William Thomas – Kapunda Mayor 1893 - 1895

William Thomas – Kapunda Mayor 1893 - 1895

 William Thomas became Mayor of Kapunda in 1893, retaining the privileged position until 1895.

Thomas was born in Glamorganshire, Wales in 1854, and at 8 years of age moved to Kapunda, South Australia with his parents, brothers John and Even and sister Anne.

 In 1876 he married Emma Harvey at her parent’s house in Kapunda. Together they had one child, a daughter, Hilda Beatrice Thomas.

 Upon leaving school, William found work as an apprentice with My H.B, Hawkes iron foundry, working as an apprentice moulder and iron founder. In the evenings he worked the Main Street of Kapunda, selling newspapers.

 After Mr Hawke sold his business to a local man, Mr Rees, William left the foundry. His previous work selling newspapers had been very lucrative, and he was able to become an agent, getting younger lads to sell the newspapers on his behalf. Meanwhile, he set up a stationary and bookselling shop in the main street – perhaps Mr Thomas was Kapunda’s first newsagent!

In 1879, Thomas gained a position on Council, after being elected to the West Ward. He also took positions on the boards of the Kapunda Institute Committee, The Kapunda hospital and the Dutton Park Management Committee.
Thomas was also a trustee board member of the local Druids lodge

.

 In 1893 he became the elected Mayor of Kapunda, a position he held from 1893 until 1895. In 1896 he was involved in a local scandal when Mr H.B. Barker accused him of stating that the Corporation of Kapunda has misappropriated several Government grants. 

 Thomas went on record denying he ever said anything of the sort, even going so far as to publish a statement in the Kapunda Herald on May 7^th, 1896 that Mr Barker was incorrect and unfounded.

In September 1900, Emma passed away, and only a few weeks later, after 5 weeks of being bedridden, William joined her. They are both buried in the Clare Road Cemetery.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Kapunda Snow

Kapunda Snow

In June 1909 Kapunda, Allendale and Eudunda Ranges were covered in snow!

In our modern times, this is almost unheard of, but in the early 1900s, it would seem it was a regular occurrence.
 The snow was reported in the Kapunda Herald (newspaper) in 1901, 1906, 1908 as well as 1909 falling steadily, and in enough volume around the district for locals to build snowmen!

 photo Source: State Library of South Australia: B69054/114

Kapunda Herald 13 August 1909, page 1.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography

1909 'SNOW AT KAPUNDA.', Kapunda Herald (SA : 1878 - 1951), 30 July, p. 4. , viewed 19 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108430017

1909 'Snow Scenes at kapunda', Kapunda Herald (SA : 1878 - 1951), 13 August, p. 1. (Kapunda Herald Illustrated Supplement), viewed 19 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108430204

1906 'General New', Kapunda Herald (SA : 1878 - 1951), 31 August, p. 5. , viewed 19 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108378502

The Bachelors Hall – North Kapunda Hotel

The Bachelors Hall – North Kapunda Hotel

  No one is quite sure what year the rear accommodation wing of the North Kapunda Hotel was built, but it is estimated to be somewhere between 1848 and 1855. It may have been earlier than 1848, though, built as part of the miner’s accommodation around the town by the North Kapunda Mining Company. The same company built the original structure that would eventually become the North Kapunda Arms Hotel, which was built in 1865. Mr Crase would rebuild it into the striking two-story hotel we see and know today.

  The downstairs section of the hallway, in 1865 contained the first official office of the newly formed Kapunda Council until they moved to bigger premises on the Clare Road (the building today is the Scout Hall). There were also two large, ornate rooms used by Jenkins and Coles bursars who dealt with the horse sales that were held at the rear of the hotel.

Bachelor's Hall.

By H. C. DODGE.

Hurrah ! hurrah for Bachelor's Hall;

The Queen's away and I'm monarch of all;

I don't have to hang up my coat or my hat,

And when I get lonely I talk to the cat.

I come when I like, and I go when I choose.

The finest cigars help me scatter the blues;

 No bundles I carry and nothing I buy;

There's no one to care about-only big “I”

 I revel in wildest confusion around;

There isn't a thing in its place to be found;

 My books and newspapers, they litter the room

That' hasn't for weeks seen the sight of a broom.

There's clothing or something on every chair;

My bed's never made, but it's little I care;

I sleep like a top, for there's no one to call

I take solid comfort in Bachelor's Hall.

I've used all the dishes and now it's my fate

To eat, when I'm home, on the back of a plate;

I'm learning to cook, but, alas. I confess

I choose to go hungry than, swallow the mess.

But, Bachelor's Hall with its comfort and quiet,

Is almost too spooky for regular diet;

No children live in it to welcome their dad,

No supper is waiting, no wife-O, so glad.

No! Nothing but ghosts of the loved ones away

Inhabit this tomb where alone I must stay,

Compelled to break the silence by having a chat

With my woeful companion, the strange acting cat.

O, gladly I'll yield my crown sceptre and all

The Kingly delights of a Bachelor's Hall

To the Queen of the Home when she comes with her train

To wisely and lovingly over me reign.

First Published in The Kapunda Herald - Tuesday 7 August 1888, page 6

  The Bachelor’s Hall saw its own scandal in 1885 when three residents found themselves facing the magistrate at the Kapunda Courthouse for disturbing the peace.

 Murray Thomson, Robert Anderton, and James Shakes Jr. faced the magistrate on May 12th, with Thomson and Anderton represented by Mr Glynn, and Shakes represented by Mr Benham.

 The men had been charged because someone had been firing guns in Franklin Street at about 10 past three in the morning.

  On the evening of the alleged crime, many people had been in town to see the bellringer's entertainment and had then retired to the North Kapunda Hotel for a supper hosted by Mr Crase, which included sing-alongs and speeches. The bar was closed, but the party continued in the commercial room upstairs and on the balcony.

 More than 125 gunshots were heard in Franklin Street in about a 10-minute time frame (Franklin Street has since been renamed Crase Street). The police tried to frame the defendants as being the guilty parties, but witnesses declared they had seen Mr Thomson in a room upstairs, light a candle and look out the window in his night clothes at the ongoing disturbance below.

 Mr Shakes wasn’t even within the town boundaries when the incident happened, so the case fell apart; instead, the Magistrate went after Mr Crase, under the guise of the crime occurring outside his hotel, he would be held responsible for the people there. Mr Benham quickly shot down this argument as Mr Crase was entertaining upstairs privately, and may not have known who these people were, nor had they been inside his hotel drinking.  The case was eventually thrown out of court.

Interestingly though, the story that circulated through the town was slightly different from the story that surfaced in court. Several young men had been drinking in local hotels and had gone to the bellringer's event. After the event, they began walking the town trying to entertain themselves. 

 About 15 of these young men were heard on Main Street and were asked to move on by William Thomas when they congregated in front of his bookshop, which most likely angered the young men. It was within the next hour the gunshots occurred in Franklin Street, which may have come about because these young men were refused entry into the North Kapunda Hotel to join the upstairs party!

Originally written as “Kapunda – The Hallway to Hell” and published on Tuesday, 7 June 2016 on The Haunts of Adelaide: History, Mystery and the Paranormal – edited on the 16^th of February 2018 by Allen Tiller

© 2016-2018 Allen Tiller

The Sinking of Von Spee’s Squadron

The Sinking of Von Spee’s Squadron 

 

Captain F.W. Wheatley

A little-known chapter in the history of The Great War (WWI) involved a Kapunda born Cryptographer named Frederick Wheatley.

Wheatley was born in Kapunda, South Australia on June 7^th, 1871, to music teacher James Wheatley and his wife Magdalena (nee Basedow).

He was educated at the Prince Alfred College, and then the University of Adelaide. In 1890 he became a teacher at Way College, later he became a teacher at Prince Alfred College. Eventually, he became the Headmaster at the Rockhampton Grammar School, of which he lasted a year, quitting after a disagreement with the board.
 He soon became engaged with the proposed Royal Australian Naval College, helping to establish their syllabus. 

Wheatley married Alice Kimber at Glenelg in 1898, together they had three children.

 In 1913, Wheatley travelled to Germany, where he improved his understanding of the German language, this would later assist in his position in the Australian Navy during the coming war.

 World War One broke out in August 1914. Wheatley was stationed at the Navy Office, Melbourne under Captain Thring, where he was placed in charge of intercepting enemy radio messages.
 A German ship hurriedly left Sydney on August 4^th, and Australian authorities were convinced it intended to warn German ships to turn back to Europe, as they would not, as of yet heard the declaration of war announced.

 A German ship named Hobart entered the Port of Melbourne and was soon boarded by the District Naval Officer, Captain John Richardson, under the guise of quarantine inspection.  Later that evening two German men gave up the position of hidden safe that held a copy of the German Mercantile Code Book and a cipher key. These important documents were handed to Wheatley to Translate.

 Wheatley set to work, and via the cipher key, was able to translate the book, and decipher messages sent by Vice Admiral Graf Von Spee’s Pacific squadron. It took three days to decipher the codes, but what they turned up was the itinerary of the Spee’s fleet, that they were steaming through the Strait of Magellan to the Falkland Islands, then heading towards Brazil, down to South Africa.

 A cable message was sent to the British Admiralty, and ships were sent toward the Falkland Islands, arriving the day before Von Spee’s fleet. The English ships sank Von Spee’s ships Scharnhorsl, Gneisenau, Nurnberg and Leipzig that day, with only the ship Dresden escaping.
 Dresden was later sunk by the British Vessels Kent and Glasgow off the Juan Fernandez Island in the Pacific Ocean.

 If it wasn’t for Wheatley’s expertise, who knows what damage Von Spee’s fleet of warships could have caused for the Commonwealth.

Later in life, Wheatley became the Director of Studies at the Cranbrook School in Sydney. He was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1932.

Frederick Wheatley passed away on the 14^th of November 1955

 researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography

Robert Hyslop, 'Wheatley, Frederick William (1871–1955)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wheatley-frederick-william-9059/text15965, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 11 February 2018.

1934 'HOW VON SPEE'S SQUADRON WAS SUNK', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 27 June, p. 23. , viewed 11 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74098503

Royal Australian Navy, 2017, Dr Frederick William Wheatley, Australian Government, viewed 11 Feb 2018, http://www.navy.gov.au/biography/dr-frederick-william-wheatley

Kapunda's First International Celebrity - Mickey Pynn

Kapunda's First International Celebrity - Mickey Pynn

Mickey Pynn - SLSA: B57230

The Australian Tom Thumb – Mickey Pynn

 In 1870, travelling circus and sideshows were one of the main forms of entertainment for the citizens of the world, including those who lived in rural South Australia.

 We in South Australia would often gather together to watch the entertaining magic shows of Mr Vertelli or a passing circus, but every so often we would be gifted with the presence of an international act, such as “General Tom Thumb” (real name: Charles Sherwood Stratton ) from the USA, who had just come from successful live shows in England.

 General Tom Thumb had achieved international stardom as a sideshow act for P.T. Barnum, Circus Pioneer throughout the US and Europe, and came to Australia to perform, including Kapunda.

 It was his exclusive trip and sideshow act in Kapunda that brought Kapunda local lad, Mickey Pynn to the forefront, and made him Kapunda's first international celebrity.

Mickey Pynn lived with his family just south of Kapunda, where the hill rises near the Greenock road turn of. The House still stands today and is occupied.

 A family member, or perhaps a family friend seeing an opportunity to make some money from Mickey's condition, held an “exhibition” of Mickey in The Miners Arms Hotel, owned by William Tremaine (My own Great-Great Grandfather).

 The exhibition caught the attention of General Tom thumb who asked to meet young Mickey and was astounded that he was almost a full two inches shorter than him.

 This led to Mickey being hired by the company that the U.S. Tom's thumb had established (a very lucrative company, that would eventually bail out P.T. Barnum when financial strife almost collapsed his circus empire). Mickey would soon be travelling the world as a Circus midget and sometimes sideshow act under various names including “The Afghan Dwarf” and “The Australian Tom Thumb”, but this did not stop him from performing here in South Australia, nor in Kapunda.

In fact, “The Australian Tom Thumb” performed on occasion with his good friend John Morcom, better known as Magician “Vertelli”

 In an early career show that starred Mickey and Vertelli in The North Kapunda Hotel, it was written by a newspaper correspondent in the Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (March 3rd, 1871) the following:

"The diminutive Tom Thumb is a pleasing simple little fellow, whose greatest feat is to scratch his head like a bear with his toes his knees being kept straight during this interesting operation. He is said to be 17 years of age, not deformed, rather of a serious turn of mind, and has a look of great gravity previous to turning a somersault. If the Signor could induce a beard and whisker to grow, be would be a decided hit, and might put. "the General" into the shade—being some inches shorter."

 It is written elsewhere that Mickey's life contained many ups and downs over the years, but it would seem he often struggled with his inner demons, and took to drink, as attested in the following two stories in Sydney newspaper The Evening News in 1906, the stories being published only months apart:

Evening News: Sydney: Monday 3 September 1906

DWARF IN COURT.

'What has he been, doing?' asked Mr Smithers, S.M., at the Central Police Court this moraine. The magistrate's query had reference to Michael Pynn, 53, described on the sheet as an acrobatic dwarf. The offence against him was that of being drunk and disorderly on Saturday evening in George-street. 'He was running after women, and catching hold of them' said the sergeant, looking severely at the little man in the dock. 'He has been locked up since Saturday.' ''He was here on Saturday morning for being drunk,' said a policeman.

Solicitor: He should be let off with half the usual fine your Worship”

 ' The dwarf, who stood a little over 3ft high, was fined 5s."

Evening News - Sydney Wednesday 31 October 1906

A SMALL OFFENDER.

"The name of Michael Pynn was called at the Central Police Court this morning, and a man of 57 years, but of diminutive stature, answered the call. He was so little that his head did not reach to within 2ft of the top of the dock rail.

 Pynn looked between the rail at the magistrate, and in a loud tone pleaded guilty to a charge of being drunk in Castlereagh street.

'He has been coming here frequently, lately, saw police prosecutor Davis. 'He goes about the street, and 'shapes' up -to men 6ft high, twice his own height. A short sojourn in gaol would do him good and keep him from giving way entirely to drink.'  Pynn, it was ascertained, sometimes gives the police trouble, and on Tuesday it needed the united forces of Constables Lambert and Hardiman to convey, him to the lock-up. A fine of 20s, or 14 days, was imposed."

Mickey Pynn 1880 - Photo source unknown. Though to have been taken
 in the North Kapunda Hotel.

 In his later years, Mickey retired to Sydney where he saw out his last days, firstly in Lidcombe in a men’s home, where it was reported his “appetite is vigorous, though rheumatism affected his walk”.

 Soon he moved to a different home in Liverpool, one with immaculate gardens, and better conditions for this once sought-after entertainer. Attendants of the Men's Home spoke well of Mickey saying “He was always ready to do what little he could about the place, and amuse the other inmates with his "double jointed" tricks”

 Kapunda's first international celebrity, Mickey “The Australian Tom Thumb” Pynn passed away on the 22 of June 1929 in Sydney NSW.

First Published on The Haunts of Adelaide - Tuesday, 14 February 2017
© 2018-2018 Allen Tiller

Extreme Emergency Causing Notice – Kapunda

Extreme Emergency Causing Notice – Kapunda – South Australia

Lord Palmerston Hotel - Main Street Kapunda

During World War Two, the Japanese military had spread its army across Asia, marching towards Australia with a ferocity never before witnessed in modern warfare.
 City after city fell to the Empire as they moved ever southwards. Singapore fell, and soon Australian soldiers were fighting even closer to their homeland than expected, and the threat of coastal invasion became much more real and terrifying with the bombing of Darwin

.

 By 1942 however, the tide was beginning to turn, and it was now the Japanese who were beginning to worry, so much so in fact, that they began to evacuate their own people from possible invasion points by moving them to their furthest north island of Hokkaido.

Bank of Adelaide - 1907 - Kapunda

 If the Japanese had made it ashore and invaded Australia, the South Australian Government had devised a plan that would come into action if an “extreme emergency causing notice” had to be served. Which would demand all banks in South Australia in metropolitan areas transfer their funds to a head office, or state headquarters? If the banks head office was interstate, then transfers would be into the country or regional areas as a means of isolating them and making them harder to capture before important documents could be destroyed.

 The clearinghouse for Associated Banks in South Australia was to find its new home in Burra, where several of the States banks were already represented, these being the Bank of Australia, The National Bank of Australasia Ltd, and the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd.

 Banks that were choosing to station their headquarters in other towns, would also have to have a representative stationed in Burra to change their cheques through the clearinghouse.

  Other banks were choosing other regional areas, the Bank of Adelaide made plans for its administration to work from Saddleworth, whilst the Adelaide office would be moved to Kapunda, the headquarters to Balaklava and its Port Adelaide, Hindmarsh and Rundle Street branches would all be moved to Angaston in the Barossa Valley.

English, Scottish and Australia Chartered Bank - Kapunda 1871

 The Bank Of Adelaide also made plans to move its Enfield, Keswick and Unley branches to Freeling, whilst its Hindley Street, Pulteney Street and Gouger Street branches were to go even further north to Spalding, and the office on North Terrace to Booborowie!

 The English, Scottish and Australian Bank Ltd was looking towards Clare, while the Head Office of Sydney based bank the Commercial Banking company of Sydney Ltd, was looking to go south to Naracoorte. The Commonwealth Bank made moves for Waikerie, and our very own State Bank had chosen Yacka for its escape plan.

The Savings Bank of South Australia chose Kapunda, and made moves to secure buildings in the town, one being the former Baptist Church on Hill Street (now the Kapunda Museum) of which the basement, measuring 60ft by 40ft, and having two stairwells was considered extremely valuable to the bank, but they also needed somewhere to use as accommodation for the staff they would need to move to the former copper mining town.

Kapunda's Main Street circa 1880

   The Savings Bank of South Australia also purchased the once grand Lord Palmerston Hotel which was situated in the main street of the town, and after serving as a hotel, and horse sales yards, became the Kapunda Coffee Palace before falling into a state of disuse and neglect.

 The Lord Palmerston Hotel, on the ground floor, had a bar, dining room, four other rooms and a kitchen, and on the first floor another 11 rooms that could be used as bedrooms, more than ample for the staff's requirements if ever the move had to take place.

 Fortunately for South Australia, the Japanese never got this far, and an “extreme emergency causing notice” never had to be served.

 Unfortunately for The Lord Palmerston Hotel, it became severely neglected and order to have it demolished was passed through the council. The hotel once sat where the Kapunda news-agency sits today. The corner would look much grander with this old beauty of building still standing upon it!



researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2017
www.AllenTiller.com.au

First published on  The Haunts of Adelaide - Tuesday 14th April 2015
http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/extreme-emergency-causing-notice.html
Revised March 23rd 2017.
 Photo's supplied by The State Library of South Australia

Kapunda's Railway: Part 2: "The Line Opens"

Kapunda's Railways: Part 2 “The Line Opens” 

Before we go much further with the history of the Kapunda Railway, we need to first look at its roots.

The Kapunda line opened officially on Monday the 13th of August 1860, it was opened by the then Governor of South Australia, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell.

Workers building the line North of Kapunda

There was great fanfare at the grand opening ceremony of the Kapunda Line, with a celebratory train to ride the entire length of the line.
 The train left Adelaide station at precisely 10:30am, under instruction from the "Manager of Railways", C.S. Hare.

One engine was used as far as Gawler, The No.9, the largest engine in the fleet at the time.
 The train numbered 13 carriages, which were loaded full of guests for the event.
Guests included His Excellency, The Governor and his wife. Ministers of both houses of Parliament, The Mayor and members of the town corporation, plus many notable members of the Adelaide citizenry.

Every station on the line from Adelaide to Kapunda was adorned with evergreen shrubbery and flags, well-wishers and onlookers. The opening of the Kapunda line was an event celebrated across the State.

Governor of South Australia,
 Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell. 

The train reached Salisbury at 11am, and Gawler at 11:26 am. In Gawler, more passengers boarded and a second engine was attached to the train. The train then travelled to Freeling, arriving at 12:23pm, where it stopped for a brief time and the passengers were allowed to refresh themselves.

The train left Freeling at 12:35pm and stopped at 12:50pm at the bridge over the Light River at the request of His Excellency, The Governor, who wanted to inspect the bridge, which was considered a masterpiece of engineering at the time.

The Light Railway Bridge was built using stone cut from along the railway lines route. The timbers of the structure were supported by transverse latticed beams, with a laminated arch either side. The “points of juncture” on the bridge were plated with heavy steel to withstand the weight of the heaviest trains in the South Australian Railways at the time.

This particular journey was a testing of the Light Bridge, with the two heaviest engines in the State fleet being positioned on it at once. The builders must have had great faith in their structure considering the importance of the passengers on the train!

The train reached Kapunda Station at 1:17pm to much fanfare. The train was greeted by The Reverend Oldham, Captain Warburton, The Angaston Rifles, Captain Connor, Captain Brown and the Kapunda Rifle Corps.

The Kapunda Rifle Corps. presented themselves 50 strong, and accompanied by their band, presented a guard of honour to the dignitaries and officials.

Under the guidance of the Station Master, and Master of the Goods Shed, Mr Baggett, The Governor was given a tour of the Kapunda Railway Station complex, before a brief speech was made by The Reverend Oldham.

Reverend Oldham presented the following speech:

"To His Excellency Sir Richard G. MacDonnell,
K.C.B., Governor-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Province of South Australia, May it please your Excellency, We the inhabitants of Kapunda and the surrounding districts, most cordially welcome your Excellency and Lady MacDonnell amongst us upon this most auspicious and interesting occasion, and would desire to 'record through you as Her Majesty's representative in this colony, the expression of our unabated loyalty and arm attachment to Her person and Crown.
 It is now nearly four years since this neighbourhood as honoured by a former visit from your Excellency and Lady MacDonnell ; since that time three commodious places of worship have been erected in the township,also, a Court-House and Police-Station, a Telegraph and Post-0ffice, and a large number of stores and other buildings, and rapid communication with the capital and other parts of the colony, and also with the adjacent colonies has been established by means of the electric telegraph ; and we feel happy in being now enabled to congratulate your Excellency on the most successful completion of the important undertaking, in reference to which, in great measure, your Excellency's former visit was paid; and also, in feeling assured of the happiness it will afford you in seeing at least in some degree the fulfilment of your Excellency's then expressed anticipation as to the increasing importance of this district."

"We hope and believe that the opening of the Railway to Kapunda, which calls us together this day will prove
but the commencement of many happy and prosperous years from the greatly increased facilities it will afford both for travelling and for the safe and rapid transport of goods, and we earnestly desire that your Excellency
may yet be spared long amongst us to see the fulfilment of these desires for the welfare of the colony which have 'ever characterised your administration.
 We again bid you a cordial and hearty welcome by Railway to Kapunda."

"Signed on behalf of, and at the unanimous request, of the inhabitants of Kapunda and the surrounding districts, in public meeting assembled".

"W. OLDHAM, J.P., Chairman."

Governor MacDonnell replied with a considerably lengthy speech congratulating the townsfolk on the construction and opening of the line. He then proceeded to the crane at the goods-shed and, using the crane, lifted the first bale of wool and first bag of copper, loaded at Kapunda Station into a train, to a roaring cheer from the crowd.

The Governor was then transported into the town via horse buggy to the Sir John Franklin hotel where festivities went well into the night.

Kapunda now had an official link for transportation of goods and passengers via train into the city of Adelaide and to the wharves, a valuable connection that would open the grain belt, and copper mines to further export across the country and state and bring wealth back into the community.

Kapunda eventually became the States largest wheat receiving station. An extension was later built to Burra, veering off at Roseworthy, whilst the Kapunda line was extended to Morgan to try and capture some of the trade from the paddle steamer transportation system.

The Kapunda line was a focal point of the town for many years, opening up industrial and commercial prospects for the people of Kapunda and surrounding districts. It allowed local people to travel far and wide around the State and Country, something people would have previously found much harder to do with the standard transport of the day, horse and cart, bicycle or walking.

The last passenger train to Robertstown passed through Kapunda on May 20th 1989, but the Kapunda line still saw notable traffic up until 1996 when it was sold to Genessee Wyoming Australia under a 50 year (+15 extension option) contract.

Since then the line has fallen into a state of disrepair and only see's line traffic when a light-weight engine, or nowadays an adapted 4 wheel drive, comes down the line once every few months to the Viterra silos as part of the contract to have line traffic, or lose the line back to the State Government,

As the region north of Gawler grows it becomes obvious that passenger train service to at least Roseworthy and Freeling may be needed sometime in the future, it would not be too hard to conceive of Kapunda once again having a train return to the town, however, would a new train station have to be built as the old one now houses a “Bed and Breakfast”? - only time will tell

People gather to watch the last train to Robertstown as it enters Kapunda

Written & Researched by

Allen Tiller

That Kapunda Crown

Whilst conducting research for an investigation for another of our passions, Eidolon Paranormal; Karen and I stumbled across this piece of Kapunda's forgotten history.

  We printed what we had found and put it on the notice board in the front bar of the Clare Castle Hotel, hoping someone would come forward with some information. Unfortunately, not even the longtime regular's had seen the image before! 

We had another mystery to be solved in Kapunda!

Below is what we posted on the notice board in the Hotel:

"Kapunda Revelation"

"After many layers of paper in the quaint Clare Castle Hotel at the Adelaide end of Kapunda had been removed, this design, measuring three feet, was found painted on the wall above the mantelpiece in the front room: it is in gold, green and black."


Later, we were researching for another Kapunda location and stumbled across the answer to the mystery of the Kapunda crown. 

 The mystery of The Kapunda Crown was solved by this article, written in The Advertiser in 1954.

That Kapunda Crown

With commendable promptitude, Mrs E. O'Neill, president of Glenelg Sunshine Club has explained from 'Carmel,' 3 College street, Glenelg. the origin of the Crown at the Clare Castle Hotel. Kapunda

'The picture in your column took my mind back to my childhood watching my father, the late Edward (Ned) Murphy drawing that crown. He was the licensee.

'I do not remember why, as I was only six. Father had a peculiar trait to paint and draw things like this. 'He was a very intelligent man; when he died 21 years ago. at 86. he had retained his remarkable mentality.

Did Other Drawings

'First, he was the licensee of the North Kapunda hotel for three years, during which time he was a councillor. Sir Sidney Kidman and Mr Charlie Coles were personal friends of his.

'When Queen Victoria died my parents draped the front of the Clare Castle in black. Father drew and painted a life-size picture of Queen Victoria for the centre.

'About this time, 1901. he drew the crown. I remember his doing the heart and saying to us children. 'The Throne and the Queen are the heart of the Empire.'

Many other hotels bear some drawing or inscription done by dad at Robe, on the window of a temperance hotel is something he did with a diamond ring.

'I, unfortunately, burnt the only photo of the Clare Castle after father's death.

'I enclose one of the North Kapunda, taken about 1898. My father is the young man in shirt sleeves. Mother is standing by myself, a little tot looking through the balcony bars. One of the maids holds my baby brother, later an original Anzac.'

Kept City Hotels

Mrs O'Neill says her father (Edward Murphy) and mother had many guests at their Adelaide hotels. Most famous was Madame Sarah Bernhardt at the Metropolitan in Grote Street.

Mr C. C. Kingston, who lived farther west on the West terrace corner, wanted her father to buy half of Kingston Park, Marino, for £10.

'My grandparents were among the first Port Adelaide hotelkeepers. Migrants stayed there until they got work or land,' she adds.

Researched and written by Allen and Karen Tiller © 2012