Governor Young's Report on Port Lincoln

In April, 1850, Governor Sir Henry Young gave a comprehensive report dealing in part with Port Lincoln, which he visited in October the previous year. His report is interesting and informative, and I shall give it practically in full : —

"A speculative town ship extending to the preposterous length of about five miles was originally laid out alone the margin of Boston Harbour (the adjacent bay is Port Lincoln and is uninhabited) and at the extremity of it, on an eminence overlooking both bays, was laid the foundation stone of an intended church, which however was never proceeded with, and is now only alluded to by the settlers as a record of the exaggerated aud hitherto disappointed expectations of the early purchasers of land, many of whom are resident in England."

"The present occupiers of the township are thinly scattered along the opposite end of Boston Bay, about 60 in number and several of the best and early built cottages remain unroofed and abandoned. During my visit a subscription list was completed to £150 which will entitle the settlers to an equal amount from the Colonial Treasury, and I have laid the foundation stone of a Church to be called 'St. Thomas,' suitable in size to the population and its scanty pecuniary resources. It is now in progress of erection and I hope and believe it will escape the ill success of the previous attempt at supplying the settlement with a place of worship. Divine service was performed during my visit by the Lord Bishop of Adelaide in a woolshed, which had been obligingly lent, and cleaned out for the purpose by its owner. The catechist, having a few children less than twenty — which is the number required by law to constitute a school entitled to receive aid from the Public Treasury — was in consequence labouring under a disadvantage, which he could but ill afford and from which I hope he and others in similar unavoidable circumstances will soon be permanently relieved by an alteration in the law."

"Neither the Bishop, the Protector of Aborigines, nor myself, after repeated enquiries could at that time ascertain that there was any reasonable prospect of successfully establishing a school for the children of the aborigines at Port Lincoln. Mr. Schurmann, the Government interpreter, was formerly employed as a missionary teacher of the natives, and felt it his duty to induce his religious society after a protracted experiment to abandon the attempt, as one not sufficiently profitable. I have not however despaired and at the end oi this month a school for 20 children will be tried on the terms (set forth in my despatch No. 50 of March 21). Two natives educated at the Adelaide Aborigines' School were married while I was at Port Lincoln, by the Bishop, and entered into the service of one of the sheep farmers."

"The number of sheep exceeds 70,000, the wool exported is about 600 bales, worth from £10 to £12 a bale. All the supplies, of every kind, are imported from Adelaide at high freights."

"The Port Lincoln copper mine is conveniently situated in the vicinity of Tumby Bay, and another mine subsequent to my visit has been discovered near Mount Liverpool. These mines are well spoken of, but it is most probable that local capital will be insufficient to develop their value, for in the usual event of ore not being at once raised in remunerative quantities and the expense of steam engines to lift the water becoming necessary, colonial enterprise is usually paralysed."

Doubtless this visit by the Lieutenant-Governor and the Bishop was the forerunner of the Poonindie Mission Station. The Church of St. Thomas was built upon Crown lands. In 1857 Mr. John Bishop, as church warden, of St. Thomas, applied for permission to cut timber for fencing without payment of licence fees. The application was granted. I suppose in course of time they would get a title for the land.

Under date April 26, 1935, the late Canon F. Slaney Poole wrote to me regarding this church. "I have a clear recollection of my arrival at Port Lincoln in the Lubra on a Sunday afternoon. In the evening I assisted Dr. Hammond at the service by reading the lessons. On Monday morning we reached Poonindie, which was my home for the six subsequent months. St. Thomas Church was a small building, about 30 or 40 ft. long and (say) 25 ft. wide."

I have not been able to trace yet whether the Port Lincoln mine was opened after Governor Robe's report on the metalliferous stone of Lipson's Cove. The mines did not have a long life, they were idle when Governor MacDonnell visited there toward the end of the fifties. A facetious correspondent of the "Register " wrote a few comments on this trip. The correspondent said that there were no indications of improvement or general progression. He did not approve of the wedding between the "native gent" and the " native lady." After the wedding, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the Church of St. Thomas was performed. He thought that a coin resembling a silver fourpenny piece was deposited with an inscription. The ceremony was impressively read by the Lord Bishop and His Excellency made a short speech in which he exhorted the listeners to Christian unity, and expressed his gladness that the reproach in the non-possession of a place of worship was about to be wiped away.

For the "city," the display was quite a brilliant one and they were so excited that they followed the ceremony with a "Hip, hip, hurrah.'' He said that His Excellency omitted to wet the stone in the usual way; the omission caused high dudgeon among his brother masons. Apparently the church was not laid out east and west. The old sore of what became of the money collected for the church of St. Nicholas still rankled, and the correspondent hoped that the Bishop would keep a look out on the funds being collected for the new church.

The earthly representatives of St. Nicholas, he said, had badly discharged the duties of the guardianship, for nothing but disaster, distress or " dismal dumps" had characterised the place ever since. The party afterwards proceeded up the gulf until the good landmark, Mount Young, bore west by south, when they steered east to Port Germein.

In September, 1854, His Excellency paid a visit, on horseback, to Port Augusta and the papers of the days give a good account of the trip, but he did not get out on the Peninsula. It is noteworthy that at the time of his visit, the road through Beautiful Valley (now referred to as Horrocks' Pass) was in construction. In the report of the trip it is recorded that "Mr. Armstrong, overseer of roads under Mr. Nobb (long employed in the Durban Collieries) is sanguine and very confident that the stratum of slate and black iron exhibited throughout the section of the cutting of the hill side in Beautiful Valley, indicated the prospect of coal being found by boring."

We have Major Robe suggesting the possibility of coal on the west side of the Gulf, now in Sir Henry Young's report the prospect is in Flinders Range. If these prognostications could be brought to fruition now, what a good thing it would be for Eyre Peninsula, with its iron ore.

[The next article will deal with Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell.]