No 10 Kadina

But despite this Kadina keeps on smiling. It is not troubling itself about the setbacks of the past. Kismet! They are done with, and what is the use of complaining? So Kadina turns a bright face to the future, and tells you that things might be worse. And so they might. When you come to look into the resources of Kadina you soon discover there are good grounds for optimism. It is the centre of a large agricultural district, and the season has never opened better in the history of the peninsula. There is still, of course, uncertainty regarding the trend of future markets. But that is no new problem. It is a hardy annual. And if prices should not come up to expectations, well — will not a bumper harvest go a long way towards making amends? So Kadina keeps its long face for Sundays, and feels quite confident about the future.

Nevertheless, in times gone by, Kadina was in a unique position. In wheat and copper she had two strings to her bow. If wheat was down copper was usually up. If copper slumped then wheat climbed. Those days are past. The famous copper mines are now just history— history and a stack of ruins.

Wallaroo Mines

The Wallaroo mines are not in Wallaroo. They are in Kadina— just a mile out of the town. That is a circumstance which confuses many people who do not know the geographical lay out of the peninsula. They are only called the Wallaroo mines. The name was given to them because there was no township when they were found, and their site was part of the old Wallaroo sheep station. If you give a dog a bad name it sticks. Wallaroo stuck to the mines. Kadina just said 'Damn,' and did nothing more about it.

The other afternoon I motored out to the mines. The day was bleak and the sky heavily overcast. It was a typical day of mourning. I had a feeling as I gazed on the dismantled and deserted works that I was assisting at the obsequies of an industry which had added over £20,000,000 to the wealth of South Australia. I am, of course, including the production of the famous Moonta mines. Let me give you the story.

It sounds preposterous to say that the Adelaide University owes its existence to Kadina. Yet such is a fact. The man who gave the money to found the University was Sir Walter Hughes — and Sir Walter was a poor man until the discovery of copper on his station made him a wealthy one. Next time you are on North terrace you can, if you are sufficiently interested, see a statue to Sir Walter on the lawn in front of the University buildings. He was a Fifeshire lad who became a cooper. He saved enough money to acquire a small vessel, in which he traded between India and China. It was in this vessel that he arrived in Adelaide in 1842. He became a squatter, and Kadina of today was formerly part of his run. But it was dry country. Sheep could not be depastured there in summer, and a series of seasonal reverses almost brought the captain— he bore this title until he received the more elaborate one— to the ground.

It was at this juncture that Fate took a hand in the game. A kangaroo rat discovered copper on the property. The little animal in burrowing its hole threw up tiny scraps of greenish stone. These were seen by a shepherd, James Boor. This was the beginning of the famous Wallaroo copper mine. Captain Hughes was a made man. Some years later he returned to England, where he died in 1903.

These things came back to me as I stood regarding the great dump which today is the monument of the dead mine. There was not a soul in sight just that immense dump standing stark and silent in the midst of a forest of roofless, tenantless, and ghost-like buildings. 'Twenty millions,' I murmured. It seemed incredible. Eighty years ago Kadina was a shepherd's hut. Today it is a young city of 3,000 souls. Many people who have risen to prominence both at home and abroad have been connected with It. Daisy Kennedy is perhaps its brightest star. The famous violinist was born there, or, rather, at Wallaroo Mines, where her father had charge of the school. The town gave Australia two Premiers in John Verran and John Scaddan (ex-Premier of Western Australia). In Sir R. D. Ross it provided a Treasurer and Speaker (1881-7), in L. L. Purner a C.P.W. in the Downer Government, and in David Bews a Minister of Education in the Playford Administration of 1890. And there were others. Not a bad record for a town founded by a kangaroo rat!

'Kadina,' Mr. Rodney Cockburn says, means 'lizard plain.' It is a corruption of the native 'caddy-yeena.' In writing of the three towns — Kadina, Wallaroo, and Moonta— one is liable to overlap. Their history is almost identical; they are so close together. If, therefore, I step on someone's toes by ascribing to one place something which took place in another, you may accept my apologies beforehand, knowing that I err not so much on the ground of ignorance as on that of convenience.

The First Minutes

I had a look recently at the first minute book of the Wallaroo Mines. I do not think they called it a company in those days. It was, of course, years before the amalgamation. In view of the tremendous wealth taken out of the ground — over £2,000,000 in dividends alone — some of the entries are interesting. For instance, the first: — "At a meeting of the proprietors of the Wallaroo Mines, held at the offices of Messrs. Elder, Sterling & Co., Grenfell street, Adelaide, on the 17th of August, 1860, it was resolved that a board of management for the future conduct of the affairs, general and particular, of the mines, be constituted, and that it consist for the present of W. W. Hughes, Hon. Edward Sterling, and John Taylor." Other resolutions were that George Boothby be appointed acting secretary at a salary of £50 per annum, Mr. Wormington as captain of the mine at £400 per annum, and W. Mair as clerk at the mine at £300 per annum. It was resolved to seek an assayer, and a 'competent person' in anticipation of smelting works being established at the mine. They never dreamt that day that the 'anticipated' smelting works were destined to become the largest copper works in the world.

“That for the present Captain Hughes be requested to take on himself the general supervision of the interests of the mines”, and "that the ore now lying at Port Adelaide be shipped in bulk to England."

In a minute of August 27, 1860, appears this interesting entry:— “Mr. Sterling to wait on the Chief Secretary, and raise the question of postal communication with Wallaroo." At that time the whole district was Wallaroo. There was no Kadina.

Equally illuminating are the entries in the first minute book of the Moonta Mines. Here is a complete copy of the first minutes: —

"Adelaide, 11th December, 1861. At a meeting of the proprietors of the Moonta Mines held this day at the office of Messrs. Elder, Sterling & Co., present the Honble. Edward Sterling, Messrs. Thos. Elder, John Taylor, and Robert Barr Smith. Mr. Thos. Elder was unanimously called to the chair. Mr. Robert B. Smith was requested to act as secretary, pro tem. Mr. Sterling reported having received from Government the following twelve mineral leases numbered 930, 931, 932, 933, 953, 956, 957, 958, 959, 961, 962, and 964. It was then resolved that instructions be given to Mr. Belt, solicitor, to prepare the deed of settlement to embody in its general features the deed of settlement of the Wallaroo Mines proprietors. It was also resolved that a secretary and clerk be appointed, and that weekly meetings of the proprietary be held— Wednesday being named as the most suitable day for meeting. The meeting was then adjourned. Thos. Elder, Chairman."

For those of us who have seen the end of the mining operations there is something pathetically interesting in these records of the beginning.

"Dry" Country

Before I got to Kadina they told me it was a dry country— so dry that in the early days sheep could only be de-pastured there in the winter. In another sense, a few years ago, they told me America was a 'dry' country. Personal acquaintance showed me it was far from that. Similarly personal acquaintance with Kadina showed it was not so dry as some people would have one believe. When I left the bitumen soon after crossing the South Hummocks, the sky had been weeping steadily for a week. The 'swish' of the water on the macadam roads as the car ploughed through miles of miniature lakes grew horribly monotonous, and I began to wonder if it would not have been wiser if I had fitted the vehicle with floats instead of wheels.

The fact of the matter is that the peninsula has never had such a propitious opening of the season in its history. That is not only true of Kadina. It applies equally to the whole 'leg' from Port Wakefield down to Cape Spencer. There was water everywhere. It was curious to be told in town after town that lack of water was their chief problem, when every footstep I took echoed 'splosh splosh,' and liquid mud oozed up over one's boots, and climbed half-way up one's unmentionables. If the peninsula suffers from want of liquid this coming summer, then I can only pronounce its case as chronic and incurable.

But the peninsula won't so suffer. It is in for a bumper harvest. The sub-soil of this wonderful South Australian wheat belt is saturated with moisture, and even a 'drought' for the rest of the year will do no real harm, while propitious rains in the spring will probably return a yield which will make the farmers grin from ear to ear. And they deserve it. All this country around Kadina and southwards through Maitland and Minlaton comprises some of the finest wheat lands in the State. If it were not so good these copper towns would have crashed badly when the mines ceased operating, and 1,700 men were thrown on the labor market. As it was, they scarcely felt the jolt. Any town which can stand up to a thousand and a half of its breadwinners suddenly finding themselves minus jobs, and still pay 20/ in the £. has something more solid than hot air behind it. Kadina did it.

Model Municipality

I do not know any members of the Kadina Corporation. Yet I am able to say that it is a wonderfully efficient body. It is not difficult to do that. All one has to do is to take stock of the bitumen streets, the kerbed footpaths, the well-drained roads, the modern lighting, the picturesque town gardens, and the handsome municipal buildings. Then get to work in a sticky-nose fashion and find out how much is owing on all this.

In the case of Kadina you will discover that it is free of debt. Better than that, even, is the fact that it has a reserve of £3,500 on fixed deposit. This represents profit from the municipally owned electric light which is sold there cheaper than in Adelaide, and yet is giving such a good return that the question of further reduction in the price is shortly to be considered. The present price for current is 6d. and 2½d. per unit for light and power respectively. The municipal rate is 2/ in the £. The present mayor is Mr. E. H. C. Hall, and the town clerk is Mr. P. W. Harris, who has held the position for 22 years.

The municipality was sixty years old this month. It was brought into existence in 1872. No one looking at the model well-laid-out town of today could imagine the “stagnant water and accumulated filth” which were the subject of debate when some two hundred residents met in a room at the Wombat Hotel sixty years ago to consider the formation of the municipality. There was some strenuous talk at that meeting, for forty odd citizens regarded the proposal as "premature." Nevertheless, a motion to create the municipality was agreed to. Kadina was then twelve years old.

The wards were named Hughes (Sir W. W. Hughes), Elder (Sir Thomas Elder), Sterling (Hon. Edward Sterling), and Taylor (John Taylor), after the owners of the Wallaroo Mines. They are still so named today, but the growth of the town has necessitated the addition of other wards. The first council met at the office of Mr. Thomas Hall (the first mayor), then situated at the corner of Graves and Hallett streets. The residence of Mr. G. T. Herbert today occupies the site of the first post office at the comer of Digby street and No.6 Lane. The records give the first postmaster as Mr. William Graham. You will observe that I put the responsibility for this statement on to the records, because the date of Mr. Graham's advent seems to have been 1866, while two years prior to that the post office was apparently occupying its second home. That is a point which local historians should investigate. The postmaster today is served by a staff of 10 assistants.

In the early seventies the education of the young was chiefly a matter of private enterprise. The schools remembered were conducted by Messrs. John Gaskell, R. Henderson, and W. R. Bailey. A "seminary for young ladies"— how the Victorians loved these kind of phrases — was conducted by a Mrs. Francis. It was not until some time in the eighties that a public school was started in the present Orange lodge room, with Mr. Samuel Sullivan as headmaster.

Today, in addition to the primary schools in Kadina and Wallaroo Mines, there is a High School and a technical school. To the cost of the former the local branch of the Returned Soldiers' League contributed £1,000, and it is known as the Memorial High School. Could there be a better monument?

When, in three weeks' time, I tell you the story of Maitland, I will recount, incidentally, portion of the history of agricultural Kadina, and the big stretch of country lying between Yorketown and Port Pirie. It will reveal the old pioneering phenomenon— that the 'best' land turned out to be the worst, and that the despised portions of the country have since proved to be the best. It will be another justification of my refusal, in my South-Eastern articles, to accept the popular belief that the so-called worthless land in that region is really worthless.

In front of the Town Hall in Kadina there is a picturesque square. It contains a monument, ''Erected to the memory of the Hon. David Bews, as a slight recognition of valuable services rendered to this town and district, A.D. 1892." There is a similar pedestal in Wallaroo. I wonder how many of our present-day legislators are worthy of having their services thus commemorated? [see 1902 portrait below]

David Bews was Minister of Education in the Playford Administration of 1890. Prior to entering public life he was editor of the 'Kadina and Wallaroo Times.' Yorke Peninsula never had a greater champion. He was bom in the Orkneys in 1850. As a baby in arms he was brought to South Australia by his parents, who, after trying their luck at the Victorian goldfields, took up a farm near Port Elliot in 1854. As a lad young Bews worked on this property until he secured a clerkship in the old Kadina and Wallaroo railway. From then on his interests were closely identified with the peninsula for the rest of his life. He was goods manager when the Government took over the railway, but the public service held no attractions for him, and he resigned to become a newspaper man. He served several terms as Mayor of Wallaroo, and entered the Assembly in 1885. He died in Melbourne in 1891 while on his way to represent South Australia at a postal convention.

NEXT WEEK Wallaroo: The Front Door of Yorke Peninsula.

Images

• • The great dump at Wallaroo Mines serves as a reminder of former activity on the now silent and deserted fields

  • Mr. E. H. C. Hall, Mayor of Kadina.

  • There is something pathetic about the dismantled buildings on the mining fields. A few years ago they throbbed with life, but today they are mere ruins on a quiet landscape.

  • Monument erected by the townspeople in memory of David Bews, in recognition of his services to Kadina.