The Land's Working History

Land Settlement and Development – from 1836

 

Explorers and settlers were attracted to the Barossa valley soon after the settlement of South Australia in 1836.

First explorers: Colonel William Light, surveyor general who in December 1837 searched for a North Eastern route to the river Murray.

At Tanunda creek he named Lyndoch, in memory of his friend who fought beside him in the Battle of Barrosa..

In 1839 Colonel light completed his survey of several areas of the Barossa range.

The name commemorates a Spanish battlefield, spelt ‘Barrosa’ where light fought in the peninsular wars.

This paved the way for purchase and settlement of the lands in the valley.

Also in 1839 Johann Menge, a German geologist and mineralologist searched and found minerals in the hills.

He wrote to George Fife Angas in 1840 expressing this information but many pioneers where more interested in the lands pastoral potential at that time.

 

Early Primary Production

 

Agriculture – Cropping

German settlers were hard working – prepared to work long hours at clearing the land, planting and reaping crops and tending to stock.

In 1879-71 the Tanunda district council recorded 3713 acres under cultivation.

 

Mining:

In 1843 copper was discovered at Kaunda and this gave a great boost to the township of the Barossa.

In 1850 the South Australian gold company was set up and in 1857 gold was found in the Tanunda creek.

George fife Angas wrote of the Germans that ‘their strong regard for their religion and attention to its ordinances tends to depress the desire for gold digging.

Copper was discovered in Greenock in 1846 and copper and marble found at Penrice in the 1850’s.

 

Forestry:

Pine Forests were established at an early date in the Barossa development.

In 1840 there were two in the vicinity of Angas Park, one at Lyndoch and another at park hill.

Red gum was felled in Mt Crawford and Williamstown and provided good quality timber to the state.

It was used in a variety of ways, including railway sleepers, telegraph poles, pit props for mines and wharf piles.

 

Milling:

The first flour mill was built in Lyndoch in 1843, built by William spring et.

In 1853 a team mill was built on Gilbert Street (the old cockatoo valley road).

At Stockwell and Greenock, mills were built in 1849 and 1900 respectively.

In Penrice Daveyston flour mill was built by Captain Rodda opposite the Penrice bakery.

 

Wine:

1840’s to 1850’s the first wine producers set up their operations, but more extensively carried out after 1890, when phylloxera disease ravaged vineyards in Victoria and New South Wales.

Johann Gramp planted vines near Jacobs’s creek in 1847 which produced its first wine in 1850.

Joseph Gilbert also planted vines in 1847 at Pewsey Vale.

From 1847 – 1860 vineyards were established and wine making conducted on a small scale.

These are examples of commercial winemakers during this period, who devoted much of their land to vines:

Johann Gramp at Jacobs creek

William Salter at Mamre Brook

Joseph Seppeltsfield at Seppeltsfield

William smith at Yalumba

 

These are examples of peoples whose involvement with vines were part of a larger, more diverted rural activity:

Henry Evans at Evandale

David Randall at Glen Para

Joseph Gilbert at Pewsey Vale

 

1880 – 1900 :

During this period further wineries were established including Chateau Tanunda.

Following federation in 1900, interstate tariffs were abolished and export of wine flourished.

In 1903 Seppeltsfield produced some 400,000 gallons of wine, double that of the 1889 vintage.

The depression led to a major decline in the consumption of wine.

Continual annual surplus stimulated the formation of the Barossa cooperative winery.

The impact of the recession carried on until after the Second World War.

Social changes after the ear had an influence in the Barossa wine industry.

Mass immigration of Europeans stimulated a growing economy and improved market for wines and style of wines.