W is for Willunga

In 1849, diagnosed with tuberculosis and possibly hoping to benefit from South Australia’s drier, warmer climate, my fourth great grandfather John Plaisted (1800-1858) emigrated there from England. With him was his wife Ann, their six children, and Ann’s sister, Abigail Green.

Several of their relatives had already established themselves in the new colony. In 1838, eleven years previously, Sarah Bock (sister of Ann Plaisted) with her husband Alfred Bock, and Ann’s brother William Green with his wife Tabitha (sister of John Plaisted) had settled there.

The Plaisted family travelled on the ‘Rajah‘, reaching Adelaide on 12 April 1850 after a passage of 4 1/2 months from London.

A month later, on 16 May 1850, the Quarterly Government Sale of Crown Lands was held at the Police Commissioners Court. John Plaisted successfully bid on seven blocks in the Hundred of Willunga, one of eleven cadastral units in the County of Adelaide, about 50 km south of the city. John Plaisted’s brother-in-law, Alfred Bock, was the licensee of the Horseshoe Inn at nearby Noarlunga.

Section
326
332
333
335
506
514
515
516

Acres
80
80
80
80
482
83
83
84

Price £ s.
£80 1s.
£80 1s.
£86 0s.
£80 1s.
£573 0s.
£88 0s.
£83 1s.
£103 0s.

John Plaisted’s blocks formed two contiguous areas, one of 320 acres near the coast, the other 742 acres close to what has since become the settlement of Willunga.

Allotments purchased by John Plaisted in May 1850. J.P. Manning bought section 519 marked in blue.
Map of Hundred of Willunga retrieved through Wikimedia Commons. (Section 714 on this map is numbered 514 on the November 1850 version of the map)

Willunga district photographed in 1924 by State Government Photographer – The History Trust of South Australian, South Australian Government. Image retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

One of Plaisted’s neighbours was John Pitches Manning, who bought an adjacent block, later called Hope Farm, at the same auction. A family history of Manning and Hope Farm describes his purchase:

"During May 1850, George Pitches Manning journeyed south to Aldinga in search of suitable farming land but was not impressed with the country, which was covered by stunted gum and sheoak trees. His attention was then drawn to a parcel of Crown Land at McLaren Vale, which was, in later years to be the property known as Tintara Vineyards, of which more will be said later. This property was put to public auction but unfortunately he was outbid by a Mr Plaisted."

(Tintara winery was acquired by Thomas Hardy in the 1870s)

Advertising postcard for Hardy’s Tintara Wines – 1906 Image retrieved from flickr.com

There are several newspaper reports of the Plaisted family’s activities in the district. A few months later on 28 July 1850, Alfred Bock, John’s wife’s brother-in-law, hosted a divine service at his hotel in Noarlunga after the laying of the foundation stone for a new church. John’s daughter Sally, my 3rd great grandmother, played the organ for the service.

"Noarlunga—The foundation stone of the new church to be dedicated to St. Phillip and St. James, was laid on Friday, the 28th ultimo, by the Bishop of Adelaide, in the presence of a numerous, and highly respectable, concourse of the inhabitants. His Lordship read the impressive service used on such occasions, which was listened to throughout with profound attention. Divine service was performed for the first time on Sunday last, at the "Horse Shoe" Inn. Mr Bock, the worthy landlord, fitted up the room for the occasion, and Miss Plaisted led the various hymns on a splendid organ. The arrangements for the accommodation of the congregation were simple yet comfortable, and, in fact, the whole was a great improvement upon the pro tempore places of worship previously used at Noarlunga."

St. Philip and St. James Anglican Church, Old Noarlunga, South Australia, photographed 2013 by Les Haines and retrieved from Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
By 2018 the church had been deconsecrated and was being sold.

Horseshoe Inn Noarlunga, about 1860. Taken on the day of the Oddfellow’s Picnic to Aldinga, a band sits atop the horsedrawn coach. Image from the State Library of South Australia B7931

My 3rd great grandmother Sally Hughes nee Plaisted (1836 – 1900) from the book Cherry Stones by Helen Hudson

The next year in April 1851 John’s eldest daughter Sally Plaisted married Samuel Hughes of Noarlunga.

MARRIED.
On Tuesday, 29th April, at Willunga, by the Rev. A. B. Burnett, Mr. Samuel Hughes, of Noarlunga, to Sally, only daughter of John Plaisted, Esq., of Hornsey, late of Muswell Hill, near London.

In September 1851 John Plaisted, Alfred Bock, Samuel Hughes, and John’s son John Plaisted junior attended a meeting called to establish a monthly market in Noarlunga township. John Plaisted addressed the meeting.

In December 1851 John Plaisted sailed for Melbourne. In the 1850s he and and other members of his family seem to have travelled quite frequently between Melbourne and South Australia.

In February 1852 John Plaisted of Market Square (Melbourne) was one of the merchants and brewers who registered their names and residences with the Chief Inspector of Distilleries in Victoria.

In February 1852, back in South Australia, Mr Plaisted (it is not clear whether this was John or one of his sons) won a prize of potatoes at the Noarlunga monthly market.

In March 1852 Thomas Plaisted was receiving cargo in Adelaide of 179 bags of flour and 35 bags of bran. In March and in May Job Plaisted (probably John) received mail in Adelaide. In May 1852 a Plaisted received 32 bags of flour.

In November 1852 J Plaisted, S. Hughes and A. Bock were subscribers to a fund for erecting a church at Noarlunga. The three men were generous in their donations, especially. J. Plaisted, who donated 10 pounds.

In 1853 John Plaisted was described as a farmer Hornsey Farm, Long Gully, McLaren Vale

In August 1854 Messrs. Bell and Plaisted, were in business as grocers at 67 Queen-street. In March 1855 they had moved to 57 Queens Street, advertising a range of goods from pianos to barrels of haddock.

When John Plaisted died of tuberculosis in Melbourne on 4 May 1858, his death certificate stated he had been in Victoria 5 years, thus since 1853; he had been in South Australia for only 3 years.

In his will John Plaisted left to his wife the rent of Hornsey Farm, McLaren Vale, South Australia, and the rent of the Blacksmiths Shop at Noarlunga.

Related posts:

• Plaisteds Wine Bar
• P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)
• The Green family in Australia
• Tabitha Plaisted 1806 – 1891

Wikitree:

• John Plaisted (1800 – 1858)
• Ann (Green) Cowper also known as Plaisted (1801 – 1882)
• Sally (Plaisted) Hughes (1826 – 1900)
• Sarah (Green) Bock (1809 – 1883)
• Alfred Bessell Bock (1807 – 1889)

F is for Finniss Point

In 1856 in West Tamar, Tasmania, one of my fourth great aunts Theresa Walker nee Chauncy (1807 – 1876) married George Herbert Poole. He had been a teacher in the Royal College of the British Indian Ocean possession of Mauritius; she was an artist and sculptor.

Theresa self-portrait in cast wax, about 1860. In the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

In a memoir of Mrs Poole, Theresa’s brother Philip Chauncy wrote:

Theresa had for some time fallen in with the religious tenets of Mr. George Herbert Poole (1806-1869), who was the founder of “The New Church” [Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church] in Adelaide. He [Poole] had returned from Mauritius, where he had been a professor in the Royal College, to Sydney in January 1850, had left Melbourne for England in 1852, and returned to Launceston in 1856, where they [George Poole and Theresa] were married.

From the Hobart Colonial Times of 19 September 1856:

MARRIED. On the 15th instant, at the Manse, West Tamar, by the Rev. James Garrett, GEORGE HERBERT POOLE, Esq., late professor in the Royal College, Mauritius, to THERESA SUSANNA, widow of the late John Walker, Esq., Lieutenant, R.N.

It appears that Poole may have had a connection with Truro, in Cornwall, for a notice in the Cornish West Briton on 16 January 1857 states he had resided there:

At the Manse, West Tamar, Australia, of the 15th of September last, Mr. George Herbert POOLE, formerly of Truro, to Theresa Susana, widow of the late John WALKER, Lieutenant, R.N.

Following their marriage the Pooles began a farm in Tasmania, bought, her brother notes, “with Theresa’s money”. Two years later they sold the farm and moved to Victoria, where George, with no great success, tried gold mining. In 1861 the Pooles became partners in a vineyard near Barnawartha on the Murray near Albury. Among others in this arrangement was Theresa’s half-brother William Chauncy (1820-1878), who at that time lived in Wodonga. George Poole “was supposed to be a thorough vigneron, as well as a connoisseur of the best methods of tobacco growing.” (Although in 1843 Mr G.H. Poole wrote about the cultivation of the vine for the South Australian Register, unfortunately Poole was accused of plagiarising this piece. The Geelong Advertiser reported Poole had 20 years experience of growing vines in southern Europe but I am not sure this fits with the facts of his life.)

Poole was appointed local manager of the vineyard.

The scheme was successful for a couple of years but in 1864 it collapsed. George Poole returned to Mauritius in November and Theresa followed in April 1865.

Port Louis, Mauritius.
This scene was recorded by the British naturalist Charles Darwin, who visited this island in April and May 1836 during the five years of the second survey voyage of HMS Beagle.

In late 1866 both husband and wife became ill with an epidemic fever. They shifted to India, then after a brief return to Mauritius, in February 1868 moved back to Adelaide.

George Poole gained a job as a teacher of a school at Finniss Point near Riverton, about sixty miles (80km) north of Adelaide. In 1869 he became ill and died.

From the Adelaide Evening Journal 2 August 1869:

Deaths: POOLE.—On the 29th July, at Finniss Point, near Kapunda, George Herbert Poole, Esq., aged 63 years.

From The South Australian Advertiser 7 August 1869:

The remains of Mr. George Herbert Poole, licensed teacher of Finniss Point, were interred in the Riverton Church burial-ground on Saturday, the 31st ult. The deceased gentleman had been ailing for some time past, but suffered severely during the last month of his earthly pilgrimage from disease of the liver.

Finniss Point, also known as Finnis Point, is a few miles south of Riverton. The settlement no longer exists.

Finnis Point is about 10 km south of Riverton and about 85 km north of Adelaide. From Google Maps.

Finnis Point Road in 2008 from Google Street View

Related posts

• T is for Theresa

Wikitree:

• Theresa Susannah Snell (Chauncy) Poole (1807 – 1876)
• George Herbert Poole (abt. 1806 – 1869)

B is for Bookmark

In 1863 my third great grandmother Margaret Rankin, formerly Margaret Budge nee Gunn, died at ‘Bookmark‘, a sheep-station on the Murray River near present-day Renmark.

brass plaque from the grave of Margaret Rankin now on view at Olivewood Historic Homestead and Museum, Renmark

Margaret had arrived in South Australia from Liverpool on the ‘Dirigo‘ in November 1854 with her second husband Ewan Rankin and four surviving children from her first marriage. In Wick on 10 June 1854, five weeks before they sailed on 15 July, she had married Ewan Rankin, a carpenter.

When the Rankin family arrived the two boys, Daniel and Kenneth, were 12 and 11, and the two daughters, Margaret and Alexandrina, were 9 and 2. I do not know where the family settled nor how Ewan Rankin was employed from the time of their arrival until Margaret’s death nearly ten years later. It appears, however, that Ewan Rankin had found work on a large property called ‘Bookmark‘ on the Murray River near present-day Renmark.

In the early 1860s ‘Bookmark‘ and the neighbouring station, ‘Chowilla‘, were leased by two men named James Chambers and William Finke. Chambers died in 1862 and his brother John Chambers took over. Finke died in early 1864. At that time Ewan Rankin seems to have been the ‘Bookmark‘ overseer.

In 1864 a man named Richard Holland bought the ‘Bookmark‘ station lease for his stepsons John, William, and Robert Robertson. The run extended from Spring Cart Gully near Berri to the NSW border. I do not know if Ewan Rankin stayed with the property or moved on; I have not found any reference to him after 1863.

In 1867, four years after her mother Margaret died, Margaret Budge, now 21, married James Francis Cudmore of ‘Paringa‘, a neighbouring station on the Murray, 20 miles upstream from ‘Bookmark‘.

In the 1870s Daniel and Kenneth Budge worked for the Cudmores and went into partnership with them. In 1870 Kenneth purchased ‘Gooyea‘ station in Queensland with J F Cudmore. In October 1871 the Adelaide “Evening Journal” reported that “A lot of 600 cows with 16 bulls, from Mr Cudmore’s Paringa Station, in charge of Mr. K. Budge, passed through Wilcannia on the 12th for Dowling’s Creek, Bulla, Queensland.”

In the 1860s paddle steamers carried a great amount of goods, much of it wool, up and down the Darling and Murray rivers. Two dangers were boiler explosions and collision with submerged logs, snags. In 1862 the ‘Settler‘ hit a snag near ‘Bookmark‘ and sank:

"In coming up the river near Bookmark Station she came in collision with a large snag some two feet under water, which made such a large hole in her below watermark that she had to run ashore immediately, when she sunk, and now lies with the water up to the floor of her cabins. She had some 200 tons of cargo onboard, the greater portion of which was for settlers and storekeepers on the river, and they will consequently be put to considerable inconvenience, in addition to the loss attending the accident. The steamer 'Lady Daly' is lying alongside the 'Settler' to render any assistance that may be necessary."

In 1865 the landing place at Bookmark station was cleared of 9 trees from the water by Edward Williams, superintendent of the Snagboat ‘Grappler‘, employed in the service of the Commissioner of Public Works.

In 1880 a correspondent of the “Kapunda Herald“, on a trip aboard the steamer ‘Gem‘ up to Wentworth, reported that “On the way down we had the chance of seeing Mr. J. F. Cudmore’s Paringa Station. It is a very pretty house built on a hill, with a fine garden terraced down the slope to the river, and from the steamer looks a grand residence. Farther down is Messrs. Robertson Brother’s Bookmark Station, which is a very nice looking building.”

Paringa station, Murray River about 1890 by Frederick Needham from the collection of the State Library of South Australia SLSA reference B 62050

In 1881 Mr G.E.M. [a Melbourne University student who wrote for the Melbourne Leader] on a trip down the Murray by canoe, coming around a bend,

“… to my astonishment, came suddenly in view of a well built residence, occupying a very elevated position off the left bank. Four tanks were near it on a lofty staging. The steam-engine was on a ledge lower down. A beautiful garden was round the house, and the flat ground below it was occupied by a number of outbuildings. My surprise was great to find that I was at Paringa, more so that it was only half-past three. The manager, Mr. Hayes, looked after me well. Paringa station belongs to Mr. Cudmore of Adelaide, and is his home for six months of the year. It runs 20,000 sheep, only a third of the number on Chowilla. I had a good night's rest, and, rising early, made my preparations before breakfast. At half-past eight I was proceeding onwards. At half-past twelve I was knocking at the door at Bookmark. The 21 miles between the two places did not offer much variety. Near Cutler's billabong I saw far ahead a man slowly propelling his boat, and having overtaken him, learnt that he was a carpenter by trade, who, finding work slack in Wentworth, had patched up an old furniture case to form a boat, and taking a few tools, had started off down the river to seek work. Instead of sculling in the ordinary way, he looked to the bows and pushed his sculls through the water. I was amused, on asking him the time, with the startling vehemence of his reply, "God knows." His boat crept along so slowly that I wished him good morning and paddled on. From Paringa can be seen a range of hills trending towards the Murray. They do not, however, come to the river, but form a precipitous bank for the Margary Creek, which flows into the Murray a mile above Bookmark. The station house is in a striking position, of which it is worthy, for a more elegantly furnished dwelling I have rarely seen. Despite my peculiar appearance, Mrs. Robertson extended to me a cordial welcome, and in the afternoon Mr. Robertson came home. All the wood work in this house and a great part of the cabinet work is the result of Mr. Robertson's own labor. In the evening we fished, using shrimps for bait, and caught in a short time a nice basket of bream. Music enlivened us till bedtime. The following day was delightfully spent. In the morning we drove to the back country, to try for a shot at a kangaroo. As we drove along I had many of the trees and shrubs pointed out to me. "This fragile gum tree," said he, " is the mallee, the Eucalyptus Dumosa ; that prickly bush, whose roots when cut yield fresh water, is the needle bush ; there is the sandalwood, there the box. This stunted shrub, interspersed with spinifex, is a kind of saltbush ; that dark-tinted tree is the native cherry ; that, very like it in appearance, is the bitter bush; yonder is the curious quandong, easily picked out by reason of its light-green foliage." The kangaroos sleep during the heat of the day under shelter of the pines. We disturbed many, but my execrable shooting invariably resulted in their hopping off scathless. In the evening, while fishing, I was sitting beside Mr. Robertson, watching my float, when he said quietly, "Look here," motioning towards a snake which had swum the river and landed at his feet. A well aimed blow killed the first and last snake I saw in my whole trip. It was the common brown snake, 4 feet 6 inches long. On the 15th. January, with great regret, I left Bookmark. Three miles from the house the Spring Cart Cliffs begin, and extend for a long distance, gradually diminishing in height.”

Overlooking Pike Lagoon with the Murray in the distance, near Paringa

1887 sketch map showing Chowilla, Renmark, Paringa, and Bookmark from IRRIGATION. (1887, June 4). Adelaide Observer (SA), p. 13. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160762389

In 1887 the South Australian Government granted the Chaffey Brothers 30,000 acres from Bookmark station to begin Renmark, the first irrigation colony in Australia. In 1896 Bookmark station was divided into Calperum and Chowilla Stations; John and Robert Robertson dissolved their partnership, John retained Bookmark, and changed the name to Calperum, and Robert settled at Chowilla.

Now heritage listed, the homestead at what was Bookmark is on Calperum station. The present building, dating from the 1870s, replaces an earlier construction of pug and pine, which for walls used native pine trunks rendered with clay. This building technique was frequently employed in country South Australia, especially when there were not enough large trees to provide bark or slabs. In the early 1860s the Rankin family were probably living in buildings of pug and pine construction. In 1984 a pug and pine outbuilding built in 1863 on Chowilla was reported in a heritage study to be one of the oldest surviving structures in the upper Riverlands.

A pug and pine structure erected in 1876 and photographed 1925 (Barabba Primitive Methodist Chapel) State Library of South Australia image B58121

In 2015 the Robertson family celebrated 150 years on “Chowilla”, formerly part of Bookmark, which is now 35,200ha (87,000ac) and consists of mostly semi-arid rangeland featuring saltbush, blue bush, copper burr and native grasses. The Robertsons farm 132,000 hectares (327,000 acres) spread across four properties. Depending on the season the Robertsons shear 15,000 to 17,000 head of sheep.

saltbush

looking over the property at Ned’s Corner

Ned’s Corner is not far from the former station of Bookmark

Sources

• Sinking of the Settler at Bookmark: WENTWORTH. (1862, September 3). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50175737
• CLEARING THE MURRAY. (1866, August 25). Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 – 1904), p. 2 (Supplement to the Adelaide Observer.). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159504885
• Distances on the Murray between stations STATIONS ON THE MURRAY. (1880, August 12). Southern Argus (Port Elliot, SA : 1866 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96888299 
• Description of trip to Wentworth on the Gem: OVERLAND CORNER. (1880, July 13). Kapunda Herald (SA : 1878 – 1951), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106564681 
• Canoe trip: THE CONTRIBUTOR. (1881, September 10). Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 – 1918, 1935), p. 2 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE LEADER). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198494350
• 1984 Heritage survey of the Murray Riverlands https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/heritage-surveys/3-River-Murray-Heritage-Survey-Unincorporated-1984.pdf
• Border Stations: Milestone shapes a family’s future by Emma Downey published 25 June 2015 in farmonline (Fairfax Media) https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/3377738/border-stations-milestone-shapes-a-familys-future/
• The video introduction for Ned’s Corner Station gives a very good view of the countryside in the area of the upper Murray https://trustfornature.org.au/what-we-do/neds-corner-station/

Related posts

• Margaret Gunn (1819 – 1863)
• K is for Kenneth
• The tristate tour February 2021 part 2

Wikitree:

• Margaret (Gunn) Rankin (1819 – 1863)
• Ewan Rankin (abt. 1825 – aft. 1863)
• Margaret (Budge) Cudmore (1845 – 1912)
• James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912)

Isabella Crowe

Some years ago, one of my Cudmore cousins told me about a legal provision that had been made for two illegitimate children of our forbear James Frances Cudmore (1837 – 1912).

On 24 August 1912, a week after J.F. Cudmore’s death, a woman named Isabella Crowe of Nailsworth South Australia signed an indenture—a legally binding contract—in which she and her one male child and one female child, “alleged to have been fathered” by him, with their present and future descendants, agreed to make no claims on his estate in return for 300 shares in the Federal Coke Company Ltd. (In September 1912 shares in Federal Coke were being sold for 32/6; 300 shares on that basis would be worth about $61,000 today.)

The original of this indenture is held in the Mortlock Library, a wing of the State Library of South Australia. The signature of Isabella Crowe was witnessed by J.K. Cudmore (J.F. Cudmore’s eldest son). He also witnessed Isabella’s signature on a receipt for the shares, which appears on the same document, with the same date. The name “Isabella Crowe” appears several times in the document, always in the same handwriting, which is different from the handwriting on the rest of the document.

My cousin believes that the indenture was drafted in secret while J.F. Cudmore was still alive. J.K. Cudmore, it appears, had instructions to put it into effect when his father died.

Who was Isabella Crowe? I am not sure. I have found the birth of an Isabella Crowe in 1871 in Robe, South Australia, the third of six children of Henry Crowe and his first wife Harriet nee Barnes. Harriet died in 1878. Henry remarried and died in 1904. His second wife died 1897 leaving two children. In November 1891 a Isabella Crowe, aged 21, a servant, religion Wesleyan, living in Norwood, was admitted to the Adelaide Hospital.

I have found no other mention of Isabella, and no marriage or death records. (I had previously identified two children, Constance and Herbert Crowe born 1895 and 1896, as possibly the children of Isabella. The details in the Register of infants born in the Destitute Asylum for these two children indicate they are not the children of Isabella Crowe and J. F. Cudmore.)

Sources

• MINING NEWS. (1912, September 27). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 15. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5338489
• Reserve Bank of Australia inflation calculator https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html
• The Register of infants born in the Destitute Asylum digitised by Family search
  • Constance Crowe born 1895 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZQ-J4VV?cat=2649145
  • Herbert Clarence Crowe born 1896 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZQ-J4V6?i=101&cat=2649145

Wikitree

• James Francis Cudmore
• Isabella Crowe
• Henry Crowe

Peggy de Crespigny and Ruth Smith in the Australian Women’s Army Service 1942

A week ago I received an email about a photo in a family collection: “I have come across a photo of Peggy Champion De Crespigny with my mother, Ruth Smith, circa 1942, both in Army uniform.

They enlisted in the army around the same time and were good friends. I don’t know if this friendship pre-dated the war, but mum used to talk about the Champion De Crespigny’s with great affection. I don’t think they ever met up in future years even though they both eventually lived in Adelaide – mum since the mid-1950s. Mum passed away in 2005. [Peggy died in 1989.]

Mum has written on the back of the photo: Peggy de Crespigny and Ruth coming from the Torrens Parade Ground along King William Road near Govt. House, Adelaide.”

Peggy de Crespigny and Ruth Smith 1942

The Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) was formed in August 1941 to release men from less important military duties so that they could serve with fighting units.

Isobel Ruth Smith (Service Number – SF64955), 23 years old, enlisted at Adelaide on 21 May 1942. Her occupation was clerk.

Margaret Champion de Crespigny (Service Number – S65003) enlisted at Adelaide on 26 May 1942. Her occupation was coding and deciphering, she had just started the signals course the day before.

From 25 May 1942 to about August Ruth and Peggy attended a communications course called the Australian Signals Course No. 41.

On 13 August 1942 Ruth was transferred to a special wireless school at Bonegilla near Albury. Ruth was graded as a Group 1 Wireless Telegraph Operator and later promoted to Sergeant. She was discharged in January 1946.

Ruth’s son sent another photo of Ruth “Also a photo of my mum, Sgt. Ruth Smith, who served in signals with the Australian Special Wireless Group a somewhat secretive outfit who were told that they were never mention their role, or mention the Aust Special Wireless Group, and were never to march in ANZAC Day parades (and she didn’t). Interestingly the ASWG became the Defence Signals Directorate.” He also recalled that his parents “would talk fluently in high speed Morse code, especially if they didn’t want [him] to know!”

Sgt. Ruth Smith

On 17 August 1942 Peggy de Crespigny became a Sig [Signaller] Wm Gp 2 with SA L of C [South Australian Line of Communications Area]. In July 1943 she attended the LHQ [Land Headquarters] School of Military Intelligence at Southport, Queensland. In December 1943 she was discharged at her own request on compassionate grounds. Peggy’s mother Beatrix had died 11 November 1943.

I was interested to see that the attesting officer on Peggy’s forms was Captain May Douglas. I met May Douglas many years later. She was a friend of my grandmother Kathleen—both played golf—and she was also much involved in the Girl Guides.

Wikitree:

• Margaret (Champion de Crespigny) in’t Veld (1919 – 1989)

J is for Julia Morris nee Hickey (1817 – 1884)

On 6 December 1840 Julia Hickey, aged 23 arrived at Adelaide, South Australia, on the “Birman” which sailed from Greenock 23 August 1840. She was travelling with her sister Mary, 21, and brother Michael, 28, and Michael’s wife and children. On the passenger list Julia and Mary were described as farm servants from Castleconnel, County Tipperary, Ireland. Michael Hickey was a carpenter from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland and a cousin of a fellow passenger Catherine nee Hogan, a servant from Ennis, County Clare. Michael died on the voyage. His wife and children returned to Ireland.

Castleconnell and Ennis are just over 40 kilometers apart.

Travelling on the Birman was William Morris, aged 21, a painter and glazier from Limerick. On 10 February 1841 Julia Hickey and William Morris married in the Roman Catholic Chapel on West Terrace, Adelaide. Between 1841 and 1857 they had eight children:

1. John 1841–1861
2. William George 1843 – 1906
3. James 1845–1918
4. Celia Catherine 1848–1916
5. Michael Christopher 1850–1897
6. Julia Mary 1852–1881
7. Ellen 1854–1856
8. Gordon William 1857–1917

In December 1844 William Morris, who had previously been employed as a keeper in the Limerick District Asylum, was appointed Keeper for lunatics at the Adelaide Gaol. Twelve months later twelve lunatics were housed at the gaol. This was deemed unsatisfactory and a public asylum opened the next year in the East Parklands modified for the purpose. Nine lunatics were placed there under the care of the Colonial Surgeon, the Keeper William Morris, a second keeper, and the wives of the two keepers.

A much larger asylum opened in 1852. The new asylum held sixty patients and staff. This building was destroyed in 1938. The East Lodge however still survives. It had been home to the Morris family.

Adelaide Lunatic Asylum and Adelaide Botanic Garden (foreground), c.1860. State Library of South Australia photograph B2773.

The Lunatic Asylum in 1869. SLSA B5014.

East Lodge photographed in 1898. Retrieved from Flickr.

In the article South Australian Lunatics and Their Custodians, 1836–1846 by Marian Quartly published in 1966, Quartly wrote:

. . . the real control of the asylum fell to William Morris, the Head Keeper. Morris appears to have been a kind and honest man who did his best by his charges, but nevertheless Sheriff Newenham’s judgment of his capabilities was probably correct: Morris ” . . . tho a very proper person to superintend the care of lunatics as respects their safekeeping is not in my mind qualified by experience or habits to watch over the mental charges and graduation of insanity so frequent amongst this unfortunate class.” Morris’ “five or six years” of experience with lunatics prior to his Adelaide appointment was all in Ireland, where the emphasis still seems to have been on custody rather than cure. He could not have held a position of any authority in Ireland as he was practically illiterate.

Quartly, M. (1966), South Australian Lunatics and Their Custodians, 1836–1846. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 2: 13-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1839-4655.1966.tb01210.x

On 13 January 1857 William Morris died aged 43 years. The death notice in the Adelaide Times read:

On Tuesday, the 13th January, Mr William Morris, for many years Head Keeper of the Lunatic Asylum, regretted by a large circle of friends and acquaintances

Julia Morris worked  as Matron of the Asylum from 1846 until her death in 1884. In turn she was succeeded by her daughter Celia Morris who was Matron for eight years. The Morris family thus worked in the Asylum for nearly fifty years.

MORRIS. —On the 24th May, at Botanic-road, after a short illness, Julia Morris, the beloved mother of Celia and M. C. Morris, aged 64 years.
For 40 years in the Government service.

Family Notices (1884, May 27). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 2 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197795572

THE Friends of the late Mrs. JULIA MORRIS are respectfully informed that her REMAINS will be Removed from her late residence Botanic-road To-morrow (Sunday), the 25th inst., at 3 o’clock p.m., for Interment in the West-terrace Cemetery. S. MAYFIELD & SONS.

Advertising (1884, May 24). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197795511

Miss Celia Morris to be matron of the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum, 6th class, vice Mrs. Julia Morris, deceased.

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. (1884, June 6). The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 – 1922), p. 3 (HALF-PAST ONE O’CLOCK EDITION.). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article208277210

Julia’s brother-in-law Gordon Mainwaring kept a diary in 1851. He mentions visiting the asylum several times:

24 February 1851: Went down to the lunatic asylum with Mary and the children in Mr. Kerr’s dray.

25.—At the asylum all day; walked to the Arab Steed with William Morris. 

26.—Returned from the asylum in Mr. Kerr’s dray.

March 23.—Walked to the asylum with Mackie all well. 

June 21.—Went to town to get settled with Taylor and was disappointed; saw Morris in town. 

23.—Went down to the asylum and fetched home the children on a visit.

The Mainwarings were living at Pine Forest, now the suburb of Enfield; it was about 7 kilometers or an hour and a half’s walk to the Botanic Gardens and the Asylum.

Julia Morris nee Hickey was my 3rd great grand aunt, sister of my 3rd great grandmother Mary Mainwaring nee Hickey.

Related posts:

• A Quiet Life: Gordon Mainwaring (1817-1872)

Wikitree:

• Julia (Hickey) Morris (abt. 1817 – 1884)
• William Morris (abt. 1813 – 1857)

The tristate tour February 2021 part 2

See previous post for the first part of our trip.

On Thursday 9 February the weather was warm reaching 37 degrees (98 degrees Fahrenheit). We took a two hour paddle steamer ride on the Murray through lock 11 and downstream.

We admired the Murray River Flag which dates from the early 1850s; there are three variations. Our paddlesteamer flew the Upper Murray River Flag with the  darker blue bands on its flag, representing the darker waters of the river’s upper reaches. At lock 11 we saw the Combined Murray River Flag.

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  Many years ago we spent a night on the paddle steamer Coonawarra as all other accommodation options in Mildura were full.

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  approaching lock 11

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  Below the Murray River Flag the pole marks the heights of various floods. The 1870 flood was the highest recorded at Mildura.

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  the Mildura weir

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In the evening we visited a local distillery and after sampling several types we purchased a gin infused with saltbush.

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  The distillery is housed in the Mildura Settlers Club

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The next day Friday 12 February we drove to South Australia. Because of the pandemic we needed to apply for permits to enter South Australia and also to return to Victoria.

Trip to South Australia

The Sturt Highway passes along the boundary of Ned’s Corner, a property once owned by the Cudmores. Ned’s Corner Station is now owned by the Trust for Nature who bought the property in 2002 when it was very degraded from drought and overgrazing. The Trust claims the 30,000 hectare property (74,000 acres) is the largest freehold property in Victoria and also the biggest private conservation reserve in the state.

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  looking over the property at Ned’s Corner

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  saltbush

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My great great grandfather James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1908) managed Paringa, 208 sq. miles (531 km²) near present day Renmark from 1857. Paringa was first leased by James’s father Daniel from 1850 as well as a number of other stations. In 1860 James Cudmore leased Ned’s Corner, further up the Murray. From these properties he overlanded sheep to Queensland and took up leases there. In1867 he married Margaret Budge. James and Margaret had 13 children; my grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore was their third child born at Paringa in 1870.

In 1870 James Cudmore and Kenneth Budge, his wife’s brother, bought Gooyea (later Milo) on the Bulloo, Queensland. In October 1871 Kenneth Budge was in charge of a mob of 600 cows and 16 bulls travelling from Paringa, a Cudmore station, to Dowling’s Creek, at Gooyea. A herd of cattle this big could travel only about ten miles a day, so the journey from Paringa to Gooyea would have taken nearly three months.

In 1876 James Cudmore enlarged Ned’s Corner in partnership with Robert Barr Smith and A. H. Pegler. By the end of the 1870s 130,000 sheep were being shorn at his stations on the Murray.

James Mansfield Niall (1860-1941), a first cousin to James Francis Cudmore, worked at Paringa Station as a young man before moving to central western Queensland. His great grandson has been kind enough to share some of James Niall’s reminiscences.

In 1876 I went up to Paringa Station on the Murray, and took a position there as bookkeeper. I had to travel by train to Kapunda, thence by coach to Blanchtown, Overland Corner, to Ral Ral. We travelled most of the night and all day for some 3 days. The coachdriver on the later stages was a man named Lambert. Lambert had been fined the previous week for over-carrying the Paringa mailbag, and when he learned I was going to the Station he did not hesitate to abuse me at every opportunity. I was practically only a schoolboy, and I put up with it until we got to Ral Ral, where a blackfellow met me leading a horse on which I was to ride out to the Station. Lambert on seeing the horse flogged it with his whip, upon which I told him that I had had enough of it, and that he could give me a hiding, or I would give him one. (Other passengers on the coach were John Crozier – late of St Albans near Geelong – Fred Cornwallis West, and Dr Wilson of Wentworth). Lambert and I had a fairly lengthy fight, and I beat him very badly, although he broke my nose, from which I am suffering even today. John Crozier enjoyed himself immensely watching the fight from the box of the coach, calling out ”Go it young un”, a term with which he always greeted me when I met him in the Streets of Melbourne 40 years afterwards. Dr Wilson patched up my nose. We had travelled most of the night in the Coach without meals, I only had sixpence in my pocket, and I hadn’t the effrontery or courage to ask the shanty-keeper at Ral Ral to give me a meal without paying for it, so I bought the nigger a nip of rum with the 6d and rode out to the Station. There I remained for probably 18 months, when in 1878 Mr Kenneth Budge (who was manager of Gooyea Station in Queensland) died suddenly from heart disease getting out of bed, and my first cousin, J F Cudmore, on whose Station I was working, hurried me off to Queensland, without notice, to go up and take control.

Ned’s Corner Station is closed to visitors because of the pandemic.

When we crossed the South Australian border we were inspected for both quarantine and bio-security; you cannot bring fruit into South Australia.

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  biosecurity inspectors checked the car

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  Covid quarantine check – our permits to enter South Australia were in order

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Overlooking Pike Lagoon with the Murray in the distance, near Paringa

At Renmark we had a very pleasant lunch from the Renmark Club overlooking the river.

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  The Renmark Club overlooks the river

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  The Renmark Irrigation trust building and one of the original pumps imported by the Chaffey brothers

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  The Ozone theatre

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  Renmark Hotel

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  Flood levels at Renmark. The 1956 flood was higher than the 1870 flood at Renmark whereas upstream at Mildura the 1870 flood was higher than the flood in 1956

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  the paddle steamer ‘Industry’ at Renmark

After lunch we visited Olivewood, a National Trust property which was originally home to the Chaffey family who pioneered irrigation in the region.

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  A Furphy water tank in the grounds at Olivewood

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  avenue of palms leading to Olivewood

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  Olivewood

My interest in visiting Olivewood was to see the plaque from the grave of my 3rd great grandmother Margaret Rankin nee Gunn (1819 – 1863). The plaque had been stolen from the grave but was found in 1994 and is now cared for by the National Trust at Olivewood. Margaret’s husband Ewan Rankin was an overseer at Bookmark station – the station no longer exists as it is under present-day Renmark.

brass plaque from the grave of Margaret Rankin

There is a link between Olivewood and Paringa as while George Chaffey was siting for Olivewood to be built he stayed at Paringa House, the Cudmore home. There was a painting of the house at Olivewood.

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  A painting of Paringa House on display at Olivewood

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  Paringa House was briefly associated with the Chaffey family and also Breaker Morant

Harry Harbord (Breaker) Morant (1864-1902) probably did not live at Paringa House but worked on the station before enlisting in the army.

Paringa station, Murray River about 1890 by Frederick Needham from the collection of the State Library of South Australia SLSA reference B 62050

Paringa House is now run as a bed and breakfast. The land around the house has been sold off and some of it now forms part of the township. We caught a glimpse of the house from across the river standing on the bridge.

a glimpse of Paringa House from the bridge across the Murray

My great grandfather Arthur Murray Cudmore was born 11 June 1870. Later that year there were enormous floods and the old house was destroyed. The present house was built after the flood. The 1870 flood was measured at 11.65 metres (38 feet) at Mildura but was a very slow flood. In September the flood had reached the verandah at Mildura Station.

bridge across the Murray at Paringa

A black stump at Paringa, claimed to be the largest in Australia. A 600-year-old river red gum tree trunk and root system had been hanging over the bank of the Murray River near Chowilla Station, upstream from Renmark. The old tree apparently had fallen into the river during the flood of 1917 and, becoming a navigation hazard, it was later dragged back on to the riverbank where it had lain ever since. The eight tonne stump was transported to Paringa downstream by river in a journey taking five days.

We paused for afternoon tea at Paringa and drove back.

On the way to Mildura we received news of another lockdown for the whole of the state of Victoria due to the pandemic. We made the decision to return home that evening. We were only cutting our holiday short by one night and the restrictions were that most businesses were to be shut and you could not travel further than five kilometres from home. We did not wish to experience the lockdown in Mildura. So we packed our bags and headed south stopping for dinner in Birchip. We were fortunate to have a holiday between lockdowns.

Birchip Hotel

Drive home to Ballarat via Birchip

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  driving south

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  beer garden at Birchip Hotel

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  Birchip main street

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  looking away from the sunset

Looking away from the sun at sunset

Sources

• P. A. Howell, ‘Cudmore, James Francis (1837–1912)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cudmore-james-francis-271/text9913, published first in hardcopy 1981
• Margaret Steven, ‘Niall, James Mansfield (1860–1941)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/niall-james-mansfield-7835/text13605, published first in hardcopy 1988
• Peter Westcott, ‘Chaffey, George (1848–1932)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chaffey-george-5544/text9449, published first in hardcopy 1979
• R. K. Todd, ‘Morant, Harry Harbord (Breaker) (1864–1902)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morant-harry-harbord-breaker-7649/text13377, published first in hardcopy 1986
• Thomason, B. J. (2014). A slippery Bastard. Overland literary journal. https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-214/feature-bj-thomason/
• Facts and figures [1956 floods] (2006, September 12). ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2006/09/12/1739132.htm
• Painter, A. (n.d.). 13 December 1870 Murray floods (Celebrating South Australia). Professional Historians Association (South Australia). https://www.sahistorians.org.au/175/chronology/december/13-december-1870-murray-floods.shtml
• DARLING AND MURRAY DISTRICT. (1870, September 28). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 2 (LATE EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196734479
• Paringa, SA. (2016, March 22). Aussie Towns. https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/paringa-sa
• Victoria to enter snap five-day coronavirus lockdown from midnight tonight. (2021, February 12). ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-12/victoria-coronavirus-lockdown-announced-by-daniel-andrews/13128514

Two Gordons

The nineteenth-century English-born Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon
(1833 – 1870), is scarcely read now, and if he is remembered at all, it is not for his poetry. The best of Gordon’s verse rises very little above his over-quoted quatrain:

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.

Gordon’s main interest was horse-racing, not poetry, and it shows.

Drawing of Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon riding in a steeplechase. Drawing by Eugene Montagu Scott about 1865 in the collection of the State Library of Victoria.

Gordon’s biographer says that in his youth he caused his father ‘anxiety’. The strength of this euphemism may be judged by what he did about it, which was to boot his son out at the age of twenty on a one-way trip to the colony of South Australia with a letter of introduction to the governor and a bit of advice: join the police force. For the next few years he received ‘financial assistance’ from his father, that is, regular remittances on the condition that he stayed away.

For a while Gordon ran a livery stable behind one of Ballarat’s large hotels, conveniently placed, for he was a great drinker. We live in Ballarat and we also have enjoyed a glass or two at Craig’s, so I suppose we may be said to have a connection with Adam Lindsay Gordon.

I can claim an even closer connection. My third great grandfather Gordon Mainwaring (1817 – 1872), like Adam Lindsay Gordon banished to the colonies and living on remittances sent from home, knew him in Adelaide. Both Gordons joined the colonial police, and both drank to excess.  An 1891 newspaper article claimed Gordon Mainwaring was “on very friendly terms” with Adam Lindsay Gordon “who was also with the police force”.

The ‘with’ in this formula is rather a stretch. Gazetted as a constable on 23 August 1852, Mainwaring lasted only six weeks. On 14 October he was absent from the barracks without leave and returned drunk; he was dismissed.

Gordon Mainwaring, though not Adam Lindsay Gordon, also had a military career, rather less than glorious, rising to the rank of corporal in No. 2 Company of the 1st Battalion, Royal South Australian Volunteer militia.

In 1854, at the time of the Crimean war and the Russian Scare, Mainwaring spoke at a meeting in Walkerville urging men to join the militia, bending the truth in a worthy cause:

Mr. Mainwaring said he had been a soldier for twenty years, and was the first man who drilled the police in this colony. He had served for ten years in India ; he trusted he might say with credit. He had now settled at Walkerville, and purchased a house for £700. He respected the villagers as his friends and neighbours, and would not only volunteer, but gladly teach them their exercise either as artillerymen or infantry, being equally au fait at both. But it must be understood that he would take no additional pay for such extra services. (Cheers.)

Within a year this sketch of himself had become a little tarnished, when he was found in contempt of court, for having “been confined for drunken and disorderly conduct, but liberated on bail, [he] did not appear to his recognizances when called on to answer for his misconduct.”

Adam Lindsay Gordon, unhappy and half-mad, shot himself on Brighton beach Melbourne in 1870, 150 years ago today. Our Gordon, Gordon Mainwaring, married, bought a small farm and had seven children. He lasted until 1872.

The grave and column memorial of Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet, located at the Brighton (Victoria) General Cemetery. Image from the State Library of South Australia.

Photograph of Gordon Mainwaring from “Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda” by Christine Cavenagh-Mainwaring. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. page 103.

Sources

• Leonie Kramer, ‘Gordon, Adam Lindsay (1833–1870)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gordon-adam-lindsay-3635/text5653, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 24 June 2020.
• Wilding, M. . What do poets drink. The Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee Inc. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://adamlindsaygordon.org/whatdopoetsdrink/
• Magner, Brigid. “‘He Didn’t Pay His Rent!’ Commemorating Adam Lindsay Gordon in Brighton.” LaTrobe Journal, State Library of Victoria, Sept. 2018, www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-102-Brigid-Magner.pdf.
• POLICE FORCE. (1852, October 23). Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 – 1904), p. 8. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160111006 
• Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. Page 107.
• VOLUNTEER BILL. (1854, September 4). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 3. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49202724 
• VOLUNTEER MILITARY FORCE. (1855, January 26). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 2. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49308970 
• LAW AND CRIMINAL COURTS. (1855, October 22). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 3. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49296014
• The Week. (1891, May 16). South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1895), p. 12. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91542029

Related post

• A Quiet Life: Gordon Mainwaring (1817-1872)

A masked ball

In April 1919 the Adelaide weekly ‘Critic‘ claimed that because of the chaos Spanish flu had caused nothing could be planned.

Further down the page there was a discussion of plans for a Victory Ball to be held two months off, on 5 June, with a dance for juveniles on the following night. The proceeds were to be in aid of the Cheer-Up Society, an organisation for the aid and comfort of Australian soldiers passing through Adelaide. My great grandmother Mrs A.M. Cudmore, who was on the executive committee, keenly supported this effort on behalf of returned men.

At the Sign of Four O’ (1919, April 16). Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), p. 29. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212480508

At first it was planned to hold the Ball in the Exhibition Building on North Terrace, but this was being used as an isolation hospital for influenza patients.

Though a Peace Ball was cancelled in Sydney because of the influenza outbreak, Adelaide’s Victory Ball went ahead at the Adelaide Town Hall.

On the afternoon of the ball Mrs Cudmore supervised a rehearsal for debutantes.

GENERAL NEWS. (1919, June 4). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5654323

Frock worn by the Mayoress (Mrs. C. R. J. Glover)  FEMININE VANITIES (1919, June 7). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63761531

Depicted in the sketch … is the elegant gown worn by the Mayoress at Government House on the occasion of Admiral Viscount Jellicoe’s visit, also at the Victory Ball on Thursday. This frock is composed of supple black satin, with an overdress of tulle, weighted by steel and gold embroidery. The corsage permits a peep of gold tissue between the less diaphonous fabrics with what is at hand. A short length of widish insertion, rather open and bold in design, can be turned to endless account.

In July 1919 there was another ball, the University Ball. This time Mrs Arthur Cudmore had the job of supervising sixty-four debutantes carrying posies tied with ribbons in University colours.

1919 Adelaide: Guests attending a ball (not specified), possibly for debutantes in a hall decorated with garlands of flowers in Adelaide. Image retrieved from the State Library of South Australia PRG-280-1-29-65 and subsequently colorised using the MyHeritage photo colorizing tool.

 

The influenza epidemic, it seems, had little effect on Adelaide social life.

A recent ABC News article recalls the 1919 Adelaide quarantine camp.

15,000 people died in Australia from the 1918-19 pandemic out of a population of 5 million. 40 per cent of Australia’s population was infected by the influenza but its subsequent death rate of 2.7 per cent per 1,000 members of the population was the lowest recorded of any country during the pandemic. Worldwide 50 to 100 million people died. The first Australian case was recorded in January 1919 in Melbourne,
Victoria. The virus spread to New South Wales and South Australia, with these States closing their borders to limit the spread of the virus.

Travellers from South Australia to Melbourne were not allowed to return home to South Australia. Quarantine was offered in association with soldiers who were being quarantined on Kangaroo Island and in two other camps. Eventually several hundred travellers from Adelaide were allowed to travel back to Adelaide on heavily guarded trains having signed declarations that they had taken every precaution not to be exposed. A quarantine camp was set up on Jubilee Oval next to the Torrens River. There were 100 military tents and more accommodation was set up in the adjacent Machinery Hall. About 640 people who had been visiting Victoria and elsewhere were quarantined at the site.

It was said that many people quarantined at Jubilee Oval treated the experience as an extended holiday and, cleared of the infection, were reluctant to leave.

1919 View of the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval, Adelaide Photograph retrieved from State Library of South Australia PRG 1638/2/67

Young men at the Quarantine Camp, Jubilee Oval [PRG 1638/2/68]

Woman at Quarantine Camp [PRG 1638/2/80]

 

Below the well-advertised cheerfulness, however, was an ugly truth. The Spanish flu was extremely dangerous. In South Australia 540 people died of the flu, the equivalent in today’s population of 15,000. No Australians have yet died of COVID-19.

Exhibition Building, North Terrace, Adelaide about 1900. The Jubilee Exhibition Building was just north of the camp and was turned into an isolation hospital.  [State Library South Australia image B 1606] (The building was demolished in 1962)

 

Source

• How Did the 1919 Spanish Flu Isolation Camp Become a Party? Malcolm Sutton- ABC Radio Adelaide – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-14/when-quarantine-during-the-spanish-flu-pandemic-became-a-party/11958724

Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893)

My third great grandmother Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893) was born near Adare, County Limerick, Ireland, to Daniel James Nihill (1761 – 1846) and Dymphna Nihill née Gardiner (1790 – 1866). Mary was the oldest of their eight children, seven of whom were girls.

Mary Cudmore née Nihill probably photographed in the 1850s

For some period, Mary’s father Daniel James Nihill, was employed as a schoolmaster at Cahirclough (Caherclogh), Upper Connello, about ten miles south of Adare. Daniel’s father James owned a large stone farmhouse near Adare called ‘Rockville’. Daniel and his family lived with James Nihill and cared for him until his death in 1835. The house and its associated estate, Barnalicka, were then passed to the daughters of Daniel’s older brother Patrick Nihill (died 1822).

[Rockville House, now known as Barnalick House, operates as bed-and-breakfast tourist accommodation.]

On 15 January 1835 Mary married Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore who was from a village near Cahirclough, called Manister.

The Limerick Chronicle of 24 January 1835 reported the marriage:

At Drehedtarsna Church, in this County, by the Rev. S. Lennard, Daniel Cudmore, Esq. son of the late Patrick Cudmore, of Manister, Esq. to Mary, eldest daughter of Daniel Nihill, of Rockville, near Adare, Esq.

The Cudmores were poorer than the Nihills. Daniel’s parents had separated and his father had died in 1827 . About 1822 their mother, a Quaker, sent Daniel and his older brother Milo to be educated by fellow Quakers in Essex, England. In 1830, when Milo finished his apprenticeship to a baker and flour dealer, Daniel and Milo returned to Ireland.

Daniel seems not to have trained for a trade, but his mother found a position for him with John Abell, a family friend, who ran a hardware store in Rutland Street, Limerick. There he gained a working knowledge of the hardware business, which perhaps proved useful to him in his later career.

In January 1834 Daniel Cudmore sought permission to emigrate as an assisted immigrant to New South Wales, proposing that he would undertake to ‘explore the interior of New Holland’. His application was turned down. A newspaper notice in the Freemans’ Journal of 15 April 1834 made it clear that assisted emigration was available only to young and married agricultural labourers who intended to take their wives and families with them.

Daniel had known Mary Nihill for a some time. In 1833 he wrote a poem to her:

To Mis N—-l
Dear Mary, since thy beaming eye
First raised within my heart a sigh –
Since first thy tender accents clear,
More sweet than music, charm’d my ear,
My heart beat but for thee, love.

This heart which once so blythe and gay,
Ne’er owned before Love’s gentle sway,
Now bound by Cupid’s magic spell!
O! Words would fail were I to tell
The half I felt for thee, love.

Though far from Erin’s vales I stray’d,
I never met so fond a maid;
Though England’s fair ones vaunt their gold,
With all their wealth their hearts are cold –
I leave them all for thee, love.

And should Australia be my lot,
To dwell in some secluded spot,
Content and free from want and care,
Would’st then my humble fortune share? –
My hopes all rest on thee, love!

The handwritten original is in the possession of one of my cousins. It appears that ‘Australia’ in the last verse was added well after its composition. This suggests that Daniel had decided to emigrate but had not yet decided where.

In 1835, as Mary’s grandfather James Nihill approached the end of his life, Daniel Nihill, perhaps recognising that he could have no expectations, and with little to keep him in Ireland, decided to emigrate to Australia. By their marriage, Mary and Daniel Cudmore qualified for assistance. On 11 February 1835 they left on the “John Denniston” for Hobart Town. Mary’s mother and two of her sisters travelled with them.

Six months later, after the death of Daniel’s father James in July, Daniel Nihill and Mary’s other sisters followed.

On his arrival in Hobart Daniel Cudmore applied for a teaching position. However, a review of his application found that it was not written by himself. Mary had written the document on his behalf. Nevertheless, such was the shortage of trained people, Daniel was engaged as a teacher and clerk at Ross, in the Midlands, seventy miles north of Hobart.

On 22 July 1836 Mary gave birth to her first child, a daughter called Dymphna Maria, at George Town, where Mary’s parents were teachers. George Town was a small settlement on the Tamar River thirty miles north of Launceston.

By the end of 1836, however, Daniel had moved back to Hobart, where he found work at De Graves Brewery, later to be known as Cascade Brewery.

A year later Daniel and Mary decided to try their luck in Adelaide, which had been proclaimed a colony on 28 December 1836. Daniel arrived on 15 April 1837. Mary, leaving her 14 month old daughter in the care of her mother, travelled on the “Siren” from Launceston to Adelaide with her father and sister Rebekah. Mary was pregnant, and on 11 October 1837 gave birth prematurely to a son, James Francis, on the “Siren” off Kangaroo Island.

On 3 December 1837 visitors from England, who were friends of Daniel’s mother Jane, called on the Cudmores. They wrote:

… at a hut we saw an elderly man sitting at the door, reading, we found it was the dwelling of Daniel Cudmore, son of Jane Cudmore of Ireland…and the old man was his father-in-law. D. Cudmore has greatly improved his prospects temporally by removing from Tasmania, where he was an assistant in the undesirable business of a brewer; he is here occupied in erecting Terra Pisa buildings and both himself and his wife are much respected.

Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and his wife Mary probably taken in the 1850s

Daniel acquired his first block of land in North Adelaide in December 1837. By 1838 he was a partner in a new brewing company. Daniel farmed at Modbury, ten miles north-east of the main Adelaide settlement. In 1847 he inherited property in Ireland. This he sold to take up a pastoral lease in South Australia. In the 1850s and 1860s he acquired more pastoral leases in Queensland and New South Wales. Mary Cudmore appears to have had an active involvement in the management of the Cudmore properties. In 1868, for example, it was she who gave the instructions for the sale of a farm called Yongalain 1868.

Beside the two children mentioned above Mary Cudmore had 7 more:

• Mary Jane Cudmore 1839–1912
• Margaret Alice Cudmore 1842–1871
• Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore 1844–1913
• Sara Elizabeth (Rosy) Cudmore 1846–1930
• Robert Cudmore 1848–1849
• Milo Robert Cudmore 1852–1913
• Arthur Frederick Cudmore 1854–1919

Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811-1893): portrait in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia donated by her grandson Collier Cudmore

In 1862 Daniel Cudmore bought and extended a villa in the Adelaide Hills
at Claremont, Glen Osmond, five miles south-east of the city. There he
retired with Mary. Daniel died in 1891, she in 1893. They were buried in
the Anglican cemetery at Mitcham. In his retirement he had published a
volume of poetry, including the poem he wrote to Mary in 1833.

Claremont, Glen Osmond

The Advertiser TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. (1893, March 7). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25351396

Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery

Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery

The theme of this week’s post is ‘prosperity’. It is pleasing to suppose that beside Daniel and Mary’s material success, they prospered as a couple, joined together, through richer and poorer, for fifty-six years.

Related posts

• Portraits of Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and his wife Mary in the Art Gallery of South Australia
• H is for the Cudmore family arrival in Hobart in 1835
• Q is for questing in Queensland

Sources

• In the 1990s James Kenneth Cudmore (1926 – 2013), my second cousin once removed, of Quirindi New South Wales, commissioned Elsie Ritchie to write the Cudmore family history. The work built on the family history efforts of many family members. It was published in 2000. It is a very large and comprehensive work and includes many Cudmore family stories and transcripts of letters and documents. (Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.], 2000.)
• P. A. Howell, ‘Cudmore, Daniel Michael (1811–1891)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cudmore-daniel-michael-6335/text9913, published first in hardcopy 1981
• Gunton, Eric Gracious homes of colonial Adelaide (1st ed). E. Gunton, [Adelaide], 1983.

Further reading

• Cudmore, Daniel.  A few poetical scraps : from the portfolio of an Australian pioneer : who arrived at Adelaide in the year 1837  Printed by Walker, May &Co Melbourne 1882