Pioneers Association of South Australia

Pioneers Association of South Australia The Pioneers Association of SA Inc is a non-profit incorporated organisation, managed by volunteers. Perpetuating South Australian Colonial History.
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For over 85 years we have gathered wonderful stories of the lives of the early pioneers of South Australia. We have an extensive historical collection, in multiple formats, of the early years and we aim to preserve and share this unique history for future generations. Membership to the Association is open to any person whose ancestor arrived in the colony, now the State of South Australia, on or

before 28 December, 1846. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging. To contact us outside office hours, Mobile: 0490 043 264 Mon to Fri 9am-5pm
Please leave a message outside these times.

St. James Church, Blakiston - 🗞"ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, Mount BARKER.-The building of this church will, we undenstand, be fo...
23/06/2026

St. James Church, Blakiston -

🗞"ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, Mount BARKER.-The building of this church will, we undenstand, be forthwith commenced by Mr Gray, whose stone bridge over the Onkaparinga has given so much satisfaction.

An elevated piece, of tableland, commanding an extensive view of the neighboring country, situated at nearly equal distances from the estates of Messrs D. Macfarlane, Davison, and Seymour, has been fixed upon as the site of this church; and there is not, perhaps, any spot in this extensive district which could have been more happily selected, both as regards the convenience of the inhabitants and the picturesque beauty of the situation.

The land, containing ten acres, has been presented to the trustees by Messrs George Morphett and Samuel Stocks, and the inhabitants generally are most thankful to these gentlemen for their very liberal donation, understand, also, that the Government have given a piece of land in the vicinity for a Glebe;. so that there is every prospect of the worthy minister, Mr Pollett, being comfortably provided for; and from the estimation in which his zealous exertions are so justly held, we doubt not that an extensive field of usefulness will be opened to him."🗞
South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851), Tuesday 23 June 1846, page 3

More history and information on the still standing church here -
82134796@N03/10433096226" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/82134796@N03/10433096226



📷"St. James' Anglican Church, Blakiston." Circa 1848. Art Gallery of South Australia.

Sunday Funday! 🤣🤣🤣
21/06/2026

Sunday Funday! 🤣🤣🤣

Mount Remarkable in the Southern Flinders Ranges explored 180 years ago...🗞"LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.It is said the exploring ...
20/06/2026

Mount Remarkable in the Southern Flinders Ranges explored 180 years ago...

🗞"LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

It is said the exploring party lately returned from Mount Remarkable found kangaroos so plentiful that four animals of this species were caught and used for food.

The flights of pigeons were so numerous as to be almost beyond credibility, and numbers of the bronze winged kind were seen, as well as those of less beautiful plumage. The ascent of the mount is described as abrupt in every part, and the country around it forms what is called a natural basin.

An extension of ten days has been allowed in the case of the Mount Remarkable Special Survey, in consequence of the obstructions occasioned by the late heavy rains and inclement weather. All the favourable reports of this property seem to be confirmed, and the commencement of operations will be the signal of initiation for another new township, at the harbour of Port Pirie or Germain, towards the northern, extremity of Spencer's Gulf.

The undertaking will thus be doubly useful, Although perhaps the advantages which are likely to follow in its train can only be dimly shadowed forth, at present. We have long considered the complete exploration of the head of Spencer's Gulf an object of great importance, and hope the taking of the Mount Remarkable Special will early conduce to the accomplishment so much desired."🗞

Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 20 June 1846, page 8



📷"Stony Creek, Mount Remarkable Survey, from above the fall 1846-47." S.T Gill. Art Gallery of South Australia.

Runaway sailor becomes a bullock driver and thief.....180 years ago - 🗞"BEFORE THE POLICE MAGISTRATE.Wm. Alfred Way was ...
19/06/2026

Runaway sailor becomes a bullock driver and thief.....180 years ago -

🗞"BEFORE THE POLICE MAGISTRATE.

Wm. Alfred Way was brought up in custody, charged with feloniously stealing two cotton shirts and one blanket, the property of Wm. Wallace Millie, of Eyre's Flat, Onkaparinga.

The prosecutor stated the prisoner had been in his service about a month as a bullock driver, and identified the articles produced, having bought the shirts for the prisoner, who tried them on and returned them, saying they were too small ; they were given as part of his wages; on Sunday, the 7th instant, he was very careless, and had permission to leave; on going away, he took a small
bundle ; went with P.C. Hall, and took the prisoner into custody, when the prisoner produced the shirts and blanket, but said he detained them, as they were the only value he got for his work.

James Hall, P.C., of the mounted police force, accompanied the prosecutor to the prisoner, and charged him with stealing the shirts and blanket ; he immediately gave up the articles, but said he took them for his wages.

The Magistrate thought there was not sufficient to establish the felonious charge, and was about to discharge the prisoner, but Inspector Litchfield having informed the Magistrate the prisoner was a runaway seaman from the Phœbe, and that a warrant had been issued by Capt. Lipson for his apprehension, he was ordered to be conveyed to Port Adelaide."🗞

South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851), Friday 19 June 1846, page 3

*Eyre's Flat was also known as Kangarilla.
*William Wallace Millie went on to be licensee of the Heart and Hand Hotel in St. Marys.



📷"Billie Thorpe's bullock team pulling timber at Kangarilla." Circa 1870. SLSA *The bullock team would have been similar back in 1846.

18/06/2026

Upcoming event -
"The Unassuming Botanist"
with Ray Dundon

When - Wednesday 24 June
12.00pm – 3.00pm

Where - Walkerville Uniting Church Hall
17 Smith Street, Walkerville

Booking Code - E26-04 Lunch Meeting

"Friedrich Hermann Heinrich Schultze; and his role in the Goyder Expedition to Survey Darwin in 1869”

Join us as Ray presents the remarkable story of Friedrich Hermann Heinrich Schultze, the skilled surveyor whose expertise helped shape the very foundations of Darwin. This presentation explores his vital role in Goyder’s 1869 Northern Territory Survey Expedition, revealing the precision, resilience, and quiet leadership that guided one of South Australia’s most significant surveying achievements.

Cost: $5 members / $10 guests

Bookings & payments in advance appreciated

Online bookings can be made by email to [email protected].

Please include:

Names of all attendees
Contact phone number,
Event code and name of the event (e.g. E25-01 Lunch Meeting).
Information relating to menu choices when applicable.

Payments can be made via EFT (preferred) to:

Account Name: Pioneers SA

BSB: 105 900

Account Number: 9500 67040

Reference/Description: Event code & your name

Bookings and payments (credit card) can be made by phone during office hours

Ph: 08 8231 5055

Payment by cash or cheque can only be made in person at our office.

Please note our office hours are Tuesday & Thursday 10am – 2pm.

🔴Junior Pioneers Event 🔴🌏Visit to the Adelaide Planetarium🌏⭕️When - Wednesday 8 July 11.00am – 1.00pm⭕️Where - Adelaide ...
18/06/2026

🔴Junior Pioneers Event 🔴
🌏Visit to the Adelaide Planetarium🌏

⭕️When - Wednesday 8 July
11.00am – 1.00pm

⭕️Where - Adelaide University Mawson Lakes Campus
Building P, 2nd Floor,
3/131 University Boulevard
*Please meet outside Building P at 10.45 am
⭕️Booking Code - JP-01

⭕️Cost: $17.00 per person (child rates do not apply)
Bookings and Payments in advance Essential

Maximum: 45 attendees – Bookings close Wednesday 1 July (unless booked out earlier)

⭕️Online bookings can be made by email to [email protected].

Please include:

Names of all attendees
Contact phone number,
Event code and name of the event (e.g. E25-01 Lunch Meeting).
Information relating to menu choices when applicable.

Payments can be made via EFT (preferred) to:
Account Name: Pioneers SA
BSB: 105 900
Account Number: 9500 67040

Reference/Description: Event code & your name

Bookings and payments (credit card) can be made by phone during office hours

Ph: 08 8231 5055

Payment by cash or cheque can only be made in person at our office.

Please note our office hours are Tuesday & Thursday 10am – 2pm.

https://www.pioneerssa.org.au/junior_pioneers.html

📷https://adelaide.edu.au/partners-and-community/museums-and-galleries/adelaide-planetarium/

Poor William Wallis, 180 years ago...🗞"William Wallis, a young man ot about 22, who was engaged to bring in the remains ...
17/06/2026

Poor William Wallis, 180 years ago...

🗞"William Wallis, a young man ot about 22, who was engaged to bring in the remains of the late James McLeod, Esq., for the purpose of their being laid in the vault with those of his mother, just deceased, agreeable to her wish, was killed on Monday on the other side of the Onkaparinga, by the cart overthrowing and passing over him.

The horses had taken fright and ran furiously down the hilL In reference to this melancholy accident, we received the following authentic information last evening :—

TO THE EDITORS OF THE "SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGISTER ** Gentlemen—The late Mre Flora Ann McLeod, who died in Tavistock Buildings on the llth inst, expressed it as her dying wish that the remains of her son. Mr. James McLeod. who was buried sometime ago on the family estate at Rosa. near Willunga, should be exhumed, and interred with ber in the cemetery. In compliance with this wish I was instructed by the brother of the deceased gentleman to proceed to Rosa with a spring Cart and pair, taking with me a shell to contain the coffin.

On returning the next day over the Horse Shoe Hill, I desired the driver to put up as I wished to walk down, and recommended him to do the same. He, however, declined to do so, saying
" that he could command his horses better by having the reins in hand."

The cart soon gained upon the horses, until they got into an involuntary trot, find, notwithstanding the next exertions of the man to keep them back, now saw that mischief was inevitable*

The bend of the hill concealed them from my sight, but on hastening to the bottom, I found the cart upon its side—the horses down and entangled in the harness—and the unfortunate young man lying a little distance off. On raising him to a sitting posture, he vomited much, and appeared internally bruised, but I believe no bones were broken.

By the kind and prompt assistance of the neighbours (some of whom even traded through the river to our help), the horses were raised unhurt, the man put to bed at the " Horse Shoe" Inn, and Dr Myles, who was sent for, immediately attended; whilst I rode to town to inform Mr Chambers, and obtain means to convey the "remains" to the cemetery, which were duly and orderly interred on the 15th instant. I have this evening heard that the young man is dead ; if so. I must bear this public testimony to his devoted attention to his charge, and my uufeigned regret that the colony should lose a very useful member of society through the execrable state of one of its greatest thoroughfares.

P.S.—The falsehoods in circulation as to the " remains" being scattered about the road, may be best refuted by scores of persons who saw the coffin at the Onkaparinga. and in the cemetery, where it was as close and sound as when it left my yard, having been made exceedingly strong for the purpose of traveling over 60 miles ot the worst road in the colony."🗞

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Wednesday 17 June 1846, page 3
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27453104?searchTerm=South%20Australia #



📷"Horseshoe Inn, Noarlunga with a stage coach outside. Taken on the day of the Oddfellow's Picnic to Aldinga. A band sits atop the horsedrawn coach." Circa 1860. SLSA.

Adelaide, the City of the Plain....poetry from 180 years ago - 🗞"Poetry, Original and Select.THE CITY OF THE PLAIN.Ther...
16/06/2026

Adelaide, the City of the Plain....poetry from 180 years ago -

🗞"Poetry, Original and Select.

THE CITY OF THE PLAIN.

There is a modern settlement on South Australia's shores,

Where the summer's dust is borne in clouds; and when the winter's rain

Descends, at length, with dreaded force, it down in torrents pours,

Threatening oft to flood or deluge this City of the Plain.

(I hope its lovely damsels, whether Martha, Jane or Kitty,
Will not regard this verse with an air of cold disdain:
That beholding all their graces, and their faces, fair and pretty,
I have ventured thus to name it, the City of the Plain.)

It is not, as its name infers, a lone deserted city.

For crowded are its buildings, each street, and every lane,

With the old, the young, the middle-aged, the crafty, sage, and witty;

And a medley mixture is there in the City of the Plain.

Various and many are the trades and mercatores--

And the gen'ral eagerness for wealth is not their only bane;

For 'tis only female influence that now "emollit mores Nec sinit esse feros"
in this City of the Plain.

In ev'ry nook and ev'ry place are surgeons and solicitors,

All busily employed in the one pursuit of gain;

But few, indeed, are the Sheriff's unwelcome morning visitors,

For prosperity prevails in the City of the Plain.

Those strange, yet kindly, beings, whose wits have been wool-gathering--

To find the "golden fleece," is the subject of whose brain--

Have so long omitted shaving, and eased their chins from lathering,

That like patriarchs, appear they in the City of the Plain.

Here the staunch and honest yeoman for his toils is rewarded

By a good and bounteous harvest of every kind of grain;

And fortunate is he to whom the prizes are awarded,

For his industry in tillage, in this City of the Plain.

'Ere the sun illumes the heavens, amidst the shadows dark,

The early riser oft discerns a heavy laden wain,

With pile on pile of gumwood, she-oak, and stringy-bark,

Slowly wending on its journey to the City of the Plain.

And of carts and drays of ev'ry kind, conveying mineral ore,

He meets, on each highway, a long continuous train:

For such riches, in no colony, have e'er been found before.

As in the country which surrounds the City of the Plain.

Those who reach the end of this short sketch will perchance recognise it--

And some, in its perusal, may find pleasure, some find pain;

But all alike, if this attempt with truth itself allies it,

Wish "prosperity to Adelaide, the City of the Plain."

E. D. A. March 25th, 1846."🗞

South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851), Tuesday 16 June 1846, page 4
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71604959?searchTerm=South%20Australia #



📷"A drawing of the view of Adelaide Plains as seen from the site of the Wheal Gawler Lead Mine. The house on the right is "Gleeville" situated at what is now the corner of Dashwood and Sunnyside Roads, it was purchased in 1846 by Samuel Davenport." Circa 1846. SLSA.

16/06/2026

Thank you so much to the person who gave me the shipping diaries from 'The John' at the launch of my book 'Paving the Way.' The John was the ship that carried my GGG Henry Lomman and Martha nee Strong to Adelaide in 1840. The ship was wrecked 15 years later at Manacles Rocks, Cornwall in May 1855 (picture below). The diaries in 1839/40 were from Richard Ellis (in the State Library of SA) and Elizabeth Archer (in the Mitchell Library). I can hardly believe the diaries, there was so much drama and tragedy on board, including much quarreling and fighting, an accidental poisoning, deaths, wild weather and ceremony. The ceremony for crossing the equator was thus described: '7th Nov 1839: At eight in the evening a shout was heard from the forecastle of a boat ahead which we were informed contained his majesty Neptune, whose awful voice I soon heard enquiring 'What ship is this??' The officer on duty answered 'the Barque John from London.'..'Have you any of my sons or daughters on board?' roared the King of the Seas..in affirmative being given he informed us he would come on the morrow to initiate us on the mysteries of crossing the line [the equator]. Neptune's car, a tar barrel, was then lowered in the water and passed along emitting bright flames. This was the signal for giving shower baths to the curious, bucket after bucket of water was poured til every person on deck was drenched, even we who were on the p**p [stern deck] did not escape a sprinkling, and the Captain who was with us venturing too near the watery regions, had a complete dousing, which he took good naturedly...8th Nov 1839: after breakfast we went on the p**p to see the grand sight, a band of musicians struck up 'See the conquering hero comes' and amid deafening shouts Neptune and his Queen made their appearance on the gun carriage drawn by three constables, at the side of the chariot walked the bear (a sailor covered with our poor ram's skin) and bear keeper, behind the barber carrying a tar pot for leathering the sections, admirably dressed beside him his mate bearing the razors. The Doctor, no insignificant personage, watched the proceedings through a large hoop in lieu of a quizzing glass. As soon as they had taken their respective stations beside the bath, Neptune, who held a large book, called for his son Ratford (the civedent third mate). The constables immediately came in search of him and the young man wisely made no resistance but accompanied his frightful guides their dresses and the paint which besmeared their faces and bodies made them look like savages. Being seated on the edge of the bath with a cap over his eyes, Neptune enquired if he had ever crossed the line before, a negative was given. 'What will you give me not to punish too severely?' was the next demand, a sum being mentioned. The doctor stepped forward and offered a powder, which after tasting was refused, a bottle containing a draught was then presented, but the contents were not relished, a smelling bottle was placed under his nose which contained either a pin or needle - the patient started back, the barber next [with] a paint brush gave him a daub of tar on the cheek. Neptune telling him at the same time never to eat brown bread when he could get white. Not being answered, the tar brush was popped into his mouth, after a scarping with one of the notched razors he was thrown backwards into the bath to be well ducked by the bear and his keeper who were in the water to receive him. The doctor watching the proceedings through his quizzing glass hoop. With few exceptions, all passengers were shaved or had a little tar on their faces, by giving money came off without too much scraping, we could pretty well tell what the gift was by the degree of punishment inflicted. The ladies were exempt from paying the fine. The performers were treated with a glass of spirits by the Captain and amidst great cheers, Neptune and his Queen were carried off the scene of action.

Address

Suite 4, Level 2, Stafford House, 25 Leigh Street
Adelaide, SA
5000

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 2pm
Thursday 10am - 2pm

Telephone

+61882315055

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