The day dawned clear and warm again, and we decided to make the most of the good weather, having learned that worse was soon to come. By 9.30 am, we were on the road across to Crafers and on to the Princes Highway, heading to Mount Barker, ready to resume our unfinished exploration of the Adelaide Hills.
We stopped firstly at Macclesfield, yet another pretty village in the middle of farmland and walked from one end of the village to the other, pausing to sample the plums from a well laden tree over hanging the street. A large group of mothers and small children had gathered even this early at the park, with baskets of goodies, obviously to enjoy a Christmas picnic. There was an air of business and good cheer all about.
This town’s history echoes so much of those we have learned before: in the same year that lovely Hahndorf was established, an Oxford banker, George Davenport, together with his sons, took up 1,600 hectares at Macclesfield and went on to rent the land to German and Irish immigrants. After 1850, the town grew rapidly because it was situated on the route through to Victoria, that which gold seekers and the mail coach used. Stores for resupply and more importantly a pub for refreshing weary travellers all sprang up, and those buildings are still standing and operational today.
We drove on south and west to Meadows, still crossing rolling hills and often through long avenues of large ancient gums. The countryside was quite lovely, but also quite different from the more northern parts of the hills. Here the rural scenes were of either open woods on good grazing land, or cleared paddocks, most covered in recently baled hay.
At Meadows we again walked the main street and admired the old buildings. Here again in 1839, 1600 hectares was taken up by Charles Flaxman, and subdivided for the building of the town, soon to include an inn, two stores, a flour mill, tannery, blacksmith, butcher, carpenter, three shoemakers, a surveyor, school and two churches. By 1889 the dairy farmers had pooled their resources and as a Farmer’s Union, opened a cheese and butter factory.
The horrific bush fires of 1939 destroyed much of Meadows and much of the surrounding countryside; it is fortunate that any of these old buildings survived.
On impulse we decided to take a loop side trip, further south through Prospect Hill and through to the Kuitpo Forest. Established in 1898, Kuitpo was the first of many forest plantations to ensure sustainable timber supplies. Today the Forest Reserve covers an area of about 3,600 hectares. We found a picnic spot in the pines and ate our lunch in the company of hundreds of lovely orange and brown butterflies, a melodious magpie and numerous centipedes.
Our journey then took us back to Meadows and then north toward Jupiter Creek with the intention of walking the advertised Jupiter Creek Heritage Trail. The road through from Meadows to Echunga is the Battunga Road, a name that is also used to include the country all about here, being the aboriginal word to describe tall trees and rolling hills, and is entirely appropriate.
When gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851, gold seekers poured out of South Australia, threatening the State’s economy. The government offered a reward for discovery of a payable goldfield in South Australia. Concentrated mining attempts were made through 1852 to 1858 in the Adelaide Hills near Echunga, but it wasn’t until 1868 that payable gold was discovered in this, the Teetulpa Goldfield. Within months there were 1500 people on this field.
A chimney associated with the Beatrice Mining Company working the area in 1869 still stands as a reminder of times past, as do numerous great shafts, some 45 metres deep, all carefully fenced to keep the curious out. This particular company proved to be unsuccessful and closed for business in 1871.
The area was reworked in the 1930s during the years of the Great Depression, when a sixty metre tunnel was dug into the hill. Part of this is still open for tourists to venture through today.
We found our way back to the car, via a portion of the Heyson Track, the same we had walked part of through Wilpena Pound up in the Flinders Ranges, and of course named for the artist who so loved and recorded the landscapes in this part of South Australia.
It was just a short trip down the hill to Echunga, a small settlement also founded in 1839 by an English Quaker, who established an estate of dairy herds, wheat fields, orchards and a vineyard. South Australia’s first export of wine was from here; however Mr Hack’s fortunes did not last. By 1843 he was bankrupted, the lands taken over by another and subsequently divided up for the village and smaller holdings.
Farmers in the region continued to grow crops until 1939, when that same bush fire swept through the area devastating their lives and incomes. In recovery they turned to dairy and mixed farming and while cropping and orchards are being returned to in these more modern times, the bulk of the land around here is still pastoral.
Interestingly, contrary to nearly all the other villages and settlements throughout the Adelaide Hills, the name Echunga has an aboriginal base; it is derived from the aboriginal word “eechungga” meaning “close by”.
From Echunga, it was really a straight run home, however we had read more about Stirling after visiting it the other day, and decided we should have a second look. This time we stopped, shopped for a newspaper and some capsicums, and had a good look around. The impressions we had when we drove through the other day were confirmed; it is a lovely village, and as Chris said, rather understated with its lively business all going on behind the many trees lining the streets.
Now after three attempts, we can say we have explored the Adelaide Hills, but cannot say we saw everything there was to see. It would take much longer to really do the area justice, and I just hope that those who live in the general area of Adelaide do appreciate the lovely landscape they live in.
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