The Brenda Park Story

The Early Days

In the early days of settlement of the Colony of South Australia the River Murray played an important part .In November 1839 Governor Gawler led the first expedition to travel from Adelaide via Wellington along the river to camp at the mouth of the Burra Creek. This is situated at the big North West bend of the Murray. In their crossing to the Burra hills one member of the party named Bryant was lost. Thus the names of Bryant’s Creek and Mt Bryan were conceived. Many other explorers to the north passed this area including Charles Sturt. This practice turned men’s eyes towards the river.

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One such man was Hermann von Rieben. Hermann was born to a baronial family of the manor of Kosa-Broma in Mecklenburg. In that part of Germany there was political unrest at that time. Some of the people had heard of the Englishman Wakefield who had established a colony for free men in the great southern land of Australia. The illustrious geologist, Leopold von Buch paid a farewell visit to his young German friends who were about to leave their father land and immigrate to Adelaide. Knowing that their means were limited, he left behind him a draft for 300 Thalers on the table. A kind note soon arrived requesting their acceptance of the present, the donor pleasantly remarking that, in case he visited Australia, he would want the shelter of a roof and therefore wished to contribute towards providing one.

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  In 1849 Hermann {1809 – 1879} and his young wife Louisa {1825 - 1883} joined Richard and Otto Schomhurgk, Carl Muecke, Carl Linger and about 150 other educated and liberal minded Germans in chartering the ship Princess Louise 256 ton. On March 26th they sailed from Hamburg via Rio de Janeiro arriving at Adelaide on August 7th 1849.

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Passengers

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F. Mucke, Dr. C. Mucke, 3 children and mother-in-law, O. Schomburg and wife, R. Schomburg and wife, Lisman, wife, 5 children, and 2 servants, Von Reiben, wife, and 2 children, Erzelbade and wife, Yomeger Kley, wife, and four children, Gorz, wife 2 children and servant, Shudemon, wife, sister and 2 children, Tadt, Gunther, wife, 1 child, Wnering, Linger, wife, brother, and 1 child, Holzerland, wife, brother-in-law, 3 children, Klez, Schneider, Reimer, Berends, Birknes, G. Buhring, Buhring, wife, and 3 children, Toschor,  Hansheller, Bayer and wife, Tied, wife, and 1 child, Rothener and wife, Schild and wife, Meyer  and wife, Goy, wife and 4 children, Salan, Piper, wife, sister, and 1 child, Mosel,  Eisele, Joaney and wife, Bagge, Ezeberger, Schneider, Laurensi and wife, Harders,  wife, and son, Velfer, Karg, Kattelein, Israel, Heinrichs, Malxk, Schroder and wife, Kettle and wife, Toth and sister, Stauve, Rohr, Lindnum, Passke, Kohrf, wife and sister, Stehan, Glagow,  Sahr, Hecht, Wachsmulk, wife and 1 child, Tahrmann, Cinow, Toralawsky, Maggraf, wife and 1 child, Gebeler, Talkenhagen, Miss Heilandand sister, Weidemann, and 3 children, H. and A. Staelher, Schluter, mother-in-law, and child, Nieaber, wife and 2 children, Wuckming, Zimmerman, and Perwitz.  

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The von Riebens brought with them two children, Augusta and Hermann and the most impractical effects including a mountain of china some of which still remains with one of the descendants.

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On arrival the von Riebens joined the Buchsfelde settlement initiated by Richard Schomburgk on the Gawler River where Hermann hoped to set up as a gentleman-farmer, sub letting to Yeoman Wilhelm Zoelner. Apart from river frontage, their next holding could not have been in greater contrast to the closely settled Bushsfelde.

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 He heard people speak of a beautiful deep lagoon of permanent water five miles south of the big bend.  Baron Hermann von Reiben and his wife Louisa resettled by Scott’s big lagoon in 1854. It was deep containing permanent flowing water, lying half a mile west of the river. <34 degrees south latitude 139 degrees 40 east longitude > It was part of a small ana branch of the River Murray, running in just south of where the town of Morgan would later be built and where the proposed marina is to be situated. It was permanently fed through Scott’s creek. In time of high water it spilled out through a second lagoon to the south. From whence the name Scott is not recorded but at the time the policeman in charge of the Riverland was Scott.

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They built a large homestead of river stone and red gum slabs. It was thatched with river reeds.  The highest part of the building was the kitchen and dining room which had a cellar under it to keep food cool. The remains of this part are still standing in 2003.The rest of the house seems to have been terraced towards the lagoon, at the edge of which, a deep hole was dug to provide constant water for use in the house. The bathroom and toilet area must have had water pumped up to it as it drained away down the rise away from the lagoon. Very modern for those days!

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Because the dwelling was so far from any where most travelers stopped there. Hermann was quick to realize the potential. He applied for a hotel license and was granted one in 1855. Because of all the horehound now in the area one wonders if he brewed his own beer. In 1859 the home was also registered as the county Eyre post office with Hermann as postmaster.

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Before building the house the natives on the flats were consulted as to the heights of the floods in the past. The oldest of them indicated the usual level the river rises to at flood times. Well above that mark the house and stables were built. In 1870 a flood came down that drowned the house right up to a foot within the ceiling. The family had to store all the furniture in the loft and live in tents on the side of the hill for eleven months. The von Rieben boys, Hermann and Otto rowed a boat to the loft to procure any needed article. The natives were wrong in their estimation of the river heights, because several times the house was flooded. In 1956 it was washed away completely except for the stone kitchen and cellar.

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Rounsevell’s mail coaches travelled from Adelaide through to Wentworth, Victoria, arriving at von Rieben’s hotel at 6pm on Tuesday. On the return trip they left for Adelaide at 7am on Sunday. Their advertisement claimed that the von Rieben hotel had comfortable accommodation. The hostess was attentive and obliging. The tariff was cheap.

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Another description runs as follows. ‘The only house between Murpka[Murbko} and North West Bend is situated in a lonely part of the bush, on the banks of a great lagoon, about five miles south of the north west bend of the river. Hermann von Rieben’s hotel is a point of essential importance to the tourist in the district. After leaving it, no human habitation appears until within a few miles from Burra Burra (Burra) and then that’s only a shepherd’s hut. At von Rieben’s one will meet every accommodation and every comfort and more than one could expect. The hostess is most attentive and obliging and charges are moderate. We ate drank and slept well and our horses fared well too. The night was sultry and distant thunders boomed around us. The air was filled with the cries of birds of every description, the croaking of innumerable frogs and the howl of a dingo. The Inn contains fine stuffed specimens of all the great lagoon and river birds of the district and will well repay inspection. If you wish for living specimens of smaller fry, you have only to keep your door open and you will be accommodated’.

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The lagoon abounded in fish and was a breeding place for immense flocks of aquatic birds.

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It became known as the North West Bend Hotel, in the hundred of Eba in the county of Eyre. It was self sufficient though we are not sure just what live stock Hermann did keep. Being from Germany, and horses being the mode of transport at the time, he must surely have had and even bred some horses. Although he leased five 80 acre sections on Jan 1st 1856 within a fortnight that lease was transferred to Richard Hicks. The district was becoming a pastoral area, with Blanchtown growing 23 miles to the south on the river, and Kapunda, with the discovery of copper, developing 45 miles to the west by direct road. The state sale yard for horses, owned by Sidney Kidman and run by Coles Brothers was at Kapunda. It became the biggest horse sale in Australia and probably the world. There is a road named after Hermann on the way to Kapunda from Morgan so it could be presumed that he drove horses there for sale. Louisa was sometimes left alone with the children but was never afraid. They were on good terms with the natives. The children played and swam with them. There was probably a garden to grow vegetables and flowers. It is known that they had a shepherd to care for the sheep they ran. As drovers were constantly passing with cattle from N.S.W. it is reasonable to assume that they kept some cattle at least for their own needs.

It seems that Hermann, like so many others at the time, ‘squatted’ beside the lake. It was not in their name until Louisa, just after Hermann’s death, purchased Section 227 in 1880. She immediately gave it to their son Hermann. He later sold it to John Field who had it subdivided. A portion of about half an acre was transferred to Hermann von Rieben junior on 26/5/1888. This land is still in his name. There is mention of a white picket fence which may have surrounded this area and was eventually taken down and given to the Morgan hospital. The graves of his parents and their three children, who died of fever in 1860, and the remains of the hotel are still to be seen. A five foot high wall, one foot thick, of rough concrete cast, surrounds a small burial ground. The gate is also covered with concrete cast and this can still be opened. This is not far from the ruins. The dead children’s names were Rolly, Amelia, and Malchin.

Hermann’s surviving family was:

 Augusta, born 1844 in Germany and married to Max Inglehardt 1871

Hermann junior, born 1845 in Germany and married to Priscilla Barker

Anna, born 1858 in Australia and married to George Johnson 1884

Matilda, born in 1860 in Australia and married to George Bartlett.

Otto born 1863 in Australia and married to Jane Carew.

George Bartlett, Matilda’s husband, worked the land from 1892 till 1895. Hermann took it over until he sold it to Sidney Wilcox on March 1st 1906. It is believed that Wilcox called it Brenda Park after one of his daughters. It was not registered as Brenda Park until 1959. However the older inhabitants of Morgan assure us that the area has always been called Brenda Park! That is where they went for church and school picnics, fishing, catching yabbies and shooting ducks. Some even swam in the floodwaters around the garden and over fences.

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Mr. Wilcox erected a large stone home with high ceilings and a wide passage running north and south through the middle. It was beside a creek bed, which seldom held water but sometimes after a thunder storm it ran a banker. He called it Mulyoulpko meaning ‘home by the water’. It stood to the west of the old hotel.

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License Number One to pump water from the river was issued to Mr. Wilcox.  This man had great ideas for irrigation. He wanted to put a bank right round the lagoon to keep the water out. He set up gantries to quarry stone at each end of the property. The northern gantry was alongside the ana-branch. The southern gantry was beside the area where Scott’s creek fed the lagoon. He first blocked off the ana branch at the north point. He put a bank right round the lagoon to keep the water out in flood time. He would pump it in, as he needed it. There were fifteen to twenty men working on the levee bank. This provided employment for people in Morgan. They built the bank with large stones quarried from the areas to the north and south. This was re-enforced with earth applied to each side of the structure with horse drawn scoops. A railway line was laid along the whole length of the bank. This was erected on site with six or eight little rail trucks, each of which held three quarters of a ton of stone. They were filled at the quarries and driven with old Ford trucks with a worm drives, at about fifteen miles per hour. The rocks and rubble was tipped out at the end of the line and the line extended as they went. The structure at the southern end of the lagoon was built very strong with two pipes running from the lagoon side through to Scott’s creek side. Did it ever work? Some years later some workmen got a few drips through by lunchtime. Before they returned to work three inches of rain fell in a thunderstorm and filled the empty lagoon. Later someone filled in the holes completely.

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The levee bank was several miles in length going quite close to the river in some areas.

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A workman named Cyril Treloar recalls ‘In 1925 at the age of 15 my mother thought that the city was no place for a boy to grow up so she sent me to work on Brenda Park Station. Sidney Wilcocks owned the holding at the time. When the river was low the area in the lagoon was used for cropping and grazing sheep. I remember one crop that was four feet high. The men were there for three weeks pitching hay and killing snakes, about seventy of them and only four of them were not tiger snakes. Down at the bottom end there were about four stooks left and there were five snakes under them. Another bloke and I were sent to dig down through the sand to put a sluice gate in for the water. We got right down to the bottom and it caved in on top of us. I could only scratch the dirt away quickly to get to the other bloke’s face. We went on and got the gate in. When the flood came down it drowned the sheep and everything.

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It is reported that Sidney Wilcox had spent twenty two thousand pounds on this project only to find that is was a failure. As the flood rose he discovered that the water was seeping through in several places, eventually bursting the bank and flooding everything. When asked if he wished for more money to be sent from England he replied “No thanks leave it in the ‘old’ country.”

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Not to be beaten he changed his plans. First he cleared an area of higher ground and terraced it. This way he could water areas as he wished. He set up large steam driven traction engines at the river bank to pump water into these terraced areas. At the southern bank the water was pumped high into an aqueduct which ran above the terraced paddocks .From there it was diverted to flood the several large paddocks sewn with lucerne. It also supplied the dairy, the stables and the garden planted with fruit trees, vines and vegetables.

On the southeastern side of the garden was a bamboo windbreak. A pergola near the house was covered with roses and flowers.

On the western side of the lagoon is a road that leads from the house north along the edge of the cliffs. It reaches an old stone crossing with a pipe through it which probably was erected in von Reibens time. A little further along in one of the creeks is the remains of an old wharf.

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After Mr. Wilcox left it is believed that the stock firm of Goldsborough Mort took over the property.

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The next owners were the Sobey brothers, Hubert James and Edwin Leslie. They named the area ‘the Hubert Leslie Estate.’ In 1965 they decided to sub divide the area of land between the river and the levee bank. Apparently it was a race with time to get it done before an act was passed in Parliament to prevent such a procedure. Conjecture has it that the last blocks were surveyed by car lights to beat the act. So was born the Brenda Park holiday homes, generally referred to as the shack area.

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The Brenda Park Leaseholders Incorporated was established whereby all the leaseholders collectively own the property and the individual blocks are leased for 999 years.

The rest of the area was still farmed, running sheep and cattle. Since there were no fences it was a regular experience to wake up and find a mob of cattle lying contentedly right under your shack some mornings. If one died it took a long time to decompose and the odor hung around for weeks.

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There is evidence of a fire burning through the area, probably in the forties. The area was very bare of big trees.

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During the sixties a woodcutter was allowed into the area. He was not allowed to take big red gums from the river or creek banks. The rest of the area was denuded. Some had gone earlier to fire the paddle steamers. After the big floods of the seventies the emergence of young red gums was tremendous. However what the cattle and sheep did not eat they trod into the ground. We pleaded with the owners to remove the cattle. They did so but not the sheep.

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 The remaining portion of the property was sold to Penfolds Wines. This was not surprising as it carried one of the largest water rights on the river. They planted six square miles of various types of vines across the Blanchtown road. After aerial surveys some of the northern area was removed, as the soil was not suitable. An area for their pumps was established just north of the first part of the original levee bank. Several easements were established through the Brenda Park area to enable the vineyard access to the river for pumping purposes. The water is first pumped into a large dam at the top of the cliffs and from there pumped around the vineyard.

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Penfolds Wines sold the property to Southcorp Wines who in turn sold it to Australian Vintage, based in Loxton. They sold the property to the current owners the Byrnes brothers. They have renamed it Brenda Park Estate. 

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The ruins of the old von Reiben hotel and homestead still remain with the graves of Hermann, Louisa and the three children close by in their cemetery.