev. R. C. Flockhart conducted monthly services in the house of Mr. Thomas Miller, one of the first settlers in Mintaro.
It may be interesting to reproduce here minutes of the first meeting held in Mintaro for the purpose of erecting a chapel in which the inhabitants may assemble to worship God:
"Monday, June 27th. 1853. "Present—The Rev. R. C. Flockhart (in the chair), and Brethren T. Miller, J. Bray, and J. James. "
'1st. The meeting opened with prayer. "
'2nd. Resolved that immediate steps be taken in order to have a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel built in the Township of Mintaro, believing that it is necessary, and that such a place of worship should be erected. "
The Methodist Church was opened on 5th November, 1854, and the church manse on 12th October 1858. A new Methodist chapel was opened on 9th May 1867:
Thomas died on 26th November, 1896 while visiting his son at Yongala:
Named son John Rapid, an early colonial birth:
James Hoare & Sarah Angel
James Hoare, a hard-working labourer, was born in Hoo, Kent, in 1809. He married Sarah Angel in 1831, and, as educated individuals, they applied for and were granted passage to the new South Australian colony in 1836, sponsored by Boyle Travers Finniss.
James, Sarah, and their two daughters arrived on Kangaroo Island S.A. on 11 September 1836, aboard the 'Cygnet'. B.T. Finnis moved the landing party over to Rapid Bay, where they were set up camp. There, on 7 November 1836, Sarah gave birth to John Rapid Hoare, who is recorded as the first-born European male in the new settlement.
Born 7 Nov 1836 in Rapid Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Australia
Died 17 Jul 1916 at age 79 in Tolmoi, Jandowaie, Queensland
Married Margaret Julia Brown (1845 - 1932) in Dubbo, N.S.W., 1865.
Father of John Ernest Hoare, Sarah Ann (Hoare) Yates, Margaret (Hoare) Porton, Alfred James Hoare, Louisa Alberta Hoare, William Henry Hoare, Albert Edward Hoare, Thomas Herbert Hoare, Hilda May (Hoare) Brown and Reginald Courtney Hoare
James worked as a labourer with the survey parties led by Colonel William Light, mapping out the city and surrounding areas and country towns. James was also the first person in the new colony to be gaoled for burglary. He was imprisoned on the HMS Buffalo until Colonel Light paid the 5 pound fine and then James went back to work.
In 1851 James tried his luck at the Victorian goldfields but ended up broke and
divorced when he returned in 1854.
He settled on a small patch outside Penwortham where he raised wheat and grew vegetables. He would walk to Burra with a barrow load of vegetables and walk back pushing his load of supplies for the week. The distance walked was 31 miles each way.
All his ground at Penwortham had to be dug with a spade, the wheat sown by hand, and when ripe, cut with a sickle and thrashed out with a flail. James started a pit-sawing business which supplied the red gum poles for the Clare to Gawler telegraph line.
In 1855 he met Martha Webb in Burra, who was an Irish-born servant who arrive in S.A. in 1854 to seek employment. They married in 1856. James was also a shearer, a gardener (and station manager) for J.W. Gleeson at Black Point (now Snowtown), then a well-regarded gardener at Bungaree Station, north of Clare (~1878). James died in 1893 at the Home for Incurables at Fullarton S.A., aged 83 years.
The Plasterer Who Became a Respected Farmer:
Joseph Brinkworth & Isabella Annie Clode
Joseph Brinkworth (1834-1895), eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Brinkworth, of Horsley, Gloucestershire, arrived in South Australia on 25 August 1839 on the 'Somersetshire', with his father Thomas Brinkworth.
His father Thomas Brinkworth and three children arrived after a very rough and trying voyage which lasted six months, with the sum of 3/6 in his pocket. The Colony was then passing through a very trying time, and the only employment he was able to obtain was at the Government Forests sawing wood, the wages being 6d. per day and double rations, although he was a broadweaver by trade.
Joseph assisted his father to grow wheat at Port Adelaide and at Nailsworth. In 1851 Joseph, brother George and father Thomas joined the gold rush on the Victorian goldfields, and were fairly successful on the Eureka Lead.
Later, Joseph helped his father farm at Lower Light (1855) where failure of crops in 1857-58 caused him to remove to Chinkford near Manoora, (1858) where for a number of years he was most successful in farming operations.
During the 1860's, Joseph purchased sections of land at Blyth, which became his successful family home.
Father Thomas was a man of upright character, great determination to overcome all difficulties, sober habits and a non-smoker. Thomas's family consisted of seven sons and two daughters.
All of Thomas's sons were original selectors of land in South Australia —
Joseph, at Blyth ;
Jesse, at Cameron ;
William and Peter, at Gulnare ;
George, at Alabama ;
Daniel at Goyder ; and
Thomas, at Yacka.
The daughters were Mesdames E. Siekmann and J. Moule.
Joseph then spent the next few years working successfully as a plasterer in Adelaide. He married Isabelle Clode in 1861 and they moved to Manoora where he set up his own wheat farm, since Joseph, like his brothers was a wheat farmer.
They had three children:
Joseph William James (1863-1896) married Agnes Nelson (story on poster above)
Anne Isabella (1866-1919 from influenza, see news below) did not marry
Francis Caley (1872-1919) from influenza, married Mary Neville.
Brother George Brinkworth took up a station property on the Barrier (Broken Hill) known as Alabama where a well still bears his name but, unfortunately, the ravages of wild dogs and drought caused him to abandon the property.
George Brinkworth married Wilhelmina Fredericka Louisa Belling in 1875, and they had three children: Doris, Edgar, and Alice.
The family lived in Nailsworth, Walkerville, Lower Light, Saddleworth and grew wheat.
George died on 30 April 1883 and is buried in the North Road Cemetery, Nailsworth, South Australia. His wife, W.F. Louisa, passed away on 21 July 1919 and is buried at the Brinkworth Cemetery.
In 1879 George had acquired the property then known as Magpie Creek, which proved to be, on completion of the Blyth and Gladstone railway, the site fixed for the railway junction from Wallaroo and the town of Brinkworth.
By 1892 the land where Brinkworth now stands was owned by Peter Brinkworth, the son of George Brinkworth the original landowner from 1866. The district was known as Magpie Creek.
Peter Brinkworth subdivided part of his father’s farm in 1892 to create a private town which would sit at the junction of the two newly announced government railway lines from Wallaroo and Blyth. He called his town Brinkworth rather than Magpie Creek.
When the first train arrived from Adelaide, Brinkworth was described as a tent village with no buildings. But soon it had a large wooden railway station with luggage rooms, waiting rooms, porter’s rooms, residences for the station master and foreman and porters etc. A railway refreshment rooms was set up in Brinkworth in 1895 and operated until 1941 servicing both Gladstone and Moonta trains.
Thomas Brinkworth was a founding trustee of St Andrew's Anglican Church at Walkerville. With his son-in-law he built a steam flourmill at Saddleworth.
1875 to 1930.
The first church in the district was built at Magpie Creek in 1875—a Bible Christian Church—about two miles east of Brinkworth. The church was built by the people of the surrounding district, of pine posts, lathe and plaster, Mr. R. Fuller being the builder.
This church formed a part of the Snowtown circuit.
In 1880 Boucaut Wesleyan Church was built three miles north-west of Brinkworth, by the residents of that denomination. The Boucaut Church was closed about 1896, owing mainly to removals from the district.
The Magpie Creek Church did service till November, 1894, when a big storm blew the roof off. Services were then held in Mr. Jeisman's house, South Brinkworth, and also in Mr. P. Murray's storeroom for a time.
Brinkworth Wesleyan Methodist Church. The Sunday School and Hall beside the Methodist Church, now Uniting Church, were opened by Miss Brinkworth in 1930. The trustees decided to build on the present situation. The land was presented by Mrs. George Brinkworth, and a church was erected in 1895, and opened on May 12, 1895, by the Rev. O. Lake and Rev. S. C. Mugford.
In 1896 the Brinkworth Trust bought the Boucaut church furniture, books, seats, organ, etc., and the Boucaut congregation joined the Brinkworth church, and formed the first church of the Union in South Australia.
Station Manager in Northern S.A.
James Commyns & Ellen Ashby
Born on 23 October 1823 in Castleton, Roxburgh, in the Scottish Border region, James Commyns worked as a shepherd on his father's sheep farm of 2,000 acres in nearby Meikledale.
One month after his sixteenth birthday, James boarded the 'Baboo' at Liverpool and arrived at Port Adelaide on 10 March 1840. James spent the first years here living in Adelaide at various jobs.
By 1854 James moved to the Clare Valley. He acquired and farmed two blocks at Stanley Flat.
On 7 June 1860 he married Ellen Elizabeth Ashby, the sister of the pioneer Ashby brothers of Stanley Flat. Their first child was born in late 1861, but only lived for a week.
James sold his property interests by 1861 and became the licensee of the Clare Inn in 1861-1862, but went out of business.
An inquest took place at Commyns's, the Clare Inn, on Friday morning at 11 o'clock, to investigate the causes of death of George Nunn, late of Clare, Mr. E. B. Gleeson, S.M., acting as Coroner:
and a respectable Jury of 15 being sworn elected Mr. James Wright as foreman.
James Commyns stated that he saw the deceased on the course on Wednesday. He was sober at the time. Gave him one nobbler (a serving of spirits) after the race. This was all he gave him or saw him drink. The deceased was conveyed to witness's house after the accident. He was attended by Dr. Sokolowski.
The Coroner addressed the Jury briefly, drawing their attention to the conflicting nature of the evidence as to his drunkenness or sobriety , but it had been shown that he was generally of eccentric habits, and there could be no doubt but that the excitement of riding the race had influenced his manner very much. After a consultation of about an hour the following verdict was returned: -
"That the deceased, George Nunn, came by his death from a concussion of the brain, received by his running against the branch of a tree while riding on the Racecourse near Clare, on the 26th December, 1860.''
The family then moved to Paralana Station, east of the Gammon Ranges, in the far north of S.A. James had taken up a position as overseer, for the owners John and William Jacob (of Jacob's Creek Wines). Children Agnes and Andrew were born there.
The vast Paralana Station covered 582 square miles, and in good times had 7,000 cattle and 9,000 sheep. Most of the stock were wiped out in the great drought of the mid-1860's.
There were also frequent skirmishes with the indigenous Pilatapa people. In 1865 during the drought James led an expedition to find a missing shepherd, John Walter Jarrold, who was eventually found murdered.
The concurrent descriptions of losses among the flocks and herds in consequence of the long drought are truly distressing, calling forth the greatest powers of energy and endurance on the part of those engaged in the conduct and management of pastoral affairs.
Paralana Station was eventually sold to Hon. G.C. Hawker of Bungaree Station in 1868.
The Commyns family moved to Adelaide. Along the way a son, John, was born at Stanley Flat in early 1869. Later that year James, working as a labourer, was admitted to Adelaide Hospital with 'granular lids', caused by hot and dry conditions, which kept him there for four months. Twin daughters were born in 1871, though one died.
The Commyns family moved again, to Dawesley, in the Adelaide Hills, where their
youngest child Gertrude was born in 1881.
INDEX:
From Calcutta to Clare: Fanny Eliza Gleeson & Jonathan Filgate
The Community-minded Baker of Stockport: David Weir (Snr)
From Matron to Landowner: Charlotte Mills & William Baker Ashton
From Somerset tailor to Farmer of Skillogalee Creek: Malachi Brain & Louisa Masters
A Highly Regarded Gentleman: Alfred Hallett
Irish-Born Sheep Farmer: Thomas Colbert & Honora Curren
The Mintaro Methodists: Thomas Miller Snr & Rebecca Taylor
Named son John Rapid, an early colonial birth: James Hoare & Sarah Angel
The Plasterer Who Became a Respected Farmer: Joseph Brinkworth & Isabella Annie Clode
Station Manager in Northern S.A.: James Commyns & Ellen Ashby
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