Today's Stories from our Past
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Today's Stories from our Past
E08 –Bound for South Australia – Proclamation Day and Beyond
What if the founding of a colony was more than just a historical event, but a dramatic saga filled with excitement, tension, and tragedy?
Join us as we uncover the thrilling story of South Australia's establishment, starting with the arrival of the first fleet and the consequential landing of Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh aboard HMS Buffalo. Experience the anticipation of the settlers as they navigate strategic decisions and fierce debates over Adelaide's location, revealing the human struggles behind the formalities of colonial government ceremonies.
The brushstrokes of history aren't always accurate, but they tell a story nonetheless. We'll delve into the artistic liberties taken by Charles Hill in his painting "Proclamation of South Australia, 1836," exposing the historical inaccuracies that have shaped our perception of these events. Discover the tensions between Governor Hindmarsh and Colonel Light, and the poignant personal losses within the Gouger family, set against the backdrop of Adelaide's birth. Through these stories, we'll explore the early political turmoil, highlighting the power struggles and personal vendettas that marked the colony's early governance.
As we journey through South Australia's growing pains, witness the personal transformations of settlers like Barton Hack amid the colony's challenges. Their stories intertwine with those of William Henry Neale and Charles Nantes, weaving a rich tapestry of hope and resilience. We'll reflect on these foundational moments that continue to shape the region's legacy, providing a deeper understanding of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Join us for an enlightening exploration of the past that still resonates today.
Contact us at todaysstories101@gmail.com.
It is also, at this time, especially, my duty to apprise the colonists of my resolution to take every lawful means for extending the same protection to the native population as to the rest of His Majesty's subjects, and of my firm determination to punish with exemplary severity all acts of violence or injustice which may in any manner be practised or attempted against the natives, who are to be considered as much under the safeguard of the law as the colonists themselves and equally entitled to the privileges of British subjects. I trust, therefore, with confidence to the exercise of moderation and forbearance by all classes in their intercourse with the native inhabitants, and that they will omit no opportunity of assisting me to fulfil His Majesty's most gracious and benevolent intentions toward them, by promoting their advancement in civilisation and ultimately, under the blessing of divine providence, their conversion to the Christian faith.
Speaker 2:G'day I'm Peter and g'day I'm Greg. Welcome to Today's Stories from Our Past, a podcast about a history of Australia from about 1800 onwards. The story is told through the experiences of those who lived it.
Speaker 3:We'll tell you stories about Australia that you probably haven't heard before.
Speaker 2:So just a quick recap of earlier episodes. Robert Guja and others had lobbied for years to set up a new colony based on Edward Gibbon Wakefield's systematic colonisation principle. By early 1836, everything was ready for the various parties, the surveyors, the government officials, company officials and excited immigrants to leave for South Australia. South Australia's first fleet consisted of nine ships. They set forth from England in staggered departures over a period of about five months. The earlier ships carried South Australia company staff and the surveyors whose job it was to find and set out the new capital city, Adelaide, so that land sales could start as soon as possible after the eager immigrants arrived. Later ships carried the immigrants. The last ships carried government officials.
Speaker 2:By the end of our last episode, the Surveyor-General, Colonel William Light, and the Colonial Secretary, Robert Guja, had arrived. So too had my ancestors, William Henry, Neal and his family and Charles Nanties, but only after Charles had only just survived a trek across KI. Everybody was busily trying to set up the new colony. Only one ship remained to arrive. That was the HMS Buffalo, which carried the new governor of the colony, Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh.
Speaker 3:So when did the governor arrive?
Speaker 2:On 24 December 1836, hms Buffalo reached Port Lincoln and found the signet at anchor there. Captain Lipson came on board the Buffalo with a letter from Light saying that the most desirable location for the capital was on the eastern side of St Vincent's Gulf. The Buffalo then sailed to Hullfast Bay, or Glenelg as it is now known. This is where most of the immigrants were camped.
Speaker 3:It's about time for them to arrive. Haven't some of the first immigrants been in South Australia for six months or so by now?
Speaker 2:Yes, and some of them were still on KI, but by this time more than 200 people were camped near the shore at Glenelg. They were waiting for light to select a suitable location for the main town. At this time, more than 200 people were camped near the shore at Glenelg. They were waiting for light to select a suitable location for the main town. Most had settled into a pleasant if rudimentary domestic routine. Amongst the group was Robert Gugia. He'd arrived with his heavily pregnant wife, harriet, on the Africaine in September On the 28th, guggen noted in his diary.
Speaker 4:This morning on going as usual to let out my goats, I saw two large vessels entering the bay, which proved to be the Buffalo, bringing the Governor and other officers and the Signet from Port Lincoln. Before eight o'clock a messenger arrived at my tent requiring my. I found His Excellency and all the party in good health and spirits and full of hope and ardour to commence their colonial career. After some consultation, it was decided that the Governor and emigrants should land here at once and that in the course of the day the necessary oaths should be taken and the Governor's commission read. At three o'clock the Marines from the Buffalo were drawn up in a line and the whole of the colonists assembled in front of my tent. Before, however, reading the commission in public, I took the necessary oaths of office and, as the senior member of council present, I administered to the governor the oaths of office. We then held a council in my tent for the purpose of agreeing upon a proclamation.
Speaker 3:Oh good, some action at last.
Speaker 2:Yep. There was great excitement as news of the Governor's arrival spread through the settlement. Everyone gathered near a bent-over old gum tree, which was near Gooja's tent, and the Governor read the agreed, read the agreed upon vice regal proclamation. Now to be pedantic here, the proclamation did not proclaim the colony of South Australia as such. That had happened in Britain before the settlers left, with the passage of the South Australia Act in 1834 and the issuing of the letters patent for the colony in February 1836. Rather, the proclamation announced to the colonists the commencement of colonial government. To this day, south Australians re-enact this event. They gather under the old gum tree and recite the vice regal proclamation.
Speaker 3:So what did the proclamation say?
Speaker 2:The Governor's Private Secretary, George Stevenson, read the first proclamation.
Speaker 1:It read by His Excellency John Hindmarsh, Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of South Australia.
Speaker 1:In announcing to the colonief of His Majesty's Province of South Australia, In announcing to the colonists of His Majesty's Province of South Australia the establishment of the government, I hereby call upon them to conduct themselves on all occasions with order and quietness, duly to respect the laws and, by a course of industry and sobriety, by the practice of sound morality and a strict observance of the ordinances of religion, to prove themselves worthy to be the founders of a great and free colony.
Speaker 1:It is also, at this time especially, my duty to apprise the colonists of my resolution to take every lawful means for extending the same protection to the native population as to the rest of His Majesty's subjects, and of my firm determination to punish with exemplary severity all acts of violence or injustice which may in any manner be practised or attempted against the natives, who are to be considered as much under the safeguard of the law as the colonists themselves and equally entitled to the privileges of British subjects. I trust, therefore, with confidence, to the exercise of moderation and forbearance by all classes in their intercourse with the native inhabitants, of moderation and forbearance by all classes in their intercourse with the native inhabitants, and that they will omit no opportunity of assisting me to fulfill His Majesty's most gracious and benevolent intentions toward them by promoting their advancement in civilization and ultimately, under the blessing of divine providence, their conversion to the Christian faith.
Speaker 3:Hmm, benevolent intentions towards them by promoting their advancements in civilisation and ultimately, under the blessing of the divine providence, their conversion to the Christian faith. I wonder what the local First Nations people thought of that, were they even present?
Speaker 2:It's not clear. I can't find any evidence that they were consulted about this declaration. Supposedly some of the Kaurna that's the name of the local First Nations people were present when the proclamation was made, but I'm not even sure. If that's correct, why do you say that? Well, some Kaurna people are included in the far background in a famous painting depicting the event. It was done by Charles Hill, can you?
Speaker 3:describe this painting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are about 200 people in it. In the centre are the officials, iron Mask, guja Light and Co. Behind them, in a semicircle, are the settlers. The old bent-over gum tree is in the background. When I first saw this painting, I envisaged my ancestors, william Henry Neill, his wife and four children, and Charles Nandy's somewhere in the scene. Some time later I found a sketch which supposedly identifies all those who are present. Most of the people in the drawing are numbered and at the bottom of the sketch is a key identifying each numbered person. None of my ancestors are listed there.
Speaker 3:That doesn't sound right. Do you know what's going on there?
Speaker 2:Well, some searching revealed that this famous pictorial representation of the reading of the proclamation under the old gum tree was begun in 1856 by the newly arrived English painter, Charles Hill. You remember that this happened in 1836. That obviously means that Hill wasn't there on the day. During the 20 years that it took him to complete the scene, Hill interviewed and painted from life at least some of those who claimed to have been present, but for reasons that are unknown he also included several people who were not there. This includes Light and a group of Kaurna people standing in the background in the distance. Although he was in the vicinity, Light did not attend the event. He recorded in his diary.
Speaker 5:I heard of the Governor's arrival but, having much to do, had not time to go to Holdfast Bay and meet him.
Speaker 2:If Light wasn't there, then it's probable that William Henry Neill wasn't there either, as he would have been off assisting light with the surveying. However, his wife and children should have been in the scene. Nor is there any indication from settlers' records that any Kaurna people were present, although they too were in the vicinity. Later that night, the Kaurna people apparently fired the bush around the campsite, which burnt grandly, according to young Bingham Hung Hutchison, a lieutenant on the Buffalo.
Speaker 3:This painting's starting to sound a bit dodgy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but Charles Nandy must have been there. He was Goody's clerk and he may well have recorded the minutes of the meetings that were held on that day. But there are some other issues with this painting. Although several colonists apparently showed Charles Hill the dresses they wore that day, the women present are depicted in his painting in the styles in vogue in the 1850s rather than 1836. In the styles in vogue in the 1850s rather than 1836. So, although described as an historical painting because of its subject matter Hill's Proclamation of South Australia, 1836, must be interpreted with some care. It is essentially a work of imagination with some attempt at accuracy, but all in all I feel pretty gypped about it.
Speaker 3:Mate, I'm sure you'll get over it. Anyhow, what happened after the proclamation was read?
Speaker 2:They had a big picnic for lack of a better word saying God save the King, and generally had a big party. Much is written about this day, but we don't have time to go into detail.
Speaker 3:Anything else happen on that day, you can report.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's one sad event. Robert Googe's wife, harriet, gave birth to a son in the tent where the Governor and Co had met earlier. However, harriet was immediately unwell. On 14 March Harriet passed away Two days later. Guja's infant son, henry Hindmarsh, died On the 25th. Mother and child were buried together in one grave. It was not a good time for Robert Guja.
Speaker 3:Oh, that is sad. So what happened after the big proclamation?
Speaker 2:Well, the big issue at the time was the question of the site for the new capital. As far as Light was concerned, he had sole discretion on the selection of the site of the capital, and he was busily surveying the area that he'd chosen. However, two days after Governor Hindmarsh landed, hindmarsh met with Light and discussed the proposed site of the capital. Light recorded the following in his diary.
Speaker 5:His Excellency, the Governor arrived at our camp and we walked together that we might see the site I had selected.
Speaker 2:His Excellency, expressed his sense of the beauty of the place but said it was too far from the harbour. Hindmarsh stepped entirely outside his well-defined functions to argue for the site to be at Encounter Bay, which Light considered altogether unsuitable. Hindmarsh was a naval man and he wanted a nice-looking port. Light disagreed with Hindmarsh and continued surveying his preferred site.
Speaker 5:Light later wrote in his diary the reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it is. I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged at the present. My enemies, however, by disputing their validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I am perfectly willing to bear it, and I leave to posterity and not to them to decide whether I am entitled to praise or blame. Now, I did pay due regard to the suggestion of the Governor, for that suggestion caused me to alter my first selection much against the grain. And we were only gaining a distance of one and a half miles over an uninterrupted plain. And we were only gaining a distance of one and a half miles over an uninterrupted plain and for this sacrificing the most beautiful position in the country.
Speaker 5:During the few days that intervened previously to my commencing the plan of the town, I was incessantly treated with some hints at my want of ability in the performance of my duty.
Speaker 5:One gentleman, I am told, said that he considered himself a ruined man through Colonel Torrens and myself, but chiefly through me, and that he would publish my proceedings in all the newspapers in England. I could make no other reply to my informant than that he would be taking a great deal of trouble and spending a great deal of money to prove himself an ass. It would be long and by no means entertaining to relate all I heard about this time, but my mind was made up fully to the permanent settlement and on January 3rd 1837, I removed my tent to the ground where I might be near my work. From that time to January 11th I was employed in looking over the ground and devising in my own mind the best method of laying out the town according to the course of the river and nature of the ground. It was generally supposed that planning and measuring out a thousand acres for a capital was so easy a job that it would be completed in a few days. And the disgrace heaped upon me again became warm.
Speaker 2:Beaten in his attempt to coerce Light. Hindmarsh's next interference was on the layout of the streets, squares and open spaces, another matter with which he had practically nothing whatsoever to do, while still harping on about the question of the site of the capital. Light naturally resented these interferences, as they were serious reflections on his judgment and ability. He laid before the governor the clear and explicit instructions he had received from the commissioners, which were that the choice of the site of the capital was left solely to the colonel, whose own judgment on this point was to be paramount and conclusive. Matters came to a crisis when Guju called a meeting at the Governor's command to discuss the question. A vote was held amongst the settlers. The result was that 218 voted for Light's choice and 137 for that of the Governor. This was the start of the end for Highmarsh.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Light won the argument and the site for Adelaide was settled. What was your ancestor, the inexperienced surveyor's assistant, william Henry Neill, doing at this time?
Speaker 2:Well Light can tell us himself what Henry Neill was up to. This is from his diary.
Speaker 5:From 3rd January 1837 to 11th January, I was employed in looking repeatedly over the ground and devising, in my own mind, the best method of laying out the town, according to the course of the river and the nature of the ground. This being fixed, I commenced with Mr Kingston and Mr Neil only.
Speaker 3:OK, so your ancestor actually helped survey the site of the city of Adelaide. That's impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, After they finished laying out the streets, the first ballot for blocks was held and the results were announced by Thomas Gilbert and William Henry. Neil William got blocks 196 and 243. They are in what is now Adelaide CBD, the blocks that run between Weymouth Street and Franklin Street from the southeast corner of Light Square.
Speaker 3:Oh cool, I'll bet those blocks are worth a few bob today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, meanwhile, another issue had come up what would be the names of the streets of the new town? This turned out to be quite an issue. Conflict between Governor John Hindmarsh and Resident Commissioner James Hurdle Fisher over their respective powers extended to even this aspect of the organisation of the colony. Eventually, a committee was formed to name the streets. The committee included Hindmarsh, fisher, brown, light, osman Giles, the colonial treasurer, john Morford, edward Stevens, sir John Jeffcote, the colonial judge Robert Gugger, thomas Gilbert, the colonial storekeeper, john Barton Hack and Thomas Bewes Strangeways. It selected the street names at a meeting on 23 May 1837.
Speaker 6:In Brown's version of the proceedings he says the Governor brought a pocket full of royal and naval heroes but, afraid of proposing them himself, got Sir John Jeffcott to try. King William Street and Victoria Square were agreed to by all, but when he got to Duncan and Howe as his two next, we divided and Grota and Wakefield reigned in their stead. This nearly ended the question and we came off with only Malcolm and Tint and Strangways. I am rather ashamed of myself of having my hand in this business, but votes were wanted, or it would have been a journal of our governor's life and adventures.
Speaker 2:When researching the issue, I found a letter written by a young Charles Nannies You'll remember that my ancestor was Clark to Robert Goudia, the colonial secretary. The letter was addressed to Colonel Light and goes Adelaide, 22nd May 1837.
Speaker 7:Sir, you are requested to attend at the residence of the Colonial Secretary tomorrow at 12 o'clock, precisely for the purpose of naming the streets of Adelaide. I have the honour to be Sir yours, most sincerely, C Nantes.
Speaker 3:Cool. I know that this is just a short note by a minor public servant, but it must be interesting to show that your ancestor was involved with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyhow, hindmarsh found it difficult to accept the agreements made at that meeting and he appears to have had some street names altered afterwards. The main street names determined by the Street Naming Committee and incorporating Hindmarsh's amendments was gazetted on 3 June 1837. The naming of minor streets and laneways occurred later on, as the city developed.
Speaker 3:It seems that Hindmarsh was overstepping his authority, but as the Governor, he probably assumed that he was the Supreme Commander. Looks like trouble's brewing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, bluff. Jack Hindmarsh arrived without much financial support from the British Crown and the government that he represented, but Fisher represented the Colonisation Commission as the colony's main source of funding through land sales. Hindmarsh had an advisory governing council with Fisher as a member, being resident commissioner, along with the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary and the Advocate General. The Council regulated behaviour in the colony by setting up a court system, a Master and Servants Act to control workers and rules for sale of liquor. All this happened in 1837. But Fisher and his allies gradually left the governing council as the rift between his faction and the autocratic Hindmarsh deepened. One step taken was the establishment of a Supreme Court. The first sitting was held on 13 May 1837. Order in the court the panel for the first jury was Colonel William Light, four-person Captain Lipson, captain Barkley and Mrs John Brown, thomas Young-Cotter, john Barton Hack Young, bingham Hutchinson, george Strickland Kingston, william Henry, neal George Ormsby, william Wyatt, thomas Bew Strangeways, john William Stewart and George Everard.
Speaker 3:So your ancestor was a juror on the Supreme Court another role to add to his long CV of different occupations. Did the conflict between Hindmarsh and others continue?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Light, who worked for Fisher, was hampered in his surveying by a lack of resources To appease Hindmarsh's need for a port. Light surveyed 29 sections at Port Adelaide. Other surveys were held up by disputes amongst the colonists, and particularly those involved with Hindmarsh, to move the capital to Encounter Bay or Port Lincoln. This uncertainty upset settlers anxious to know the location of their land. It also held up public works and fuelled land speculation. Trivial differences between Hindmarsh and Fisher rose into trials of strength. In April 1837, further controversy arose from the Governor's garden encroaching on public land.
Speaker 3:Controversy over a garden encroachment. This is sounding very petty.
Speaker 2:Yep, you bet Very petty stuff Next month. Hindmarsh openly criticised Fisher in his dispatches to the colonial office and Fisher contemplated resigning from the Council of Government. Eventually, fisher sent the Deputy Surveyor-General, george Kingston, back to London to complain about Hindmarsh's incompetence.
Speaker 3:The politicians of the day seem to have been a quarrelsome lot. Nothing seems to have changed in that regard today.
Speaker 2:No, I think that's the nature of the beast. Anyhow, as with politics today, they were soon entangled in party factions, and this bedeviled the progress of the new settlement. Arguments between Hindmarsh, treasurer Osmond Giles and Gooja were common. It all came to a head on 16 August 1837. Gooja was not impressed when Hindmarsh decided to make Osmond Giles a magistrate. Giles was known to have an irritable temperament. A war of words started between Gooja and Giles, and this culminated in a public brawl. An inquiry followed, a lot of evidence was gathered from witnesses as well as the individuals concerned, and on the 22nd of August 1837 Hindmarsh suspended Guja from his duties as Colonial Secretary.
Speaker 3:Hindmarsh sacked Guja. What next?
Speaker 2:Well, guja packed up his bags and returned to England to argue his case there. As the bitterness rose, hindmarsh suspended other public officers. The Colonisation commissioners in London brought the matter before the British Secretary of State for the Colonies. Then John Brown, the colonisation commissioner's immigration agent and not subject to Hindmarsh's control, was suspended in September. Next day, fisher issued a handbill saying that Brown still held office. A month later, hindmarsh issued a printed proclamation denying authority to Fisher's handbill and warning loyal subjects against disobedience. Accusations and counter-charges continued, with both sides appealing to London. Meanwhile, the colonists had had enough of Hindmarsh. Hindmarsh was pre-emptively recalled and on 14 July 1838, he left the colony after 14 months' reign of squabble. This was to the relief of the bulk of the colonists. By the time that Guja actually got back to England, he found out that Hindmarsh had been sacked and that he had been reinstated by the Colonisation Commission.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, that sounds like a whole lot of petty behaviour. But if Guja was suspended and went home to England, what's happened to your ancestor, charles, who was Guja's clerk?
Speaker 2:Well, on 6 September 1837, that's a few days after Guja was sacked a government proclamation was issued saying that, amongst other things, that Charles Nanties had been appointed clerk to the Collector of Customs. Charles didn't know about this appointment and he didn't like it, as he assumed that this appointment was in addition to his job as clerk to the Colonial Secretary. Soon after Charles writes a letter questioning his change in position, and then, after receiving no response to that letter change in position and then, after receiving no response to that letter, he wrote another letter declining the position of clerk off to the collector of customs. Still dissatisfied with the turn of events, charles wrote another letter requesting unpaid salary.
Speaker 3:It seems that Charles was pretty unhappy with the situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do wonder if this is any evidence of petty politics that was going on between the governors and others. Nantes, being an employee of Guja, might have been the target for some retribution.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you could be right. It all seems fairly petty.
Speaker 2:Finally, Charles writes a letter claiming that he is about to leave the colony and he wants his unpaid salary.
Speaker 7:He writes Adelaide, october 18th 1837. Sir, I should feel much obliged if you would favour me with an order for my account on the colonial government, namely £9, for duty done as constable and £16, for copying 20 opinions of the Advocate General, ordered by His Excellency the Governor. As I am about to depart the colony, I have the honour to sir your most humble servant C Nantes. Honourable Thomas Bewes, strangway's Colonial Secretary Protem.
Speaker 3:So does he get his salary and does he leave the colony?
Speaker 2:I assume that he gets his overdue salary, and I also think that he never intended to leave. I think it was just a ploy to get some action. A year later, another announcement appears in the paper. It's 13 December 1838 and Charles is appointed to be clerk to the accountant general.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Charles secures a new position in the government. And what?
Speaker 2:happened to him next? Well, soon after this, robert Gugger returned to Adelaide from his journey back to England. This happened on 26 June 1839, and he was warmly welcomed by his old colleagues on resuming his office as colonial secretary. Captain Hindmarsh had left the colony and Colonel Gawler, a man of a totally different type of character, ruled in his stead. But there was a monetary crisis at hand, one of the severest the colony ever had to pass through.
Speaker 3:And tell me, what did Charles Natis think of Guja returning?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, but within a few days Charles sends a letter formally resigning his position at the accountant general's office. It's so hard to know what's going on here. Perhaps Charles had a long-standing grudge against Guja due to the events that happened on KI? Perhaps Guja brought news from England about the possibility that the English parliament would suspend payments to the colony. This would mean that public servants like Charles wouldn't get their salary paid Anyhow. Just seven days after Guja returns, charles resigns his position with the government.
Speaker 3:It sure seems that Charles is not happy. What happened to him after that?
Speaker 2:Well, the last record that I can find of Charles in the colony is on 9 December 1839, when he attends a public meeting. After that, charles must have left South Australia, as he appears in newspapers in Victoria a year later, however, there are two non-government incidents that happen to Charles while he's still in Adelaide. Yeah, what does Charles get up to?
Speaker 8:Well, there's a newspaper report on 30 August 1838 that reads we have just heard that Mr C Nantes, late clerk in the Colonial Secretary's office and for some time past employed by Mr Fisher, was dangerously wounded on Thursday night by a pistol shot. As the matter is under the investigation of the authorities, we refrain at present from noticing the report in circulation.
Speaker 3:Was this a dispute with someone or an accident or alcohol involved?
Speaker 2:My guess is that alcohol was involved in the shooting, but the details are never reported. Soon after, on 22 September 1838, charles appears as a witness in an inquest into the death of Joseph Bruce. Charles, joseph Bruce and others were in a tent drinking heavily. Bruce also took laudanum and subsequently died. We'll find out in later seasons that Charles Netties and alcohol had a close relationship.
Speaker 3:This sounds ominous, but Charles had left South Australia. So what's happening with Colonel Light and his surveying assistant, William Henry Neal?
Speaker 2:Well, light found that he had insufficient staff and resources to undertake the work demanded of him. Light and resident commissioner James Hurdle-Fisher had sent Light's deputy, kingston, back to England to request more support. The South Australian Colonisation Commissioners in Britain not only rejected the request but also insisted that trigonometry surveys be replaced by the faster running surveys. If Light refused to do this form of survey, he was to be replaced by Kingston and relegated to other work. In response, on 2 July 1838, light resigned along with all but two of his surveying staff.
Speaker 2:Light became a principal partner in a new firm, light Finneson Company Land Agents and Surveyors, and they opened a rented office in Hindley Street. The firm included Light, his assistant Boyle Travisnis and other formal colonial survey team members, william Jacob Henry Nixon and George Thomas, who had all resigned in protest at the instructions from the South Australian Colonisation Commissioners brought back by Kingston that year. Their resignations brought surveying in the colony to a standstill. It was at this stage that William Henry Neill decided that he'd better find a different occupation to being a surveyor's assistant. Unfortunately for Light, his health deteriorated rapidly and he was unable to continue working in the next year. Nursed by his partner, maria Gandhi, light died of tuberculosis at Thurberton Cottage on 6 October 1839. The whole colony mourned Light's death.
Speaker 3:Well, that's sad for Maria and for the colony, but what was going on with your ancestor, William Henry Neal?
Speaker 2:Well, you may recall from episode two that William's CV included the following occupations Farmer, corn chandler, corn merchant, livery stable keeper and clerk in a gaming house. These were all in England, and then surveyor's assistant in South Australia. It seemed that William can turn his hand to just about anything.
Speaker 3:OK, so what does he actually do?
Speaker 2:On 12 August 1837, that's actually well before Colonel Light resigned I found an advertisement in a South Australian newspaper saying that William Henry Neill was running an auctioneering business at his store in section 243 Franklin Street. That's the land that he got allocated when the town was surveyed. Perhaps William had got the message from Light that his surveying skills were not really up to scratch and he needed to find another job. That sounds a bit like William had got the message from Light that his surveying skills were not really up to scratch and he needed to find another job.
Speaker 3:But that sounds a bit like William had jumped ship before it sank. What does he do next?
Speaker 2:We'll discuss how William went as an auctioneer in our next episode.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, it seems the colony's getting off to a very rocky start. What does happen next?
Speaker 2:We've briefly mentioned a fellow called John Barton Hack in a couple of episodes. Now We'll discuss him and his family in our next episode, as they are the reason why another one of my ancestors, John Watts, arrives in the colony. We also discuss how William Henry Neill and family progressed.
Speaker 3:Oh well, that's good. Thanks for listening. So it's goodbye from me, and it's goodbye from me, thank you.