EJ. Lillecrapp Charleston School 1890 - Bryce & Janet Harrison collection

The Early Life of Charles Newman

Recollections of Long Ago. South Australia in 1837.

As written by Charles Newman

On Sunday, October 21, 1888 was the 51st anniversary of my landing in South Australia. The ship which brought me out being the Catherine Stewart Forbes (Captain Fel commander). We sighted land, Kangaroo Island, on Sunday, October 17, 1837 and went into Kingscote for orders early on Monday morning. Among the passengers were several under engagement to the South Australian Company, myself included.

When we left England, we were told that in all probability we should land at Kangaroo Island to look after sheep, but on our arrival, we were informed that there were only three sheep on the island. Probably these were the three of which were the late Mr Bull wrote in his early experiences. As we were seven in number, three shepherds, three assistants and one overseer, the thing looked rather ludicrous. Finally, we received marching orders from the then company’s head manager Mr David McLaren, to go to the mainland, making a start on Tuesday morning the 19th and dropping anchor in Holdfast Bay in the afternoon of the same day. When the sailors were letting the anchor run a little too fast the captain standing on the poop repeated the words three times ‘check the cable’. I have often thought since then, that if some of our first goers were to act on the captain’s advice and check the cable in another direction there would not be so many poor unfortunate souls seeking a refuge at our in Inebriate Retreat.

On the 20th, Mr Lillicrap, the overseer, went up to Adelaide for further orders and on Thursday, October 21st we were sent off in the long boat and as she grounded in about three feet of water, there was nothing for it but to take an unwilling bath for alas ——

‘No wharf or jetty could be seen along that desert strand,

The tenants were few and far between among those hills of sand,

The men with wives upon their backs made for the distant shore

Like donkeys with their heavy packs I’d often seen before.’

On reaching the sand-hills we saw three bullet teams awaiting us and among the drivers was that Magee who afterwards brought himself into such notoriety by being the first man hanged in the colony.

The earliest sign we saw of civilisation was a number of huts called Buffalo Row on our way to Adelaide, named after the vessel in which the people came out. I said to the lad who was with me (mind we were both from Somersetshire, dressed in smock frocks reaching down to the calves of our legs), saying ‘Sain dost thee zee them pigstys down here, I wonder where the voaks do live.’ Those huts were made of reeds from the river Torrens and the site was near where the jail now stands, no doubt so have easy access to water.

Finally we made a halt on North Terrace in front of a weatherboard house. I looked gloomily at the rude structure and said to the driver ‘is this the house we are to live in?’. ‘No’ said the bullpuncher ‘that’s the company’s bank’. At this time there was a small cart or truck brought out, drawn by one man, into which our luggage was transferred and with a little assistance in the haulage business we were taken up to where the company’s bridge is now erected over the Torrens and there assisted to make and burn the first kiln of bricks in the colony. They were what is called sand stacks and as they have the company’s

initials SAC pressed into them, no doubt in the course of time will have historical importance, for I believe there are many of them in the company’s old bank on North Terrace, afterwards called Trews Hotel. People reading this might be somewhat puzzled about the South Australian Banking Company, as the latter was then called, but at the time the managers of both companies acted co-jointly in the management of both concerns. I well remember a man belonging to one of the survey parties standing on the corner of our kiln with his flagpole to mark the line that divides the company section from the parklands ( now called Hackney), we were taking out bricks at the time, and as there was a hot wind blowing at the time ,we completely covered him with red sand.

In 1838 the winter proved too wet for brick making, so I went to live with Peter Cook, the butcher where I became a sort of towns directory, for as there were only two butcher shops in Adelaide, I knew almost everybody. I will remember standing at Sladen’s house on North Terrace while going one of my rounds with orders and thence watching my old acquaintance Magee passing down where the gate to government house now stands on his way to be hanged. He was sitting in a cart dressed in either a white shirt or jumper with the usual rabble following in his mark. The place of execution was a large gumtree on North Adelaide Hill not far from the Torrens dam. He was tied to one of its branches and the cart drawn from under him. We hear a good deal about that old gumtree at Holdfast Bay where the proclamation flag was hoisted, but has this old tree no historical importance? Or was that spectacle of too grim a nature for history to perpetuate? No doubt it was one of the clumsiest and most painful executions ever performed in the colony, both for the culprit and spectators, for the latter saw Magee writhing and burring about long after life should have been extinct.

Here is a little incident which will surprise some modern kangaroo hunters. A man called Sladen used to bring hind quarters of kangaroos to Peter’s shop, who retailed them at a shilling a pound, he also brought eggs at 6d and sold them at 7d each. In 1839 I went back with the company again and was employed as a Night Watchman on a sheep station at Coromandel Valley which derived its name through some of the Coromandel sailors hiding themselves there until the ship had left the colony

In the latter end of April in the same year, the Company selected their special survey on the sources of the Onkaparinga and we were shifted at once to their new purchase, where we had many troubles to contend with. The blacks were defiant, and the wild dogs impudent, with cold and hunger common particularly in lambing times, and, as we had nothing but netting for our yards, we had to make fires at night to scare them away. We had only been there just long enough to build a hut when Joe Stagg and Goften, who afterwards came to such a tragic death, called upon us with the saddles on their backs and asked for a night’s lodging, having lost their horses at Mount Crawford, where, no doubt, they were spying about with a view to stealing cattle. I knew Goften at once, for we had been engaged with another man to put up a fence dividing the Company section from the parklands. We stayed up late that evening and Stagg told some curious stories about how many blacks he had shot in Van Diemons land. On one occasion he, with others, had been out all day looking for blacks but had failed to run them down so they camped for the night. Next morning about daylight they heard a black fellow whistle, apparently for his dog (the blacks used no fires at night for fear of being seen by the enemy), they crawled up as close to the black’s camp as was safe without giving alarm and then rushed on them, killing everybody they could lay hands on, men, women and children, without the slightest regard to age or sex, thus a lot of long-sentenced criminals or allowed by the government to murder women, and otherwise abuse them and their children, according as their low vicious bloodthirsty nature dictated without being amenable to anyone for their foul deeds. The blacks were outlawed at the time for having served the whites in like fashion. Here were the sins of the fathers visited upon the children with a vengeance, and that with the sanction of a British government. Perhaps this will explain what Stagg said on the gallows before he was hanged for the murder of his mate Goften ‘I know I deserve hanging although I am innocent of the crime for which I am about to suffer.

This is the only person I believe he has been hanged up to the present time where there has been any doubt about the guilt. In this case, there was a policeman who had a good deal of suspicion cast upon him, of the name of Lomas. The evidence was purely circumstantial, but Stagg was a most notorious bad character, he got very little sympathy from the general public. On another occasion we had to leave the hut while we took the sheep to be shorn. While we were away Green and Wilson, two famous horse-stealers came and robbed the hut, taking away all our flour sugar and tea, besides a clean shirt of mine. Their camp was near where the Woodside mines are now situated. One morning they left telling Mrs Green, who was with them, to remain until they returned. However, after waiting two days, she left and found her way again to Leggetts, who was shepherding where Inverbrakie is now. I might mention here, although we recovered part of the tea, we never used it on account of its having been stowed away in one of Mrs Green’s stockings. Not very nice was it?

About this time,I was minding sheep near where Charleston stands now, when a policeman approached me and asked if I had seen a strange man pas that way during the last day or two, because he was looking for one of three who had turned bushrangers, and who were last seen near Crafers. These were Curran, Hughes and Fox, the last being still at large. He said the man was from Vandiemonian. I answered that there was a man up in the valley about a mile with a survey party, but I don’t think he will suit you for he said he came out in the ship Catherine Stewart Forbes the second time she arrived here. However, after asking about height, complexion and so on, the trooper replied ‘ I think he will do’ and in about an hour I saw him and the Crafers Carmen, who accompanied him to identify the fellow, going back with their prisoner. Mr Bull was misinformed when he affirmed that Fox was taken near Crafers. A little incident in connection with Fox is perhaps worth relating, a shepherd named Bone heard about the dreadful bushrangers and was very much afraid they would give him a call. During his excitement a man came to his hut and asked for a drink of tea, but Bone was not satisfied to give him tea only but asked him to stay the night as a sort of protection. The man contended to do so and taking breakfast next morning continued his journey up to the valley. Afterwards it was ascertained that it was Fox himsel

When I was in my twentieth year, I was put in charge of a flock of sheep with a man ten years older than myself, as mate, who only received 2/3 of my wages - considering my youth, such an appointment was, at the time, equal if not superior, to a man being appointed to the commission of the place now. I held that position for about four years when the Company sent most of the sheep to Mount Gambier, only keeping back one very superior flock that they gave into my charge. These I held for another year when I declared my independence and gave up my charge against the overseers wishes. I was now about twenty-five years of age and had saved sufficient money to buy a section of land very near, if not equal to, any section in the Onkaparinga district, but by the time I had brought everything necessary to carry on the farm, my finance had become so low that I often found my purse empty. I commenced farming like many others, selling wheat at three shillings a bushel, but as soon as the Victorian diggings were discovered, the price gradually went up to five shillings a bushel and continued to until it reached twenty-three shillings. I sold several hundred bushels at that price, and, if I remember rightly, I got twenty-four shillings a bushel for one load, being, I believe, the highest price obtained in the colony, the late firm of Beeby and Dunstan being the purchasers.

But as I reach the time of the Victorian diggings, I am reminded that the period of authentic colonial history had been reached, what has since transpired is common property. My subsequent experiences have been experiences of thousands. Like the Colony I have had my ups and downs but by the exercise of habits of diligence and economy, I have been able to hold my own during even adverse times and circumstances and like many sensible persons whom I have met, I am still of the opinion that with fair treatment South Australia is not an unsuitable place as a home for hopeful hearts and willing hands.