Wine Fight Club June 09

8/2/2019 Wine Fight Club June 09

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Des vins de la rgion de McLaren Vale, production petit de James Hook

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Memory LaneMCLARENVALE. 1870S.JAMES HOOK-IMAGINES ATIME FORTY

YEARSBEFORE THE

FIRSTMOTORCAR.

SIXTY YEARSBEFORE THE

TRAIN CAMETO TOWN.

VINE

EXPORTS

ARE

FALLING.SOUTHAUSTRALIA

IS IN A

DEPRESSION.

THE REGIONS TWO OLDEST WINEMAKERS HAVE JUSTDIED AND THE HIGHEST PROFILE WINEMAKER AND

VITICULTURALIST WAS ABOUT TO GO BANKRUPT.

1875. It was the days before easy transport when people rode everywhere on

horseback or by trap. Goods came by bullock train from Adelaide, via the horseshoe

at Noarlunga, down a road they called Stump Hill. The trees were too large to dig

out so, they tried to use explosives. The fuses were bad and they cut the stumps 3

foot above the ground. They were named Hawkers stumps, after the well known

aide de camp to Governor Gawler. Hawker was a hard working man and in truth it

was not his fault the fuses got wet. When he was doing his work it was 1839 and

the colony was ramshackle at best.

By 1875 though, at the base of the hills, small villages and farmlets were ringed

around the twin towns of Bellevue and Gloucester. Some of the residents

remembered the region was surveyed by the 1839 survey party.

The survey team led by John McLaren and included Mr Hawker. McLaren was

appointed as Senior Surveyor was given the task of surveying the southern districtsof Adelaide. He was the only man in his party with a horse and Mr Hawker walked.

Thats how the fuses got wet, as he battled to clear a cut track that became the first

road from Adelaide to Victor Harbor.

Surveyor McLaren divided up the

south of Adelaide into three districts

- B, C and D to be released to the

settlers in stages. Section C included

all the land south of the Onkaparinga

River to Willunga Hill and was

released from 1840.

He called the wide valley that he

came to south of the Onkaparinga

the McLaren Vale, meaning the

McLaren Vale.

Did he name the valley after himself?

Or was it named after David

McLaren, who was appointed as the

head of the South Australia Company

in the Motherland at the time?

McLaren Wharf at Port Adelaide was

named after Mr David McLaren.

David McLaren was in a way the headof a company that employed John

McLaren to do his work.

June 2009 www.lazyballerina.com


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By 1875 no one was sure who the valley was named after. It had become forgotten

history and it seemed it did not matter who the valley honoured.

In the 19th

Century McLaren Vale was rarely seen on maps and addresses. Instead

there were two towns, Bellevue and Gloucester, sitting three miles apart on the

road from Adelaide to Victor Harbor. Each had its own unique character and was

thought of as independent.

Gloucester, was a triangle of houses between the Salopean Inn and Kangarilla road,

established in 1851 and Bellevue, was located where The Barn and Limeburners

stand, established in 1854.

Gloucester was settled first. In 1841 two of the earliest settlers were Devonshire

farmers, William Colton and Charles Hewitt. The farmers bought workmen with

them and established neighbouring farms, Daringa and Oxenberry Farm.

Daringa was named for the Kaurna name, meaning swampy place. Oxenberry

reminded the Hewitts of their homeland. These farms were the nucleus for

Gloucesterwhich was proclaimed a town ten years after the first farms.

There were other pioneers. William and Elizabeth Olivertraveled to South Australia

from Scotland and settled in 1841. They called their lower farm Taranga, fromTaranga or Tarangk, a native word, meaning middle place.

You can imagine this slight couple

weaving up a dirt track, with a horse

and cart towing a scraped together

collection of farming tools. The

husband turns to his wife and says,

We will farm here, this is good

ground. Maybe she rolled her eyes

at him.

She might have had good reason, life

was hard, in those days the McLaren

Vale was a wild place with huge gum

trees and thick wattle scrub. The

trees went for wood, the wattle cut

own for bark and oil.

As land was cleared and sliced out on

survey maps, small hamlets sprang

up as short ride from the main towns

- Landcross Farm, Tatachilla often

written as Tortachilla, Bethany,

McLaren Flat, Hillside, Beltunga and

Seaview. These housed settlers,

farmers, smiths, school teachers,

preachers and the odd winemaker.


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Thomas Coulton, the second son of Gloucester pioneer William, set up house with

his English bride, in the regions grandest estate. It was exactly half way between

Gloucester and Bellevue. He called it Sylvan Park. During the 1860s and 70s he

acted as the communities leader, and counselor.

Further north Richard Bell had played at housing development. He built pug

cottages with thatched roofs. His town he named Bellevue after himself. The

feature buildings of his town were the Barn and Limeburners Cottage. He built a

hotel in 1857 and named it the Clifton in honour of his wife, Ellen Bell nee Clift. He

named a street after her, Ellen

Street.

Further to the south was Willunga,

the districts thriving centre, with its

rich slate mining industry. The plains

grew wheat, shipped out from PortWillunga. Fortunes were won and

lost.

In 1875 the fledgling wine industry

was lead by names like Manning,

Kelly, Reynell, and some young punk

Hardy having finished his

apprenticeship in the Reynella cellar

twenty years before, and mined for

gold in Victoria had set up his own

dream vineyard on the banks of the

River Torrens.

Thomas Hardy had gained a

reputation as an ace wine marketer, but in all other ways the wine industry was not

going well. The state was in a tough recession. Domestic sales were plummeting.

Exports were a struggle. Dr A C Kelly was the Colonies gun viticulturalist. His first

book, The Vine in Australia (1861) was an esteemed text, so well regarded another

new Australian vine expert, the Reverend Bleasdale, owned a copy and kept notes

in the margins.

Kelly had spend his life studying vines and in his book displayed a deep

understanding of making composts, recycling waste and caring for the environment.

Despite of his knowledge, and the backing of many prominent Adelaideans likeCharles Kingston, Kellys wine venture was not going well.

He had his first try at planting vines in 1842 at Morphett Vale, too far from transport

and at 12 acres too small to make itself pay. His second venture, planting a vineyard

at Tintara and forming a wine company lasted barely twenty years.

Kelly was not alone. During the 1860s the McLaren Valleys oldest winery, Hope

Farm owned by George Manning had a cellar full of wine he couldnt sell. He kept

stockpiling wine.

It was only the young punk Thomas Hardywith his gold field money and his knack

for marketing in the UK that kept the industry going. First he brought out half

George Mannings wine stocks, saving Hope Farm, then after the crash of 1870sbrought out the bankrupt Tintara from Kellys creditors.

Thomas Hardythen went on to move operations to the Flour Mill in the main street

of Bellevue. He called it Tintara Cellars. With success he brought up nearly

everything in Bellevue including the

former Clifton Hotel, now the Belle

Vue. He used the pub as his head

quarters.

In many ways he became Mr

Bellevue, as he visited from his

Adelaide operations every week.

The story of Hardy is well

remembered due to his success and

the powerful company he

established, Thomas Hardy and Sons.

Dr Kelly is still noted in the wine

history books. He is credited as a

pioneer but he did not have the sales

skills to survive the downturn in the

wine industry.

1895. TWENTY YEARSLATER HISTORY WASALREADY BEING

FORGOTTEN AS THE FIRSTGENERATION OF PIONEERS

PASSED AWAY. BUTHISTORY CANT ALWAYSHIDE, SCRATCH BELOWTHE SURFACE AND YOUCAN SEE THE OLD NAMESLIVING ON. THEY FIND

WAYS OF LIVING ON LIKEECHOS.


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Thomas CoultonsSylvan Parkwas accidentally responsible for the first loss of our

names. As the population increased Bellevue and Gloucestergrew together so that

by 1923 McLaren Vale was gazetted by the Lands Office as a town.

In the same year Mr CE Pridmore, the then owner of Sylvan Park, applied for a

transfer of the portion of section 156 in the township McLaren Vale. All previous

transactions for that locality were designated as the township ofGloucesterin the

McLaren Vale. After that stroke of a pen all transactions afterward referred to

McLaren Vale as a town.

In some ways the most significant historical site is the row of olive trees that marks

the old Sylvan Parkdriveway. Sylvan Parkwas right in the middle of the two towns.

When houses sprang up around it, the two towns became one. Today, you can

barely tell where the old driveway was.

3 CHURCHES

THE CENTRE WHITE CHAPEL IS THE

FIRST GLOUCESTER CHURCH FROM

1842. THE RIGHT IS THE SECOND FROM

THE LATE 1850S WHILE ON THE FAR

LEFT IS THE 1970S VERSION.

BELOW RIGHT INGLEBURN FARM IN

1915. BELOW LEFT - 2009 LOVINGLY

RESTORED AS THE PENNYS HILL

CELLAR DOOR.


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1

1

2

2

TWIN IMAGES OF

MCLAREN VALE.

BLACK AND WHITE

SHOT TAKEN IN

1937. THE COLOUR

IN 1974.

1 - HOSPITAL.

2 TRAIN LINE AND

TALL TREES.

3 - WINERY.

4 - TINTARA

WINERY.

5 - OLIVE LINED

DRIVEWAY TO

SYLVAN PARK.

6 - THE OLD

GLOUCESTER

VILLAGE.7-THE OLD

BELLEVUE VILLAGE.

3

3

4

5

5

6

6

7


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One little curiousity, until the 1980s, the boundaries of the District Councils of

Noarlunga and Willunga were defined as the trainline that crossed the Main Rd, in

the middle of the street, putting what turned into McLaren Vale in two different

councils. It was as if the two towns still wanted to be apart even though they were

joined.

Gloucesterand Bellevue are the two most obvious pieces of lost history, swallowed

up by the town of McLaren Vale (above), but there have been others. Over time

many of the old place names have been merged with, discarded by and subsumedinto the towns we now call McLaren Vale, McLaren Flatand Willunga.

A few of the original settlement names have been merged into common postcodes

but survived as map or service addresses. Whites Valleyand Willunga South, which

are now loosely part of Willunga, are examples that live on as utility addresses.

Tatachilla also remains in common usage both as an address, winery brand and

school, despite being swallowed by the greater McLaren Vale town.

Some names live on as business names, Hillside formerly in the hills near McLaren

Flat, lives on as Hillside Haulage the Sullivan families freight business. Taranga,

which was the southern section of a farm established by William and Elizabeth

Oliver when they settled, lives on in several business and property names.

Other names have fallen out of general use but remain as property names, like

Beltunga near McLaren Flat, while others have fallen out of use entirely.

STREET CRICKET

IN THE 1960S PHIL

CHRISTENSEN, LONGWOOD

WINES PLAYED CRICKET IN THE

MAIN STREET OUT THE FRONT

OF THE BANK. HE MOVED WHENA CAR CAME. ANYONE GAME

ENOUGH TO TRY THAT TODAY?


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The reasons some names survived while others slipped makes an interesting story.

The farms that formed the nucleus of the hamlet Gloucester, Daringa and

Oxenberry, live on as cellar doors on Kangarilla Rd. Daringa as the home of Dennis

Wines, and Oxenberryis being reborn as a fresh wine operation for the Scarpantoni

Family.

Bellevue, to the north, established on land purchased by Richard Bell where he built

his little colony, is commemorated in wine in a more obscure way.

Ellen Street, named after his wife, is now re- titled as part of Chalk Hill Road. Ellen

Street lives on as a wine made by noted history buff Mark Maxwell. Is cellar door

overlooks the former Ellen Street.

One of the early settlements has survived as an outcast with a different postcode.

Most visitors to McLaren Vale, and even a fair share of locals dont realize Landcross

Farm, is uniquely grouped with Maslins Beach in a different postcode 5170.

This is unique because the mailman for Landcross Farm does not think of it beingpart of McLaren Vale. Australia Post do not deliver.

You wont often see a letter marked Landcross Farm, 5170, SA.

Landcross Farm is centered on and

named after an old sheep farm. The

old farmlet has been rejuvenated by

Paxton Wines as their cellar door.

The Landcross Farm postcode is a

throwback to an age when the farmand the buildings around it formed

its own unique community.

TWO

WINERIES

AN AERIAL PHOTO

OF TINTARA IN

1974. ACROSS THE

ROAD IS THE

MCLAREN VALE

FRUIT PACKERS

BUILDING. IN THE

FAR DISTANCE THE

FOUNDATIONWINERY FOR

TATACHILLA, NOW

THE TATACHILLA

CAMP.

BEFORE THE

GREAT

DEPRESSION OF

THE 1930S,

TATACHILLAWINERY HAD THE

LARGEST

VINEYARD IN THE

SOUTHERN

HEMISPHERE.

Visit the interactive

McLaren Vale map

here


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ABOVE - MCLAREN VALE

(GLOUCESTER) AT THE TURN

OF THE 20TH

CENTURY

LOOKING TOWARDS THE

CHURCH AT THE SOUTH OF

THE TOWN NOTE THE OLIVE

TREES IN THE FOREGROUND.

THESE ARE STILL ALIVE TODAY

AS THE OLD DRIVEWAY FOR

SYLVAN PARK.

A MAP OF THE HUNDRED OF

WILLUNGA FROM 1890

SHOWS BELLEVUE,

GLOUCESTER AND

TORTACHILLA. MCLARENVALE IS NOT MENTIONED.

RIGHT - A PHOTO OF THE

BELLEVUE HOTEL CIRCA 1910.

LOWER - ACCORDING TO THE

STATE LIBRARY THIS

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE HOTEL

MCLAREN, THEN CALLED THE

BELLE VUE HOTEL, IS BELIEVED

TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN JUST

AFTER THE ADDITION OF THE

VERANDAH, IN 1932.


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ABOVE - THE ORIGINAL

TATACHILLA WINERY STILL

STANDS AS THE TATACHILLA

CAMP. THE THEN

FOUNDATION WINERY IS SEEN

HERE IN 1920 LOOKING SOUTH

ALONG CALIFORNIA RD. IN

THIS PHOTO IT LOOKS MUCH

AS IT DOES NOW.

RIGHT - TEN YEARS EARLIER IN

1910 THE SITE FROM THE

SOUTH EAST. THE MAIN HOUSE

IS RECOGNIZABLE IN BOTH

PHOTOS. THE 1910 PHOTOSPREDATED THE LARGE WINERY

BUILDING THAT STILL STANDS AS THE TATACHILLA CAMP. State Library of South Australia


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THE BARN

BUILT IN THE

1860S THE

BARN WAS

AQUIRED BY

THOMAS

HARDY IN THE

1880S AND

USED AS AHORSE

STAGING POST.

LATER IN ITS

LIFE IT HAS

SEEN DEATHS

AND BIRTHS AS

A HOSPITAL,

FINE FOOD

AND MANYBOTTLES OF

WINE.


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Four kilometres to the southeast of

the twin towns was a Wesleyan

church house opened in 1854 and

given the name Bethany Chapel. It

was so named because it was the

same distance from the local

Gloucester Post Office as the town of

Bethany from Jerusalem in the Holy

Land.

What we now call McMurtrie Road

was known as Bethany Road. The

Chapel sat on the corner of Bethany

Roadand Strout Rd.

It was considered a lucky place as onthe day it opened the first rains of

the season fell, the 4th

of June 1854.

Other cottages were established

nearby. Joining the Wirra Wirra farm

which was across the creek.

Further along Strout Rd, Mr Richard

Strout also built a Church of England

cemetery and chapel. However by

1892 it was a ruin. Over the next

century any signs of the original

church were washed away however

new graves were added. We now

know it as the Strout Cemetery. The

cemetery is the last resting place of

modern wine pioneer Greg Trott.

In the 1940s a descendent of the

original Richard Strout, also Richard

owned all of the land in this area and

was considered the largest producer

of almonds in the Southern

Hemisphere. Today vineyards are

planted in most of these orchards. Later in its history Bethany was

home to the first illuminated tennis

courts which can still be seen on

McMurtrie Road.

Greg Trotts Wirra Wirra Church

Block wines are named after the

Bethany chapel as Wirra Wirra's

vineyards sit directly opposite. It is

fitting that the names of Trott,

Bethany, Strout and Wirra Wirra are

all intermingled and live on.

North of Bethany is the town ofMcLaren Flat. McLaren Flat had its

own satellite colonies, Hillside which

was located west towards Kangarilla

BIBLE STUDY

ORGINALLY DIFFERENT

FAITHS ESTABLISHED

DIFFERENT CHURCHES

FOR THEIR FOLLOWERS.

SEAVIEW, BETHANY

CHAPEL AND THE TWO

CHURCHES IN MCLAREN

VALE WERE ALL FOR

DIFFERENT

DENOMINATIONS.


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and Beltunga, near Douglas Gullyto the north.

Beltunga, was located north of McLaren Flat. Beltungas houses were built at the

instigation of Richard Bell, founder of Bellevue. His second town did not develop

beyond a few farms. Beltunga is still the name of one property on Blewitt SpringsRd, but Adele Pridmore notes in her 1949 book The Rich Valley, by her time local

didnt remember that Beltunga was established as a separate town.

Hillside was pioneered by a Waterloo veteran named Wickham his name lives on

as Wickhams Hill. JB Wilson settled at the foot of the hill in 1840 and built a private

town. His descendent Fred Wilson was both the Chairman of Willunga and

Noarlunga Councils at different times. Fred Wilson also was pivotal in Hillside

Cricket Club which it was rumoured was named because locals did not want their

team called the Flats.

Blewitt Springs was further north and consisted of a series of sandy ridges linked by

roads that ran in between. It has maintained its independence on maps and as a

street address although shares McLaren Flats telephone exchange and the greater

5171 postcode. As the name suggests, Blewitt Springs were the original source of

water. One notable family, the Douglass, farmed the area first as managers of the

McLeods Roma property then on

their own farm from 1839 until 1849.

Douglas Gully gets its name from

their efforts.

Traveling further north towards the

McLaren Vale Onkaparinga River a

small township formed on the edge

of the gorge near some fords that

made crossing the river possible for

much of the year. It was known as

Seaview, often written in the earliest

records as Sea View.

The property was first taken up by a

Mr Luney. A chapel was built at the

end of the driveway, it is now thecellar door for Chapel Hill Wines.

Fatefully the chapel was served by

the Rev. James Way of Willunga, and


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his son Samuel Way became so attached to the place he later brought it after

becoming one of the leading citizens of his day as Chief Justice for South Australia.

Sir Samuel Way in turn lent his name to Justin McNamees Samuels Gorge. Thatwinery is now based in the former Sea Viewblacksmiths workshop and later olive

press house.

Along the road back down the hill to the McLaren Valley townships, George

Manning established Hope Farm in 1851, and planted vines in 1855. It was

considered the second vineyard south of Adelaide after John Reynells 1840

plantings at Chateau Reynella. It is the oldest winemaking site south ofReynella and

its cellars were established originally from mud bricks. A visit to Hope Farm by Dr AC

Kelly, convinced him to plant a vineyard at Tintara, which sourced grape cuttings

from the Mannings.

George Manning died in 1872 and his sons carried on until 1892. Mr W.H Craven

continued on the site until 1934 when Mr W.G Kay brought the property.

Ancestors of the Kay Brothers are of course still in the wine business today at the

neighbouring property, Amery, in their family since 1892.

The Hope Farm vineyard and winery was renamed Seaview in 1951 by its new

owners, Mr Edwards and Mr Chaffey. They re-branded the site with the common

name for the area and today the names Seaviewand Edwards & Chaffeylive on as

wine brands. The original Hope Farm winery is now called Rosemount.

Back in the day both Kelly and Manning got their inspiration from John Reynell. In

1839, John Reynell claimed he was the first settler to enclose an entire 80-acre

(32 ha) section. A little later he had to cut the fences to allow for the alignment of a

proposed road for the passage of a

regular mail run to Encounter Bay

which was established by the end of

1839.

In 1841, Reynell began the planting

of his vineyard with cuttings he had

planted the year earlier at a

temporary site. His first vineyard was

called Stony Hill.By 1854 there was a demand for land

for housing in the area and in

February of that year, John Reynell

drew up a Notice of Sale for a portion

of hisReynella Farm

for the

establishment

of the

township of

Reynella.

Reynell

subdivided his

farm.

By 1866 the

town had the

steam flour

mill, hotel,

post office,

store, school

and chapel.

However by

the end of the

Nineteenth

Century as

many farmers

had moved to

the Norther

agricultural

lands,

Reynella was said to be "a village of

the past, as several ruined houses

along the road remain to testify

Back in Seaview and into the age of

the motorcar, dArenberg, sprang up

to become one of the most

significant wineries in McLaren Vale.

In 1912 Joseph Osborn, a teetotaller

and director of Thomas Hardy and

Sons, purchased the well establishedMilton Vineyards of 25 hectares.


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I often imagine the original Kay Brothers, Frederick and Herbert calling the Osborns

operation, when they opened their winery in 1928, Those newcomers down the

hill which is pure speculation on my part. Both of the Kay Brothers were great

contributors to the community and the wine industry and would have been an

inspiration because they were partners for 57 years.

Another notable wine family had a twenty year head start on Joseph Osborn.

Pirramimma was founded by Alexander Campbell Johnston in 1892 and has been

owned and operated by the Johnston family ever since. The Johnston family arrived

in South Australia in 1839 and in 1892 Alexander, the tenth of thirteen children,

purchased 97 hectares of farmland and built a winery. He named his land

Pirramimma, an Aboriginal phrase meaning "the moon and the stars".

Across the road from Johnstons stood a simple white washed, wattle slab winery

called the The Wattles, another once famous name now part of the forgotten

history of wine.

In 1890 Horace

Pridmore bought

Woodley Estate, in

Glen Osmond, and

went on to plant

more vineyards,

built large cellars

and increased the

storage chambers.

Horace then went

on to buy land in

McLaren Vale andin 1892 built the

small Wattles cellar

slabs and there

made small

amounts of wine.

In 1894, Cyril

Pridmore arrived

from England to

assist older brother

Horace in the

running of thecellars. In 1896,

after a decade of encouraging growers in planting more vines, Thomas Hardy and

the local growers faced a bumper year and called on the Pridmore brothers to assist

in the processing of excess grapes.

They built a bigger winery and cellar also named "The Wattles" on the grounds of

Sylvan Park. It was completed in the same year as the purchase of the Coultons

homestead in 1901.

Cyrils shoulders sagged at the death of Horace in 1907 and he managed three more

Wattles vintages until he sold his winery to Penfolds Wines in 1910. Then the

winery was branded as Penfolds Southern Vales.

The Sylvan Park homestead was however kept and passed down the family. As

mentioned earlier as this all occurred the towns of Bellevue and Gloucester grew to

be considered McLaren Vale.

Sylvan Park and the efforts of the

Pridmore Brothers are remembered

by the current generation, David

Pridmores Sylvan Park.

The larger, second Wattles winery

was owned by Penfolds until the

1960s, and then it became the

Southern Vales Co-Op, before

morphing into the 1990s Tatachilla

operation. The original Mark 1 -

Wattles lies derelict on Johnston

Road across the road from the

Pirramimma driveway.

DEMOLITION

IN 2009 BOTH THE 1980S

SHOPPING CENTRE, FOREGROUND,

AND THE 1901 WATTLES WINERY,

BACKGROUND RIGHT ARE SET FOR

DEMOLITION.

THE MAIN STREET OF MCLARENVALE CONTINUES TO CHANGE

INTO A SHAPE UNRECOGNISABLE

TO OUR FOREBEARS.


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Around the town of Willunga were Delabole Village where the slate mines were

grouped and Whites Valley which lay on the direct road to Port Willunga to thenorth ofAldinga. The Whites Valley village was centered on Adey Rd, Aldinga Rd

and Little Rd.

James White built a flourmill in 1853. The valley was planted to wheat and other

cereals. He owned two steam ships that traded along the coast, one of which was

calledAldinga.

REMAINS OF THE DAY

TOP THE RUINS OF A

FLOUR MILL ON ALDINGA

ROAD, WHITES VALLEY.

BELOW JAMES WHITES

MILL IN WHITES GULLYC.

1890.

LEFT HARVESTING

WHEAT IN THE 1950S.


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MAIN TOWN

WILLUNGA WAS

THE CENTRE FOR

BUSINESS IN THE

AREA AND MANY

PHOTOGRAPHS

DATING BACK TO

THE 1890S

REMAIN (LEFT)

LOOKING NORTH

AND THISPICTURE

(BELOW) FROM

1923 SHOWING

THE ALMA HOTEL

AND THE FUTURE

SITE OF FINOS

RESTAURANT.


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Aldinga is the English corruption of a Kaurna name for the region. In 1857 Aldinga

was separated from Willunga and became a distinctive town and region.

Interestingly the reason for this was a dispute over roads. Residents of the Aldinga

region favoured an overland route to Yankalilla via Sellicks Hill. Townspeople of

Willunga favoured a route through their town and then along Range Road West.

The residents of Aldinga split from their cousins in Willunga and lobbied

successfully for their road. A hotel was built to service trade along the route and

named Normans Victoryafter Mr. Norman, who lobbied for it. You know it as the

Victoryat Sellicks Hill.

While this was happening James White built a tower that looked out to sea where

he received semaphore from his ships, when the prices were good he shipped the

flour.

Other farms and homes were built nearby. Several historic building remain from this

time. Some have been restored while some of the farm houses and mills have fallen

into ruin. James White moved to New Zealand. The cereal industry remained and

many beers have been drunk at the Victory.

Sellicks Hills is part of the Mount Lofty Ranges and these look over Whites Valley.

I have been told they were once

known as the Front Hills, and are

marked as such on some old maps. I

have not seen these, but I believe it

possible as this name was then

corrupted to be called foothills.

Foothills are dryly defined as gradual

increases in hilly areas at the base of

a mountain range.

We get the sub-regional name

Sellicks Foothills from this, but Front

Hills has a ring to it in my opinion and

might warrant a comeback. Sellicks

Hilland Sellicks Beach were originally

named after William Selleck of Reach

Farm which covered the area.

Postcodes were introduced in

Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-

General's Department (PMG), the

predecessor of Australia Post. At this

point many of the smaller regional

names were swallowed up. Landcross

Farm survived with a fresh postcode

but Tatachilla, McLaren Flat, Blewitt

Springs, and remnants Hillside,

Beltunga and Bethany were allmerged into McLaren Vale, 5171.

Willunga 5172 took over Willunga

South and Whites Valley.

Willunga Post Office also had

responsibilities for Hope Forest, The

Range, Dingabledinga, where Lazy

Ballerina the cellar door is located

across from the southern tip of

Kuitpo Forest, Montarra and Kuitpo.

What is in a name? More than can bewritten here.

If you know more to these

stories please let us know. Please

check out Oliver Taranga's Cellar

Door to see their old map of the

region. The main sources for this

article are the great books -

McLaren Vale: Sea and Vines by

Barbara Santich (1998), The Rich

Valley by Adele Pridmore (1949)and South Australia. Whats in a

name? by Rodney Cockburn

(1909).

THE COCA COLA OF RURAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA

THE MAIN STREET OF WILLUNGA IN THE 1960S. NOTE THE POST

OFFICE ON THE RIGHT AND ACROSS THE ROAD THE WILLUNGA HOTEL.THE RURAL COMPANY ELDERS HAS AN OFFICE NEXT TO THE POST

OFFICE. State Library of SA.

Documents

Wine Fight Club June 09