Place Names of South Australia - A

Anna Creek - Appila

Anna Creek
Anstey Hill
Ansteys Bald Hill
Antechamber Bay
Anzac Highway
Apatoonganie Hill
Apoinga
Appealinna Hill
Appila

Anna Creek

Nomenclature

It has been suggested that Anna Creek was discovered by P.E. Warburton. However, a Mortlock Library notation says:

Manning's Place Names of SA,

General Notes

The school between Marree and Oodnadatta opened in 1888 and closed in 1981.

It and the district are described in the Register,
26 April 1888, page 6a;
the pastoral run is described on
4 June 1891, page 6c:

The timber between Anna Creek and the Peake is better and more plentiful on the watercourses and the saltbush gives way to other growth. Camels were seen in plenty and it was a singular sight for our unaccustomed eyes to see long strings of camels pass at a leisurely pace, usually led by a fine athletic Afghan in his picturesque costume who responded with a courteous 'salaam aliekoum' to our cheery greeting, showing a magnificent set of teeth and flashing his keen, wild, black eyes as he strode past.

Anna Creek - Appila
A
Place Names

Anstey Hill

Nomenclature

On the lower north-east road. George Alexander Anstey (1814-1895) who resided at 'Highercombe' in the 1840s.

General Notes

A correspondent to the Register on 29 December 1851, page 2c proffers the following opinion of Mr Anstey:

He can beard Governors and abuse Advocate-Generals, but no man of less than five hundred a year must presume to have an opinion of his political acts, or utter a word out of place in his presence... If he could only be chiselled a little, and be brought into something like shape, he might perhaps pass muster as a sucking legislator in the new representative Council, but if he abandons himself to vagaries of this kind, he will be as great a political butt in South Australia as another of the same name is at this moment in England.
(Adelaide Times,
11 January 1851, page 1c, also see
13 January 1851, page 3a.)

Public meetings in respect of Anstey's Hill road are reported in the Express,
2 August 1872, page 3a,
10 September 1872, page 3d,
19 December 1874, page 2g.

Mr Anstey's obituary is in the Observer,
23 February 1895, page 29e and
details of his will on 1 and 29 June 1895, pages 14a and 43d.

A field naturalists excursion is reported in the Register,
29 September 1896, page 3g.

Anna Creek - Appila
A
Place Names

Ansteys Bald Hill

On Yorke Peninsula.
A sketch of it appears on page 143 of The Life and Adventures of Edward Snell (Angus & Robertson, 1988) - "Had a very extensive view from the top of [it] extending from Mount Rat to Corney [sic] Point and embracing the whole of Hardwick [sic] Bay - the country eastward was a complete sea of scrub..." A map on page 150 shows that "Anstey's Head Station" was close by.

Anna Creek - Appila
A
Place Names

Antechamber Bay

Nomenclature

On the eastern coast of Kangaroo Island 14 km south-east of Penneshsaw was discovered by Matthew Flinders on 6 April 1802. In his journal he said: ... We ran a little to leeward into a small bay... It is called Antechamber.

General Notes

Its school opened in 1893 and closed in 1914.

Anna Creek - Appila
A
Place Names

Anzac Highway

A History of the Road to Glenelg

Introduction

An early traveller said he took his first pedestrian trip to Adelaide in company with Major O'Halloran when there was a 'well-defined track made by the wheels of bullock drays' leading away from Holdfast Bay. Nathaniel Hailes trekked to Adelaide in 1839 and has left his memories for us of 'the narrow track [that] meandered along amid an apparently boundless maze of strongly scented shrubs and magnificent gum trees':

The first sign of civilisation to be seen was a number of rudimentary huts along the town's northern boundary. They were made of reeds from the nearby Torrens River and as I later discovered were collectively referred to as Buffalo Row...

This highway was top-dressed with seaweed, but it was not until 1852 that it was macadamised. In 1845 the first public conveyance ran between these two points in the form of a small spring cart drawn by a Timor pony and driven by a misanthrope named Thomas Haymes. He provided transport twice a week and conveyed passengers at the rate of one shilling each provided they were civil, or otherwise they might tramp it

In 1846 Mr J. Wiseman advertised that he was about to commence a carriage service to Glenelg in a spring cart and starting from the Adelaide Oyster Rooms in Hindley Street on 5 October. In 1853 competition came from John McDonald who established a service with vehicles named 'Rose', 'Shamrock' and 'Thistle'. Subsequent developments led to R. George & Company conducting the business.

In 1863, complaints of a 'highly improper' practice of rival omnibus drivers, Messrs McDonald and R. George, indulging in racing their vehicles to the imminent peril of their passengers, were made, while a few months later Mr R. Clisby and another unnamed traveller expressed concern as to the physical condition of some of the horses:

When I see a public conveyance 'licensed to carry passengers' I always think an omission is made in not adding the minimum number of horses that are to draw the load... Some of the conveyances on the Bay road are frequently underhorsed and ,even when the number is sufficient, the quality is so lamentably bad that passengers often have their feelings outraged by the barbarous treatment of the horses... [that] are quite unable to perform the work allotted to them and receive, in consequence, brutal floggings... It is really time the matter was looked into for the sake of humanity...

Coaching From the 1860s

Register

By 1866 the service was in a parlous state and a citizen raised the matter of insurance policies for aggrieved passengers, while another reported upon the alleged drunkenness of coach drivers:

A useful institution exists in England which ensures railway passengers against injuries by travelling. If the assured is killed his legal representatives receive a sum of money in a certain ratio to the money he has paid... Might not a similar association be established here... If established it should commence its operations on the Bay Road where just now a general sense of insecurity prevails. The upsetting of Bay coaches has lately got to be so frequent that a successful journey along the line is looked upon pretty much as a prosperous trip from Edinburgh to London used to be some hundred years ago...

If established the company should have its stations along the road where air cushions and feather beds should at all times be ready to ease the fall of the unfortunates in their descent to terra firma. Other appliances might be at hand for the security of life and limb. Ladders, for instance, constructed for fire escapes should be prepared for the desperadoes who cling to the roof after the first crash...

I am afraid that the eminent firm of conveyancers who monopolise the passenger traffic along the Bay road will object that my scheme militates against their interests. inasmuch as they have a vested right in the flotsam and jetsam along the line... [I] suggest that in order that they maintain their former prestige and secure patronage, they must take greater care of their axles and in other respects improve their arrangements. As regards passengers they must:

Handle them tenderly,
Take them with care,
Providing, not slenderly,
Space for each fare.

Shortly after leaving the Bay the driver who was under the influence of drink pushed his horses along at a reckless speed sometimes on one side of the road and then crossing to the other. There were three outside passengers in addition to six or seven inside, several of the latter being ladies who were frightened by the singular conduct of the driver who galloped the horses at top speed or pulled them up suddenly... The vehicle was run against Dr Everard's house where the passengers got out and walked to town...

By 1872 it was a notorious fact that, following a reduction in fares, a large number of coaches were overloaded. Evening after evening Adelaide sent out its oppressive heat, while dust soiled citizens by thousands thereby enticing them to enjoy a plunge in the sea or the milder luxuries of a stroll along the beach in company with a moderate sea breeze. To meet the extraordinary demands upon them coach proprietors were put to astonishing shifts.

Vehicles that had been pensioned off were refurbished and put back into service. Horses which had long since seen their best days were pressed once more into service and to crown all, every vehicle, old or new, plying for hire, was packed regularly with passengers far beyond its reputed capacity. Coaches licensed to carry 20, through some mysterious process of human compression, were made to carry 30 and so on in like proportion from the smallest wagonette to the heaviest leviathan of all.

Accordingly, it was all but impossible that this reckless system could continue without resulting in some serious casualty, for horses dropped down constantly or refused to proceed through sheer exhaustion. There were collisions and capsizes due partly to the incompetence of drivers, partly the sharpness of competition on the road; of wheels detached; of belts sprung; and of seats dislocated.

On being approached, the Mayor of Adelaide, replied that there was only one inspector and 'perhaps it had slipped his mind' which, to those concerned, was a most unsatisfactory reply; indeed:

If a poor fellow drives his dray into town without having his name painted on to it, in accordance with the Act, he is very soon brought before Mr Beddome and fined. But here are men who are day after day wearing out the strength and life of dumb animals for mere gain, and the officer whose duty is to put a stop to it lets the matter 'slip his notice.'... If the officer does not do his duty it would seem to be the time to look out for his successor.

Galvanised into action the authorities arranged for corporation officers to undertake surveillance of the Bay road and 'on Sunday last several cases of overloading were detected and information laid against the offenders.'

In his reminiscences David Shepard recalled that:

At that time trains to Glenelg were not even thought of then, the only way of getting to the city was by Cobb & Co buses. There came a man named Cook, who started running large wagonettes in opposition to Cobb & Co, not of course that he had any chance of running that company off. It was then that my mother thought it a good opportunity to take us to see the lions and monkeys - We could go in Cook's buses for it wouldn't be so crowded as the other.

At last the long looked for day came and dressed in our best we got into the bus - ah!, but how true is the saying 'Man proposes and God disposes'- it was not to be. The time was 8 am. My mother, two sisters and younger brother were inside. Mother sat near the door with her baby daughter in her arms. I sat outside next to the driver and there were two men sitting on my left. The driver of the bus was considered to be a careful driver, his name was Alexander; the driver of Cobb's bus was named Rooke and known as an expert driver. The bus he was driving then was a large new one - it had leather springs and was called a Yankey; it was a four horse bus.

Our bus had got ahead and was now standing in the middle of the Bay Road in front of Hitchcox's chemist shop. I saw several gentlemen standing waiting for the Yankey, among them were W.R. Wigley, R.B. Colley and T.P. Jones. I saw them run to the side of the road waving their hats and I wondered the cause, when suddenly there was an awful crash at the back of our bus which startled our horses, knocking our driver to the ground and taking the reins with him.

Away went our horses like mad up the road, then the offside wheel struck a culvert post and twisted them and the bus in another direction. On they went straight for Jetty Road - the reins still dragging on the ground. Then a man next to me leaned forward and, catching one rein, pulled the horses on to a heap of cracked metal where they stopped. I jumped down quickly to let my mother out, but lo! She was not there, neither was the baby. Those that were there did not seem to know where to go, or what to say, they seemed dazed, but who could wonder at them being so, after witnessing such a sight.

I ran back along the road to the chemist's shop and there I saw poor mother siting in a chair with her beautiful face smashed in and my father kneeling by her side holding her hands while Dr Cotter was fastening her wounds up with silver pins... The cause of the accident was the Yankey bus that capsized when turning the corner near the seawall and the four horses breaking away with the pole and smashing into our bus, striking my mother in the face and dragging her and the baby out onto the road under the feet of four horses; strange to say the baby didn't get a scratch.

By 1911 the Bay Road had been in a state of disrepair for many years and this prompted the Glenelg corporation to ask the responsible Minister to supply an estimate for the probable cost of repairing the main Adelaide Road from the Old Forest Inn to the Brighton Road and providing a bicycle track from South Terrace, Adelaide to Brighton Road. At the time the highway was under the jurisdiction of several local government bodies which caused confusion in the matter of repairs. Further, it was contended that the government should take sole control, thereby giving 'Glenelg and Adelaide the advantage of a decent roadway.'

Representations were made again in 1912 when the Mayor of Glenelg, Mr H.J. Pearce, said that it was the third occasion he had waited on the Minister with regard to the Bay Road and that on the first occasion the deputation got nothing, on the second it was given �250 and went on to say that:

The Bay Road was the first one made in the State and it had not been properly constructed in that there was no provision to carry storm waters. Traffic had increased greatly. In the last year 100 houses and a large hotel had been erected at Glenelg. It was estimated that �5,500 would be required to put the road in order and its present bad state was a detriment to the seaside resort.

The Hon. W. Rounsevell, who was involved with the deputation, said that if the road was taken as a standard of the State's civilisation it would occupy a poor position, indeed. He had known the road for 60 years and it was worse in 1912 than it had ever been. In reply the Minister said he appreciated the importance of the request, but 'had little money on hand at present' but undertook to look at the matter when the Estimates were prepared for the ensuing financial year.

For the next few years the notorious Glenelg highway provided ample opportunity for all the resourcefulness and patience of road makers. Macadamisation was tried over and over again, but always fell to pieces under heavy and continuous traffic.

The Anzac Highway

In 1917 the President of the Anzac Memorial Highway League approached the then Premier, Mr Crawford Vaughan, suggesting that the Bay Road should be renamed the Anzac Highway; that granite obelisks should be placed at intervals with the names of the battalions sent from South Australia with the battles in which they took part and the names of those who fell be inscribed upon them and that the government should purchase the land on either side of the road for resale after the road had been constructed.

Following this suggestion the services of the Town Planner was placed at the League's disposal, while at the same time attention was drawn to the bad state of the road, following which it was put into good order. Then a proposal was made to make the road a national highway and a plan was prepared by the Town Planner. The government was subsequently asked to put a proportion of the proposal into operation and the committee planted the outer tree planting scheme.

In 1918 a valuable suggestion was made by the Adelaide Cement Company, namely, to put down an experimental section of concrete covering one mile of the road. It was pointed out that there was a concrete right of way running from Waymouth Street to the rear of Colton, Palmer and Preston's premises, while Unley had two chains of concrete on the Unley road near the post office and on the side carrying heavy quarry traffic. In respect of the latter, although it had never been surface dressed, it stood up remarkably well after six months of severe work. This venture on the Bay Road was duly carried out in February 1919.

In 1921 the Anzac Memorial Highway League proposed to plant two rows of trees out from either side of the road from the Adelaide Park Lands to East Terrace, Glenelg. The league also intended to plant elm trees from Keswick to Morphettville and Norfolk Island pines from Morphettville to Glenelg. The necessary elm and white cedar trees were procured in 1920 and placed in nurseries.

But then a difficulty arose when the Unley and West Torrens councils, through their representatives on the league, expressed the desire that ash trees should be substituted for elms on account of the suckering habits of the latter which it was thought be a nuisance to private properties along the road. The league then procured from the Conservator of Forests the ash trees necessary to replace the elms. Working bees were organised in the various section and a public meeting was held on 16 June 1921 to complete arrangements for the Glenelg section.

Any one approaching Glenelg on Saturday, 25 June 1921 by way of the Bay Road, if unacquainted with the circumstances, might have concluded that an attack by a hostile force was about to be made on the premier seaside resort, and that the inhabitants, to quote a phrase familiar during the war, were 'digging themselves in', for more than 100 men armed with picks, shovels and crowbars were digging holes on each side of the road 'for dear life.' Several women encouraged them by their presence and dispensing refreshments, while the man in charge dashed around on a motor cycle. Following this phase of the work it was concluded that 'when the work is completed it will provide one of the finest thoroughfares in Australia and a lasting and most useful memorial.'

In February 1923 a deputation approached the government to make an up and down track and 'the centre part left for trams' which, it was believed must run to Glenelg in the course of a few years:

It was inconceivable that the Bay road could be left in its present state with a narrow strip of thoroughfare and mud and dust at the sides. The material ploughed up for the present road should be used as a base of one or two tracks at the side. To allow the Glenelg-Adelaide traffic to remain on one track would be nothing short of a crime. At the present time the road was rotten, and no one would mind it being torn up, but it would be a difficult thing to tear up a bitumen road.

The Mayor of Glenelg, Mr W. Patterson, said that Glenelg would erect a soldiers' memorial costing �15,000 within the next few months and the people of Glenelg thought it was not asking too much to request the government to provide a highway to the town worthy of the men who gave their lives in defence of the State. In reply the Minister said that the government had decided on a national memorial and that if the committee wished to proceed with the Anzac Highway project the plans should be simplified and he was not prepared to admit that a single track road to the Bay would not suffice for many years even if the traffic increased greatly. In due course the government built a 24-feet wide bituminous concrete road.

However, the original plans provided for a 30-feet wide track for slow moving vehicles both up and down and on either side an 18-feet track was planned for one-way fast traffic, separated from the middle road by two belts of ornamental gardens, lawns and shrubbery, each 17 feet wide. With these improvements the total width of the highway would have been 132 feet. Finally, the name 'Anzac Highway' was gazetted on 6 November 1924.

In later years successive governments were approached but a plea of lack of funds came invariably to the league which had, by that time, been instrumental in getting the various councils to rename the old Bay Road, the Anzac Highway. By the latter half of 1926 the Town Planner had drawn up plans for the highway and government surveyors had resurveyed its whole length, but no public appeal was made owing to the promise of the Soldiers' Welfare Recommendation Committee that nothing would be done to interfere with the raising of funds for the soldiers' graves.

However, Sir Sidney Kidman, with his usual public spirit, placed �250 at the disposal of the league and that enabled a start to be made with the planting of trees. Subsequently he donated a further sum of �250. The league merged into the Tree Planting Advisory Board, with the Attorney-General, Mr W.J. Denny, at its head and the government behind it. This board decided to plant Norfolk Island pines on either side for the whole of the length of the highway.

Mr Malcom Reid gave �300 in memory of his son, Captain Reginald Reid, but that was not enough to complete the work and an appeal was then made to the public of South Australia and subscribers, by donating two guineas, had the right to have a tree dedicated to the memory of any fallen soldier and a tablet placed on the guard. Those subscribers who had no fallen relatives had the right to nominate one to whom their tree could be dedicated.

Since it was formed the traffic that passes over it daily is surprising so much so that locomotion is at times absolutely dangerous and there is little doubt that it will be necessary to lay the bitumen from kerb to kerb. When this is done and the Norfolk Island pines have grown South Australia will possess a memorial to the gallant lads who lost their lives at Gallipoli, unsurpassed in the Commonwealth.

In June 1926 a deputation waited upon the Premier, Mr J. Gunn, and asked that the government should provide for one-way traffic on each side of the existing bituminous strip. One of the delegation. Alderman E. K. Lawton of Glenelg said that:

The town clerk had on one Sunday evening counted 1,300 vehicles pass a given point within an hour. Particularly since the advent of motor buses and especially the large vehicles used by the railway department, there had been great congestion on the thoroughfare.

By October 1928 many of the trees had succumbed to the elements and a concerned citizen remonstrated with the league:

Already scores of these trees are dead and some of the others are making a sickly struggle for existence. They never will thrive in the claypan between Plympton and Morphettville. I feel certain that those people who were primarily responsible for the choice of these pines, will provide a scene as unbeautiful as the remnants of the Port Road plantation. Nobody, surely, can claim that the existing highway - bordered as it is by quagmires or dust holes - is a testimony to civic culture; it is emblematic of a narrow outlook. In fact, it is untidy. Now is the time to take action and lay down a two-way track with, say, a belt of suitable deciduous trees in the centre... At present even if it resembles Anzac country, it does not conform to Anzac ideals.

Years of indecision and procrastination followed until 1935 when, heeding a hint from the Minister of Employment, Mr S. Jeffries, the committee urging a reconstruction of the highway prepared a modified plan and, during discussions, it was pointed out that for the year ended 30 June 1934 there had been 140 accidents on the highway in which three people were killed and 91 injured.

The project finally came towards fruition in 1937 when, in April, it was announced that 'work was going to begin soon' and a suggestion was made that the beauty of the highway would be enhanced if something were done to do away with loud, unsightly hoardings which marred the road. Plans were ratified in August 1937 with 22 per cent of the cost being borne by the various councils; it was completed in 1939 when 'the Anzac Highway brought a new status symbol to South Australia and today it is a visually exciting highway, contributing greatly to Adelaide's impression of space and grace.'

General Notes

A trotting match on the Bay Road is reported in the Register,
5 October 1866, page 2d,
Observer,
5 June 1869, page 4b:

Another race took place in June 1869 between two brother magnates of the moneyed world resident at Glenelg. The starting place was the Diagonal Road, the course being direct to the willow by the water trough at the corner of South and West Terraces, and back again - in all about ten miles. As they approached the winning post - 41 minutes after starting - the assembled company, consisting of one gentleman with an umbrella, cried out enthusiastically, 'Adelaide wins, but the bay is saving his distance.' It was heard that the winner was challenged by another bank manager and that a second trotting match was to be expected under the name of 'Adelaide against all Australasia'.

An article on the Half-Way Stables of the coaching days is in The News,
1 January 1930, page 9c.

"The Bay Road" is in the Register,
17 June 1911, page 14h,
"Our Oldest Highway" on
13 March 1912, page 9a.
Information on its reconstruction is in the Advertiser,
7 March 1918, page 6f.
A photograph of the laying of a concrete road is in The Critic,
19 February 1919, page 6; also see
Register,
16, 18, 23 and 27 June 1921, pages 6f, 8g, 5c and 4e,
Advertiser,
16 February 1923, page 11c.

The planting of memorial trees on the highway is reported in the Register,
15 September 1925, page 9d; also see
28 October 1925, page 7h,
10 February 1926, page 10f,
9 April 1926, page 8g,
Observer,
17 April 1926, page 17e,
Advertiser,
13 May 1926, page 14f,
Register,
9 October 1928, page 8h.
Also see South Australia - World War I - Memorials to the Fallen.

A proposal for additional tracks is traversed in the Register,
30 June 1926, page 11e; also see
The Mail,
14 September 1935, page 2b,
12 December 1936, page 8a.
Advertiser,
23 April 1937, page 29c,
12 August 1937, page 17h,
The News,
23 April 1937, page 4d,
5 August 1937, page 10d.

Information on and a photograph of the Forest Inn are in the Advertiser,
12 March 1937, page 27b.

"Lighting of Anzac Highway" is in the Advertiser,
23 November 1937, page 20b.
Also see Adelaide - Lighting the City and Homes.

Anna Creek - Appila
A
Place Names

Apatoonganie Hill

Nomenclature

Near Lake Gregory. The 'Apatoonganie Run' was established by T. Neaylon in 1877 (lease no. 2789). Aboriginal for 'stinking water'.

General Notes

A sketch of the property is in the Pictorial Australian in August 1884, page 124.

Anna Creek - Appila
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Place Names

Apoinga

Nomenclature

It lies about 25 km south of Burra and derives its name either from the Aboriginal word meaning 'place where there is water' or a corruption of 'Appinga', the name of the Aboriginal tribe which inhabited the locality. It was the site of the first smelter in the north, as Burra ore was first smelted there in January 1849 and by 1851, with four furnaces in constant use, the works supported a population of about 100. The smelter, village and hotel stood on section 1594 and was created by Charles Mounsey Penny, who registered the land grant of the section in January 1849. Other historians have credited C. Septimus Penney (sic) as erecting the smelter, but findings in the General Registry Office do not support this contention. In 1851 a roving reporter said:

The smelting furnaces were under a shingle roof; that for refining was contained in a building of fine freestone. The chimney was upon the long-draft principle. A Post Office is close by [Charles Mounsey Penny was the first postmaster at Apoinga in the early 1850s when he was described as the manager of the local smelting works] and the village already contains about thirty houses, and a population of more than one hundred persons, all we suppose, dependent on the works. There is one public house (a stone building, but unfinished), a shoemaker, a blacksmith, and a good store.

General Notes

Also see South Australia - Mining - Copper.

Information on the smelter is in the Observer,
13 January 1849, page 1c.

The formation of a police station is reported in the Adelaide Times,
25 September 1850, page 3d:

In September 1850 a police station was established when Mr. Penney provided a house for accommodation until a proper station-house was established. On 28 September, Corporal Battams, with two police constables, left Adelaide to take charge. A party of police had long been wanted in that neighbourhood 'which has now become thickly populated and where every description of assaults, robberies, and petty thefts have been carried out with impunity.'

Also see South Australia - Police.

The village is described in the Register,
27 March 1856, page 2f-h and
7 November 1873, page 7c:

The only evidence of a township is a deserted public house where, in the palmy days of the Burra mine, a brisk trade was carried out, but at present it looks anything but refreshing to the weary traveller

Its school opened in 1864 and closed in 1937;
see Observer, 21 April 1877, page 7e.

Anna Creek - Appila
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Place Names

Appealinna Hill

Nomenclature

Near Wilpena. The 'Appealinna Run' (lease no. 1784) was established by J.W. Gleeson, W.L. Beare and A. King in 1868. It was formerly lease no. 466 taken up by J. Wills in 1856 'at Pasmore'. The name was also adopted for a copper mine about 65 km NNE of Hawker; abandoned in 1860-61 it reopened in 1896.

General Notes

Also see South Australia - Mining - Copper.

A history of the copper mine is in the Register, 10 July 1897, page 7h:

The property was at that time held by a syndicate of six persons. About 1860 it was abandoned in consequence of litigation with the then pastoral lessee of the run, and the great drought of 1863-66 prevented reoccupation. It was repegged and, in 1887, Mr. Pyman of Hawker offered to work it on tribute, but could not come to terms with the lessee of the mine. About this time some of the old employees confirmed the wonderful stories told of pockets of native copper taken out of a footwall as hard as brass and smooth as a house; of the fairy like beauty of the mine when in full work and how 'she sparkled like a jeweler's shop' in the candle light whenever the pick struck.

Anna Creek - Appila
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Place Names

Appila

Nomenclature

An Aboriginal word meaning 'hunting ground'. The town 24 km north-east of Laura was laid out as 'Yarrowie' in 1872 and first offered for sale on 4 June 1874, the present name being adopted and proclaimed on 20 February 1941.

General Notes

The district is described in the Observer,
12 October 1872, page 13.

A kangaroo hunt is reported in the Observer,
1 August 1874, page 9g.
Also see South Australia - Flora and Fauna - Marsupials and Mammals.

Its school was opened in 1876 as "Yarrowie", becoming "Appila-Yarrowie" about 1881 and Appila in 1919.
Appila North School opened in 1924 and became "Yandiah" in 1924; it closed in 1968.
Appila West School opened in 1879 and closed in 1893.
A photograph of students is in the Chronicle,
15 June 1933, page 32.

Information on its water supply is in the Advertiser,
18 January 1877, page 6c.
Information on a government well is in the Register,
7 February 1884, page 5b.
Also see South Australia - Communications - Telephones.

A local show is reported in the Observer,
5 October 1878, page 6a,
Register,
7 October 1882 (supp.), page 2a (See South Australia - Agricultural, Floricultural and Horticultural Shows) and
a Catholic picnic on
26 May 1883, page 7b.

The Observer of 12 October 1878, page 14c describes the laying of the foundation stone of the Primitive Methodist Church.

Its inaugural athletics meeting is reported in the Register,
9 January 1879 (supp.), page 1b; also see
4 January 1883, page 6d,
Observer,
8 January 1881, page 78e,
Chronicle,
23 January 1886, page 21e,
9 January 1904, page 35d.
Also see South Australia - Sport - Athletics and Gymnastics.

"Disorder at Appila-Yarrowie" is in the Chronicle,
7 February 1880, page 11e:

The proceedings in this township at all hours of the night have been something alarming. The owner of the wine shop seems particularly to suffer. The larrikins amuse themselves by hurling large stones or anything else movable on the iron roof and sides of the house, with an accompaniment of hooting and yelling which puts a stop to anything in the shape of sleep in the vicinity. Sundays are no exception to the rule and we sometimes wonder why Nock's Act was ever passed without being enforced.

The town is described in the Register,
19 March 1903, page 3h,
Observer,
4 April 1903, page 11.

"Early Farming on the Appila Plain" is in the Register,
21 March 1910, page 10e.
"The Hundred of Appila - Some Casual Notes" is in the Observer,
23 May 1914, page 13b.

Photographs of and information on two early settlers, Messrs Martin and Jeschke, are in the Observer,
23 May 1903, page 24b.
Mr Martin's reminiscences are in the Observer,
20 March 1920, page 45e.

The Advertiser of 22 August 1904, page 9a says:

Information on and photographs of the opening of the Lutheran parsonage at Pine Creek are in the Chronicle,
20 July 1907, page 30,
5 October 1907, page 30,
of dam cleaning on
12 April 1934, page 36,
of a football team on
17 October 1935, page 36.

The reminiscences of Paul Martin are in the Register,
9 March 1920, page 7c and
an obituary in the Observer,
25 December 1930, page 26a.

Appila - Obituaries

An obituary of C.W.H. Hirsch is in the Register, 29 July 1902, page 6d,
of Peter Zwar on 4 July 1917, page 6f.

An obituary of J.S. Jaeschke is in the Observer, 5 December 1908, page 40c,
of J.C. Pech on 4 July 1914, page 39a,
of Carl Wurst on 19 September 1914, page 23a,
of Mrs Sophia M. Seaman on 3 November 1917, page 20a,
of J. Breuer on 19 January 1918, page 11d,
of J.H. Bottrall on 7 September 1918, page 18a,
of W.H. Wait on 17 December 1927, page 49b.

Anna Creek - Appila
A