CHAPTER 9 The Great Eastern Road - Flinders University 9 The Great Eastern Road Bill Stacy T HE FORMER Great Eastern Road is now a major freeway linking Adelaide to southern and eastern

CHAPTER 9

The Great Eastern RoadBill Stacy

HE FORMER Great Eastern Road is now a major freeway linking Adelaide to southern andTeastern Australia and is travelled by thousands of people and tonnes of freight every day. But its

story starts long before the arrival of the first European colonists and the founding of the British

colony of South Australia. For generations, the Kaurna, traditional owners of this country, had

tracks across the ridges. These were most likely followed by the first European settlers in their

bullock drays. The bullock track up the face of Mount Osmond was one of the first, if not the first,

blazed by settlers from the new city of Adelaide through the hills.

The track and its successors have accommodated a revolution in transport from a few bullock

drays through horse-drawn waggons to increasing numbers of faster and heavier motor vehicles.

The road has been built, rebuilt or realigned seven times to better serve the needs of the people of

this state. Its name has also changed over the years: The Great Eastern Road, The South East Main

Road, and Mount Barker Road. Each of the routes is indicated on Figure 9.2. Relics of these former

alignments remained after each reconstruction and realignment. These relics are now reminders

of South Australia’s transport heritage, illustrating the relationship between road-making and

development and showing the history of road-making technology.

146 Valleys of Stone

Much of the heritage over the road’s 170 years history survives, both within the road width

itself and along the roadside. Relics such as earlier alignments with their sharp curves and

macadam pavement remind us that traffic in the animal traction era travelled slowly. Ruts from

the section abandoned before macadamisation in 1855 illustrate the vicissitudes of travelling

in the wet. The toll house reminds us that good roads cost money. Relics such as the Mountain Hut

remind us that when people travelled more slowly they stopped to rest their animals and lingered

for their own refreshments or overnight accommodation. The remains of the Glen Osmond

smelters chimney, the walls of Hardy Town and the nearby quarries, and Measday’s Hill ruins

remind us that people once lived and worked by the side of the road. Other early sites, such as the

original narrow winding road at the bottom of the Glen lie buried under the reconstruction of the

1950s, which also enclosed the creek in a concrete pipe buried ten metres below the new road

surface. George Stevenson’s world-renowned Leawood Gardens now lie buried beneath the latest

construction at the Devils Elbow.

Today the route of the former Great Eastern Road is a freeway that cuts a swathe through the

western face of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Despite its new tunnels and sweeping alignment, the route

continues to be a corridor of historic significance. From where it climbs to the top of the steep Glen

Osmond incline the route tunnels through the Eagle ridge into the catchment of Brownhill Creek,

both acknowledged as historical landscapes in their own right. The histories of these valleys are

intertwined with that of the Great Eastern Road and all are important elements in the construction

of the Hills Face Zone as a significant cultural landscape.

Figure 9.2The several routes of the Great Eastern Road illustrated on a GIS generated landscape of theGlen Osmond Gorge.

SOURCE Robert Keane, GIS consultant

The Great Eastern Road 147

This is the story of the engineering and construction of the road, the people associated with the

road, and its heritage.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Before European settlement

Right across Australia the original inhabitants used an extensive set of routes for trade. Often the

first European settlers adopted these routes as the most direct and convenient paths. Before the

European settlement of South Australia in 1836, the Kaurna were the traditional owners of the

Adelaide Plains and the western face of the Mount Lofty Range. They used tracks following the

ridges of the hills in travelling around their lands and perhaps one of these later became the origin

of the Great Eastern Road of the Europeans. The following passage from an aboriginal song is likely

one of the earliest statements about the Great Eastern Road:

Adelaide no more good since the white men came – now the road has tired me – throughout Yeona there is a continuousroad – what a fine road is this for me winding between the hills

Register 16 March 1844

European discovery of the great eastern route

Even before settlement, Europeans had seen and visited the Adelaide Hills. Captain Matthew

Flinders saw and named Mount Lofty on Tuesday 23 March 1802 from Kangaroo Island and in

April 1831 Captain Collet Barker climbed it during his exploration of St Vincent Gulf and the south

coast (Flinders 1814:170; Register 30 April 1885 (a two-column article describes Barker’s

explorations); Martin 1996:16).

While the first settlers waited in Adelaide during 1837 for their country acres to be surveyed,

some explored the surrounding country. In April Bingham Hutchinson attempted to climb Mount

Lofty, and at his second attempt on 15 April 1837, he ascended one of the spurs of Mount Osmond,

and passing the present site of the Eagle-on-the-Hill climbed the crest of the ridge to Crafers and

then swung north to reach the summit (Register 8 July 1837:4a). This route, which has been the basis

for all subsequent roads, has two steep pinches which successive generations of road-builders have

attempted to ease.

For two years, the only traffic to the Tiers, as the settlers called the Adelaide Hills, were a few

‘splitters’ and ‘sawyers’ supplying Adelaide and the ‘country acres’ on the plains around the city

with timber. But after the completion of the Special Surveys around Mount Barker in 1839, a steady

stream of settlers moved out of the city to take up their land. They followed Hutchinson’s route up

the steep face of Mount Osmond. Most travellers chose the Beaumont spur, also known as

Gleeson’s, the closest to Waterfall Gully, as the easiest. They then followed the crest of the ridge,

including its steep pinch at Measday’s Hill, to Crafers. This seemingly strange choice was the best

available for bullock drays where a straight, if steep, run could be made. On a steep ascent the

bullocks were rested at intervals by wedging the dray’s wheels. A drag, often a felled tree, controlled


the dray during a steep descent (refer to Figure 1.4). Alternatively, if needed, the load could be

divided to ease the bullocks’ burden, but this delayed the trip. Despite these difficulties, the Mount

Osmond track was quicker, easier and safer than the alternative of manoeuvring the cumbersome

and unstable drays through one of the thickly wooded gorges, winding around boulders and trees,

fording creeks and traversing side-sloping ground.

Many early travellers suffered loss and injury, even death, on this mountain track with its two

steep pinches. Samuel Stephens, first manager of the South Australia Company, was thrown from

his horse and killed at the foot of Gleeson’s Spur (State Library of South Australia, PRG 1122

Richmond Collection, Series 2, Box 8, Mount Barker Road folder). Travellers keenly felt the lack of a

made road through the hills to the Mount Barker district and petitioned Governor Gawler to make

a better road. Exceeding his instructions that public works in the colony were to be undertaken at

the settlers’ cost, Gawler commenced work at public expense in January 1841 (Act 4/1841, An Act

for Making and Maintaining the Great South Eastern Road).

Selection of route

The first task was to find a route to ease the two steep pinches, firstly the climb to the Mount

Osmond/Belair plateau and secondly from there to the top of the ranges. Lieutenant James Poole of

the Surveyor-General’s Department was sent to survey a new road from Adelaide to Crafers, to be

known as the Great Eastern. To avoid the steep climb up Mount Osmond, Poole selected a route

through Glen Osmond gorge with comparatively easy gradients. A new road was cut diagonally

across the Adelaide Plains from the Parklands to Glen Osmond at what is now the intersection of

Portrush, Glen Osmond and Cross roads. From here it passed through section 894 for

approximately 15 chains (300 m), entered Glen Osmond gorge near the Toll Gate, traversed

unalienated (unsold) land and followed up the gorge, repeatedly crossing the creek. At the top of

the gorge, a short steep track led to a saddle where a sharp turn was made to join the ridge near

Kavel’s Lookout on the edge of the Mount Osmond plateau. Then the road climbed the crest of the

ridge towards Crafers. To avoid the second steep pinch at Measday’s Hill, a narrow path deviated

around the side of the steepest part of the ridge to regain it further up. So difficult was this

deviation that cumbersome vehicles avoided it and many riders dismounted and led their horse by

the bridle. It soon became known as the ‘Bridle Path’. The road then climbed towards the top

of the ranges at Crafers. Whilst Poole’s route eased the long and steep gradients of Mount Osmond

and Measday’s Hill, short sections at the top of the gorge and around Measday’s Hill tested

travellers and challenged subsequent road-makers.

Why Poole chose this route when other easier ones were available is not known. It involved

many crossings of the Glen Osmond creek and extensive earthworks to form a road on the sidelong

ground in the gorge and then more earthworks in the final climb to Crafers. One easier route wound

around the western escarpment of the hill to the west of Glen Osmond gorge then followed the

ridge to near the Eagle-on-the-Hill. This was built in 1861 as a private road by Arthur Hardy


Figure 9.3The first toll-bar in South Australia.The stone bridge in the foreground of the painting may stillexist under the road.

Alexander Murray, Australia, 1803-1880, The first toll-bar in South Australia, entrance to Glen Osmond 1842.1842, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 47.5 x 30.5 cm Gift of Mrs E.H. McTaggart 1963

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

(Gardner and Shearman 1998). Both routes cut through section 894, purchased in early 1841 by

Captain Frome, but the route through the gorge resumed less of his land. Frome, as Surveyor

General, doubtless was tempted to choose the route which caused him the least loss, even though

he was compensated, and perhaps instructed his subordinate Poole to adopt the gorge route! Yet

another route contemplated 25 years later when improvements were sought, but not proceeded

with, climbed the valley of Brownhill Creek to Crafers.

Construction and privatisation

By April 1841 about 200 emigrant labourers of the Surveyor-General’s Department under the

superintendence of Alfred Hardy were employed in the construction of the new road (State

Records, GRG 2/1 1841/165a, ‘Return of emigrants employed on Mount Barker Road’, Alfred

Hardy 9 April 1841). When Grey replaced Gawler as Governor in May 1841, he immediately

stopped work on the three-quarters complete road, greatly upsetting the settlers. Following another

petition, Grey did agree to continue construction on condition that a trust was formed to meet

the expense (State Records, GRG 24/1 no 22/1841, 29 May 1841). In July 1841, Ordinance No. 4

of 1841, an Act for Making and Maintaining the Great Eastern Road, established a board of trustees

with power to borrow money, levy tolls, complete construction and maintain the road. They

erected a toll gate (Figure 9.3) at the entrance to the Glen Osmond gorge, a site chosen because it

was difficult for traffic to avoid the toll. Although not completed for another year, the road was


opened on 4 October 1841 so that the trustees could start collecting tolls to defray their expenses.

All other roads through the hills were closed and travel on them prohibited by regulation. However,

tolls yielded little surplus revenue for maintenance, let alone for improvement or new construction.

Furthermore, the trustees had difficulty in obtaining the skills and technical expertise in the new

colony necessary to maintain the road adequately (State Records, GRG 2/6/3 p142-5, letter from

Grey to Colonial Office 26 Septmeber 1844).

Government resumes the Great Eastern

In November 1844, the government liquidated the trustees’ debt by the issue of land grants and

transferred their powers and duties to the Colonial Engineer. Far from abolishing the tolls as soon

as it resumed the road in 1844, the government rented annually the right to collect them, the toll-

keeper to retain the tolls! Residents of the Mount Barker area felt aggrieved because theirs was the

only area in the whole colony to pay both taxes and tolls. The government paid for roads in all other

districts. Furthermore most of the tolls ended up in the toll-keeper’s pocket rather than improving

the road. The toll was abolished on 1 December 1847 (Register 24 July 1847, 17 November 1847,

20 November 1847).

As the road to Mount Barker improved and facilities such as forage, harness-makers and

blacksmiths to support horses became available, carters replaced their slow bullock teams with the

stronger and faster horse, and their two-wheel drays with less manoeuvrable four-wheel wagons, so

they could haul greater loads more quickly. Continued development of the colony’s roads, such as

the establishment of the Wellington ferry across the River Murray in 1848 and the Gold Escort

Route later, fed more traffic onto the Great Eastern, taxing the Colonial Engineer’s limited resources

to keep the road in good condition. In March 1848 the Colonial Engineer wrote to the Governor

urging legislation to outlaw the process of using heavy trees as drags to retard the descent of bullock

drays. The discarded trees blocked the bottom of the gorge! (State Records, GRG 24/6A (1848) 334)

As the new settlers extended to the colony’s far-flung outposts, roads reaching into the whole

colony played an important part in the colony’s long distance transport. Drays lumbered along

country roads to carry heavy and non-perishable goods to the nearest port where they were

transferred to ships. People, the post and light or urgent goods moved quickly over the roads by

horse or coach. To manage the colony’s growing road network, the Governor created a Central

Roads Board in 1849.

Improvement of the South Eastern Main Road

In response to a continuing series of accidents and to allow easier passage of heavy wagons, the new

Board implemented many small improvements on the South Eastern Main Road as it now called the

Great Eastern. In his reminiscences, Alexander Tolmer recalled a trip in 1844 when he had decided

to take the ‘bridle track’ rather than the old dray track. At one point, midway between Crafers and

Fordhams Hotels ‘a large tree had been left standing which only permitted sufficient space between


it and the bank for one horseman to pass at a time’ (State Library of South Australia PRG 1122,

Richmond Collection, Series 2, Box 8, Mount Barker Road folder. Quotes p. 295 of Tolmer’s

reminiscences).

Between June 1849 and April 1853, the Board let eighteen contracts totalling £5,728 9s 3d

to improve the road between Adelaide and Crafers, including four contracts during 1851 to cut and

metal a short section of road at the Bridle Path to ease it for cumbersome vehicles. This cost £1,517.

However at the other difficult spot at the top of the gorge, the Board spent only £58 1s 6d during

the same four year period. Teamsters faced a short steep ascent and also a very tight curve at the

saddle. This was the original Devil’s Elbow, the present day location of the Overway Bridge, and

was known as Snapper’s Point. This curve limited the size of wagon that could make the turn within

the road width. The gradient of 1 in 10 was the steepest on the road. It limited the load that draft-

animals could pull uphill, and made descent more dangerous. A maximum grade of 1 in 20 was

regarded as the desirable limit for both safe descent and economical ascent. Road-makers made

many long and winding detours around hills to achieve this limit. Since speeds seldom exceeded

10 miles per hour, curves were of little consequence.

At last, on 30 March 1854, the Central Roads Board ‘resolved that the deviation proposed by the

Inspector-General on the South East Road at ‘Snapper’s Point’ be approved’. Two contracts,

totalling £707 17s 4d were let to J. Walsh for ‘cutting, embanking and culvert at Snappers Point’ and

‘widening and lifting road above Snappers Point’. Work was completed by May 1855 and

on 5 May 1855 The Register newspaper reported:

A very great improvement has been effected on this road between the Mountain Hut and the Eagle’s Nest. The road atthis place has hitherto been so extremely steep and dangerous as to have obtained the several cognomens of ‘the Devil’sElbow’, ‘the Stoney Pinch’, ‘the Teamsters Curse’ and ‘the Cut Throat Hill’. By making a detour, first to the left, then tothe right of the old road, the incline is now rendered quite practicable for vehicles of every kind.

With the road alignment suitable for most traffic, the Board turned its attention to making a

waterproof and hard surface for traffic. In South Australia, this was usually provided by ‘water-

bound macadam’ pavement. This comprised six to eight inches thickness of egg-sized stones

(known as ‘metal’) placed in two layers. Each layer was ‘blinded’ by sweeping sand and small gravel

into the gaps between stones. Slow-moving vehicles, with their iron-tyred wheels, compacted the

layers of metal into a hard and impermeable mass, easy for travel. Carters no longer needed to

provide extra animals in wet weather to haul their load.

By 1867, a number of further small improvements had been made, but the ever-increasing

traffic once again found the road inadequate. The Advertiser reported that it ‘has been constructed

by a process of patchwork and temporary expedients’ and the gradients were greater than on

any other South Australian main road. The Central Roads Board therefore decided to re-align the

difficult mile between Mr Stevenson’s Garden, just above the Mountain Hut, and Snapper’s Point1 .

Workmen cut a new road during 1867 and 1868. Starting with a sharp U-bend (a new Devil’s

Elbow), it climbed gently and wound around the western side of the hill, finally crossing the


original road on a wrought iron girder and timber deck bridge. (This bridge, known as the Overway

Bridge, remains in service today for local traffic, although modified several times subsequently, and

is described in detail below). For nearly a century, both routes remained in use, the newer with

its easier gradients for heavy vehicles, the older, being shorter, for faster and lighter traffic.

Roads in the late nineteenth century were very dangerous. Sleeping drivers and quarry

blasts imperilled travellers. In 1872, a dray descending the gorge and rounding a corner just

below the Mountain Hut, couldn’t stop in time to avoid a collision with a team and vehicle, its

driver sound asleep, obstructing the road (Advertiser 12 February 1872). Fortunately no one was

injured. On 18 October 1872 debris from a large blast in Hardy’s Quarry blocked the road and creek

for two hours until the road was cleared. On Wednesday 15 January 1879 the Mount Barker coach

driven by Walter Girdlestone experienced brake failure above the Devil’s Elbow. As it started to gain

speed, Girdlestone ran the coach into the piles of stone stacked on the roadside for maintenance,

using them in the same way as a modern-day gravel arrester bed (Advertiser 17 January 1879).

The steam engine brought great advances to many areas of the colony including agriculture,

manufacturing and rail transport, but not road transport. When the Hills Railway was opened to

Aldgate in 1883 and extended to Bordertown in January 1887, it captured much of the long-distance

traffic from the South Eastern Road. Trains were more powerful than horse and bullock teams, and

rail travel was cheaper, faster and more comfortable than road transport. Where possible, people

travelled and sent their goods and mail on a train. The colony’s development subsequently followed

the railways (see the chapter Blood, sweat and toil: Building the Hills Railway, this volume).

Only local traffic, often heading to the nearest railway station, laboured up and down the

‘South Eastern’. The government abolished the Roads Boards and handed care of roads to local

government. To mark its change from a main to a local road, the South Eastern was renamed the

Mount Barker Road and allowed to slowly deteriorate.

Motoring changes the Mount Barker Road

The first mechanically-powered (steam) vehicle spluttered on to South Australian roads in 1898.

But it was developments with the internal combustion engine during the First World War that

made the motor vehicle a fast, reliable and economic form of transport. By 1930 ‘motors’ carried

most people, whether at work or leisure, and almost all goods. Many occupations found the

motor car much easier for making calls and travelling. On weekends, motor charabancs carried

city dwellers to enjoy a day’s outing in the Adelaide Hills. Long-distance carters found motor lorries

convenient because they carried more goods more quickly from door to door. Traffic moved back

to the roads.

The increasing number of motor vehicles, heavier and faster than drays and wagons, raised dust

and caused damage to roads. The government created a new Local Government Department (later

the Highways Department) to find better road-making techniques and care for main roads. The

Department quickly adopted ‘bituminous concrete’, a new type of surfacing from the USA. Laid


over the existing road surface, two inches thick, it was expensive. By 1930, D.V. Fleming,

Commissioner of Highways, had developed a cheaper ‘bituminous spray seal’ surface. Both types

provided a durable and dust free road under the onslaught of heavy and fast motor vehicles.

Mount Barker Road was remade during 1921 to cater for ‘motors’. ‘When the tar dressing has

been applied the highway should be smooth and durable,’ the Department reported ‘motorists

should be able to accelerate their speed with safety and comfort to the top of the hill at Crafers.’

(South Australian Parliamentary Papers no 37/1927, Highways and Local Government Department,

tenth Annual Report). By the mid 1920s, the road had been given a bituminous concrete surface

between Glen Osmond and Crafers, and soon after the seal reached Murray Bridge. Mount Barker

Road once again became a busy road and soon resumed its former title of ‘South Eastern Road’,

even though it never totally shed its Mount Barker identity.

But progress in road transport had its price – a rapid rise in fatal accidents as fast motors ran off

slow roads. In 1926, at the request of the Automobile Association, the Local Government

Department painted white lines on two curves on the Mount Barker Road. ‘These lines,’ the

Advertiser explained, ‘are placed in the middle of the road, parallel with the side, and are useful at

bad bends, or at corners as a guide to traffic and to keep drivers from taking turns on the wrong

side’ (Advertiser 20 May 1926). In the same year white posts were installed for night-time visibility.

After the Depression and War years between 1929 and 1945, development and road

improvements in the Hills, Mallee and South-East fed more motor traffic onto the South Eastern

Road. For example the Dukes Highway was reconstructed and sealed during the early 1950s

enabling an overnight long-distance goods service by road between Adelaide and Melbourne. To

cater for this, the Highways Department contemplated alternative routes to Crafers, including one

up the side of Waterfall Gully. D.V. Fleming had investigated this in 1916 and discarded it because

Figure 9.4Charabanc, early twentieth century. The Tourist Bureau used these to transport tourists fromAdelaide to Mt Lofty.

SOURCE South Australian State Archives


of its impracticality. In the early 1950s Linden Avenue, Hazelwood Park, was constructed with dual

carriageways before this proposal was again abandoned. Instead Mount Barker Road was widened

from two lanes to four by 1961. But the better road encouraged more development and generated

more traffic. A series of localised improvements in several places was undertaken in the mid 1970s

in response to an increasing frequency of accidents. They had a minor effect. In the early 1980s

investigations started on possible new routes culminating in the release of a planning report on

16 October 1986 presenting eight options. It was clear that, just as each improvement during the

previous 150 years required a realignment, so too was a new alignment required now. The route

made forty years earlier could not be improved. As an interim measure, the existing road was

upgraded during 1988 by installing a median barrier to separate the two directions and widened

in a few places while work started on the selection and design of its replacement. After several years

of stalling while politicians bickered, work started on the new highway in February 1996. It

included the first tunnels on the National Highway system. They were bored under the Eagle-on-

the-Hill. Over the four-year construction period, roughly the duration of the construction of the

first road, 200 men were employed, roughly the same number as 155 years earlier. However, large

machinery unavailable to those first workers enabled their modern successors to build a vastly

better road (Hewitt (ed.) et al. 2000; passim).

ENGINEERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ROAD2

Poole

James Poole arrived in South Australia as a member of Colonel William Light’s survey team. In

January 1841 he surveyed the route of the Great Eastern Road through the Glen Osmond gorge to

Crafers and beyond. For several years he worked on this road. In August 1844, still in the govern-

ment’s employ, he left Adelaide with Sturt’s Central Australia exploration party, and died from

scurvy in July 1845 at Depot Glen, several hundred kilometres north of Broken Hill. The party had

become marooned at this permanent water hole early in 1845 as the desert came under drought and

Sturt was unable to move forward or back until rain fell (Gill 1905:7, 13; Beale 1979; passim).

Frome

Born in 1802, Captain Edward Charles Frome was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in

1817 and spent many years engaged in civil engineering and surveying works. Appointed

Surveyor-General in 1839, Frome arrived in Adelaide with a party of sappers and miners to provide

an experienced survey work force and to assist construction of the new colony’s engineering works.

In July 1841 Frome took on the additional duties of Colonial Engineer and for the next eight years

planned and supervised most of the colony’s engineering work. He left South Australia in 1849 at

the completion of his ten-year contract. His career spanned another 28 years before he retired with

the rank of General and died in 1879. Frome built a home, which still survives, on the banks of the

River Torrens at Vale Park (Cumming and Moxham 1986:66; Pike 1996:418-419).


Hardy

Alfred Hardy had responsibility for the construction of the original Great Eastern Road. Born in

about 1813 he suffered from tuberculosis and migrated to South Australia. Hardy joined Light’s

original survey party in his early twenties, and in 1839 was appointed town surveyor. He was one of

the colony’s first road-makers, supervising the construction of the first bridge over the Torrens, the

road from Adelaide to the Government Farm at Belair as well as the Great Eastern Road. In 1842

Governor Grey retrenched him, and unable to attract patronage, Hardy remained unemployed for a

long time. In September 1853 he was appointed Superintending Surveyor of the North Eastern

District, Central Road Board, on a salary of £400 per year and a forage allowance of 2s 6d. per day.

He lived at Claremont next to his younger brother Arthur of Birksgate at Glen Osmond. It was

Arthur who in 1861 constructed the coach road around the western escarpment. Alfred was heavily

involved in the local community, so his north-eastern appointment entailed a lot of extra travelling.

In 1865 he resigned and sold Claremont. After he inherited the family estate he returned to England

in 1869 and died soon after aged only 56 (Cumming 1982:1-11).

Hargrave

Charles Townsend Hargrave was born in Ireland during 1825 and migrated to South Australia in

1853. He worked in the Central Road Board for a year then entered private practice. In 1861 he

rejoined the Board as Superintending Surveyor (engineer) for the South District, a position he held

until the abolition of the Board in 1887. He then became Inspector, later Inspector-General, of Main

Roads in the Roads and Bridges Department until his retirement in 1904. He died in 1905. During

his four decades working in the Roads Boards and Roads and Bridges Department Hargrave had a

close involvement with the Great Eastern Road. For many years he lived on the corner of Kent

Terrace (now Fullarton Road) and Fisher Street, Norwood (Cumming and Moxham 1986:90).

FlemingDaniel Victor Fleming was born on 23 September 1884 at Ballarat, Victoria. He joined the Roads

Section of the Lands Department on 2 August 1909 as a draftsman. On the formation of the Local

Government Department on 1 April 1917, he was appointed Assistant Engineer for Roads and

Bridges and subsequently promoted to Engineer for Roads and Bridges on 1 July 1918, Director of

Local Government on 1 October 1922 and Commissioner of Highways on 23 March 1927, being the

first person to hold that office. Fleming undertook a trip to Europe and the US in 1922 to study the

latest road engineering methods. He became a leading authority in Australia on the use of bitumen

and during his four decades with the department, road making techniques changed from those of

the horse and buggy era to the modern motorised transport era. He retired in 1949 and died on 1

August 1962 (Cumming and Moxham 1986:61-2).

FowlerA.J. Fowler was the District Engineer for the Metropolitan District of the Highways Department.

His foreman was N. Hender. In the 1950s they used government day labour and some larger


mechanised equipment for several periods spanning seven years to widen and improve the existing

alignment. They reconstructed the road so it could carry many more cars at 30 to 40 miles per hour,

and trucks carrying up to 25 tons of load (Fowler 1959:24-28).

Rossi

Luigi Rossi of Transport SA utilised consultants to plan and design the new road then engaged

contractors. For three years in the late 1990s around 200 workers and very large mechanised

construction equipment, including off-road trucks, moved two million cubic metres of soil and

rock to construct a totally new road, including two tunnels. The road carries cars at 100 kph and

trucks loaded with nearly 40 tonnes (Hewitt (ed) et al. 2000).

HERITAGE SURVEY

Evidence of the nineteenth and early twentieth century alignments of the Great Eastern Road

and the associated buildings and quarries still exists and many remain accessible. Evidence of the

seven routes of the Great Eastern Road, described above, include the 1839 alignment over Mount

Osmond from Burnside to the Eagle-on-the-Hill hotel, an alternative route constructed by Arthur

Hardy in 1861, and successive alignments in 1841, 1855, 1868, 1920s and 1961 (incorporating the

earliest track and also the route taken to the Adelaide market by the Hahndorf women). Many

nineteenth century landmarks also remain – making a day exploring these various routes quite an

adventure! Landmarks include the Toll Gate at the entrance to Glen Osmond, the stone ruins of

Hardy Town, the many quarries, the stone Overway Bridge, the Eagle-on-the-Hill and the famous

Look-Out Corner, illustrated at the beginning of this chapter.

These sites were documented during 2002 and 2003 by students and volunteers working

with the Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Project and are described below and identified

on the Hills Face Heritage GIS Database.

The 1839 Bullock Track

This route, commonly referred to as the Bullock Track, starts from the top of Dashwood Road,

Beaumont with a steep ascent up Gleeson’s Spur, winds around the east edge of the Mount Osmond

plateau, then climbs the narrow ridge above Waterfall Gully to the Eagle-on-the-Hill site. It was

replaced in 1841 by the route through Glen Osmond gorge. Today it is a well-maintained fire access

track and walking trail with views over Waterfall Gully and a magnificent view of the South-East

Freeway and the entrance to the tunnels from the ridge.

Although the track was surveyed along its whole length, no clear evidence of historic structures

was identified. The only pieces of historic evidence recorded were a fragment of nineteenth century

black glass, a hillside that had once been terraced and the water pipeline from a pump shed below

the ridge in Waterfall Gully that supplied water to the Mount Osmond Golf Course from the 1920s.


Arthur Hardy’s 1861 coach road

Arthur Hardy arrived in the colony in 1839 and in 1845 took up Sections 894 (purchased from

Captain Frome), 1079, 1078 and 1077 on the south-western side of Glen Osmond on behalf of

himself and his brother Alfred Hardy (Cumming 1982; Smith, Piddock and Pate 2004:23-29).

Hardy was an influential landowner, a practitioner of the Supreme Court of South Australia and a

Member of Parliament. He built a modest mansion, Birksgate, named after his family’s estate in

Yorkshire, on the hill to the west of the gorge and was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in

Adelaide in the late nineteenth century.

In 1861 he had a coach road built through his property. Passing close to Birksgate, it climbed

the western side of the ridge overlooking the Adelaide plains, then followed the ridge top on the

southern side of Glen Osmond gorge to the present location of Kavel’s Lookout (Gardner and

Shearman 1998). Today a section of the route passes through the Waite Reserve and a further

section was recently opened to the public as a section of the Yurrebilla walking trail .

The Toll Gate

The heritage listed Toll Gate, illustrated in Figure 9.3, has been restored and stands as a monument

to the Great Eastern Road through the Glen Osmond gorge. It is now isolated on the median at the

Glen Osmond entrance to the South-East Freeway and is inaccessible to the public.

Hardy Town and the quarries

All that remains of a small community of quarrymen and their families are a few dilapidated

retaining walls nestled between the left side of the South-East Freeway and the turn-off to the

Mount Osmond Estate (Figure 9.5). Few present day travellers even notice the scatter of stone walls

or remember that the widening of the road in 1958-9 and 2000 destroyed most of Hardy Town. This

was a nineteenth century village, named after Arthur Hardy, which expanded with the demand for

stone. The three large quarries can still be seen on the south side of the road (Channon 2003) .

The Mountain Hut

The Mountain Hut hotel was built soon after the

construction of the road through Glen Osmond

gorge. It catered for the increasing passing traffic

from the agricultural areas in the Adelaide Hills,

such as Mount Barker, and the Eagle and Wheal

Grainger mines nearby at Leawood Gardens

(Smith, Piddock and Pate 2004:30-34).....

The first hotel was built by W. Anderson in

1845 and was a popular stop for travellers to

rest and water their horses before they

commenced the steep ascent into the

Figure 9.5The stone walls of Hardy Town remain inthe Glen Osmond Gorge alongside the newfreeway.

SOURCE HFZCHP 2005


The story of the ‘Battle of Glen Osmond’ atthe Mountain Hut in June 1856 is relativelywell known. It involved 120 Chineseimmigrants heading for the Victoriangoldfields. The Chinese engaged anotherChinese man, ‘Partoo’ as their treasurer, butat the Mountain Hut discovered that theirmoney had disappeared. A scuffle ensued andthe police from Adelaide were called. SeveralChinese were injured when the police drewtheir sabres. Once calm was restored andthe injured attended to, the immigrantscontinued on their way.

But there is another lesser known storyabout the Mountain Hut (State Library ofSouth Australia, PRG 1122 (RichmondCollection, Series 2, Box 14, SpearmanMountain Hut Folder)). It too involvesrobbery and occurred eight years earlier!

On 18 February 1848, Donald McLeanleft Adelaide at 5pm in his bullock draybound for his home in Strathalbyn. Whenat dusk he reached the Mountain Hut hestopped for a drink at the bar. After fifteenminutes he resumed his journey. Abouta mile further up the road he was sittingon the back of the dray when two armedmen came out of the bush, one with ahandkerchief over his face. This man put his

hand in McLean’s pocket and removed 70sovereigns (pounds). As he did so a puff ofwind lifted the handkerchief and McLeanrecognized his assailant as Spearman, landlordof the Mountain Hut where he had just takenrefreshment.

Spearman had taken over the licence ofthis popular hotel for travellers in 1846 and itwas quite a good business. He had long beensuspected of robbing travellers but there wasnever enough evidence to implicate him.

After being robbed, McLean turned hisdray back towards the Mountain Hut wherehe stabled his bullocks. Spearman was justsitting down and strangely did not appearsurprised to see McLean return. McLeanwalked back to Adelaide and at 1am reportedthe robbery to police. Sergeant Alford,Corporal Hall and Constable Dewson leftabout 3am for the Mountain Hut. Theyknocked at the door and after a delay wereadmitted. They questioned Spearman and hiswife, and searched the place, finding £55 forwhich Spearman could not account.Mrs Spearman had £22 wrapped in a pieceof calico.

Spearman was arrested and the followingday appeared in the Police Court where hewas committed for trial (Register 23 February

‘mountains’. During its heyday the hotel had enjoyed a reputation as a lively meeting place for

travellers and the fourteen owners included some popular socialites. From mid-1846 the licensee

was Robert Spearman, who supplemented his income by robbing travellers on the Great Eastern

Road, even his own patrons (see Spearman box). Surprisingly, the Mountain Hut traded for only

sixty years as a licensed hotel. In 1909 the last publican of the Mountain Hut, W. Forrest, had his

licence revoked in a reorganisation of hotel licences. The nearby mines had also closed and the

passing trade from timber cutters would also have disappeared.

The property was subsequently sold to A.E. Castle and continued to operate as the Mountain

Hut Temperance Hotel until the mid-1950s. By then motor vehicles had revolutionised road travel

and there was no longer the need to rest and water horses. Next it was divided into four flats, but its

fifteen rooms were reunited in 1965 when it was used as the office for adjacent boarding kennels

(Sunday Mail 13 March 1965).

The tale of Robert Spearman and the Mountain Hut

CONTINUED PAGE 160


Figure 9.6The Mountain Hut SOURCE Reproduced courtesy of the State Library of South Australia. SLSA B26736

1848; 26 February 1848). The case in theCriminal Court started on 15 March 1848and dragged on until 22 March becauseSpearman’s lawyers, two of the colony’sleading advocates, James Hurtle Fisher andRichard Davies Hanson, introduced manypoints of law and other delaying tactics. At10pm on the 22nd Judge Cooper summedup in Spearman’s favour, but at midnight thejury returned with a ‘guilty’ verdict (Register22 March 1848; 29 March 1848). A week later,Spearman was sentenced to fifteen yearstransportation to Van Diemen’s Land.

McLean spoke at the trial in such strangeEnglish that he appeared drunk; however itwas later admitted that he had a heavyHighland accent and was somewhateccentric! After the case McLean asked forthe return of his money, but His Honour saidthere was no proof that it was McLean’s, soit was forfeited to the Crown, and if McLeanwanted it returned he should petition theGovernment.

Spearman was transported on the JosephCripps, a schooner of 70 tons. His wife wasalso on board as a passenger. A few daysafter leaving on 4 May, the captain returnedto Adelaide requesting police protectionbecause the passengers were defiant. Afterits arrival in Hobart, the Joseph Cripps loaded

a big cargo of timber and returned toAdelaide on 6 June with the police escort.Mrs Spearman returned to Adelaideseparately a week later in the schoonerBride. Towards the end of 1848, Spearman,who had escaped custody soon after arrivalin Tasmania, was rumoured to have beenseen in Balhannah, and even near theMountain Hut, to recover a large sumof money he had hidden there (Register3 January 1849).

Thirty years later a Melbournenewspaper published details of Spearman’ssubsequent life, stating that all the peopleinvolved were now dead (Wallaroo TimesSupplement 14 February 1880, reprinted fromthe Melbourne Herald):

After being delivered to the HobartAuthorities, Spearman was being escortedto New Norfolk, when he escaped, due tonegligence or bribery of his guards. He madehis way to the coast, where a boat wasawaiting his arrival. He was taken to theJoseph Cripps which was loading a cargo oftimber. An open space, with plenty of foodand drink, had been left in the body of thecargo. Once in this hiding place, furthertimber was placed on top, and the vessel leftfor Port Adelaide, among the passengersbeing the two constables, never dreamingthat their erstwhile prisoner was below.


[FROM PAGE 158] Fortunately the current building retains much of its architectural integrity and is

one of the enduring nineteenth century landmarks along the Great Eastern Road. It was

constructed from local bluestone with brick quoins and walls up to two feet thick and was

originally constructed in two sections with no verandahs and with wooden shingles on the roof.

The main business of the hotel took place in a two-storey section, although the adjacent single

storey wing is also substantial. More recent additions have included the timber verandah with iron

lace, a railed balcony and a galvanised iron roof. The Mountain Hut is listed on the Burnside Local

Heritage Register and as Site 1317 on the National Trust Register (Rigano 2003).

Mountain Hut to the Eagle-on-the-HillA sequence of five separate alignments can be traced between Devil’s Elbow and the Eagle-on-the-

Hill. Above Devil’s Elbow, parts of the 1841 and 1855 alignments are clearly visible for 200 m in a

small valley climbing steeply to the south. An early example of macadam pavement and a drainage

channel excavated in rock on the western side of the road remain from the 1855 work. Above

this point the tracks disappear under a dense thicket of blackberries. They diverge some 200 m

further south. The 1841 track reappears and continues to climb steeply south a further 200 m,

crosses the 1855 alignment and then disappears under the embankment of the 1961 realignment.

The writer of this account claimed thatthe escape had been planned by a friend,

Harry Haythorne, a ship owner, who hadbeen paid £200. The writer says that he metSpearman in Hindley Street on the evening ofhis return. ‘I asked him what madness tookpossession of him in parading the mostpublic street in the town, and advised himto flee the town and the colony at once if hehad regard for his safety.’ Spearman repliedthat he ‘would not have returned here onlyfor some money he had planted, the momentI get that, I leave the colony forever.’

That night Spearman returned to theMountain Hut. While he was drinking an aleat the bar, two mounted police troopers,newly enrolled in the force, rode up to thedoor. Without dismounting, they asked thelandlord, John Henry, if he had seenSpearman. Spearman winked at Henry, whoknew him well and replied that he wouldnot be so stupid as to return to the placewhere he had been well known. Spearmanfinished his drink, lit his pipe and walked out,the troopers making way for him to walkbetween their horses. He retrieved hismoney, estimated as between £500 and£1,100, from underneath the roots of an

old gum tree, mounted a grey horse androde off towards Mount Barker.

He is supposed to have travelled toMelbourne disguised as a policeman. Laterhe sent a letter from Sydney to JudgeCooper thanking him for his trouble andhoping that His Honour would not behanged before they met again. There are twoaccounts of what happened to Spearmansubsequently; one says that he sailed to Indiaas a merchant under the name of King, theother that he went to the United States ofAmerica at the time of the gold rush andwas lynched at Sacramento for murder(Sunday Mail 13 March 1965:43).

Spearman was described as ‘alwaysa jolly companion, when any bit of fun orharmless mischief was on the boards, butrather irreverent in regard to morality ortheology.’

Donald McLean was reputed to havebeen the first person to have grown wheat inSouth Australia during 1838 on his propertyon section 50 at Hilton. He had plantedtwenty acres to seed brought from Tasmania,later reaping the crop. McLean later becameone of the pioneers of Strathalbyn. He diedin 1866.


The 1855 track emerges from the blackberries a further 200m south of the divergence, turns

sharply west for 200 m, then passes under the Overway Bridge in a wide sweeping U-bend,

necessary to allow bullock teams to turn, before heading east to rejoin the 1841 alignment under

the 1961 embankment. These two tracks then continue uphill, diverting first south then north

around Kavel’s Lookout to gain the crest of the ridge, then follow it in a generally easterly

direction continuing the climb up to Eagle-on-the-Hill. The route of each alignment is illustrated

in Figure 9.2.

The present Old Mt Barker Road between the Devil’s Elbow and the Eagle-on-the-Hill follows

the alignment of the 1868 deviation and the Overway Bridge was also originally built as part of this

realignment. At Kavel’s Lookout, and behind the small memorial to Kavel, part of the original

1920s alignment survives. The edge of this preserved section of road is marked by a raised concrete

gutter. It was bypassed by the 1961 reconstruction to the north and for nearly 40 years this was the

steepest part on the road where many trucks stalled.

Road segments along this section (between Devil’s Elbow and the Eagle-on-the-Hill)

demonstrate the evolution of the highway to reflect the changing needs of traffic. The easing of the

original 1841 gradient by the 1855 and subsequently the 1868 realignments to suit animal traction

remains visible. The 1920s and 1960s realignments show the changes necessitated by the faster and

more powerful motor vehicle. Also visible are the earthworks associated with each alignment. These

cut more deeply into the landscape with the passing of each decade and as the engineering

technology improved. At Kavel’s Lookout the modification of the original road in the 1920s and

later in 1961 for the faster and heavier motor traffic is obvious.

The Overway BridgeAlthough not appearing on the Burnside nor Mitcham Council’s Local Heritage Registers nor on the

State Heritage Register, the Overway Bridge is of considerable heritage significance (Arthur 2002).

The location of the Overway Bridge is shown on the GIS database. This is at the intersection of

the 1855 and 1868 road alignments on the boundary of the Mitcham and Burnside councils. The

bridge is still in use, although few motorists are aware they are passing over it.

Bridge construction was an early priority for the first European settlers in South Australia. John

Barton Hack built the first bridge in 1837 over the River Torrens. Many different types of bridges

have since been constructed in South Australia, such as arches of masonry and laminated timber

ribs, girder and truss bridges of wrought iron and steel, arch and girder bridges of concrete and a

few suspension bridges. The oldest known bridge still carrying traffic in South Australia is believed

to be a stone masonry arch at Inglewood, built in 1863 on the Adelaide to Gumeracha road. The

first iron bridge in South Australia outside of Adelaide was fabricated at Mount Barker and erected

over the River Bremer at Hartley on Chauncey’s Line of road. It still survives unused on private land.

The Overway Bridge was constructed with a timber deck carried on wrought iron girders resting

on masonry abutments. Its span was 20 feet. The contractor, Samuel Saunders, finished


Figure 9.7Stone work on the Overway Bridge 2002.

SOURCE D. Arthur

construction on 6 February 1868, which most

likely makes it the oldest iron bridge still in use

in the state (O’Connor 1985 and Stacy 1985).

The wingwalls are of a different stone and were

possibly added after the original construction as

a stabilising measure. In 1927 the Highways and

Local Government Department replaced the

timber decking with a reinforced concrete slab

and strengthened the bridge by inserting three

extra new girders of steel to reduce the girder

spacing. The whole road and bridge were given a

bituminous concrete surfacing. During the late

1950s-1961 the road was raised and given extra super-elevation. The wingwalls and abutments

were extended in concrete.

When the bridge was surveyed as part of the Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Project in 2002,

the mortar and masonry were fretting and there was evidence of rising salt damp well above two

metres from ground level. The salt damp was also being exacerbated by repairs carried out during

the 1950s where the cement mortar placed over the earlier lime mortar has forced the damp to rise

above the repair (Figure 9.7).

The Overway Bridge is a significant heritage structure and possibly the oldest iron road bridge

still in use in South Australia. The iron girders illustrate the evolution of the structural use of iron,

from early riveted wrought iron girders built up from simple rolled sections riveted together, to full

depth rolled steel I-beams. It also shows the change from the use of masonry substructures to the

more versatile concrete.

Eagle-on-the-Hill

The new Eagle-on-the Hill hotel stands at the junction of the Bullock Track and the former

South-East Freeway. The first Eagle-on-the Hill hotel was constructed in 1853. The hotel burned

in 1899 and was much rebuilt, if not completely rebuilt at that time. It survived until 1983 when it

was destroyed in the Ash Wednesday fires. No evidence of the earlier building remains. It continues

to be a significant landmark although it was bypassed by the new Adelaide to Crafers Freeway and

recently closed.

Look Out Point, Measday’s Hill and the Bridle Path

Two hundred metres east of the Eagle-on-the Hill hotel the six alignments from 1839 to 1960

combine at a once famous lookout over Waterfall Gully. This lookout is also known as Measday’s

Lookout. From here the road turned south east to climb the Bridle Path up to Crafers. In the

motoring era, this stretch of road came to be known as Measday’s Hill.

Look Out Point has offered a popular scenic view of Waterfall Gully and beyond since the


Figure 9.8View from Lookout Point looking towards the port across the Adelaide Plains (midwinter).

G.F Angas, 1844

From the Mountainous ranges to theeastward of Adelaide, may be obtained someof the grandest and most enchanting sceneryof which South Australia can boast.

The road leading to Mount Barker, afterleaving the plains, ascends the steep face ofone of the spurs of Mount Lofty, and at apoint where some settler has perched hiswooden cottage on the margin of thestringy-bark forest, several views ofsurpassing beauty present themselves.

One of these truly Australian scenes isrepresented in this plate; the eye wandersdown a succession of gullies formed by theintersection of abrupt hills on either side,which are scattered with gum trees, andcarpeted by verdant grass: at the bottom ofthe valley is a serpentine stream, that flows

In the artist’s words: the view from Mount Lofty

from a waterfall of about sixty feet, down aperpendicular wall of rock from whence thissketch is taken; beyond lie the Plains ofAdelaide in a state of cultivation, and to theright extend those of the Parra and Gawler,till they melt away in the extreme distance;nearly opposite the mouth of the gully, thewindings of the harbour are seen stretchedout as on a map, with the buildings of PortAdelaide just visible when the sun is shiningupon them; the view is bounded by the GulfSt. Vincent, with the opposite shore ofYorkes’ Peninsula clearly discernable on thehorizon.

The time for this sketch is in the monthof July (midwinter) when the rains haveclothed the hills and vallies of South Australiawith a garment of the most brilliant green.

Angas, G.F. South Australia Illustrated 1846


earliest days of colonisation, and perhaps for thousands of years prior to this. Its recorded history

is interwoven with that of the road that runs alongside it: ‘… as early as 1840 the public would

frequently approach the Falls… by climbing down tracks from Mt. Barker Road.’ (See City of

Burnside’s Local History Collection). Look Out Point was also popular with artists and an article in

the Illustrated Sydney News of 8 April 1875, while expounding the scenic virtues of Waterfall Gully,

also makes reference to an ‘artist’s standpoint [at the] top of the range on the Mt. Barker Rd.’ Artists

were attracted by the spectacular view over Adelaide looking along the length of Waterfall Gully

and by the view to the east, toward Mount Lofty. This latter view was captured by

Max Medwell and reproduced in the Illustrated Melbourne Post (Figure 9.1).

This was also the site where in 1844 George French Angas sketched Waterfall Gully (Figure 9.8).

In 1839 German women trekking from Hahndorf to the Adelaide markets passed by the

lookout along the route now known as the Pioneer Women’s Trail. Both events are commemorated

on a 1986 plaque on the north western side of the lookout. For these reasons the lookout provides

cultural continuity with the earliest days of the colony through countless contemporary reports and

images of the site and the view. The cultural significance of the site, based on historic and social

criteria, is acknowledged by the National Trust and the National Parks and Wildlife Service

monument at the site.

The 1839 track up Measday’s Hill with its steep ascent above Look Out Point is now used as a

fire access track by the Cleland Conservation Park, although occasional use without maintenance

has resulted in considerable erosion. The original route of the track is not discernible. Further up

Figure 9.9Survey Map 1853, showing land subdivisions along the Great Eastern Road.

SOURCE Lands Department SA


the ridge closer to Crafers, a section of the 1920s sealed alignment with raised concrete edges, still

known as the Bridle Path, is visible.

Due to the steep and heavily timbered aspect of this section of the Adelaide Hills, the area was

not properly surveyed and subdivided until 1856. Land development in this region had, however,

begun well before this date, coinciding with the commencement of construction of the Great

Eastern Road and the Government Road along Waterfall Gully in 1839. At this time, special

surveys could be commissioned from the Government enabling investors ‘to demand a survey

of some 16,000 acres from which they could choose a number of 80-acre sections’ (Hewitt (ed.)

et al. 2000:3).

Measday’s Hill was named after William Measday, ‘a gardener who leased land near Mount

Lofty from Arthur Hardy of Birksgate between 1855 and 1869’. At that time Hardy owned much of

what is now the Cleland Conservation Park (National Parks and Wildlife Service 1979).

William Measday arrived in South Australia in 1852 on the Steadfast and settled at Crafers in

the same year (Martin 2002:116). He is known to have leased land roughly a mile west of Crafers

two years later, which he eventually purchased. He then ‘[built] a home which incorporated a

general store and traded for some years at the edge of the very rough track called Mount Barker

Road’. Whilst most dwellings scattered throughout this part of the Mount Lofty Ranges were

simple timber slab cottages occupied by shepherds and gardeners, contemporary accounts describe

Measday’s family residence as ‘a solidly built two storey residence with stone walls sixty centimetres

thick’. Measday’s descendants lived in this for almost one hundred years until it was compulsorily

Figure 9.10Edited from W.H. Edmunds’ 1938 topographic map ‘Mount Lofty’ showing the location ofMeasday’s House and Leitch’s petrol station.

SOURCE State Library of South Australia


acquired and needlessly demolished in the 1960s to make way for the South Eastern Freeway which,

tragically, ended up bypassing it. The site did eventually disappear during work on the 2000

alignment. The house, called Dunrobin, is identified on the 1938 topographic map by W.H.

Edmunds (Figure 9.10; the house is illustrated in Martin 1996:209).

Measday (also spelt Measdy in the State Land Transaction Memorials) was certainly very active

in this region until the turn of the century. He leased sections 990 and 1160 in 1855 but surrendered

them the following year. He then leased section 954 in 1858. His name is also pencilled in on

sections 951 and 952. The South Australian Directory lists Measday only as ‘Store keeper, Crafers’ and

an address is not provided (Sands and McDougall 1899:639; 1900:659). The matter is complicated

by the fact that the old sections have reverted to Crown Land, making it even harder to trace their

provenance.

DISCUSSION

The history and archaeology of the Great Eastern Road provide a remarkable record of both

highway engineering, the history of road transport and insights into the lives of the people who

lived and worked along its route through the Hills Face Zone. Despite its new tunnels and sweeping

alignment, the succession of road routes continue to be a corridor of historic significance and a rare

cultural landscape. Despite this, media reports in 2005 highlighted the current sense of

abandonment along this road since the opening of the South-East Freeway. People now dump

rubbish at Look Out Point, although sightseeing tours still stop there. The Eagle-on-the Hill hotel

has closed its doors and faces an uncertain future. At Kavel’s Lookout an ornamental dray has

collapsed and rubbish has been dumped at the Kavel memorial. There is considerable potential to

incorporate elements of this history into existing and proposed walking trails and some early road

alignments provide access to many features referred to and could be linked to existing trails such as

the Yurrebilla Trail and trails within the Cleland Conservation Park.

NOTES

1 SA Government Gazette, 29 August 1867, p. 851, lettingCentral Roads Board contracts: No 1884. ‘For Makingabout 80 chains of the intended deviation between the6th and 7th mile posts on the South East Road’, and No1885. ‘For improving about 17 chains of road betweenthe 7th mile post and Fordhams’ (Eagle-on-the-Hill),and SA Government Gazette, 3 October 1867, p. 968,letting Central Roads Board Contract No 1900 ‘Forcompleting the intended deviation between the 6th and7th mile posts’.

2 Biographies of many of South Australia’s early engineerscan be found in D.A. Cumming and G. Moxham, They

Built South Australia; Engineers, Technicians,Manufacturers, Contractors and their Work, Adelaide,February 1986.

REFERENCES

Advertiser 12 February 1872, 17 January 1879, 20 May1926.

Arthur, D. 2002 The Overway Bridge. UndergraduateCultural Heritage Management report. Department ofArchaeology, Flinders University, South Australia.

Beale, E. 1979 Sturt, the chipped idol. Sydney UniversityPress, Sydney.


Channon, J. 2003 Hardy Town. Undergraduate CulturalHeritage Management report, Department ofArchaeology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SouthAustralia.

Cumming, F. 1982 ‘Claremont’ Glen Osmond. Self-published, Adelaide.

Cumming, D.A. and Moxham, G. 1986 They Built SouthAustralia; Engineers, Technicians, Manufacturers,Contractors and their Work. Self-published, Adelaide.

Flinders, M. 1814 A Voyage to Terra Australis. G. & W.Nicol, London. Facsimile edition, Libraries Board ofSouth Australia, 1966.

Fowler, A.J. 1959 The Great Eastern. Highway:2.

Gardner, J. and Shearman, P. 1998 Waite ConservationReserve, Walking Trail. Friends of the WaiteConservation Reserve, Adelaide.

Gill, T. 1905 The History and Topography of Glen Osmond.Vardon and Prichard, Adelaide.

Hewitt, M. (ed.), Cockburn, S., Linn R. and Stacy, W. 2000Highway through the Hills. Wakefield Press andTransport SA, Adelaide.

Martin, R. (ed.) 2002 Views from the Hills; Essays in Historyof the Adelaide Hills. Mount Lofty District HistoricalSociety, Stirling, South Australia.

Martin, R. 1996 Under Mount Lofty, a history of the StirlingDistrict in South Australia. Second ed. Stirling DistrictCouncil, Stirling, South Australia.

National Parks and Wildlife Service. 1979 ClelandConservation Park, Mount Lofty Ranges South Australia:Draft Management Plan. Department for theEnvironment, Adelaide.

O’Connor, C. 1985 Spanning Two Centuries: Historic Bridgesof Australia. University of Queensland, Queensland.

O’Connor, C. 1985. Register of Australian Historic Bridges.Institution of Engineers, Australia and AustralianHeritage Commission, Canberra.

Pike, D. (ed.) 1996 Australian Dictionary of Biography,Volume 1(reprint). Melbourne University Press,Melbourne.

Register 8 July 1837, 16 March 1844, 24 July 1847,17 November 1847, 20 November 1847, 23 February1948, 26 February 1848, 22 March 1848, 29 March1848, 3 January 1849, 30 April 1885.

Rigano, N. 2003 The Mountain Hut. UndergraduateCultural Heritage Management report, Department ofArchaeology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SouthAustralia.

Sands and McDougall 1899 The South Australian Directory.Sands and McDougall, Adelaide.

Smith, P.A., Piddock, S. and Pate, F.D. 2004 Historic Sitesand Landscapes. Brownhill Creek Catchment and WaiteReserve. Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Projectreports, volume I. Department of Archaeology,Flinders University. Kopi Books, Belair, SouthAustralia.

South Australian Parliamentary Papers 37, 1927.

Stacy, W. 1985 A History of Iron and Steel in SouthAustralian Bridge Building. Unpublished manuscript.

Sunday Mail 13 March 1965.

Wallaroo Times Supplement 14 February 1880.

ARCHIVES

State Records of South Australia

GRG 2/1 1841/165a

GRG 24/1 no. 22/1841, 29 May 1841

GRG 2/6/3 p.142-5.

GRG 24/6A (1848) 334

State Library of South Australia PRG 1122. RichmondCollection.

Documents

CHAPTER 9 The Great Eastern Road - Flinders University 9 The Great Eastern Road Bill Stacy T HE FORMER Great Eastern Road is now a major freeway linking Adelaide to southern and eastern