http://openhouseadelaide.com.au/content/university-adelaide-urrbrae-house-waite-campus

Urrbrae House was home of Peter and Matilda Waite who came to South Australia from Scotland.  The area was named by Robert MacGeorge after his Scottish home town Urr, and the word Brae (meaning the side of a hill).

Urrbrae House home of Peter Waite and family

Grandma Bette and Josiah

I was disappointed that they didn’t have tours running on the day and also that they didn’t state on their website that prams aren’t allowed in the building as the wheels may damage the flooring.  I totally understand that however it would be good to state it on their website so that people can make choices accordingly.  Gee my back is sore today from carrying Josiah and I’ll bet my Mum’s is too.

Peter Waite

On arrival in Adelaide in 1859 Peter joined his brother James at ‘Pandappa’, a pastoral property near Terowie in the north east of South Australia.  Peter quickly adapted to the harsh conditions and in 1862 Thomas Elder offered him the lease of a nearby property, ‘Paratoo’.  When James Waite was drowned in 1863, while crossing a flooded creek on horseback, Peter took over both stations.  http://waite.adelaide.edu.au/urrbraehouse/pwaite/

Peter Waite

Peter Waite

Peter’s connections with the already established and successful South Australian family the Elders, whose business still operates today, gave him an advantage over other Scottish and English immigrants.

More information about the Waites and their contribution to South Australia can be found here- http://waite.adelaide.edu.au/urrbraehouse/pwaite/

I’m learning far more South Australian history now than I ever learned in school!!!!

Electricity

In the late 1880s a major reconstruction and enlargement of Urrbrae House was undertaken and when completed in 1891 it was one of Adelaide’s significant mansions.  Peter took a great interest in the décor of the House employing Aldam Heaton from London to advise on the furnishings.  Urrbrae House was the first home in Adelaide to have electrical light in 1891 and also a refrigeration system installed in 1895. http://waite.adelaide.edu.au/urrbraehouse/pwaite/

I was fascinated with the early use of electricity in the house.  This puts into perspective something I hadn’t thought much about previously.  All my ancestors living in South Australia didn’t have electric light in their houses until after 1891.

Le Clanche Batteries

Le Clanche Batteries

Architecture and Views

In The Classroom

South Australian Women’s Place In History Quilt

South Australian Women’s Place In History Quilt – Kate Cocks

School groups visit the classroom regularly to experience school from a bygone era.

School Desk

Hand Cranked Sewing Machine

Bible of Joseph Greenway Snr

The Bible tells me a few things about Joseph.

• he was literate
• he was a Christian
• he marked in the Bible where he had read and marked some passages which were important to him
• he is my 4x great grandfather because the inscription says Joseph Greenway Senior
• he was living at McCallum’s Creek 11 Nov 1863, I already knew that he lived there this confirms that it is my Joseph

Joseph Greenway’s Bible

Joseph Greenway’s Bible

The Bible is 150 years old.  It is now part of our family heirlooms to be passed down to future generations!!

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA) 1928-03-24 56

A POSTAL VETERAN. MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS.

A POSTAL VETERAN.

MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS.

Mr. William Chapman, of Howard-street, North Kensington, who celebrated the 84th anniversary of his birth on Sunday, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, and came to South Australia with his parents when he was five years old. Although so many years have passed since Mr. Chapman

Mr. William Chapman.

landed by the sailing ship Asiatic, he is hale and hearty, and still in possession of all his faculties, being able to recall with minute detail many interesting incidents of the early days. He is the oldest living scholar of Pulteney Grammar School, and among other things he recalls in his youth having been among the first to tra- vel, by train between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. When he arrived in South Aus- tralia the only means of transit between the city and the Port was by bullock dray.   Mr. Chapman can also remember attending

one of the first burials at the North-road Cemetery. On the death of Mr. Stock,   who conducted the school in Pulteney street, Mr. Chapman transferred to the Waymouth-street school, and he well re- members playing cricket in the large grounds existing at that time between 'The Advertiser' office and the Thistle Hotel. On leaving school he worked for a Rundle-street fruiterer, then transferred to the Government Printer, whose office was situated in a paddock in Gouger-street, close to the Supreme Court. Trying his hand at commerce, Mr. Chap man joined up with Messrs. Samuel and Matthew Goode, and on November 1, 1863, he entered the Postal Department. In that service he remained for over 45 years, his 'beat' for 35 years being Rundle, Cu- rie, Waymouth, and Hindley streets and North-terrace. In the early days a red coat was included in the postman's outfit, and the veteran still retains portion of the uniform he wore half a century ago. In the latter end of his engagement with the Post-office Mr. Chapman was employed as a letter sorter. In the period he was connected with the department as postman he reckons that he walked the equivalent of six times round the earth. The mail matter, when letters from England came in, sometimes went as high as 70 lb. a man, and with a round covering 15 miles it required the strongest constitution to carry on the work. Fortunately, Mr. Chapman always enjoyed the best of health, and only recently underwent a suc- cessful operation without taking ether. He remembers the building of the guard house at Government House, which was partly demolished a little while ago. The struc- ture was put together by the 40th Regi- ment, which afterwards went to New Zea- land and served in the Maori war. Mr. Chapman has always been a keen lover of music, and performed well on the violin, a gift inherited from his father, who formed Chapman's Band, the first organisation in this State to perform 'The Messiah.' This band frequently played at Government House, and at White's Rooms, now the Majestic Theatre. Through out his service of 45 years with the Pos- tal Department, Mr. Chapman's sick leave did not total one mouth, and in the evening of life he still enjoys health that would be envied by many thousands who are a score of years younger. He   had seven children, six of whom are living — Messrs. H. M. and P. E. Chapman (both of North Kensington), Mrs. T. J. Maloney (Mitcham), Mrs. W. B. Simons (Keswick), Miss E. B. Chapman (North Kensington), and Miss C. Z. Chapman (North Kensington.) There are also four grandchildren.   Brisbane.— UnaWe to extricate herself from beneath a motor truck which over turned and caught fire, near Talleyrand Station, in the Lon#reach district, Mrs. McNamee (2C), who was employed as ai housonioid at j&c station, was burned to- death* ^__i'-'~'--'-^J'~ . ^

Source: Trove

I have just recently found pay records at the State Records office (South Australia) as well as photos of William Thomas and his father William which I need to go into the office to view.

Postal worker wages ledger

The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) 1954-07-24 9

Dead Men's Banes Make Good Pines

Dead Men's Bones Make Good Pipes

By BRIAN FORREST

SMOKING today is a pleasure almost as world-wide as music and dancing, yet only

400 years ago it was quite unknown to most of the world's inhabitants. Perhaps the only thing as remarkable as the rapid growth of the new habit is the smoking equipment used through the years. Pipes have figured pro- minently in smoking's his- tory, and pipe sales today indicate that this piece of smoking equipment will last as long as the tobacco habit. But judging by pipes of bygone days the present day briar could undergo a revo- lutionary change in shape and design with the passing of another hundred years. Since smoking began — and it's a hard job to put a finger on the exact date — there has been an endless array of pipes — medium, long, light, heavy, straight and bent.   Adelaide has Australia's only pipe museum — run by tobacconist brothers Phil and Ralph Buring— and if you care to investigate smoking habits of bygone days then a visit to the museum will prove well worth while.     The museum has about 400 pipes from 35 different countries, and it's an eye- opener even to a non- smoker. The museum boasts one of the four best pipe col- lections in the world. Six years ago the brothers took over the tobacco busi- ness begun by their grand- father 99 years ago. They unearthed about 40 pipes of previous decades and found that, cleaned up and displayed, the pipes at- tracted considerable inter- est. So the pipe museum began. Clients gave family heir- looms to the collection, and Australian and overseas tobacco factories and

agents, invited to contri- bute, presented many specimens. All the pipes in the col- lection have their own his- tories, and it's only when you get talking to someone like Phil Buring that you realise that these pieces of wood seen jammed in the faces of countless men really have something. Pipes are classified in types — meerschaum, nargil, calabash, kanasta — nothing to do with the other — and chibouque. And each shape has a name. Phil Buring says pipes have become a fetish with him since the unusual hobby began — remarkable, considering he's a con- firmed cigarette smoker— and he wishes he could de- vote more time to the museum. Mr. Buring is often called on to give lectures, radio and luncheon talks, and he has often been referred to as 'a walking pipe encyclo- pedia.'     Perhaps the rarest piece in the collection is a 53 years old Tibetan pipe made from a human shin bone. The pipe belonged to a camel driver trading between Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Mr Buring says that Tibetans put their dead out on a hill until vultures pick their bones clean. When the sun bleaches the bones and the wind covers them with sand, Tibetans un- earth the bones for use as pipes! Although many of the pipes are between 50 and 100 years old, the collection has specimens dating back more than 300 years — one of these is a clay pipe dug from the ruins of London following the great fire of 1666. The museum also in-

cludes a group of five beau- tifully carved meerschaums made in Austria between 1850 and 1900. The group is unexcelled in any collec- tion in the world. Another piece is a West Indian tobacco tube called Tobaco, which was in use aefore 1492. Mr. Buring says that tobacco was named after the tube, and the one which is in the museum is probably the only one now in existence. ***     After visiting Australia's nost unusual museum I think there may be some thing in these lines so well known to pipe smokers: 'Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read, And his home is bright with calm delight, Though the room be poor indeed.'

Source: Trove

Recorder (Port Pirie, SA) 1934-04-13 4

YOUNG "SEA-DOG" Seeking Adventure on Barque Next Week ADELAIDE, Thursday.

YOUNG "SEA-DOG"

Seeking Adventure on

Barque Next Week

ADELAIDE, Thursday

A 17-year-old Adelaide boy who has never been to sea before will leave as an apprentice in the four masted barque Lawhill when it sets sail from Port Adelaide next week for its freezing run round Cape Horn to England.

The young "sea-dog" is Philip R. Buring, son of Mr. Emil Buring, pro prietor of a Rundle street tobacconist firm.

The hope that Mr. W. Brusnahan, a returned soldier who is an inmate of Pirie Hospital, would have a speedy recovery was expressed by Mr. H. J. Edwards (.president) at a meeting of Pirie sub-branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Imperial League at Memorial Hall last night.

Source: Trove

Phillip Rushton Buring is my first cousin twice removed.  I did a Google search on the Lawhill and was surprised to find results including this photo and wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawhill

The Barque Lawhill, photo courtesy of the State Library of Victoria

It turns out this is a fairly well known ship.

From the SA Memory website

The Lawhill was one of the many ships involved in the Australian grain trade. Before that she had carried jute and then case oil for the Anglo-American Oil Company before being bought by Gustaf Erikson in 1917. After her first voyage for Erikson to South America he placed the ship in the South Australian grain trade and she continued in this right through the Second World War. However in 1941 she was taken over by the South African government and ended her career in 1947 under the South African Blue Ensign. From this we may assume that the date on the photograph is incorrect.

Lawhill was a steel four masted, bald-headed, stump-topgallant barque, a consistent sailer which earned the name the ‘Lucky Lawhill’; between 1921-39 Lawhill made 14 voyages to the Spencer Gulf with an average sailing time of 121 days.

There are terrific pictures of a scale model of the Lawhill on this site http://www.ahailey.f9.co.uk/lawhill.htm

Another Trove article

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.) 1943-06-05 4

"LUCKY LAWHILL" SAILS ON Gallant Barque Defies War Perils

"LUCKY

LAWHILL" SAILS ON

Gallant Barque

Defies War Perils

With her delicate tracery of masts and yards towering above the more prosaic funnels and derricks of rusty tramps, the 50-year-old barque Lawhill lies at an Australian port.

Majestically defiant of storms and enemy action alike, Lawhill carries on the square-rig tradition in an age that has come to regard the sail- ing ship as a curiosity. Her skipper, Capt Sorderland, has already lost a ship through enemy action in the war, but, nothing daunted, he carries on,

 

"I was born free," he said yester- day , "and no Nazi or Jap is going to drive me from my liveli- hood. I first sailed aboard this ship as an AB more years ago than I like to remember. I came back to her

as captain early in the war after having had a ship blown from under   me by a mine off the Dutch coast, and, except for a period before the South African Government (my pre-   sent owners) took over, I have kept this old vessel sailing."  

Lawhill, known to old salts the  

world over as "Lucky Lawhill," shows little sign of her age. Spick and span in her black and white   paint, she lies at her berth, tugging hard at the heart-strings of all old sailor-men who pass her by.

She's a different ship today from any that sailed the seas in the days of "wooden ships and iron men," however. Replete with steam, heat, and a Liesel winch to hoist sail, she carries on now under the 3-watch system. Three watches means 4 hours on duty and 8 off ; a bit dif- ferent from the old days when men did their 4 on and 4 off all round the clock.

The Lawhill publishes a paper twice weekly, too. Edited by the donkey man, Bert Speight, who returned to the sea after 20 years' ashore be- cause he felt that a sailor would be of better use to his country afloat than driving an. engine at a gold- mine, this sheet gives the latest shipboard gossip, as well as such news as can be picked up by radio. Speight first went to sea in 1904 in a Finnish ship, and he is a West Australian, and proud of it.

There are other Australians aboard. Boyd Thompson, the deck boy, has been on articles only for a few weeks, but he's fallen in love with the sea already. "It'll do me for a life," was Bert's terse comment. A crew of Finns, Danes, and 7 South Afri- can apprentices completes the ship's company, not forgetting, of course, the mate and second, who, like the skipper, are Nazi-hating Finns, and it would be hard to meet a jollier

and keener team.

"The old Lawhill's a lucky ship," the captain said, "lucky enough for me to have my wife and daughter Doris aboard with me, so that's that!"

Source: Trove

I haven’t been able to find Phillip’s apprenticeship records yet or the details of his service on the Lawhill, but I will continue searching.

Phillip Rushton Buring – not sure how old he is in this photo.

I just found this photo which I had forgotten I had.

Phillip and his brother Ralph went into the tobacconist shop following after their father and grandfather.  I’ve also found more articles, with this search, for further Trove Tuesday posts.

Jessie Melina Boyd

Jessie Melina Wigley nee Boyd

The Spanish Flu

“The flu was said to have infected 500 million people worldwide and killed 50 to 100 million of them, 1 to 3 percent of the world’s population at the time, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

The New South Wales Experience of the Spanish Flu Epidemic

ABC Radio www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/11/11/2740044.htm

Jeremy McAnulty, the Director of Communicable Diseases, with NSW Health talks to Richard Glover about the impact of the flu on New South Wales.  This is a short interview which I found well worth listening to.  Here are some of the notes I took while listening.

The first wave of the flu in New South Wales was from March to May 1919 this was a weaker strain of the virus however approximately 1800 people still died.  The second wave was from May to August 1919.  The influenza strain had mutated by this time and was stronger.  Approximately 2900 people died in this time.

The Spanish Flu differed from seasonal influenza in that it mostly effected healthy young adults around 30 years of age and not the young, elderly or infirm.  Unfortunately Jessie fell right in this age category.

The Influenza Pandemic – The University of Sydney

Although this article is primarily talking about the staff and students of the University of Sydney it still gives readers an idea of what it was like in Sydney at the time.

Influenza Emergency Worker Badge from the Powerhouse Museum http://from.ph/135446

The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 7 May 1919, page 12

Report in the SMH on the day Jessie died.

The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 7 May 1919, page 12

Jessie and Charles Wigley

Jessie’s Death Notice In The Sydney Morning Herald