The following are alphabetical lists of miscellaneous People associated with the early Adelaide Hills Region which contain information compiled by:  [RB] - Reg Butler (Hahndorf);  [JKS] - JK Stokes (ex Mt Barker); Max Nitschke and other sources.  Generally, snippets of information regarding the respective person/s are provided, however, links to pages containing more extensive information are given where available.  Please add relevant additional information/corrections/comments as desired.

Names:   [ A to C ]   [ D to F ]   [ G to I ]   [ J to L ]  [ M to O ]   [ P to R ]   [ S to U   [ V to Z ]

List of Names  'M' to 'O'

Go To Names Beginning With:   [ M ]   [ N ]   [ O ]

Names - 'M'

MALE family

[RB]  -  Overt Earl Male born 8/2/1903 Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset, England. Third son of Herbert Male and ?.  Grew up in Kingsbury and became a stone mason, restoring old buildings for his boss a Mr Fry, who had no family and wanted to adopt OE Male as a son – most upset when he decided to go to Australia.  Inspired by adventure to emigrate to Melbourne aboard the Largs Bay of the Bay Series Line; intended to go on to the USA, but abandoned that idea.  Worked on a dairy farm at Kerang for ten months, and then absconded with another Somerset man, a Bisgrove, from a neighbouring dairy farm, aboard the Melbourne Express to SA.  Found work with Job Hallett, a Kingsbury Episcopi man, who had founded Hallett’s Bricks.  Job Hallett used to visit his home village regularly and encouraged people to emigrate and work in his business.  OE Male’s brother Herbert Sonny Male emigrated in 1927 and the men started a brick yard for Halletts at Poonindie near Pt Lincoln.  Worked there for a couple of years.  Then established a garage in Pt Lincoln, which became bankrupt in the Depression.  With £10 each from the Govt, had a small holding at Happy Valley, growing vegetables and running pigs and also a cow to supply a milk round for Pt Lincoln residents.  He married in 1935, his wife whom he had met in Adelaide in the late 1920s.  Decided to give that up for a dairy farm near Hahndorf in 1945.  Very community minded man – involved with the Mt Barker Council and the CFS. Director of Dairyvale including Chairman of the Board for 10 years.

OB Male had perpetual lease over Sections 434 and 486 Hundred of Kuitpo.  He gave the 1 acre 2 perches Section 434 to his son, Robert Earl Male, in 1963.

(Max's Hahndorf)

MAY, Joseph

[JKS]  -  Joseph, wife, five sons and six daughters - settled in a slab hut on the bank of  Western Flat Creek in 1839.  The family property "Fairfield" was built in 1845.  Some of his children were:- Frederick, William, Margaret (Mrs. George Phillips) and Lucy (Mrs. Coleman).

MACARTY, William

[RB]  - 7 year lease 1884.  Leased Louisa Starling’s shop on the corner of Gawler St. and McLaren St.

McEWEN, John Dawson

[JKS]  - "John Dawson McEwen was born in Scotland March 22, 1828.  He came to South Australia in the ship "Dirigo", which left Liverpool in May or June 1854, Captain Francis Drake.  After leaving Liverpool cholera broke out on board.  A number of deaths occurred and the ship put back.  A number of passengers decided to leave the ship.  This made room for two of my relatives, Angus Macky and Alexander Jack and their families getting a passage.  The late James Dawson, miller of Gawler and the Inglis famiy were fellow passengers.  Andrew Inglis, now of Merriton, was a boy of 13 on the ship.  Mr and Mrs McEwen brought with them a daughter born in Scotland.  The family came straight to Mount Barker.  Mrs McEwen died in 1901 aged 76, Mr McEwen died aged 80, June 12 1908.
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

McCORMACK Family

[RB]  -  Originally on the land near Murrayville in Victoria.  Strict teetotal Methodists.  A short family, except for John and Nell.  Messy farmers but very popular, because they were so musical.  Crowded Sunday afternoon concerts attended by many in the district.  Eventually, the family had to give up their holding and went their various ways.

Jim went to Mellbourne where he played the violin for a career.  John McCormack became a singer on a cruise ship to England, but not good enough and gave this job away after only one trip.  He then became cook for a clover threshing team and then married a wealthy woman and settled on a dairy farm on Panatalinga Road near McLaren Vale.  Charlie became a pig farmer on Germantown Hill but not as musical.  Sister Nellie McCormack married a Moulds, divorced him, then Jim Parkinson with whom she ran a boarding house on Payneham Road near the Maid and Magpie Hotel.  Son Tommy Parkinson had a camp site with George Petersen beside the Onkaparinga River when they were boys.  The police thought that this was the hideaway of Figg the murderer from Mylor for a time.

Freddie a brilliant musician - played violin in the ABC orchestra when it went on tour to accompany Gladys Moncrieff the singer – too strenuous and so he gave that away.  Settled in a cottage near the bridge over the Onkaparinga at Verdun, on the way to Hahndorf.  Could play any tune without music to read from. – teamed up with Charlie Nitschke for a while in a dance band.  Wonderful sense of humour and quickwitted.  Loved a joke.  Speculated in S-E farm land and did very well.  He belonged to the Freemasons.  Dabbled in clover and other seed sales – kept stores in a shed which is still there on the other side of the main road from his home.  Also sold Kalleske’s mettwurst from Tanunda.  During the War, apples and potatoes no longer exported to Britain.  The Govt paid growers to pack apples in cases, and then after reimbursement, the fruit was tipped out into a heap to rot.  Freddie sold passing travellers a neighbouring orchardist’s discarded fruit from a rack at the side of the road.

(Max's Hahndorf)

McFADYEN, James Joseph Alexander  (17/5/1920-8/12/1944)

[RB]  -  Born Glenelg SA.  Died upon impact in a wood after being forced to land in extremely bad weather conditions near Eggewaertscapeli near Veurne, Holland, when anti-aircraft fire from Dunkirk struck his spitfire while returning to England following an anti-strafe machine gun sortie into Germany.  Buried at Veurne.  Educated at Mt Barker High School.  Enlisted in March 1941.  Trained at Parafield, Victor Harbor, Woodside Army Camp. - Advertiser 18/1/1945 p3f.

Lorna May McFadyen (16/12/1921-//)  Born Glandore SA.

Merle Dawn McFadyen (18/2/1924-30/12/2007)  Born Hindmarsh SA.  Died Bridgewater SA, after dying of dehydration in her garden on a day of 40 degree heat

After James Alexander Ignatius McFayden died, his widow remarried 19/10/1931 Registry Office Adelaide to John Henry Kennerick (30/7/1893-18/6/1966) Born Plympton SA.  Died Daw Park SA (of Bridgewater).  He was the son of John Henry Kennerick and Mary nee MCNALLEY.  The marriage took place on.

(Max's Hahndorf)

McFARLANE, Allan

[JKS]  -  Allan (not related to Duncan), farmer, arrived 1839 with wife and family.

MacFARLANE, Duncan (1793-1856)

[JKS]  - Duncan McFarlane* was living in the Mount Barker area as early as 1839.  In his 1843 book on South Australia, Mr. J. F. Bennett records that on his first visit to the area, he and his companions camped at McFarlane's station.  He mentions "the sheep depastured on the property held by Mr. Duncan McFarlane numbered 10,000."  Duncan McFarlane was one of the first settlers to take up land on the Mt Barker special survey.

* Duncan McFarlane is not related to Lachlan McFarlane

[AMF]  -  The correct spelling is Duncan Macfarlane - this is how his name appears on legal documents he signed.

[JKS]  -  Built a pise cottage alongside the creek at the bottom end of present day Kiaora Street.  Early Magistrate in the town.  Butcher - ran his business in the slab hut until he sold it in 1845.

 

[RB]  -  Scottish-born MacFarlane arrived NSW 1824 as a sailor, and then began squatting in the mountains near present-day Canberra.  Duncan came to SA 1838 with his friend, William Dutton, on the brig Parland. MacFarlane joined Dutton and Dutton’s father-in-law, John Finnis, in taking out the Mt Barker Special Survey during January 1839, the first such land sale in the colony.  The men had brought with them substantial loans from a wealthy Sydney merchant, Thomas Walker, apparently to snap up property in such a fashion should it become available.  MacFarlane established a station, using his own stock brought over by sea from NSW.  Dependable Scottish shepherds came to live in a row of stone huts almost upon the later Mt Barker township, which Duncan and his partners laid out on part of MacFarlane’s sheep run during 1840.  A sales office opened next to the homestead.  Soon, scab and closer settlement made the area unsuitable for sheep and Duncan shifted his pastoral interests to the South-East.  He also took up shares in the Glen Osmond silver-lead mines.  In old age, D MacFarlane retired to his home at Glen Osmond.  He was a JP and presided fairly over trials.

MacFARLANE, Lachlan

 

[RB]  - Publican Oakfield Hotel 1861-1869

 

[JKS]  - Lachlan McFarlane was born in Argylshire in 1806.  He came to Sydney in 1840.  He brought livestock overland to Melbourne.  Six months later he came to Mount Barker where he started sheep farming.  He was amongst those who employed the young German women from Hahndorf to shear their sheep.  He married one of these young ladies, Louise Laybasch* on February 24 1845.  He was 37 and she was 20 years of age.  The marriage was celebrated by the Rev. Robert Haining at Clanferzeal near Adelaide.  The witnesses to the marriage ceremony were Dougald McDougall, Andrew Murray and Catherine Helen Spence.  A child John died on July 11 1856, one month old.  John Walker, surgeon, gave a burial certificate**  Lachlan MacFarlane built one of the most pretentious buildings in the State, and named it the Oakfield Hotel.  Later this building was sold to Robert Barr-Smith, who renamed the beautiful building Auchendarroch, and used it as a Summer residence.
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

* Mis-spelling of her surname - she was Louisa Lubasch, daughter of the Lutheran migrant family from Hahndorf

** Refers to the death of the child John McFarlane in 1856.

[JKS]  -  Related to Duncan, built the Oakfield Hotel, considered to be the most pretentions building in the colony at the time.  It was later sold to Robert Barr-Smith and renamed Auchendarroch.

 

[AMF]  -  Family descendants state that correct spelling of name is  Macfarlane.

MacFARLANE, Louise

[RB]  - Publican Oakfield Hotel 1877
McGOWAN, Mr & Mrs

[JKS]  -  Had various schools at Blakiston and Mt Barker

 

[RB]  -  Teacher.  Came from Liverpool. Opened a school at Hawdon Vale, Echunga in 1841.  Had a school in Grenfell St in 1839.

McGREGOR, Alexander Wood (c1832-9/6/1877)

[RB]  - National Bank manager Mt Barker 1861-1863.  Also at Mt Gambier, Unley, Morphett Vale. Presbyterian.  Wife, Isabella, nee McAlpine.  Mt Barker people gave him a gold watch when he transferred to Mt Gambier in January 1863.  Presentation at Gray’s Inn on 2/1/1863.  He served as Manager at Mt Gambier and the Burra, before ill health forced him into early retirement on a property at Morphett Vale, where he died suddenly.  He had a large funeral at the Church of Scotland Cemetery, some of his former banking colleagues being among the mourners.

McKENZIE, Mary [RB]  - Storekeeper Mt Barker 1890s
McKENZIE, Roderick [RB]  - Saddler Mt Barker 1860s

McLEOD, Robert

[RB]  - Publican Gray’s Inn 1915-1919
MANTON, George Hutchins Toon (10/10/1809-9/6/1891) [RB]  - Born Keyham, England (Keynsham, Somerset?).

MARKS, Ernest Augustus (?-31/5/1911)

[RB]  - Hairdresser Mt Barker 1893.  His shop between the Mt Barker Hotel and Traugott Liebings.

Executor  Albert William Charles Marks currier Beechworth Vic

MARTIN, Gustav family

[RB]  -  Gustav Martin was a farmer on Balhannah Road near Hahndorf and also drove the coach between Hahndorf via Grunthal (Verdun), and Ambleside Station for many years.

After Gustav retired to Church St, Hahndorf, he sold his farm to labourer Victor Paech of Littlehampton (son of Dick Paech and husband of Melva nee Braendler and Mrs Clarrie Thiele nee Cora Petty).  Vic Paech kept the farm for only a short time, because the terrain was too hilly scrubby and infertile for good farming.  He sold to Neumanns who came up from Tailem Bend.  Monica Neumann married Oscar Nitschke from the neighbouring farm.  Vic Paech bought the general store and post office at Monarto South from the widow of Johnnie Hartmann and ended his days there.  He also became a wheat agent who operated the Monarto grain silos for district farmers to take their crop after harvest.  Vic Paech’s predecessor at Monarto was Ern Fox, who had formerly been the policeman at Ceduna.  He married Hazel Paech, Vic Paech’s cousin.  A very hot-tempered man.

Boob Martin was barman at the Tarcoola Hotel for a while and then returned to Hahndorf and worked as a Mt Barker DC labourer.

(Max's Hahndorf)

MARSH, Mrs

[RB]  -  Took over Bridgewater township’s private school from Mrs Hunby.  Mr Marsh worked at Dunn’s Mill.  Mrs Marsh had a Dame’s school.  Children sent outside when he came home for lunch, but they used to watch through the open door as he ate.

MAY family [JKS]  - Refer to MAY family
MEASDAY, William  (c1829-1905) and family

[RB]  -  Arrived in SA 1852 Steadfast.  They made their way to the Tiers, where William became an agricultural labourer, and then opened a general store along Breakneck Hill, Crafers.  d 30/7/1905.  Mrs Measday d 11/9/1944.

MEDWELL, William Edgar [RB]  - Publican Mt Barker Hotel 1929-1935
MERRIFIELD, Mr.

[JKS}  -  Blacksmith

MONGER, Jane Lilian

[RB]  - Married woman Mt Barker 1940s.  Owned the Mt Barker Courier

26/5/1947 Monger to Eric Leslie Perry and Harry Edmondson printers Mt Barker, as tenants in common

MONKS, Alfred Henry

[RB]  - Agent Mt Barker
MONKS, Henry

[JKS]  -   Justice of the Peace, chaff-cutting business and farmer, one time proprietor of the Great Eastern Hotel at Littlehampton.

MOONEY Family

[RB]  -  Robert Mooney the Elder m Thurza Ellen nee MILLER

Thursa Martha Pearl Mooney b c1888 m 20/6/1910 Methodist Manse Mt Barker, Leslie Stirling PEEK (//c1881-//) Parents – William Bailey Peek &

Elizabeth Lucy Mooney b c1893 m 23/4/1914 Chalmers Manse Adelaide, James WHITE (//c1889-//) Parents – William White &

Ernest Alfred John Mooney b 20/8/1895 Rebenserberg

Walter James Mooney b 22/8/1897 Rebensberg m 31/3/1925 Bride father residence Wallaroo, Olive May nee PALMER (//c1903-//) Parents – Edwin Palmer &

Robert Charles Mooney the Younger b 4/8/1900 Rebensberg.

Olive Ruby Mooney b 14/7/1903 Rebensberg m 26/9/1923 Unitarian Christian Church Mt Barker Junction, Arthur Arnold MOYLE (//c1897-//) Parents – Richard Bennett Moyle &

Violet Janet Mooney b c1903 m 26/9/1923 Unitarian Christian Church Mt Barker Junction, Herbert Charles BLUCHER (//c1892-//) Parents – Carl Blucher & ...

The Mooneys were mixed farmers and wattle strippers of Rebensberg near Shady Grove.  They bought the small farm which belonged to the Bye family.  Apparently knocked down the original cottage.  Carl Nitschke, with his son Gus as apprentice, built Mooney’s new cottage for £800.  Bob Mooney’s sister, Myrtle Mooney, married Leo Leonard.

(Max's Hahndorf)

MOORE, Henry Percival (8/11/1860-7/7/1935)

[RB]  -  Manager National Bank of Australasia 1890s.  Trustee, Institute.

Parents, Robert Waters Moore and Luduvina Dutton, a daughter of WH Dutton.  Therefore, he was a grandson of WH Dutton.

MORPHETT, George

[JKS]  -  Donated part of the land that St James', Blakiston stands on.

MOSELEY, William (c1815-d 30/9/1849)

[RB]  -  To SA 1836 Tam O’Shanter.  Farmer, publican.  Married 8/4/1843 Adelaide, Christian, nee McIntyre. 3 boys; 1 girl.  Lived at Mt Barker, Adelaide, Crafers.  Buried at St James’s Blakiston.  Died intestate - Left an estate of £2,000.  The widow remarried 11/6/1863 publican Richard Dixon Hawkins, of Wellington.  Likely to be a son of George Moseley (c1770-d 17/9/1863), who arrived on the Tam O’Shanter and remarried on 26/6/1854, the widow Elizabeth Newton, at the age of 84.  Was Henry Jackson Moseley, who arrived on the same boat, a cousin?

MOSS, Simeon

[RB]  - Cabinetmaker storekeeper Mt Barker 1850s.  Member of the 1st Institute Committee formed 1855.

 

[JKS]  - Simion Moss was an undertaker in 1856.  He was the father of Mrs A.W. Richardson (second wife), who lives now in Perth,W.A.
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

MUELLER family

[RB]  -  Clarrie Mueller – farmer. Bachelor.  Drove a wagon weekly into Hahndorf for shopping.

(Max's Hahndorf)

MULLER, Ferdinand

A German shepherd employed by the SA Company, found the Lobethal township site while seeking new pasture for his flock.  Eighteen families from amongst his fellow emigrants, who had arrived in the Skjold in late 1841, established themselves there.  Their spiritual leader, Pastor Daniel Fritzsche, named the settlement Lobethal or Valley of Praise, on 4 May 1842, the day the founders took over their property.  Between 1918-1935, the town was known as Tweedvale.

MULLIN family

[RB]  -  Jack Mullin built a house for Laurie and Mary Mullin in Pine Ave.  Laurie was a baker for EGP Smith.  Mullins moved as bakers to Laura and then Katoomba NSW.  Laurie got flour on the lungs and had to retire from baking.  The house at Hahndorf sold to Dr Crafter, who moved there with his wife from the main street

(Max's Hahndorf)

MURRAY, Robert Junr (17/9/1845-6/7/1905)

[RB]  - Baker.  Born Cornwall.  Parents Robert Murray Senr & ? Rundle.  To SA 1847 British Sovereign, with his parents and uncle, William Rundle Senr (wife and 3 children).  To Kanmantoo and Burra, where his mother died.  The Murrays went to Bendigo gold fields for ten years 1852-1862, then returned to Kanmantoo and Moonta copper mines.  Robert Junr at Peek Downs copper mine in Qld for a time in late 1860s.  Returned to Mt Barker in 1876 to open a grocery store; then bought out George Manton’s bakery (37 Murray St), the first in Mt Barker.  Ran this business for 20 years.  A director of the Junction Mine, Broken Hill. District Councillor and Institute Committee. Rechabite Lodge.  Great interest in people in need.  His son, WR Murray, was a partner in the well-known seed firm, Murray & Shoebridge, of Gawler St.

Partner  Frederick William Ellis storekeeper’s assistant Mt Barker 1890s

Wife, Elizabeth Ellen Downing, daughter of John Downing of Kanmantoo.

MURRAY, William Robert (?-10/8/1950) [RB]  - Parents Robert Murray Junr & Elizabeth Ellen Downing.  Partner with James Shoebridge in Murray & Shoebridge 1927-1950, 40 Gawler St.

MURRAY, William

[RB]  - Carpenter Mt Barker 1850s
MURRAY, William Robert [RB]  - Storekeeper’s assistant Mt Barker

Names - 'N'

NEALES, John Bentham (1806-1873)

[RB]  -  Reared by the influential political philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, JB Neales emigrated to SA aboard the Eden, in 1838.  Mixing from the first in powerbroking circles, JB Neales became involved in many business interests, principally in banking, mining and real estate.  Between 1851-1870, he was a member of one or other of the two elected Houses of Parliament, or of the earlier nominated Legislative Council.  JB Neales took part in many property deals in the Adelaide Hills, as he lived for a period at Woodside soon after its foundation in 1849.

NEWBERRY Family

[RB]  -  Alf Newberry was the porter at Ambleside Station.  A very energetic man, who increased the station’s importance through the wattle bark industry and the despatch of parcels.  Porter at Callington before coming to Ambleside.  Transferred to Gawler after a stationmaster appointed at Ambleside.

He married Eva Karsten of Violet Town in Vic.  Sister to Tillie Karsten.  The Newberry children attended Hahndorf Public School.

(Max's Hahndorf)

NEWLAND, Richard Francis

[RB]  -  Likely to have come from Sydney with WH Dutton on the Parland from Sydney in Dec 1838.  Bank manager resigned c1844, JP, stockholder at Allen Creek; Pt Adelaide, Walkerville, Woodville.  Belonged to the Legislative Council 1847, when John Morphett went to England on holiday.  m 14/12/1842 St John’s Halifax St Adelaide, Eleanor, 3d daughter of Colonel AW Light, late of the 25th Regiment.  She died in Nov 1851.  RF Newland apparently left SA.  He was trustee with EC Gwynne for the Mt Barker Special Survey bankruptcy, also JB Hack in 1843 (with LW Thrupp and John Baker).  Executor with Captain Sturt for the will of Robert Bernard merchant Grenfell St, Adelaide, who died 1840.  He had his Adelaide office in Tavistock Buildings, Rundle St. Local director of the Bank of SA in 1847.  Staunch Anglican.  Noted for the high quality of his wool clip.  Became a foundation member of the Statistical Society formed in April 1841 at the Adelaide City Council Chambers, Hindley St, for ‘obtaining a full and authentic account of the condition of the colony’ to encourage renewed British interest in SA. SA 4/5/1841.

NICHOLS, Noah. (18/3/1822- d 3/5/1904)

[RB}  -  A native of Norfolk, Noah emigrated SA 1851 Ascendant.  Settled at Clare, then went to the Victorian gold fields.  Afterwards bought land at Bridgewater.  Married Ann Welfare, a labourer at the Bridgewater Mill and planted the poplars along Cox Creek at the mill.  Lived in a cottage on the site of The Oaks, which Ann Weelfare brought out as acorns from England.  Another cottage against the junction of Kain Ave and Mr Barker Rd ‘Cherry Cottage’, now rebuilt and added to.  Early purchaser of allotments in the new township of Bridgewater.  He had bought Section 1201, Hundred of Onkaparinga, near the future Cox Creek village in 1850.  Generally, land around Cox Creek was surveyed in 1849.  A foundation trustee for the Bridgewater Methodist church.  Hard worker, honest and charitable.  Married Ann Welfare, daughter of John and Ann Welfare, who came to live on portion of the Nichols’s land. They had James, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Jane.  1st two died young, unmarried.  Ann d 18/3/1911.

Discrepency between dates of emigration, purchase of land and date of marriage.

NICHOLS, Edgar. (7/1/1907-21/3/1950)

[RB]  -  Grandson of Noah Nichols.  Son of Benjamin Nichols, who worked the Nichols property, which was then only part of what they had formerly owned.  Benjamin Nichols lived in a cottage which was the former post office - only a pile of rubble there now.  Edgar took the produce to market, especially when his father was becoming blind - started this work at 16.  Worker for the Ray Nursery.  Then Edgar Nichols work for the Downer family from July 1935.  Home vegetable garden and got the wood in, went fishing.  Foundation Bridgewater firefighter, with badge on arm - no proper uniform.  Chairman, Bridgewater School Committee.  Five children in the Lodge.  Name of wife.  Date of deaths.  Died on the day that Sir Alic made his maiden speech in Federal Parliament.  Remarried, and lived in cottage from original Nichols property.  ADA Pearson, Mrs Ron Pearson.

NICKELS Family

[RB]  -  Harold Douglas Nickels and Dulcie Maud nee FRANCIS

Lyle James Abrahan Francis b 29/9/1917 Mannum

Owen Douglas Francis b 11/1/1920

Blake Harold Francis b 19/7/1922

Brian Kent Nickels b 20/5/1925

Frank Lancelot Nickels b 5/4/1928
Family came to live in Gottlieb Hirte’s farm house at Rebensberg after Gottlieb withdrew to several back rooms when he became a widower.  Harold Nickels did casual labouring work in the district. He used to drive about in a T Model Ford to act as powder monkey for blowing out stumps on newly cleared land.  Cleared the stumps on Carlton – the blasts made windows rattle in Hahndorf.  This land had been cleared years previously, but Gus Nitschke wanted to plant meadow hay for baling.  After Paul Braendler bought the Hirte farm for his son, Albert Braendler, to establish an Illawarra stud dairy farm, the Nickels family moved into Hahndorf itself.

(Max's Hahndorf)

NITSCHKE Family

[RB]  -  Refer to Nitschke Family

[RB]  -  Refer to Nitschke Family Details

NITSCHKE, F.W. [RB]  -  Refer to FW Nitschke
NIXON, F.R.

[JKS]  -  Builder of Nixon's flour mill half way between Hahndorf & Mt Barker.

 

[RB]  -  Early in January 1839, a team of surveyors under FR Nixon laid out the Mt Barker Special Survey - some 15,000 acres of Adelaide Hills prime real estate on which Hahndorf, first amongst permanent settlements, quickly rose within months.  Nixon himself purchased several sections of watershed land along a local track destined to become the first main road between Hahndorf and Mt Barker.  Traces of that initial highway still exist as the flat terrace along the lower side of the blackberry hedge, on the far side of the creek behind Elderberry Cottage.

More or less parallel with the traffic, that small stream running through the property popularly became known as Nixon’s Creek.  Later, the main road was diverted up Tanner’s Hill, to the low ridge above the entrance to our property.  Now, of course, the nearby freeway takes travellers easily to Mt Barker and beyond, avoiding completely the steep grades surrounding Elderberry Cottage.

With appointment secured to the government Survey Department, FR Nixon had arrived in South Australia on 15 May 1838, aboard the Trusty.  Also on this vessel was a letter which EG Wakefield (the man who first urged the colony’s foundation) had dispatched for Nixon’s new boss, Colonel William Light, the province’s first Surveyor-General.  Wakefield pleaded with Light not to resign his post in the midst of a dispute over his surveying methods with the Colonisation Commissioners in London.  Nevertheless, Light did resign on 2 July 1838, along with all but three of his staff.  One of those who stayed on was FR Nixon, presumably because he did not wish to be unemployed just two months after coming to South Australia.  However, a few days later, he resigned as well, saying that the new Surveyor-General, GS Kingston, was ‘treating him like a slave’.

Not surprisingly, Kingston lasted only three months as Surveyor-General.  He gave up shortly after a new Governor, George Gawler, arrived in South Australia on 12 October 1838.  Promptly, FR Nixon accepted employment under popular new Surveyor-General, EC Frome, and soon had his professional energy directed to the Mt Barker District

NIXON, Henry (c1805-d 12/4/1843)

[RB]  -  To SA 1837 Navarino.  Arrived with Henry Watts and CB Newenham as a private settler.  Colonel Light soon employed Nixon on his surveying staff and Nixon also worked for the Emigration Department.  H Nixon resigned his surveying post along with Light and set up in private practice with the firm of Light, Finniss & Co.  Henry lived and died on North Tce, with his wife Eliza and four children.  Nixon also became Adjutant of the 98th Regiment.  Apparently, his lingering, painful death was due in no small measure to his extraordinary physical exertions while out on survey parties.  Nixon died intestate; the £20 left in c eventually returned to England, except for Henry Junr, who joined the SA police force and lived in Mt Barker; he died young, on 15/10/1861.  Henry Senr’s brother, FR Nixon, lived at Mt Barker.  Register 15/4/1843.

NORTON family

[RB]  -  Lived in a cottage on English St – opposite the junction with Molen Road.  Old Norton drove EGP Smith’s horse-drawn baker cart; Vic Hill took over when he retired.

Clarrie Norton operated a boring plant and did casual labouring.  Also played in the Hahndorf Town Band.

Wally Norton married Alf Paech’s daughter and ran his father-in-law’s dairy near Mt Barker.

Snow Norton married Shirley Kuchel – he was a confirmed drinker and died of alcoholic poisoning.

(Max's Hahndorf)

NUSKE, Johannes Gustav Ewald & descendants

[JKS]  - Old Jack Nuske was born at Rhine Villa in 1891, the son of Ernestina Caroline Lydia Nuske, and I remember him and his wife, Agnes Alfreda Victoria nee Thiele, living in Stephen Street, when I was a child.  They had married at Tweedvale in 1926 and later lived at Ambleside before moving to Mt Barker.  There were several children including Young Jack (John Alfred), Colin (Colin Gustav) and Dean, in this family.  As an old man, Mr Nuske drove around the town in small blue and white Hillman Minx.  The locals made fun of his driving skill - but perhaps he was just careful.  Most people in the town could walk faster than Old Jack drove.  His son, Young Jack, was also a well known identity in the town.  He never married, and lived at the Stephen Street home until he died in the 1990's.  He was well known for his deep gravelly voice, and his penchant for taking the micky out of the local Catholic Priest - Father Kelly, who had a distinct liking for a glass of Port and lemonade in the winter time.

Names - 'O'

O’BRIEN, Michael

[RB]  - Minister of the Gospel Mt Barker  £200. 1850s
O’HALLORAN Giles, Thomas (1863-1958).

[RB]  -  A grandson of William Giles, second Resident Manager of the SA Company, T O’Halloran Giles had family connections which struck deep into SAs earliest European pioneer years.  His mother, Mary O’Halloran, was a niece of redoubtable TS O’Halloran, founder of O’Halloran Hill; Thomas’s wife, Jean, happened to be a daughter of well-known pastoralist and benefactor Robert Barr Smith and niece of equally generous Sir Thomas Elder.  The O’Halloran Giles lived in palatial Hillcrest, a property which stretched for some distance along both sides of Old Mt Barker Road, with vistas towards Cox Creek.  Various Cox Creek families worked part-time in the Giles’s garden; at Christmas, every member benefited from specially chosen presents.

OYSTON, John Junr

[RB]  - Publican Oakfield Hotel 1876-1877

Trained as an engineer.  Lived at Glanville.  Married Selina ?  Late second engineer SS Governor Musgrave.  Was he a son of John Oyston Senr, a carter and waterman at Pt Adelaide and on the Le Fevre Peninsula?  After his hotel stint at Mt Barker, he returned to being an engineer at Pt Adelaide.  He did not become a wood merchant in Nile St, Port Adelaide?  This is likely to be the father.  A John Oyston died 27/7/1902.  I think it is likely that John Oyston Junr left SA, perhaps some time during the 1880s.