Media: EBOOK - download
File Format: PDF, 14MB (32 pages)
Author: B. Arnold
Year: 2025
ISBN: 9781922935151
Other: photos, tables of all mills
Publisher: Unlock the Past

From the Introduction 

This book gives an overview of the history of grain milling in South Australia. It is based on a vast database built up by the author over a period of 40 years. 

Grain mills and millers played an important role in the development of the State, and because the importance of the industry has diminished over time, it tends to be poorly understood and ill represented in regional histories published in the last 50 years.

The village flour mill was a pleasant place to visit. It exuded warmth and a nutty smell with a hint of fumigant. There was the steady rumble of the machinery and the lively movement of pulleys and the ‘slap’ of belts, and often the friendly smooching of one of the mill cats—vital members of the mill complement.

A working mill provided employment in a township both directly and indirectly. The mill whistle indicated the passage of time to the residents, and the mill store provided a venue for meetings, concerts and religious services until other facilities were able to be built as the township flourished.

Beginnings
For millennia the aboriginal inhabitants of South Australia had ground a variety of seeds between two stones to produce a meal, which, when mixed with water, was made into small cakes baked in the coals of their campfire. This level of technology, still current at settlement, had been abandoned some 4,000 years earlier in the ‘old world.’

When South Australia was colonised by Europeans in 1836, wheaten bread was a staple food and remained so for almost a century. In 1840 the daily bread ration for an adult male labourer was generally reckoned at 900 grams. Nowadays the consumption is as little as 100 grams and bread can no longer be regarded as a staple in the Australian diet.

The colony of South Australia was a long way from other European settlements where breadstuffs could be procured and their flour was expensive and stale. Although wheat was grown successfully on the Adelaide plains in 1838, this wheat had to be sent to Tasmania to be ground because there were no commercial mills in South Australia ...

The Mill listings give the following on well over 200 mills

• Location
• Period of existence as a flour mill
• Original power source
• Reason closed

Wind and water powered mill listings give slightly different information

Contents

Introduction

Beginnings

The Miller’s Business

The Process

The Mills

Power to Drive the Mill

Millstones

Roller Mills

The Millers and Others

Appendix 1 List of Commercial Flour Mills Established in South Australia

Appendix 2 Wind and Waterpowered Flour Mills in South Australia

     Windmills

     Water Mills

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PRINTED BOOK

Grain Mills and Millers in South Australia 1836 to 2025