Pioneers' Accounts of Port Lincoln Building Activity

The month of June, 1839, supplied several accounts of the new settlement at Port Lincoln. One came from Thomas Allen, a most exalted man, for he was the " late chief gardener to H.M. William IV at Kew." He gave a very glowing account of the district to Mr. Osmond Gilles, on whose behalf the examination was made.

Allen left Holdfast Bay on May 23, and arrived at Port Lincoln on May 25, In the brig Dorset. His report is dated Adelaide, June 10, 1839, so he did not devote overmuch time to the work. The boat anchored off Happy Valley. He compared the view with " Richmond in Surrey," on a large scale. Kirton Point, he said, " is judiciously selected for a wharfage, on account of the facility it affords to land cargo. Nature has been most bountiful in forming a fabric imperishable and requiring little of human art to convert the material to its proper uses, and making a noble wharf that may vie with any in the world."

W. F. Porter also described Port Lincoln in a letter published in the ' Gazette ' of June 20, 1839, but probably written earlier, for in referring to Kirton Point he called it "the intended site for the town of Port Lincoln." An island not laid down in Flinders' chart. Porter named Donnington (sic) island. The anchorage, he said, was good in any part of the harbor ; the bottom was said to be chiefly soft mud and shells; the tide rose and fell 5 ft. to 6 ft., but without regularity ; strong westerly winds caused high tides. Fish were plentiful in every part of the bay, snapper being abundant off Kirton Point. Some sketches of the appearance of the islands at the mouth of Spencer's Gulf and elsewhere which Mr. Porter sent in, were to be seen at the Survey Office.

CLERGYMAN'S IMPRESSIONS

A Church of England clergyman [Rev. Wix - see Thursday 28 March 1940] wrote a letter on July 31, of his impressions. He went to Port Lincoln with the idea of settling there, the inhabitants solicited him to remain, as measures were about to be taken for the erection of a church, but the clergyman's opinion was 'Ex nih lo nihil fit'; far too few for a congregation, or to subscribe a competent income. Apparently he did not stay, but his going did not deter the residents from making the preliminary arrangements for erecting a church. This matter will be dealt with when writing of works and buildings.

He remarked that he had Edward John Eyre as a fellow-passenger to Port Lincoln. Eyre was beginning his first attempt to travel overland to the west. Eyre's equipment, according to the clergyman, was five men, two native boys and 10 horses. This clergyman, like all others was enthusiastic of the possibilities of the port, " which I venture to foretell," he wrote, " will, at no distant period, be the mart of South Australia."

To this gentleman must be given credit for the term ' Port Lincoln Proper,' which has been corrupted, by local inhabitants into ' The Proper ' or ' Proper Bay,' for in referring to the harbor he wrote : —

" It is more properly called Boston Bay, than Port Lincoln, as it is divided by Kirton Point from Port Lincoln Proper." The term may have been in use locally, but this is the first reference in print. A few months afterwards Dr. Harvey also used the term Port Lincoln Proper in one of his reports.

DISAGREEMENT OVER SITE

It was at a meeting held on April 8, 1839 in the Adelaide and Port Lincoln Hotel in Adelaide that the settlers disagreed with T. Horton James's selection of the site for the town. I think this hotel was on the north side of Franklin street, and very near West terrace. In the licensing record the hotel was subsequently called the Adelaide Hotel, with J. Barnett as landlord. In Kingston's map of 1842 the hotel is called the Port Lincoln Hotel.

It will be remembered that James pictured the township extending from Kirton Point to the Northern end of Boston Bay. B. P. Winter in his original design did not go so far as that northern point, but even as far as he first proposed, it was too far, so at that meeting it was agreed to limit the water frontage blocks to 167, giving a distance of about 3½ miles of coastline, and that blocks 1 to 29 on the northern end be cancelled and an equal number substituted on the Kirton Point end of the waterfrontages as planned.

At this meeting Osmond Gilles, who was not one of the originators, yet by this time was deeply interested in the scheme, was elected to the chair. The famous George Stevenson was also at the meeting, and it might be mentioned he was frequently in the chair at other meetings of the association. At the same meeting Gilles, Shaen and Smith were delegated the task of waiting upon Governor Gawler to ascertain his views regarding the reserve abutting on the water frontage, and probably ask for the portion of the land regulations relating thereto to be abrogated. The Governor compromised, and allowed a certain number of the blocks to have absolute water frontages. However, the wharves, jetties, bond stores, shipbuilding yards, and so on then envisaged, did not eventuate, and now the whole populace has to suffer the loss of the beach opposite such blocks having the water mark as their seaside boundary.

BLOCKS TO WATERS EDGE

It is not clear, but it looks as if the original plan did not provide for any streets running down to the water's edge, for one report states that had the original scheme been carried out, the public would have had no access to the beach. Probably this accounts for Porter building on the wrong allotment. It is natural to ask who was the first to erect a building at Port Lincoln. This question is difficult to answer. References to building operations are fairly frequent in the first six months, and so I cannot do better than quote some, leaving the reader to decide who had the prior claim to the honor.

Between March 19 and 30, we are told that tents and various temporary buildings had been erected at Happy Valley. Mr. C. C. Dutton, under date April 17, 1839 — less than a month after the first landing — recorded that it was proposed to enclose the spring on the coast fronting Happy Valley with stonework, so as to form a fountain and reservoir for shipping to water at, and also that Mr. Porter had " sunk a well upon one of his half acre frontages " and in doing so met with water at 12ft., apparently corresponding with the water level of the spring opposite Happy Valley. It was also said that Mr. Porter's establishment had already begun in make a big show ; fruit trees he had planted were looking healthy.

Mr. Dutton continues : — " Mr. Charles Smith's establishment at Happy Valley is progressing rapidly : he has already (17/4/1839) erected an hotel, and is now building a house of freestone, quarried upon the spot. The stone, it was said, cuts easily and hardens on exposure. Mr. Hawson has also commenced (17/4/1839) building at Kirton Point."

BUILT ON WRONG BLOCK

Charles Smith, writing in Adelaide under date May 3, gave some particulars which overlapped Dutton's information. It was said that " Mr. Porter has built himself a very substantial house, in which his family now resides. His son is building another. There is also a store, and the habitation of the people in his em ploy. He has sunk a well and ob tained excellent water at 15 ft. The trees and shrubs brought in the Porter from England and the Cape are thriving." Seeds sown had also pro duced a salad for Mr. Shaen.

Mr. Porter unfortunately built on land not his own ; this was afterwards adjusted by Smith, Shaen and Co., transferring block 110 for 116. At the same time it seems that B. Shaen sold W. F. Porter block 111. Block 116 brought other troubles, for C. Smith wrote to the secretary of the Port Lincoln Special Survey As sociation stating that block 116 was acknowledged as his block and ask ing that it be transferred to Mr. Nonmus in place of water frontage 160 until matters could be rectified.

Mr. C. Smith continues : " Mr. Mitchell has built himself a house at the Point. My buildings are all at Happy Valley. There is a most excellent house now finished which is intended for an hotel. . . . We have also built a large store and a blacksmith shop and commenced my own residence on half acre 49, behind which I am sinking a well. The men are also busy, with digging a large cellar, which in a few days, I expect will be completed and arched over. There are also their own habitations, some of which have been made very comfortable, two having stone chimneys and though last, not least, I should mention that Mr. William Smith has put up two of Manning's small houses, taken from this, and is fencing in for a garden. My garden is getting on famously."

Under date June 10, 1839, Mr. Thomas' Allen to whom reference has already been made, wrote: — ''The settlers at Kirton Point are — Messrs-Mitchell, Hawson, Dutton and White— busily engaged in forming their habitations and gardens." I hope this quotation is perfectly clear. It would have been better had the four names followed the words ' settlers,' which I think is the intention, then the present ambiguity would have been, absent.

GARDENS FLOURISH

Mr. Allen continues : " About one mile from the Point, Mr. Porter is forming his establishment, and for the short period, he has made great progress in building, gardening, cattle, stock, digging wells, and so on. In his garden he has potatoes as large as walnuts, the haulm looking very healthy." An orange tree was looking healthy, and parsley and other vegetable seeds were just making their appearance. He said that Mr. Porter had sunk a well and struck an abundant supply of excellent water at 19ft. (the well, if the same one is referred to, is gradually getting deeper— first 12ft., then 15, and now 19ft. ! ) The sheep, cows and horses were thriving. Mr. Porter had a remarkably fine herd of Chinese and Neapolitan pigs, thriving, and procuring their own living on different roots they meet with, returning home at night.

"About a mile and a half from Mr. Porter's is Happy Valley," continues Mr. Allen, " the location of Messrs. C. Smith and Shaen, who have built an hotel, a smithy, store house etc. They have enclosed one acre and upward for a garden. In the first garden they have growing freely tomatoes, tobacco, radishes, capsicums, cauliflowers, cabbages, turnips, and so on, which are looking remarkably well."

Mr. C. C. Dutton writing under date June 26, 1839, to George Stevenson, asking for vegetable seeds, wrote : — "The whole of my half acre waterfrontage is under cultivation, and everything is up." He then tells of the excellent soil, the heavy rain and even hail that had been experienced and continues, " I am now quarrying a beautiful stone for a house, and as I have plenty of lime stone on the spot, I hope soon to have a house up at small expence."

Probably Smith and Shaen's building at Happy Valley was the first to be erected, then would come Porter's, Mitchell's or Hawson's at the Point would be the third on the list. Smith and Shaen took a lot of laborers and artisans over with them and it appears as if Porter had also a good supply of labor available for his building operations.