The Road to Gumeracha

Anyone who is familiar with the Adelaide Hills knows what a beautiful drive up from the city and suburbs it is. For those who aren’t think rolling green hills everywhere, except in Summer when they’re brown, with plenty of big beautiful gum trees around. There are crops and vineyards, sheep, and cattle. It’s the country, and it’s what I grew up with!

I found an article in South Australia’s Register newspaper, from 20 January 1920, where the writer takes a trip from Athelstone through the hills to Gumeracha, and describes the journey. So I wanted to share a portion of that with you. To read the full article, click here.

 

An Entrancing Corridor

If an unlabelled moving picture of the Gorge road were thrown on the screen people would ask where it was. The route is an eye-opener in rugged beauty. For most of the 17 miles, from the time the gateway is entered at Athelstone, the track runs between massive, rock-ribbed, tree-spread cliffs which climb hundreds of feet, and seem to meet the blue sky. From the moment you get into contact with the great panorama, it is a wonderland of wild, decorative effects, carried out by Nature to big scale. The road has the appearance of a bold, tiny interloper, twisting in and out among the boulders with flimsy, and almost precarious, audacity. Looking up on one side you see the hills, mottled by shadows on a sunny afternoon, lean their grey bulk against a radiant back ground. On the other the jagged, broken rock offers, at times, a rather uncomfortable proximity, supplying a striking colour contrast with their red and dark blue and brown faces. Running along this 24-ft. thoroughfare, amid some of the most impressive open-air sculpture to be seen in Australia, you involuntarily duck now and then, in expectation of being hit by one of these giant fists. Then, right underneath, flows with placid grace, the little creek, framed in brilliant green rushes or tender fern. When the towering avenues disappear, as it were, into the wings of this magnificent stage, there come through the scattered gums glimpses of fruit gardens, designed as symmetrically as a draughtboard, or arranged in marvellous rows of potato and tomato plants, suggesting the faultless elegance of the top lines in a copy book. So you get on this excursion up the Gorge road, the blend of dainty, man-made utilities and the moving grandeur of God-made scenery.

the majestic gum trees

—An Exhilarating Experience—
The picturesqueness of this 17-mile journey has a unique balance. The approach through the graceful porch of Athelstone is by a road which is like a long key unlocking the hidden treasures. Once inside the traversing of the long corridor is a thrilling experience. The bends are easy to negotiate, with here and there just sufficient swerve to impart an exhilarating feeling. The hills mount in a precipitous stairway, to six or seven hundred feet, but the creek below is within 20 and 30 feet. The whole situation has features calculated to make the driver of a motor or other vehicle keep his wits awake – and judgment on the alert, but ordinary skill and common-sense are all that is needed for a safe passage. There were places which we skirted, at rather a giddy angle – a matter of some inches between a dry ride and a good ducking. This is easily the biggest thing in roads ever undertaken by the department.

more amazing hills on the way to Gumeracha

—Two Official Triumphs—
Millbrook and the Gorge road are two official triumphs. In a sense, each made the other, and this accomplishment of interdependence seems to be sustained in the fact that the track is carrying about seven miles of the pipes. The finest and longest scenic road in South Australia, and the greatest and most elegant reservoir are sister undertakings. It is a singularly happy circumstance. Each picturesque and utilitarian. The people of the metropolitan area want the water, and the producers of the hills need the road. This link with Gumeracha is almost better than a railway, or it will do for the present, at any rate. The market gardeners, Mr. Fleming told me, do not have to guide their horses when they use the gorge highway — they just drop the reins, and the horses and the grade do the rest. It is merely a case of round and round, and through the everlasting hills to the city.

— Long and Costly —
Of course, they have been six years building this road. The long war and short money are the explanations. There might have been still further delay, when things got better if Millbrook had not pushed the business on. Adelaide wanted the water. It meant that, for about seven miles, the laying of the pipes and the construction of the track, which was blasted out of the solid rock, had to go hand in hand. It will be 13 months or two years before the road is completed for its full length. The original estimate was £75.000, but the actual expenditure will be nearer £200.000. Everything is dearer. When the Gorge road was started, wages were 8/-a day; now they are 13/3, with a shilling camp allowance. The outlay on materials has also advanced considerably, but the work had to go on. So many as 400 men have been engaged at one time. The road is 3 ft. wider than intended in the first place, and five reinforced concrete bridges have had to be erected: These alone have cost more than £30,000. Each has been given a local name, by which they will be familiarly known. The structures combine beauty of line with unchallengeable strength.

construction of Gorge Road at Cudlee Creek, South Australia

construction of Gorge Road at Cudlee Creek, South Australia

— Rugged Corridor —
We motored over the entire distance, entering the rugged corridor at Athelstone, and finishing at the old Gumeracha Bridge after a journey which was a feast for the eye and a tonic for the body. We saw gums, red, and blue, and white, in all the glory of their own stately grouping, and passed masses of the young stuff the colour of saltbush. Alternating the heavy beauty of the towering cliffs was the ordered grace of nestling gardens, tucked shyly in the gullies, or scaling the lower slopes. The sun glistened on the young leaves, and painted birds sang and danced in their own fairyland. Then, on the homeward journey we skirted sparkling Millbrook whose waters played hide and seek among the hills, and spread about with the careless symmetry of a miniature harbour.

the rolling green hills on the way to Gumeracha

Sounds idyllic? It is.

In that last paragraph it says the trip to Gumeracha is “a feast for the eye and a tonic for the body”. And in my words I would say “good for the soul”. 

 

Australia Day Blog Challenge: Climbing Your Family’s Gum Tree

I do love a good geneameme, so when Shauna Hicks posted her Australia Day post recently, which ended up being a revisit of an Australia Day Blog Challenge that was created by fellow Aussie geneablogger, Pauleen Cass a number of years ago, which apparently I missed … the challenge was on!!

Pauleen says …

“The geneameme is to test whether your family is ridgey-didge and to show us how Australia runs in your veins, without any flag-waving and tattoo-wearing. Shout it out, be proud and make everyone wish they lived in this wide brown land of ours.”

1. My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was …
Ok, if we count “what’s yours is mine” when you get married – Mr Lonetester’s convict, John Warby, who was given a free ticket to Australia in 1792, is my earliest ancestor. You can read more about him here. However ‘my’ own first ancestor would be Isaac and Simeon Richardson. They are two brothers who were labourers from Kent, and were sentenced to death for their part in local riots, however thanks to the local townsfolk, their life was spared, and instead they were transported to Van Diemen’s Land (for more click here).  But my first non-convict ancestor was my Randell family from Devon to South Australia in 1837 (click for more details). Based on my Randell family, i’m 6th generation Australian.

2. I have Australian Royalty (tell us who, how many and which Fleet they arrived with) …
OK, I don’t have any first, second or even third fleet convicts, but I do have Australian Royalty.
Isaac RICHARDSON, transported 1831, Lord Lyndoch
Simeon RICHARDSON, transported 1831, Lord Lyndoch
William COSGROVE (still not 100% proven, but seems highly likely)

So that was my direct lot now on to Mr Lonetester’s gang of Australian Royalty …
John WARBY, transported 1792, Pitt
Sarah BENTLEY, transported 1795-06, Indispensible
Isaac DOWSE, transported 1802-03, Glatton
Esther Jane JENNER, transported 1807, Sydney Cove
Alexander MACDONALD, transported 1812-13, Fortune
Elizabeth SYMONS, transported 1814, Broxbornebury
James LAYTON, transported 1814-15, Marquis of Wellington
Charles BILLING, transported 1835, Norfolk
Frederick POINTON, transported 1836-37, Sarah
Henry POINTON, transported 1836-37, Sarah
Charles KERSLAKE, transported 1837, Moffatt
Sarah Jane BROWN, transported 1838-39, Majestic
Thomas POINTON, transported 1840, Lady Raffles
Isobel CUTHBERT, transported 1844, Margaret
Louisa WRIGHT, transported 1844-45, Garland Grove
James DODD, transported 1852-53, Oriental Queen
For more on all of these, head on over to this post.

3. I’m an Aussie mongrel, my ancestors came to Oz from…
Mostly England and Ireland, but there is also some German, Dutch and Finnish mixed in there.

4. Did any of your ancestors arrive under their own financial steam?
Pretty sure most of them made their own way here. Though see Q2 for the convicts who got a free ticket here, but then there’s also my great grandpa who was a seaman and jumped ship in Queensland!

5. How many ancestors came as singles?
You know , I’ve never actually counted! I will do that someday .. just not today

6. How many came as couples?
As above … I haven’t counted.

7. How many came as family groups?
I definitely know that some came out as families – such as my Hannaford’s and Randell’s from Devon, and the Phillips family from Cornwall. But people think travelling for a day or so on a plane with kids now is hard! Try 3 months in a ship!! I can’t even begin to imagine.

8. Did one person lead the way and others follow?
Hmmm … I know that happened with a family that went from Cornwall, England to the US. The dad went first, and was followed by his wife and kids later. But no-one comes to mind that came to Australia.

9. What’s the longest journey they took to get here?
For this one I need to go to Mr Lonetester’s family history again, as he has one that takes the cake! His William Kennard Elphick and his wife Susanna Elphick (nee Elliot), sailed on the ‘Plantar’ ship from London to South Australia in 171 days (25 November 1838 – 15 May 1839). Yes, that’s nearly SIX MONTHS!! Why did it take so long? Well thanks to a diary that a fellow passenger kept, and it’s been preserved … but with a mutiny, a lost crew, captain missing a key port and then almost running out of food, almost running aground … and so it goes on. Anything that could happen on a voyage, DID happen on this one. For more about it you can read my original post here. And the State Library of South Australia have digitised the original, and made it available online, which is viewable here.

10. Did anyone make a two-step emigration via another place?
Not that I know of.

11. Which state(s)/colony did your ancestors arrive?
Mine were pretty much all South Australian immigrants, apart from the convict brothers who went (and by went, I mean sent) to Tasmania.

12. Did they settle and remain in one state/colony?
Most of my reli’s came to South Australia, and certainly the greater portion of them stayed. A few of the wider then went off to different states, but my direct reli’s stayed!

13. Did they stay in one town or move around?
If we’re talking about my direct family – they settled in the Adelaide Hills, stayed there, and family (including myself) still live in the vicinity.

14. Do you have any First Australians in your tree?
Not that I’ve found so far.

15. Were any self-employed?
I think most of them were self-employed actually.

16. What occupations or industries did your earliest ancestors work in?
Farmers, Orchardists, Flour-millers, River-boat builders and captains, Fruit market sellers. That’s the ones that comes to mind at present …

17. Does anyone in the family still follow that occupation?
I have a cousin who is a 5th generation apple orcharder in the Adelaide Hills! So that’s seriously awesome.

18. Did any of your ancestors leave Australia and go “home”?
Not that I’ve found so far!

There were a few more questions in Pauleen’s original post, but that was about current stuff, not my ancestors, so I opted to leave those out for now. So that’s a little about some of my Australian ancestors …

Clearly there are some bits I need to do more research on – so I’ll add that to the to-do list, and I’ll get to it one day.

 

 

They Closed the Borders ….. AGAIN!!

“Victoria-NSW border to close for the first time in 100 years as Melbourne coronavirus cases hit record daily high” – this is the headline from the SBS News report, dated 7 July 2020, and it comes as Victoria is just beginning another six weeks of lockdown to try get COVID-19 under control.

Anyway that headline intrigued me, as I was curious about the previous border closure … so I headed to Trove to see what I could find.

And what an amazing article I found. Talk about history repeating itself … just have a read of this article from South Australian newspaper, The Register, dated 3 February 1919. You can see the original article here. Please note, the red highlight is my emphasis, not that of the original article.

 —The Spanish Flu—

No one desires to minimise the horrors or the epidemic which has swept over the world, nor the necessity for precautions, but it would seem that if ever fear was worse than the disease, the present is the occasion. The Federal Quarantining Department kept the disease out of the country for months. Australia has had ample warning, and advantage from the experience of other countries.

The Commonwealth and State authorities met last November, and planned, a joint course of action. The Sydney doctors diagnosed their cases as the real thing; the Melbourne doctors were still using big words, and unable to make up their minds. Now both States have been declared infected, but New South Wales will not admit Victorian passengers, because Melbourne was responsible for the trouble, and Queensland, not to be out of the fuss, is asking the despised Commonwealth Government to lend it a body of Light Horse to patrol its border against New South Wales. Incidentally it may be recalled that the Queensland Government did nothing to help reinforce the Light Horse when they were at grips with the human enemy in Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere.

Like South Australia, the Queensland Government is certainly within its rights and within the agreement of last November in protecting itself, but it is carrying the never-dying jealousy of the two big States to extremes when they cut all passenger and goods communication between their respective infected areas, merely because “The reason why, I cannot tell. I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.”

But as for the poor public, there seems every effort to create a real scare. Sydney says that all must wear masks, and in Melbourne the picker-up of unconsidered sixpences is selling bits of useless gauze, or mosquito net, with a couple of tapes attached, like the proverbial hot cakes.

The people clamour to be vaccinated, or inoculated, with the “dope,” which may or may not cure, but which certainly makes some people feel ill. If we cover our mouths and noses with six suffocating layers of gauze and never take them off, whether to eat, or drink, or curse, or pray aloud, we are “theoretically” immune, though there are some who think we may get infection through the eyes or through the ears.

If private enterprise can do no better than this, one need not marvel that the most sincere individualist thinks nationalized medicine could not be worse. Two women doctors alone stand out in Melbourne with the simple advice—let in the fresh air, keep clean, don’t crowd, and where possible do your business through the mails, telegraphs and telephones, so as to avoid unnecessary personal contact.

One alarmist newspaper gives publicity to the questions of whether we have got enough medicine bottles, whether we have prepared to bury the dead, and feed the living. An official doctor wants us to be ready for a “huge epidemic.” There is nothing of the “silent navy” about these good folks. One could wish there were. Let them prepare, by all means, but publicity of scaresome possibilities is the best calculated means of ensuring the worst results. The Federal quarantine authorities remain moderately silent among the uproar. ls it too much to suggest that Mr. Massy Greene might signal his entry into his first real Ministerial office by preaching the doctrine of restraint and courage.

————————-

Sounding familiar? It does, doesn’t it. Sounds remarkably like news reports we’ve been hearing over the past few months.

In searching further I found that Dr Peter Hobbins, medical historian, and expert in the Spanish Flu at the Department of History at the Universty of Sydney, says that …

“there are some striking parallels between 2020 and 1919”. He says that during that time “New South Wales imposed drastic restrictions on its residents; closing schools, churches, entertainment venues and important events such as agricultural shows and victory parades.” And “for the first time in my career, I feel a real sense of what could be called ‘historical déjà vu’, in living through the COVID-19 lockdown”.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Spanish Flu and the impact it had on Australia, be sure to check out this website, as it is packed with information.

So now I have to say, this has me more intrigued than ever to find out how my ancestors coped and made it through the Spanish Flu pandemic. Health wise, job wise, social wise? Remember, they didn’t have tv, computers or social media to even keep in touch with friends. So, it’ll be interesting to learn more about it … and gives me more research to do!!

Caption for cover picture: The influenza quarantine camp set up at Jubilee Oval, Adelaide, South Australia during the epidemic of 1919 – SLSA [PRG 280/1/9/374]

Crazy Month of May 2020 Meme: My Pandemic Experiences

It’s been a while since I’ve taken part in a blog challenge, but good friend and blogger Pauleen (aka Cassmob) came up with one that I just had to take part in. It’s the “Crazy Month of May 2020 Meme: My Pandemic Experiences

She writes:

“It occurred to me that perhaps we should have a meme which captures our response to the hopefully-once-in-a-lifetime May that we’ve just navigated….it might be a way to preserve the tip of our experiences. Remember that many blogs are being archived in Pandora so perhaps this is a way for our descendants to learn about our experiences during the covid-19 crisis.”

So here’s my responses:

What are you most grateful for during this covid-19 crisis?
I would have to say I’m thankful that I still have a job when so many now don’t, but also that most people in my area are doing the right thing with social distancing, which of course helps stop the spread of coronavirus.

What have you missed most during the full or partial lock-down?
As an introvert I love being home, but just now and then it’s nice to randomly go out for a meal. So that is something I have missed.

Has your hobby sustained you during this time?
While not sure if you’d class it as a hobby, keeping an eye on my local wildlife (koalas and kangaroos) and enjoying them coming around, makes me happy, and is a stress reliever. But as for actual hobbies, I haven’t had time for them recently …

What changes have you seen in your life over May 2020?
Work is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!! I work in a family history business, and it has been non-stop crazy busy over the past few months. So clearly those in lockdown have been getting stuck into researching. I know there are newbies who have just started, while others have picked it back up after putting it aside for years, and then there’s the non-stop researchers have enjoyed the ‘stuck at home time’ to research as well. So all up, there’s a LOT of family tree research going on.

Have you been exercising more or less?
I would say no change actually. I do some, but should always do more.

Has the refrigerator been your friend or foe?
Due to not going out for meals, there is more food in the fridge. But I’ve been good and haven’t food binged.

Have you been participating in virtual gatherings with friends or family?
Work meetings are now done by Zoom, so that’s been handy.

Have you taken up new hobbies during the lockdowns?
Again … no time for new or existing hobbies at present.

Are you cooking or gardening more?
Maybe a bit more of both, but the gardening is more because of the time of year, as it now needs it.

Have you shopped more or less? Online or offline?
I’ve been grocery shopping more … in person since it’s close to my work. But other shopping (clothes, shoes, hardware, etc.) no, not at all. In fact I’ve probably done less regular shopping than normal.

What have you found to be the strangest change to your life?
Not so much a change, but an observation that I found werid. When the lockdowns first came into effect in Australia (end of March), and only essential travel was allowed (ie. supermarkets and docors), to see the line-ups for the supermarket was very odd.

Have you found the changes and experience stressful/anxious/worrying?
I think I’m fine personally, but I know some people are jack of the whole subject of it, and are ready to argue/lecture about it. While I can see a lot of people are anxious about it as well. And why wouldn’t they be. There’s a disease out there, that doesn’t always show symptoms, and you don’t know if you have it, and are unknowingly spreading it, or the if ther person next to you has it.

How have the closures affected your local community?
I’m sure the lockdowns and closures of businesses will have had a big impact on numerous small businesses and probably sports clubs too. But nothing immediately identifiable at present.

Have in-person meetings been replaced with virtual meetings via Zoom, Skype etc?
Yes, fortunatley.

Do you enjoy the virtual meeting format?
It works fine, and is so much better than having to travel to go to a meeting, then travel home.

Are you working from home instead of in your usual place of work?
I was working from home for a few weeks when lockdown first came in. That was nice as I was able to work, while also seeing the local wildlife that comes to visit during the day (ie. our regular koalas and kanagaroos), but I’m now back in the shop everyday.

Have your habits changed over the past months?
Not excessively, though I do have more hand sanitizer around than I used to.

Have you had to cancel travel plans for work, pleasure or family?
I was on a work cruise that got cut short, and was due to fly to Queensland shortly after that for an event – all just before the lockdowns in Australia came into effect. Obviously both of those were cancelled.

Do you think you’ll be able to travel in 2020?
I believe Australia and New Zealand travel will be do-able later this year. As for other countries … time will tell. But hopefully later in 2021 I think is more likely.

Have you/others been wearing masks when out and about in your area?
I haven’t been, and very few people do in my area. But we are relatively ‘safe’ with no current cases, and no local cases for about 30 days now.

Will you change your lifestyle after this experience?
I don’t believe so. But maybe just be more tolerant of others (though I think to think that I was anyway), because you don’t know what they are going through (thoughts, fears, current situation).

——————————————————-

Just some final thoughts in relation to my observations during the pandemic… seeing hand sanitizer available to use at every shop you go in, seeing the 1.5m social distancing signs on the floors in shops has now become normal. Having take-away food only (no sit down meals available). Visting your local coffee shop, and seeing the chairs and tables stacked up. Having the playgrounds closed, movie theatres, amusement parks, libraries, genealogy societies, museums, archives, department stores and small clothing stores, beauticians, tattoo stores, pubs all closed as well, until just recently – when they’ve started reopening in limited ways. Then there were all the events that got cancelled .. including the Tokyo Olympics, Anzac Day, every sport Australia wide, social get-together meetings as well as work ones … it goes on.

After the horrors of the Australian bushfires over November-December-January, no-one thought there would be anything ‘bigger’. But seeing the devastation and heartbreak from friends and others around, who’ve either had the virus themselves and survived, or have loved ones who didn’t – there are no words.

Coronavirus has changed the world. It is a global catastrophe on both the health scale, as well as the economic scale. While no doubt some things would have been done differently in hindsight, I still don’t think to world was prepared in any way to cope with a pandemic of this scale. And yet the heath authorities tell us we’re still in the first wave.

People say the ‘heroes’ of this pandemic are those in the health industry (the doctors, nurses, those in the labs, the researchers and so on), and absolutely they are doing their best to help you recover once youre sick, but the other ‘heroes’ are all the individuals who have been self isolating at home for months now. They have forgone seeing family and friends in person, and who by doing so have been doing their bit to help not spread the virus.

Please, stay safe my friends.