Mount Torrens historic SA town founded in 1853. The whole town is classifed as heritage. Old shop and house. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Mount Torrens historic SA town founded in 1853. The whole town is classifed as heritage. Old shop and house. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | George Dunn and his wife Mary purchased land at Mt Torrens in 1840 to establish a sheep run which they called Barton Springs. In 1845 copper was discovered a few miles east and in 1847 a copper mine was opened at Reedy Creek using Cornish miners. George Dunn soon found that his home was a stopping place for bullock drivers travelling to or from the mines. He therefore opened the Cornish Arms Hotel in 1848/49 whilst he built the impressive Mount Torrens Hotel which opened in 1850. By the time the two storey Mount Torrens Hotel opened the mine had closed and shortly after the miners went off to the Victorian gold rushes anyway. The Reedy Creek or Tungkillo mine was a Mining Special Survey of 20,000 acres undertaken in 1845 for an English mining company. Much later in 1869 the Reedy Creek mine was operational again and reasonable gold finds were made but for only short time. The Reedy Creek gold mine was also activated again in 1893 for a short time but with no good finds. Barton Springs by 1850 also had a blacksmiths shop, extensive stables and a large farm house. George Dunn was not to be deterred and when the miners began to return from the Victorian goldfields in 1853 he subdivided some of his land to create the township of Mt Torrens. One of the early residents was one of his many brothers James. George donated land for an Anglican Church (mid 1850s), which is where he was later buried when he died. He personally built many of the houses and public buildings in the town especially those on the western side of the main street. His town prospered as it was on the government surveyed road from Adelaide to Mannum on the Murray River. In 1853 the river boat trade began on the river and Mt Torrens became an important resting or staging point along the route to Mannum. Also in 1853 the first flour mill was constructed by a cooperative of local men and in 1854 the first Methodist Church (Bible Christian) opened and the first private school. As the town grew the local Council had the current stone bridge erected over Angas Creek in the current Main Street in 1860. As wheat yields declined from over cropping many farmers turned to wattle bark and two processing plants were built in the small town. The bark was used for tan extracts using the leather hide tanning process. When pasture improvement became a usual practice in the early 20th century dairying prospered and AMSCOL established a milk factory in the town. It burnt down in 1939. Earlier John Shearer established a blacksmith and implement making works in Mount Torrens around 1871. In 1876 he and his brother David went into partnership in Mannum where the firm still exists. The railway from Balhannah reached the town in 1918. Since the 1920s Mt Torrens has been a forgotten town left in a late 19th century mode hence its declaration in 2002 as a heritage town for the SA state heritage register. There are more than 30 houses, shops and other structures in the town from the 1850s and for SA a surprising number of the houses are two storey and English in style. There are at least 8 two storey houses in the main street! Most are built in local stone or brick and some have numerous walls, wells and creek channels made of stone.George Dunn’s original Mt Torrens Hotel was a fine Georgian style building with perfect symmetry but its façade has been ruined in a poor attempt at modernisation. Although he was regarded the “father” of the town his personal life was not without blemish for Victorian times. Suddenly he was sued for divorce, an outrageous decision then, by his wife Mary in 1860. This caused a great scandal at that time which was “hushed” by the family. When Mary died in 1875 her papers made it clear that George had committed adultery although this charge was not raised at the divorce hearings. This charge was further substantiated when George died two years later in 1877 for he left his entire estate in trust for Clara Gibbett the young daughter of a woman called Clara Gibbett herself! Undoubtedly Clara was his mistress. The newspapers of the day carried no reports of George’s funeral but they had reported on Mary’s funeral two years earlier! Both Mary and George were buried in the Mt Torrens Anglican cemetery but Mary is buried with most others in front of the church and George is buried with just a few other graves behind the church. Was this unconsecrated ground perhaps? |
| 撮影日 | 2011-05-05 11:43:52 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | DSC-S950 , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.001 sec (1/800) |
| 開放F値 | f/5.7 |