Precis 29

Early Days on Eyre Peninsula 29

Pioneers' Accounts of Port Lincoln Building Activity 

Flourishing Gardens

Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1954), Friday 21 June 1935, page 3

By J. D. Somerville

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. …

CLERGYMAN'S IMPRESSIONS 

A Church of England clergyman  [Rev. Wix] 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' [nothing comes from nothing]; 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. …

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. … [speculation about where the hotel was…]

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. … [1839 descriptions by C. C. Dutton about building activity by Porter, Charles Smith and Hawson.] 

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 employ. He has sunk a well and obtained excellent water at 15 ft. The trees and shrubs brought in the Porter from England and the Cape are thriving." Seeds sown had also produced 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 Association stating that block 116 was acknowledged as his block and asking 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 …:  wrote: — ''The settlers at Kirton Point are — Messrs-Mitchell, Hawson, Dutton and White— busily engaged in forming their habitations and gardens."...

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 limestone 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.

Read the full article at https://sites.google.com/view/early-days-of-eyre-peninsula/pioneers-accounts-of-port-lincoln-building-activity 

The next installment is entitled “First Cutter Built at Port Lincoln”