Old houses and buildings in the Adelaide Hills

I recently took a road trip around the Adelaide Hills. I came across some amazing old buildings, some still habitable, some not and some, I am not quite sure, but all of them with character.

Right in the middle of the supposedly fastest growing town in South Australia, Mt Barker, was a strangely majestic sandstone building which looked to me as if it had once been a stable, or perhaps even partly living quarters.

It sat high on the hill, with an aura of authority as it looked down on the town, knowingly watching it grow. If only those wall could speak … the stories they could tell. Sitting beside it was an old rusted plough … amazing feeling about the place. I would have loved to walk inside and feel the aura; but the barbed wire fence surrounding it made it reasonably clear that that would not be welcome.
I do, however, intend to check it out again next visit. It sits on the hill in a large paddock, in the middle of a new subdivision on the outskirts of Mt Barker - Mt Barker Heights? - in splendid isolation definitely oozing authority. Below and around it are many modern homes and even the odd McMansion, but it has not an air of being threatened. And I hope it stays that way.
Bit of history …

What is today known as Mount Barker was first sighted by Captain Sturt from Lake Alexandrina in February 1830, though Sturt believed he was looking at Mount Lofty, which Flinders had discovered in 1802. Captain Collett Barker rectified this error when he undertook a survey of the district in 1831. Sturt renamed the mountain in honour of Captain Barker who was killed by Aborigines while exploring near the mouth of the River Murray later that year.

When I first drove through Mt Barker I decided that it may be a town with a long and venerable history. From memory, the sign at the beginning of the main street said “Historic Gawler Street” – that was a fair warning! The town centre has many historic buildings nestled beside modern ones, including the inevitable Maccas (it’s not exactly nestled, rather standing out there on it’s own with a surrounding carpark!) and new shopping centres. Historic Gawler Street does, however, have some old time buildings that work and blend well.

Captain Sturt reported favourably on the agricultural potential of the area, with rich soils and luxuriant native pastures of the surrounding undulating hills and plains, but it was not until the late 1830s that this area was explored further. The first Special Survey of the Mount Barker District was opened to prospective buyers in March, 1840. Land was cleared and the rich agricultural land was developed for grazing and crop production. In February 1840 the proposed layout of the township of Mount Barker was announced.

Moving into the closer suburbs you will come across a large number of mostly, well kept and renovated old homes. These vary from tiny workmen’s cottages to large estate homes.

Driving out of town towards the Laratinga Wetlands, I glanced left at an empty block and there sat what in it’s youth would have been a stately home. It took me a few dead ends to try and find my way, through the new developments, to the rear of the home, to discover that serious renovation was taking place there. I returned to the original viewing position and discovered that a closer look showed me that the main roof had already been replaced and that the bull-nosed iron on the verandah would be next in line as that is part of what was being done at the rear. I wonder if the vacant land in front of that beautiful old house will become a new subdivision soon.

That cappuccino I had planned for at Hahndorf would have to wait until the next day, because I had taken too long looking at “just down the next street.” I did however get one in Mt Barker at Giovanni Pizza.

Next day I was travelling along the (old) Princes Highway, near Nairne in the Hills, and right there on the side of the road was another old sandstone building. After turning around and returning to the safer, other side of the road and pulling off to a safe parking spot, I took some photos of another building from the past.
More barbed wire to keep the adventurous out, some reinforcement to prevent further deterioration and there was a sign above what was probably, in its heyday, the front door.

St James School 1848. Could this one’s walls tell some stories!

Nairne was one of South Australia's earliest settlements, founded by Matthew Smillie, who named the town after the maiden name of his wife Elizabeth Corse Nairne. Established in 1839, it is only three years younger than the state of South Australia.

So this old building was there almost at the beginning.

Back in the car and not much further on some buildings once again caught my eye.



Hardly any room at all to get off the road, so pictures were captured hurriedly.

An old farmhouse, which has obviously had some reasonably recent additions, in the form of pine lattice work. There is character in those, what would appear to some to be absolutely ramshackle, buildings. It gets quite cold in that part of the world. I could almost feel that lazy wind whistling past there in the middle of winter. Brrrr!

Can you also notice how dry the paddocks beyond are? It is still drought in that part of the country.