Stirling. In the Adelaide Hills. The Main Street in autumn.
Image by denisbin
Some Stirling notes.
•Tiers men were woodcutters, cattle thieves, rustlers etc. ex convicts, notorious for bad men.
•Summer houses from 1870 onwards, and many more after railway in 1883.
•Richard Davies Hanson, chief Justice, later Sir, and his brother architect William Hanson bought a cottage bought land from G Stephen. George Milner Stephens built the cottage in 1848. Enlarged it to Woodhouse for his old age. He died here 1876. Moved in 1860s. Woodhouse photographed 1872 with a lake in front. George Tinline began Tinline Court in the late 1850s on his land. Boy Scouts purchased Woodhouse in 1975.
•Samuel Tomkinson in late 1850s began Mongona which became Manoah at Upper Sturt. A mansion. A large house. They came up there in December for Christmas and the summer. 2 servants. Lady Hanson from Woodhouse would visit. Sir Trent de Crespigny bought Manoah after WW2.
Then it went to the Symon family. They sold it for a health resort in the 1960s. It burn down in 1974. Then became Manoah Christian Community. It was restored for them.
•1850s the town of Bridgewater. Early school here wooden, then stone one in 1907.
•1878 Governor decided a bigger mansion not Govt House in Belair Park which was only a cottage. So Marble Hill mansion built.
•Before railway came. In 1875 a Royal Commission with 4 rail options to go up the ranges to go to Murray Bridge for intercolonial link. Selected was via Kent town, Norwood to Beaumont, Glen Osmond, up Brown Hill creek to Crafers. Very steep. Parliament adopted a different route via Mitcham, Blackwood and Belair. First section to Nairne and called Nairne railway. Tenders let for that section to Mt lofty and then Lofty to Nairne. Different tenders for next section. Construction began in May 1879. 8 tunnels in Nairne section; plus built up sections, and large cuttings. One cutting was 57 feet deep. 100 embankments and culverts. Longest tunnel and two viaducts. Next section to Nairne began July 1881. 2 bridges, one viaduct and one tunnel.
•Railway ready for opening in March 1883 to Aldgate. Train ran out of steam literally at Blackwood and most passengers including the Governor dumped there and one carriage went on . A second train took rest of the passengers to Aldgate. A non-entity gave opening address at Mt Lofty Station and not the Governor! Because of the railway camps and drunkenness and fights the Stirling Police station built in 1881. Railway completed to Aldgate in March 1883. Thomas Playford as cabinet minister resigned over the fiasco as the opening train had been too heavy and travelled too fast. He then continued on as politician. Line to Nairne opened November 1883. in 1887 it opened all the way to Melbourne.
• In 1919 the Sleeps Hill viaducts were replaced. They shook too much and engines were too heavy. One longer tunnel built to replace them. By 1928 the bitumen road to Mt Barker was completed for cars. Duplication of railway line to Belair in 1929.
•New subdivisions following railway at Waverly, Crafers and Mt Lofty Summit 1882, Aldgate Woodbury 1883, Montrose 1883 and Crafers Springs 1884. Hills Land and Investment Company did most of these new estates. They purchased 849 acres by March 1882 to subdivide when the railway come through. They had subdivisions at Blackwood, Belair, Crafers, and Aldgate. Aldgate was the most successful near the Aldgate Pump Hotel. That company built the two storey store at the corner of Strathalbyn Road and Kingsland Road. Dunn and Co, the miller from Mt Barker subdivided 100 blocks at Bridgewater.
•Dr Edward Charles Stirling built St. Vigeans near Mt Lofty. The town of stirlign was named after him in 1882. he was a Rhododendron specialist. His friend was Tom Barr Smith of Wairoa. William Austin Horn built Wairoa. He sold it to Sir Thomas Elder. Sir Thomas Elder was childless and left it to his nephew Thom Elder Barr Smith. Wairoa became a showpiece of Adelaide. When he died in 1919 part of the estate was sold off. Wairoa passed to Joanna Barr Smith who sold it to Mrs James Gosse. When Lady Gosse died in 1965 Wairoa was sold to Quarry Industries who in turn sold to Marbury School in 1972.
•After WW1, real estate agent Matters got permission to create very small blocks at Bridgewater for weekend shacks. This was a boom for business in Bridgewater.
•Sir William Milne, 1822-95, pastoralist, businessman and politician of Sunnyside Glen Osmond built a new house here. They chose Eurilla as the name (based on Uraidla). On the summit.
•Sir Thomas Elder 1818-97, built the Pinnacles nearest the Summit. Baronial style of Scotland. The tower of the pinnacles rose higher than the summit of Mt Lofty. Views to the Gulf. Gas lighting, showers, baths and flushing lavatories. But he supported local industry and had all the furniture made locally to create employment. Torode was a popular local builder of grand houses at Crafers etc. Sir Thomas Elder died at the Pinnacles in 1897. In 1902 the house was sold to Sir Langdon Bonython the owner of the Adelaide Advertiser. He renamed the house Carminow. Bonython had the eastern balconies added. Below Bonython lived his poor cousins at Summertown. Bonython hated felling eucalyptus trees to create his garden so he travelled to England and had them felled whilst he was overseas. Sir Langdon died in 1939.. Carminow went to his son John Lavington Bonython. He had also bought Eurilla from the Milnes in 1917. Kym Bonython spent much of his childhood here. During WW2 Carminow accommodated 120 troops and Eurilla 80 troops at a time!
•Edward Hawker of Bungaree built Wachenappee which is now Olivet House in Ayers Hill Road. The family lived there 1900 to 1910.
•Michael Hawker of North Bungaree built Pirralilla , later it became St. Joseph’s Convent at Aldgate on the other side of the road from Wairoa. This is on Arkaba Road, Aldgate. it became a convent in 1950.
•Walter Hawker built Derrymor. He was from Anama near Clare.
•Number Seven the Summit also built by Arthur Hardy. It was renamed Wonnaminta by new owners Robert Kennedy.
•Dr Charles Gosse had Thorpe on Ayers Hill Road. Built 1881. Sold in 1886 to a son of Sir Henry Ayers ,Ernest Ayers. Ernest’s wife Barbara Milnes had her parents living at Eurilla.
•Summit: the trig point built there 1885. Used for surveying. Apertures 60 degrees Mt Torrens, 120 degrees Mt Barker, 240 degrees O’Halloran Hill, 300 degrees Adelaide CBD, 360 Black Hill. The Mount Lofty Obelisk was for built navigation in the gulf. Built 1911.
•Anglican Church of the Epiphany had first robed choir outside of Adelaide in 1899. The wealthy from Crafers and the Summit worshipped there. Rectory built 1885.
•Upper Sturt Soldiers Memorial Hall built 1935. One of many memorial halls in the top of the ranges.
•Downers at Glenalta Stirling east. He was the SA Premier etc. His son Alick built Arbury Park in 1935 nearby.
•Korralla House on Summit road became St. Michael’s Monastery in 1946. The House was also a refuge for the spiritually ill. it was burnt in the February 1983 bushfires and has not been rebuilt. Korralla was left to Church of England by Audine O’Leary, nee Bakewell on her death in 1945. It was offered to the English Brothers Society of the sacred Mission founded in 1894 in England. John Warren Bakewell bought a cottage when the Hills railway was constructed.. He employed architects Grainger and Naish in 1885 to designed an 8 roomed house plus gate house and stables and coach house. In 1901 a ballroom as added. Bakewell mansion had finest views of all. Korralla means–:seen from afar. Bakewell 1845-1922 a lawyer, businessman, research chemist author etc. Bakewell bridge in Adelaide named after him. He hHad a chemical laboratory built into the house. It was used by Sir William Bragg who got a Nobel prize. Bakewell had an early car before 1905. During WW2 Korralla House housed American officers with all comforts laid on including visits by professional women!
•A group of locals at Narrinyeri Stirling west set up the local National Trust in 1951.
•In 1947 the Dominicans purchased the Milne mansion Bythorne on Ayers Hill road and established St. Catherine’s School. The Bickford family home next door was acquired too then it later reverted to a private house.
•Beechwood. Tom Barr Smith purchased it from the Snows in 1969. He had the conservatory from Sir Thomas Elder’s Birksgate moved to his Beechwood garden. In 1979 Beechwoods was sold and the threat of subdivisions hung over it but it survived. Marbury School in Wairoa and the Botanic Gardens purchased it to open it to the public. It is now a private house again.
•Mount Lofty Summit became government land in 1945. It was added to the National Parks. Ugly kiosk built in 1958 and burnt down in 1983 bushfires.
•Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. The land for it was purchased in 1952. The search for land for a new botanic gardens began in 1948. Noel Lothian the Director of the Botanic Gardens was the main moving force behind its acquisition. Some of the land had been owned by the Hardy family. Noel Lothian began plantings in 1959.
•Television channels to the Summit in 1959 when South Australia first had television. .
•The old 1882 wooden Bridgewater School was restored by Council.
•Ash Wednesday bushfires were in 1983. On Mt Lofty Summit only Wonnaminta escaped the fire. Shurdington, Arthurs Seat ( Mt Lofty House) and Green gables were burnt, Eurilla burnt for Kym Bonython. Flames roared up Carminow. St. Michaels Monastery destroyed with its 40,000 books on theology. Much rebuilding of mansions and restoration work began on the new summit restaurant and shop in 1996. Thorngrove built. 1988 Mt Lofty House was rebuilt and added to for the Mecure Hotel hotel chain . In 1990 the Aldgate railway station closed. Now all railway stations are closed in the Adelaide Hills.
