Everything about Gawler South Australia totally explained
Gawler is reputedly the first country town in the state of
South Australia, and is named after the second
Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia,
George Gawler. It is located 40 km (25 miles) north of the state capital,
Adelaide, and is close to the major wine producing district of the
Barossa Valley. Topographically, Gawler lies at the confluence of two tributaries of the
Gawler River, the
North and
South Para rivers, where they emerge from a range of low hills.
History
A
British colony, South Australia was established as a commercial venture by the
South Australia Company through the sale of land to free settlers at £1 per acre (£247/km²). Gawler was established through a 4000 acre (1618 hectare) "special survey" applied for by Henry Dundas Murray and John Reid and a syndicate of ten other colonists.
The town plan was devised by the colonial surveyor,
William Light, the son of
Francis Light who founded
Penang,
Malaysia, and was the only town planned by him other than Adelaide. William Jacob used Light's plans and laid out the town.
Adelaide became a model of foresight with wide streets and ample parklands. After Light's death, it also became a model for numerous other planned towns in South Australia (many of which were never built). As the only other town planned by Light, Gawler is ironically dissimilar to Adelaide's one square mile (2.6 km²) grid. The heart of Gawler is triangular rather than square, a form dictated by the topographical features. The parkland along the riverbanks and a
Victorian preference for public squares are present but Light was aware that he was planning a village, not a metropolis.
Gawler prospered early with the discovery of copper nearby at
Kapunda and
Burra, which resulted in Gawler becoming a resting stop to and from Adelaide. Later, it developed industries including flour milling and manufacturing steam locomotives.
With prosperity came a modest cultural flowering, the high point of which was the holding of a competition to compose an anthem for Australia in
1859, four decades before statehood. The result was
Song Of Australia, written by
Caroline J Carleton to music by
Carl Linger. This became in the next century a candidate in a national referendum to choose a new National Anthem for
Australia to replace
God Save the Queen.
Culture
Gawler is a commercial centre for the Mid-North districts of South Australia and, increasingly, a dormitory town for Adelaide. The hit Australian television program
McLeod's Daughters is shot at "Kingsford", a working property outside Gawler's northeastern fringe.
Former Australian cricketer
Darren Lehmann was born in Gawler in 1970.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gawler South Australia'.
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