Aboriginal Fire Trees
Photographed at Middle Road
North of Port Germein Gorge Road
Extract from a map compiled by N B Tindale of the South Australian Museum, showing Aboriginal tribal areas
"Land, capital and labour are the three grand elements of wealth; and the art of colonization consists in transferring capital and labour from countries where they are in excessive proportion to the quantity of fertile land, to countries where there is plenty of fertile land, but neither capital nor labour."- John Stephens - The History of the Rise and Progress of the New British Province of South Australia 1839, which can be read in full here.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, 1796-1862
Robert Gouger, 1802-1846
Charles Napier Sturt, 1795-1869
1802 The coastline of the land that 32 years later became known as South Australia, was charted by Matthew Flinders.
1829 Edward Gibbon Wakefield, alone in his Newgate prison cell, devised a plan for the systematic colonization of some perfect but as yet undiscovered land. With the aid of Robert Gouger, he published the pamphlet: 'Sketch of a Proposal for Colonizing Australia.'
1829 Prior to Wakefield's release, the 'National Colonization Society' was formed, with Robert Gouger as its secretary.
Captain Charles Sturt took two longboats along the River Murray from the penal colony of New South Wales, down through South Australia and out through the Murray Mouth into the Southern Ocean, thereby discovering South Australia. The map of that voyage can be seen here
1830 London received the news of the discovery of South Australia and the National Colonization Society fixed on South Australia as the site for their planned colony.
Proposals for an Act to establish South Australia as a British Province were made to the British government but were denied.
The basic principles of colonization which came to be identified as the "Wakefield theory" were as follows:
- Land should be sold at a fixed minimum price or above.
- The proceeds of land sales should be used primarily to subsidize the emigration of bona fide colonists.
- The volume and pace of emigration should be closely related to the amount of land available.
- Settlement should expand in contiguous blocks (the principle of "concentration").
- A large measure of local self-government in matters of selection of officials, land sales, emigration and revenue was essential.
- [This last clause was denied in the 1834 Foundation Act.]
D W Meinig - On the Margins of the Good Earth
1833 Gouger formed the South Australian Association, which replaced the National Colonization Society.
1834 The Foundation Act, written on vellum, was passed by the British Government.
May 1835 The Board of the South Australian Colonization Commission was
formed to administer the Act.
Britain stated in clause 24 of the Foundation Act, that no expense of founding and governing the colony should fall on the mother country. In order that the colonizers had sufficient funds to establish the colony they were instructed to raise £35,000 in preliminary land sales.
The land was to be sold for £1 an acre and no less than twelve shillings. The Land Sales documents can be seen here. Page 1 Page 2 Appendix
The first purchasers of these Preliminary Land Orders were entitled to 134 acre Sections - subsequently the Sections were of 80 acres of farmland plus one acre of town land. As an
inducement, the holders of the first 437 orders for land were entitled to priority of choice, both for town and country land.
The colonizers were also permitted to borrow £50,000 to enlarge the emigration fund and £200,000 to cover the initial ten years’ expenses (at no more than 10% per annum), to become a charge upon the revenues of the colony.
October 1835 When only a third of the land was sold, George Fife Angas, previously of the South Australian Colonization Committee, established the South Australian Company (which later formed the Bank of South Australia) and purchased, at 12 shillings per acre, 102 lots of land of 135 acres, including prime town and country sections totalling 13,770 acres, with the right to rent a further 220,160 acres of pasturage, thus creating a substantial land holding and providing sufficient funds to enable emigration to begin in 1836.
Governor John Hindmarsh
1785-1860
Governor George Gawler
1795-1869
Governor George Grey
1812-1898
1836 Letters Patent were issued, creating and defining the boundaries of the Province of South Australia.
The first settlers arrived. A good summary of the initial occupation and disposal of the land can be read here.
John Hindmarsh was appointed the first Governor of the Colony.
Colonel William Light, the Surveyor General, established the site for Adelaide.
1838 Governor George Gawler replaced Governor John Hindmarsh.
1839 "During 1839, 179,841 acres were sold, and in 1840 and 1841 the survey was effected of thirty-five special surveys, consisting of 4,000 acres each, in various localities outside the districts referred to. Colonel Frome and his surveyors were assisted in this by a strong party of sappers and miners."
South Australia in 1887: A Handbook for the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, by H. J. Scott.
1840 The time spent establishing the site for Adelaide and its subsequent survey had so delayed the survey of productive agricultural Sections that not only did free immigration cease, but also the funds brought out to the colony for its establishment were, instead, spent on importing food.
Faced with increasing unemployment Colonel Gawler created jobs by starting a new Government House, a large gaol and an extensive suite of public offices but “When, therefore, the bills which Colonel Gawler had given to the public creditors were presented at the Treasury for payment, they were at once protested, and sent back to the colony at 20 per cent expenses. Before this excessive expenditure could be stopped, it had reached a sum little short of £350,000.” South Australia, its Progress and Prosperity by Anthony Forster 1866
1841 Captain Grey replaced Colonel Gawler and swiftly surveyed land, enabling settlers with Land Orders purchased in Britain to take up their land and become self-sufficient.
1842 The first counties were proclaimed.
Annual Occupation Licences having been introduced, those settlers who had migrated north from Adelaide, establishing themselves and their flocks and herds onto the vacant land, were transformed from squatters into pastoralists by taking up a licence to occupy their land.
1839-41 Edward John Eyre's exploration of South Australia. Click here for the map of his exploration which is shown with acknowledgment and thanks to gutenberg.net.au. His Notebooks can be read here.
SHEEP The first sheep arrived in the colony by sea from New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria in 1836, but in 1839 overland routes were opened up from New South Wales and Victoria. There were problems with sheep scab from the very beginning of the colony. A well-written, very interesting and still relevant (with relation to current live sheep exporting) History of Sheep Scab in South Australia written by W. Stephen Smith B.V.Sc.,F.A.C.V.Sc., can be read here.
Booleroo, surveyed 1878
1846 The first hundreds (being approximately 100 square miles) were proclaimed and the government began surveying country towns.
1850 New land regulations provided for Pastoral Leases of up to 14 years, although as more land was wanted for agriculture, leases were systematically resumed by the SA government and the lessees compensated.
1851 Gold having been discovered in NSW and Victoria, there was a rush of men out of South Australia. This extract from Anthony Foster's 1866 book, "South Australia, its Progress and Prosperity", gives a first hand view of the events and consequences of that period.
A map showing the Preliminary Districts, Special Surveys, pastoral Leases and Land Sold at 1850 is shown with acknowledgment and thanks to the Dept of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, South Australian Government. This image is very large so please be patient.
By 1855 pastoral leases were opening up vast tracts of the South East, and extended north into the southern Flinders Ranges and sections of Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas.
1856 Britain granted South Australia responsible government.
1857 The new parliament passed the Waste Lands Act, setting conditions for sale of Crown Land and also cutting the tie between the land fund and Immigration.
By 1860 land was generally sold only within the hundreds already proclaimed, thus regulating the spread of agriculture. It also became common to lay out at least one town in each hundred.
1864 Drought
1866 Following the drought, Goyders Line, defining the area beyond which agriculture was not viable, was drawn. See more information about the Line
here (opens in a new Tab).
1866 The Scrub Lands Act was passed, designed to encourage farmers to settle on difficult mallee and scrub covered land.
1869 The 'Strangways Act' was passed and, by proclaiming certain Hundreds as Agricultural Areas, opened up the Mid North to the agriculturalists. Within these areas blocks of up to 320 acres were surveyed and sold on credit - 20 per cent of the price being paid at once as interest, and the principal being paid off at the end of four years. Each buyer was limited to 640 acres, and was required to reside on the land until purchase had been completed.
Prior to the Act settlers wishing to purchase land as agriculturalists (growing crops, requiring regular rainfall) rather than lease land as pastoralists (grazing sheep or cattle), were required to pay cash for the land, ownership of which which was then transferred to them from the Crown.
After the Act settlers were able to buy their land on credit, thus opening the prospect of land ownership to a far greater percentage of the population.
Coincidentally, there were a number of good rainy seasons, making land outside Goyder's Line appear to be viable and land was surveyed and sold further and further north, as can be seen in the periods up to 1889. It was during this period that the myth of rain following the plough arose.
Railways expanded north and inland
The invention of the stump-jump plough made cultivation of mallee country practicable, particularly on the Yorke Peninsula.
A number of good seasons increased the demand for agricultural land so that surveys of hundreds were nearly doubled, well beyond Goyder's Line.
1880-1883 Drought
Ploughing land already cleared of trees for agricultural use totally destroys any remnants of native vegetation.
Farmers who were unable to meet their mortgage commitments to the government were allowed to either surrender their land and select a holding elsewhere, or convert their credit purchase to a 21 + 21 year lease without right of purchase. Some of the ploughed and now barren land was abandoned.
1884 Sales of land now being lower than they had been since 1846, expansion had to be encouraged by roads, ports and railways.
Here is a Map, shown with acknowledgment and thanks to the Dept of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, South Australian Government, showing the Pastoral Leases, Sold (Alienated) Land and improvements to Infrastructure at 1890
1897 The Closer Settlement Act provided for the government to revert potentially good arable land away from the pastoralists, buying any improvements (houses, wells, fencing, sheds). This land was then divided into farm lots and allotted on perpetual lease, the lessors buying the improvements from the Government over a period of 21 years at 4%. The rent was 4% of the value of the land and, in addition, the lessor was committed to spend 6% of the land value on improvements for the first 5 years (from which the value of the improvements they had purchased when taking over the block was deducted).
1898 Drought
1906 A belt of fertile soil having been discovered beneath the dense mallee from Tailem Bend to the Victorian border, a railway was constructed through the lands and by 1908 all the surveyed land within ten miles of the railway was occupied.
The Government Valuer in the Survey Department, Edward Britten Jones, reported that large patches of good soil lay in the north and north-west of the Eyre Peninsula, and more railways were built. Survey was more irregular, picking the best of the land and only later filling in the gaps.
1914 Drought
Here is a Map which is shown with acknowledgment and thanks to the Dept of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, South Australian Government. This map shows the Pastoral Leases, Sold (Alienated) Land and improvements to Infrastructure, etc by 1920
