Today's Stories from our Past
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Today's Stories from our Past
E15 - Bound for South Australia - Down and Out in South Australia
In the unforgiving landscape of 1840s South Australia, economic disaster struck with devastating consequences.
This deeply researched episode unveils the human story behind colonial financial collapse through the experiences of 22-year-old John Watts, who arrived in 1842 with £500 and dreams of prosperity, only to find himself destitute within a year. The narrative takes us to Echunga Springs, where the once-prosperous Hack brothers had established impressive vineyards, wheat fields, and a profitable dairy. Through John's firsthand account, we witness his initial optimism as he works the land, milking sixteen cows per hour and watching as dray loads of melons, fruits and vegetables were sent to market. But beneath this productive surface, financial disaster loomed.
South Australia's economic fabric was unraveling rapidly. With communication to England taking eighteen months round-trip, immigrants had no way of knowing they were sailing into financial catastrophe. By December 1842, one-third of Adelaide's houses stood empty, Governor Gray's drafts on the British Treasury were dishonoured, and only seven merchants remained solvent out of thirty.
The most heart-wrenching moment comes when bailiffs strip everything from the home of Stephen Hack's wife, who had given birth just three days earlier. "Two men took hold of the mattress Mother and I were lying on, lifted us off the bedstead onto the floor and carried that away also," wrote Stephen's son years later. This callous act caused a permanent rift between the Hack brothers.
Through primary sources including letters, diaries and court records, we piece together the manipulated auction that saw valuable assets sold for a fraction of their worth, and how Jacob Hagen, supposedly a friend and fellow Quaker, orchestrated proceedings to acquire the Hack property at far below market value.
Join us for this remarkable journey into Australia's colonial past that reveals not just economic history, but the resilience of settlers like John Watts who, despite losing everything, found work cutting wood at two shillings per load and began saving for passage home. Their stories continue to resonate as powerful reminders of Australia's challenging early years, and the determination required to survive them.
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Father had been away from home with cattle somewhere and when he returned to Adelaide he found the Hack brothers were utterly ruined. He was seized for debt and put in prison. And when I was only three days old the bailiffs came to our house at Achunga. They took all the furniture out of the house all the cooking utensils, pictures and turned out the boxes and drawers, heaped all the clothes on the floor and carted them off. Two men took hold of the mattress Mother and I were lying on, lifted us off the bedstead onto the floor and carried that away also. As there was nothing to be gained by keeping Father in prison, he was liberated.
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. History of Australia from about 1800 onwards. So in the last episode we discussed how and why John Watts went to South Australia. He had arranged to work for the Hack family at their farm at Achunga Springs and he had invested 500 pounds with Stephen Hack. When John and Stephen left England, they believed that the economy of South Australia was prospering. However, by the time that John arrived in Adelaide on 2 March 1842, he found that the economy was deep in trouble.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, less than six years since the establishment of South Australia, things have gone downhill. Does John and his mate Trimmer actually go and work at Chunga Springs, as arranged by Stephen Hack?
Speaker 2:Yes, trimmer and John start working on the Hack farm.
Speaker 4:In his reminiscences, john wrote Then came my initiation into colonial work. The first was trenching ground for vine growing. The next was clearing land for the plough. Many of the trees were over six feet through and we had only a six-foot saw to do it with.
Speaker 2:By April 1842, barton noted that 1,200 vines had been planted out and 5,000 were ready to plant. In the winter. Barton had sent about 600 weight, that's about 300 kilos of grapes to market and sold 10,000 cuttings. The orchard contained about 600 to 800 trees. On 23 April 1842, the South Australian Register wrote about the success of vineyards in the colony.
Speaker 5:It said Our opinion regarding the adaptation of the province to the growth of the vine has been too often expressed to need repetition here. It is gratifying to know that the success which has attended the production of the grape in the gardens of Mr Hack at Achunga, in the Mount Barker district, and in those of Mr Stevenson at North Adelaide, more than confirms our most sanguine anticipations, and we earnestly desire that the examples of these gentlemen informing vineyards may be more generally and extensively followed, now that failure in the attempt is next to impossible.
Speaker 3:Well, they got that right, because South Australia is famous for its wine production.
Speaker 2:Yeah. John next describes his daily life at Ochunga Springs.
Speaker 4:The establishment had a dairy and a hundred cows to be milked every morning. Then my knowledge of milking came into use and I soon found I was able to milk 16 cows in the hour. There were three men kept as permanent stockmen whose duty it was to get the cows collected in the morning and then finish off milking all that were left After breakfast when we went to general station work. There was a good dairy and a man and his wife managed it. Very little butter was made but a good quantity of cheese was turned out. The cleared land was all under the plough and over 100 acres of wheat. The crops were very good and in these early days we threshed quite 60 bushels to the acre.
Speaker 2:Barton proudly wrote to his mother saying that his garden was the showplace of the acre. Barton proudly wrote to his mother saying that his garden was the show place of the colony Dray. Loads of melons, fruit and vegetables were loaded and sent into town for sale. As for the dairy, in the past year it had realised the profit of 400 pounds on just 100 cows. Although his family was large, the Hacks had never lived so economically. They raised their own beef and poultry and had ample supplies of flour, milk and butter. Four workmen lived in the household and there were often visitors as well. John now continues his story.
Speaker 4:There was a cattle station on the coast at a place called Yankalila, and as a whale fishery was established at Encounter Bay, a good price was obtained for fat bullocks and all the cows, as they calved, were brought to Ichunga Springs for the dairy. All calves were put into a pen at night and kept from the cows until after milking in the morning. Then one man went out with them herding all day and night after night brought them into the stockyard and after all the calves were put into the pen. The cows were allowed to go where they pleased until the following morning.
Speaker 2:Barton Hack kept Trimmer and John very busy working on Achunga Springs, but this was not to last much longer At this stage.
Speaker 4:John writes in his reminiscences, in those days it was not possible to get an answer to any letter in under 18 months. There were no mail steamers in those days and as only about one ship came direct a year from England and that one ship had great difficulty to get freight enough to fill her, we had to either send by this one ship or via Sydney by sea.
Speaker 2:I think what John is doing here is making it clear that when he and Stephen Hack departed from England, they didn't have any knowledge of how bad things were in the colony. So when Stephen Hack engaged Trimmer and John in England and when John loaned 500 pounds to Stephen, john believed that Stephen did this in good faith and that he had no knowledge of the extent of their financial plight. Okay, so what's happening with Stephen Hack? Well, if you remember, stephen stayed at the Cape for his wife to go into her confinement, in other words, have a baby. Stephen finally arrived in Adelaide on 12 July 1842 and introduced his wife Bessie and baby daughter Julia to the family, along with Bessie's nephew George Henry Wilton, who had travelled with them.
Speaker 2:George was the son of Bessie's brother, john Wilton. He suffered from asthma and they hoped the warmer climate would be beneficial to his health. What Stephen and Barton said to each other when they first met on Stephen's arrival is not recorded, but Stephen must have quickly observed the effects of the financial depression. Money was so scarce that it was replaced by barter. Even tailors were offering to take cheese in exchange for clothes. Stephen soon realised he had no choice but to work on the farm and hope for the best. He and Bessie stayed with Barton and Bebe at Achunga Springs, while Stephen began building his own house nearby.
Speaker 3:So was John aware of how dire economic circumstances were.
Speaker 2:He must have known the times were bad, but what he did not know was that the Bank of South Australia had claims of 1500 pounds against the hacks and the Bank of Australasia had a claim of some 5,140 pounds. The hack family also had debts to other people. The Hack family also had debts to other people. Furthermore, soon after Stephen's arrival, an event occurred that would have serious consequences for John Barton's solicitor.
Speaker 2:Mr Bartley gave his personal guarantee that the Hacks would execute a warrant of attorney in favour of the bank and would mortgage their horses to the bank. This the brothers did on 14 September 1842. The Hack brothers mortgaged all their horses and mares to the manager of the Bank of Australasia to secure 4,000 pounds. The 51 mares, 22 with foals and three in foal, 22 geldings and one entire horse were listed and named. Then, in November 1842, Mr Baker for the auction company claimed the herd at Yakalilla which had been offered as security in a deed of mortgage. This entitled him to 350 head, but the deed did not specify any particular cattle but simply required the hax stock to be kept to that number.
Speaker 3:Okay, so the hax were deeply in debt to the banks.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and things got even worse. On 13 October, intelligence reached the colony that the drafts drawn by Governor Gray on the British Treasury had been dishonoured. In other words, the colony was bankrupt. Finally, on 24 December, dispatchers arrived announcing the passing in the British Parliament of an Act for Regulating the Sale of Wastelands in the Australian Colonies and in New Zealand and an Act for the Better Government of South Australia. The former Act transferred the colony from the commissioners into the hands of the Crown.
Speaker 3:Wow, the colony seems to be in real economic chaos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by December, owing to the depressed state of the times, 642 houses out of 1915 were vacant in Adelaide and 216 had fallen into decay. As the historian Douglas Pike has noted, by the end of 1842, most people had been forced into the country. One third of the houses in Adelaide were empty and only seven merchants were left standing out of the 30 who had set themselves up during the boom. Clearly, Wakefield's utopian vision of a convict-free colony with freedom of religion had failed. Wakefield may have been good at some things, but economics was not his strong point. Been good at some things, but economics was not his strong point. Ominously for John, 136 writs for recovery of debts passed through the hands of the sheriff during this period.
Speaker 3:Wow, so what was happening to John and Prima?
Speaker 4:Well, john wrote in his reminiscences I was to get 40 pounds a year in rations for my services. I also lent all the money my father had given me 500 pounds at 6% interest. At the end of the year I was expecting to get pay and interest, but things in the colony were so bad that there were very few solvent men to be found and no money was to be had. I was, however, paid by a mayor and foal and four yearling mayors, which was considered equal in value to my demands.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, hang on. John's saying that he was given livestock in lieu of cash for his services, but didn't he say earlier that the livestock had been mortgaged to the banks?
Speaker 2:Yes, John next writes in his reminiscences.
Speaker 4:I had not got possession more than a month or so before the bank took possession of the whole estate.
Speaker 3:Does this mean that the bank foreclosed on the hacks?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the Bank of Australasia started moving against the hacks on 25 January 1843 when the manager, Mr Newland, engaged a stockman to group up and number the horses that the hacks had mortgaged to the bank for £4,000. Next, on 7 February, everyone was awakened at about two in the morning by two men riding into the yard at Achunga Springs. On asking them their business, Barton Hack was informed that they were bailiffs. Come to take possession on behalf of the bank. The Hacks were bankrupt and could no longer pay or even house.
Speaker 4:Trimmer and John John wrote in his reminiscences what was more distressing to me was that they claimed my horses as belonging to them by mortgage. I was told by Stephen Hack that they could not take them from me. But what was I to do? I had no place to keep them in and they were bound to go into the bush to obtain their living. And all I could keep on hand was the young mare and foal and the other four I took to the Murray River a good day's journey from our station and turned them out to do for themselves, trusting to find them some future day, as they had my brand on them, w with curved line above on the near shoulder.
Speaker 4:Not a month had passed before I got information that the bank stockman had got my four young mares and one had been sold by auction in Adelaide. What to do I did not know, but I thought if I went down to Adelaide and saw the manager of the Bank of Australasia and lay my case before him, I might get them restored. So I started down and had an interview with that gentleman.
Speaker 2:Now we need to introduce a new character, a Mr Jacob Hagen. Jacob was an old schoolmate of Barton's and a fellow Quaker. Barton regarded him as a close friend and had borrowed money from Hagen to fund the development of Achunga Springs and other ventures. But above all, jacob Hagen was a canny businessman. When Barton's whaling company at Counter Bay went bankrupt, it was taken over by Hart, hagen and Baker in 1842. So back to Achunga Springs and the Hack brothers. At this stage the bank was owed 5,140 pounds, of which 4,000 pounds was Barton's mortgage of his horses which the bank could sell. So this was entirely unexpected for John. When Barton finally became bankrupt, hagen, as chief mortgagee, foreclosed on his rich estate at Chunga Springs. Barton believed Hagen was acting in tandem with his partner John Baker, who happened to be the bank's director.
Speaker 1:Barton explained it thus At the time there was only one director of the bank, john Baker, and an English friend of mine, jacob Hagen, who held as security for advances a mortgage on a portion of the Echunga land, married a sister of the said director and determined to obtain this property, and I presume the reason of the action of the bank was intended to carry out my friend's views. This could only be done by my being compelled to an insolvency and step by step this object was carried out and the whole of the E Chunga estate passed, for a small amount, over the mortgage to my English friend and school fellow.
Speaker 2:By seizing all of the movable assets of the Haag brothers, Haagen was making it impossible for them to pursue their equity of redemption and repossess the Achunga estate. Haagen and the bank had moved in concert. The sale under distress for Haagen and execution for the bank took place at Achunga on 20 February, took place at Echunga on 20 February. The auctioneer was Bentham Neals, acting for the Sheriff. Neals later said he had never had such an assemblage of people in the country. Commencing at 11am, the sale turned out to be a dramatic affair. Barton's solicitor, William Bartley, had been owed 407 pounds and in January had received security from the hacks in the form of one stack of wheat and two stacks of oats from the recent harvest. He had advertised these for sale at the 20 February auction and brought his own auctioneer, William Lambert. Barton explained to Bentham Neals that the Wheaton Oats belonged to him and not to sell them, but Neals ignored him. Neals conducted the sale for Hargan first, selling the Wheaton Oats for 152 pounds. This enraged Barton, who believed they were worth £400.
Speaker 3:Gee, this sounds a bit like a rigged fire sale. I bet that Barton was fairly annoyed.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, After the sale, Barton took legal action against Hagen for damages. The case opened later in that year and it's the proceedings and documents from Barton's insolvency cases that enable events at the auction to be explained. When the sale of furniture began, the onlookers noticed Hagen conferring with the auctioneer and a Mr William Robinson. Hagen took various people aside and told them not to bid because Robinson was buying the furniture and other things for Barton's family. Of the 100 lots, 80 were purchased by Robinson. People were even prevented from going into some of the rooms and, as James Hertel Fisher later said, if Mr Robinson gave a nod, down went the hammer.
Speaker 1:In the back row. Thank you very much. You're the buyer.
Speaker 2:Robinson was bidding but Hagen was paying with money drawn on Barton's family back in England.
Speaker 3:Well, so Hagen, his good Quaker mate, was using the money from Barton's own family back in England to fund the purchases.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really can't work out how that happened, but it was not good for the hacks. Now more about the auction. Hagen interfered with his own auction and with the bank's. People later complained about the way the sale was conducted and one onlooker was so dissatisfied that he didn't purchase anything at all. People said the sale was too hasty. It was all over in a few hours In one room. The contents were sold in two or three minutes. Another complaint was that none of the goods fetched anything near their value. Under the sale for Hagen, bartley's grain stacks and a variety of articles were sold for a total of 217 pounds. The sheriff's sale for the bank produced 256 pounds. One witness said the grapes were worth 250 pounds but only fetched 20 pounds, which they considered unfair. Hagen was not only telling Barton he was helping with his furniture, he also gave Barton some of his own grapes.
Speaker 3:This whole process seems rather dodgy. Yeah, this whole process seems rather dodgy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Stephen Hack was apparently taken care of, but once again Hagen was not using his own money. Hagen bought goods to the amount of £100 with money drawn on Bessie's brother-in-law, Russell Ski, in England as a way of making them available for Stephen. One witness said all of Stephen Hack's furniture had been bought for only £7. That witness later seized it because of money due to him and sold it in Adelaide for between £60 and £80. After the sale the Sheriff's Office seized everything else on the Hacks property except those items purchased for the family. The bank took the horses mortgaged to them and the auction company took the bullocks and stallions mortgaged to them.
Speaker 2:Barton waited until he had divided up the remaining estate with Stephen and then on 25 March he made a declaration of insolvency in the Supreme Court. This was announced in the Government Gazette for all to see. Then, four days later, on 29 March, Stephen also declared himself insolvent. He was described as a farmer and cattle dealer and his address was still at Echanga Springs. When Stephen was evicted in March 1843, Bessie was heavily pregnant and their daughter, Julia, was only two years old. Stephen took up the land purchased for Russell Ski and started farming. He and Bessie moved into a small house, probably the wooden dairy on Echunga Creek, as Stephen's address a year later was Echunga Dairy A newspaper reported Insolvencies Stephen Hack of Echunga Springs, now of Burwash Farm, Farmer, declared insolvent on the 25th of March.
Speaker 3:See, the colony seems to be in turmoil. What was the governor doing about all of this? Well, not much apparently.
Speaker 2:On 16 March a great meeting was held in the Queen's Theatre to express the community's total want of confidence in the administration of Captain Gray.
Speaker 3:Okay, I assume that another governor was dismissed, but what's happening with poor old John and Tremonger?
Speaker 2:On 27 February, John had his 22nd birthday. So much had changed in the last 12 months since his arrival at Port Adelaide, when he had such high expectations.
Speaker 4:John explains in his reminiscences I now was reduced to my last penny and I felt sadly out of spirits, but I was in hopes that I might save my stock. The manager received me very politely and acknowledged my case was a hard one but said he could do nothing himself. But if I would call the following morning he would give me an answer. His directors were to meet that day and he would place my case before. His directors were to meet that day and he would place my case before them and I authorised him to say I would give up either the mare and foal or the four yearlings, whichever they liked, provided they would give me possession of whatever part they agreed to let me have. I went the next morning with great anxiety to hear the decision at which the directors had arrived and the manager told me they had agreed to let me have the four young mayors and I was to deliver the mayor and foal to their manager at Achunga Springs To protect his interests.
Speaker 6:John had Stephen Hack's debt to him registered and he placed the following notice in the newspapers Whereas Stephen Hack, late of Echunga Springs, mount Barker in the province of South Australia, farmer against whom a fiat in insolvency issued on or about the second day of June 1843, has entered in the schedule filed by him in this court the name of John Watts as a creditor of the said insolvent for the sum of £500, and whereas the said Stephen Hack has also entered the name of William Russell Skay as a creditor of his estate for the sum of £1,000.
Speaker 3:Things are very bleak for young John and Trimmer. I seem to recall that one of the reasons why John's father was happy for him to go to the colony was that John's father's old friend, Dr George Mayo, lived there. Is it time for Dr Mayo to step up?
Speaker 2:Yes, sure is. John writes.
Speaker 4:I was fortunate in having an old friend of my father in Adelaide, dr Mayo, and he told me to come and live with him until I could get something to do. And he gave me an introduction to a Mr Barker who had a station near Encounter Bay and he agreed to take my four young mares on a gistment. I accepted my dear old friend's invitation to live with him but said I would work for him, dig his garden or anything, rather than eat idle bread. This I did, but was not very long in finding something to do. Dr Mayo had a section of land at a suburb of Adelaide on which was erected a nice little house and he gave Trimmer and myself permission to live there. I got a contract with the contractor of government wood supply to cut up wood for government offices at two shillings per load. Trimmer got into the first flour mill in Adelaide as Clark.
Speaker 2:This mill was built by the South Australia Company and operated by John Ridley. John Ridley had arrived in South Australia on 17 April 1840, bringing with him a steam mill. He built the flour mill at Hindmarsh. The first wheat harvest in the colony was ground into flour at his mill. Later Ridley became somewhat famous. In 1843, he developed an invention that was known as the first stripper, which stripped the ears of standing wheat and threshed it. In one week he was able to reap 70 acres of wheat near Wavell at a cost of five shillings per acre. With the help of John Dunn and John Stokes Bagshaw, the machine was perfected in 1844, and in 1845, seven more were built.
Speaker 3:OK, well, I've heard of Ridley, but how did John and Trimmer fare?
Speaker 4:Well, john wrote, I found I could earn 30 shillings per week and as we did all our own work, such as cooking, washing etc. I managed to save one pound per week. And as we did all our own work, such as cooking, washing etc. I managed to save one pound per week out of my wages. I thought I might be able to save enough in time to pay my passage home.
Speaker 3:At least John and Trimma are managing to survive, thanks to Dr Mayo and Mariah Gandy. Anything else happen.
Speaker 2:A few weeks after declaring himself insolvent, stephen was thrown in jail for debt, as no creditor had come forward to start proceedings. He was still there on the May 21st when Bessie gave birth to a son, wilton, and three days later, when the bailiffs arrived at their humble home and seized his furniture, somehow Barton Hack had avoided going to jail. Margaret May claimed that Stephen was in jail for two weeks. The story was later told by Stephen's son, wilton, in his autobiography.
Speaker 1:Father had been away from home with cattle somewhere and when he returned to Adelaide he found the Hack brothers were utterly ruined. He was seized for debt and put in prison. And when I was only three days old the Bailiffs came to our house at Achunga. They took all the furniture out of the house all the cooking utensils, pictures and turned out the boxes and drawers, heaped all the clothes on the floor and carted them off. Two men took hold of the mattress mother and I were lying on, lifted us off the bedstead onto the floor and carried that away also. As there was nothing to be gained by keeping father in prison, he was liberated.
Speaker 2:Wilton said Stephen blamed Barton for this and the two brothers fell out.
Speaker 1:Wilton noted Uncle Barton managed to protect his own home and personal belongings, and this was the cause of the coolness that lasted between them the rest of their lives. Father had always allowed Barton to manage everything and, until the crash came, knew nothing as to how the firm stood, and he argued that if Barton could manage to protect his own house, he should have protected my mother in the state she was. After this, uncle Barton did what he could and in later years was always kind to me, but I could never forget.
Speaker 2:Stephen was now destitute and wrote to England for assistance. He turned to making money with a bullock team that he drove himself and farming on a small scale with 150 cattle, some horses, pigs and goats, and he planted some crops. Bessie was unused to domestic concerns, but she tried her best.
Speaker 3:Okay, so John Watts was totally broke due to the Hack family, but what about your other ancestor, william Henry Neal? Last time we mentioned him, he was running an auctioneer business Franklin Street, but a competitor, john Bentham Neill, set up an opposition. So how was William?
Speaker 2:going Well. In early 1841, william added a partner to his business, a Mr Belsham. However, this didn't help. A notice appeared in the paper on 1 October 1843.
Speaker 7:Partnership lately subsisting between William Henry Neill and Abraham Belsham of Franklin Street, adelaide, in the province of South Australia, as auctioneers and general agents was this day dissolved by mutual consent.
Speaker 2:That partnership failed and William suffered the same fate as the Hack brothers. He declared bankruptcy, but some time earlier than the Hacks. Interestingly, while William's debts were listed as £6,511, his assets were listed as being £7,565. However, clearly, his assets were never realised.
Speaker 3:So what happened to William?
Speaker 2:The records get a bit scant after that, but William Henry Neal takes up an occupation licence on 1 July 1847, calling it Borough Hill by 1852, I know that William worked at the Borough copper mine. Soon after William and his whole family plus a group of other people trekked overland from Borough to Bendigo to join the rush. Fortunately I have copies of the daily diaries from two of the group. It's a ripping yarn and we'll cover that in later episodes. So by the middle of 1843, john and Trimmer are making ends meet while living with Dr Mayo. Charles Nanties has long since left the colony. William Henry Neal and most of the residents of the colony are totally broke. In our next episode we'll talk about what happened to John Watts next. Well, thanks for listening. So it's goodbye from me. In our next episode we'll talk about what happened to John Watts next. Well, thanks for listening. So it's goodbye from me.
Speaker 3:And it's goodbye from me, thank you.