'The Barossa District Gawler to Angaston Railway Opening' [1911], in its own words, claims it is primarily concerned with that portion of the Barossa commencing at Gawler and extending eastward with the new railway. It then diverges completely away (to the benefit of the historian) to discuss wide ranging topics such as George Fife Angas' and his son John Howard Angas' contributions to the region, the early settlers including the 1839 Special Surveys, primary production including the leading names in wine and brandy production—Seppelt, Yalumba, Angas Park, Chateau Tanunda, Rowland’s Flat, and Saltram. Other industries covered are fruit growing and processing, grain and
flour, quarrying, tanning, butter production, and brick-making.
Being a publication by a newspaper, the brochure contains useful advertising. Readers can see the sort of products available to the average households of the day. Moreover the material is liberally supplemented with historical photographs of people and places such as the old ford at Jacob’s Creek and the Barossa School Teachers Association.
When the material gets to the railways on page 17, we are presented with a compact history of the quest to get a railway service in the district from 1874 through to the arrival of the first train into Angaston complete with a series of excellent construction photographs.
A section is devoted to The Barossa News and its principals, Cant, Schultz, Smith, Juncken, and Heinrich, the Gawler Bunyip and Messrs W. and R.H. Barnet, and Coombe, and the Lutheran paper, Kirchen und Missions – Zeitung [the Church and Missions –Newspaper] under Eimer, Basedow, Auricht and Leidig.
A further section is devoted to the towns and their infrastructure with a special focus on the churches, commerce and industry, and institutions—Gawler, Angaston, Tanunda, Nuriootpa, Lyndoch, Rowlands Flat, Greenock, Keyneton, Truro, Stockwell, and (unexpectedly) Sedan.
Old historical records are a valuable resource for local, family and social historians as well as for researchers in other fields of Australian history. They provide information on the environment experienced by the residents of the time and how they lived, as well as their occupations.
High quality scanned images of the whole of the original book. This CD has been bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.
