Place Names of South Australia - B
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
- Brown, Mount
- Brownhill Creek
- Brownlow
- Browns Lake
- Browns Well
- Bruce
- Bruce Well
- Bruce, Mount
- Brucefield
- Brunskill Town
- Bryan Creek
Brown, Mount
Nomenclature
In the Hundred of Woolundunga. Named by Matthew Flinders on 9 March 1802 after the Investigator's botanist, Robert Brown.
General Notes
The station is described in the Chronicle,
29 June 1878, page 5a.
Its school opened in 1903 and closed in 1954.
"Picturesque Mount Brown" is in The Mail, 23 May 1931, page 12f:
-
In respect of the cairn on the summit we do not get any light on our problem from Flinders. Some local people say that shepherds may have built it. They cannot tell us, however, exactly who did the building, nor even when it was done. Even if they were shepherds one can hardly imagine them as holding some sort of corroboree on the topmost height of the landscape and observing the very strange ritual of hurling 20 pound stones about until by some strange miracle they formed a cairn. Through the courtesy of DR Fenner, of the Department of Lands, we gained the information that the cairn was not erected by Robert Brown but by a man equally famous in South Australian history, namely, G.W. Goyder. The cairn was erected in December 1859.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Brownhill Creek
Nomenclature
Near Mitcham; a descriptive name applied by Col. William Light. The Aborigines knew it as willawilla (or wirrabilla) which refers to 'waterholes'. The immediate area was used as a sheep run by the South Australian Company in the early days of settlement.
General Notes
A baptism is reported in the Register,
17 January 1856, page 2g,
Observer,
19 January 1856, page 3c:
-
The religious ceremony of baptism by immersion was performed in the presence of more than 250 persons. Mr. Prince and Mr. Kither assisted in the baptismal rites and Mr. Playford subsequently addressed the assembly on the origin, design and Divine sanction of baptism.
Also see South Australia - Religion - Miscellany - Miscellaneous.
The opening service of the Brownhill Creek Junction Chapel is reported in the Register,
26 November 1874.
A trial of explosives is reported in the Advertiser,
17 December 1881, page 2a (supp.).
George Prince's orangery is described in the Register,
26 July 1875, page 6b.
The district and orchards are described in the Register,
11 and 25 May 1893, pages 6e and 7a.
"Brownhill Creek Vegetables" is in the Observer,
19 September 1914, page 14b.
Also see South Australia - Industries - Rural, Primary and Secondary - Fruit and Vegetables.
A proposed reservoir is discussed in the Register,
24 August 1875, page 6e,
Observer,
28 August 1875, page 10d:
-
Although the water mains connected with the existing water works extended to Glen Osmond Road, supplying Parkside, Fullarton, Unley and Goodwood, the pressure to these places was feeble and it would be totally insufficient in connection with an extension of mains to Mitcham. A provision should be made for constructing a dam on the creek capable of storing 25 to 30 million gallons of water from which Mitcham, Springbank, Edwardstown, St Mary's, Brighton and intermediate townships might be supplied with water... The deputation referred to the report of Colonel Freeling, G.E. Hamilton and W. Hanson who in 1856 made an examination of the creek and stated:
-
Very minute surveys and sections were made to ascertain the means of storage in the Brownhill creek, but after the most careful investigation it was found that at the best point which could be selected for a damhead 64 feet high would only form a reservoir capable of containing about 49 million gallons...
14 January 1888, page 2e.
The overflow of the creek is discussed in the Register,
5 February 1884, page 2g (supp.),
18 April 1889, page 5g,
Express,
10 March 1897, page 2c,
pollution on
9 and 16 February 1898, pages 2e and 4b.
Proposed swimming baths are discussed in the Register,
31 January 1894, page 5b.
"A Creek Fatality" is in the Observer,
17 June 1905, page 34d.
"Pioneers and Picnics" is in the Advertiser,
28 November 1931, page 9c.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Brownlow
Nomenclature
A town on Kangaroo Island in the Hundred of Menzies 3 km south-west of Kingscote, named by Governor Jervois and proclaimed on 1 June 1882.
Field Marshal Sir Charles Henry Brownlow. Governor Jervois' daughter married Rev. W.A. Purey-Cust, whose cousin was Earl Brownlow.
General Notes
The town on Kangaroo Island is described in the Chronicle,
12 May 1883, page 16e,
Advertiser,
1 March 1884, page 6g:
-
At present it has only one plucky tradesman to boast of. The streets are full of thick, low scrub, principally prickly bush, and persons going to reside in it had better provide themselves with bearskin coverings from head to foot or in crossing the street they will lose flesh, besides coming out tattered and torn. One redeeming quality is that splendid water can be obtained by sinking about ten feet. A hotel is to go up shortly. What is wanted by the settlers is a blacksmith, carpenter, saddler, mason and butcher. Teams are badly wanted for carting, but feed is scarce... There is a private township being surveyed called Queenscliff. It can boast of stone in abundance, but no good water...
The school opened in 1910 and closed in 1946;
Brownlow Centre School operated from 1923 until 1935.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Browns Lake
At Mount Gambier. The Register of 20 March 1873, page 2c says:
-
The crater on the south-east side of the Mount is the only one dry and is known as the Devil's Punchbowl. Separated from it by a saddle is a second crater in whose bosom - or rather I should say bottom - the Valley Lake smiles upon you from a depth of two or three hundred feet. Properly speaking there are two lakes in this crater, a narrow strip of land dividing from the main lake a sheet of water about half a mile in circumference, now known as Mrs McDonald's Lake, from the
circumstance of a lady of that name having committed the 'happy dispatch' therein.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Browns Well
Nomenclature
South of Meribah in the Hundred of McGorrery. In January 1876 a pastoral lease was issued to James Angus Johnson, John O. Carlisle and John Whyte which was part of a bigger property called 'Thurk'. The well was sunk in 1882 under the supervision of Mr J. Brown, an employee of Bookpurnong Station.
General Notes
Photographs of railway survey camps are in the Chronicle,
19 February 1910, page 32; also see
2 March 1912, page 29,
Observer,
2 March 1912, page 30.
Also see South Australia - Transport - Railways - Miscellany.
A Show is reported in the Advertiser, 17 October 1928, page 21:
-
The fifth annual show of the Brown's Well A.H. and F. Society was held on the Paruna showgrounds on 13 October 1928. A new set of fowl coops had been erected and the sheep pens considerably enlarged. Ideal weather prevailed and a record show was the result. The Loxton Brass Band played selections...
Also see South Australia - Agricultural, Floricultural & Horticultural Shows.
The Area School opened in 1966.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Bruce
Nomenclature
A town 23 km south-east of Quorn in the Hundred of Willochra, proclaimed on 19 May 1881 and named by Governor Jervois who, almost without exception, chose the names of family and friends when exercising his nomenclatoral authority. The Hon. Robert Bruce was at one time a colonel in the Grenadier Guards and served as military secretary to the Governor-General of Canada. His sister, Lady Augusta Stanley, was an intimate friend of Queen Victoria.
General Notes
A sale of allotments is reported in the Chronicle,
18 June 1881, page 12d,
24 September 1881, page 8b.
The town is described in the Register,
13 August 1881, page 5d,
Chronicle,
10 June 1882, page 22c.
The Bruce School opened in 1882 and closed in 1962.
A sports meeting is reported in the Chronicle,
8 January 1887, page 15d.
Volunteer defence movements in the town and district are discussed in the Register,
21, 25, 27 and 28 September 1888, pages 6d, 5b-d-7a, 4e and 7f.
Also see South Australia - Defence of the Colony.
A horse race meeting is reported in the Chronicle,
26 March 1892, page 14g,
25 March 1899, page 29c ( see South Australia - Sport - Horse Racing) and
a coursing meeting on
30 June 1894, page 21g
Observer,
1 and 15 June 1895, pages 21b and 19d.
Also see South Australia - Sport - Coursing.
A drought is discussed in the Observer, 31 October 1896, page 29a:
-
There is no doubt that dairying has received a severe blow. In the neighbourhood several farmers gave up wheat growing and went in for dairying and were fairly started. The were making as much as £5 and £6 per week, but the drought has killed all their cattle.
Also see South Australia - Natural Disasters - Droughts.
A photograph of an artesian bore on Mr Ratke's property is in the
Chronicle,
10 May 1913, page 31.
Also see South Australia - Water Conservation.
The laying of the foundation stone of a Memorial Hall is reported in the
Advertiser,
9 September 1922, page 15g.
Also see South Australia World War I - Memorials to the Fallen.
Bruce - Obituaries
An obituary of T.O. Patrick, station-master, is in the Observer,
26 June 1909, page 40a,
of Edward Ellery on 12 June 1926, page 39b,
of William Rodgers on 26 March 1927, page 35d.
An obituary of Miss Mary Irvine is in the Register,
6 November 1924, page 8g.
An obituary of Mrs Teresa Townsend is in the Register,
29 March 1927, page 10g.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Bruce Well
Nomenclature
Near Lake Torrens. Robert Bruce, who took up the Wallerberdina run in May 1860. Born in 1835, he arrived in the Gypsy in 1853 and died at North Adelaide on 4 November 1908. Another well of the same name lies north-west of Port Augusta; Robert Bruce and partners took up the 'Coondambo Run' north of Lake Gairdner in 1876 (lease no. 2613).
General Notes
A poem by Robert Bruce commemorating John McDouall Stuart is in the Observer of 22 May 1897 and it is:
An eloquent testimony to he memory of John McDouall Stuart as an explorer, that, martinet that he was, his men all speak of his bushcraft in the warmest terms of praise and say he was a born leader. I have never heard one of them refer to him except in the most loyal terms and the man, whatever his failings might have been in town, must have had the attributes of a leader of men to so impress his followers, nearly all of them smart, determined, superior characters - the first stanza of the poem reads:
-
O! careless dwellers in the southern clime,
Come! Answer me! Shall heroes' hard earned fame
Soon pass away upon the wings of time?
And 'Stuart', sound an all no meaning name!
Say! shall the man who, in a desert land,
Vast trackless wilds, through weary lengths explored;
Then safe brought back his brave devoted band,
Now find his claim to gratitude ignored?
His reminiscences are in the Observer on
14 June 1902, page 36;
Register,
19 November 1903, page 5d;
an obituary is in the Register,
6 November 1908, page 5a.
"Robert Bruce of Coondambo" is in the Register,
15 September 1917, page 5e.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Bruce, Mount
This school in the South-East opened in 1954 and closed in 1962.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Brucefield
Nomenclature
A post office on section 58, Hundred of Tickera 5 km west of Alford. Henry Bruce, an early settler, who arrived in the Lord Raglan in 1854. His wife, Letitia C. Bruce, was the local postmistress from 1884 until 1919.
General Notes
The death of Henry Bruce is reported in the Chronicle,
21 September 1895, page 13d.
An obituary of Mrs L.C. Bruce is in the Observer,
28 June 1924, page 29c:
- Mr. Henry Bruce died at Wallaroo in 1895. Arriving in the colony as a boy he was educated at the Norwood Collegiate Schools and at age 32 years went farming in the Hundred of Tickera and was an authority on the subject...
His wife, Letitia Carol Bruce, died in 1924. She was born at Redruth in Cornwall in 1842 and arrived in the colony in 1859. She became a governess at Woodside and went to Wallaroo in the 1860s where she met and married Henry Bruce in 1869. Nine years later he took up land between Alford and Tickera at what subsequently became known as Brucefield, Mr. Bruce being the first settler. Upon her husband's death she carried on the farm with the help of her sons. With the advent of superphosphate an era of prosperity came along and the settlers were rewarded for their tenacity and courage in sticking to the land. Mrs Bruce, in earlier times, became the postmistress at Brucefield and held that position for 34 years...
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Brunskill Town
Nomenclature
A village laid out by George Brunskill on section 1672, Hundred of Nuriootpa in 1857; now included in Greenock. See GRO Deposit 284/1858. In 1860 and 1861 Isabella and Catherine Brunskill were teachers at Greenock School.
General Notes
An obituary of Mrs George Brunskill is in the Register,
5 April 1900, page 5b,
Observer, 14 April 1900, page 22d.
Brown, Mount - Bryan Creek
B
Place Names
Bryan Creek
Nomenclature
At the bend of the River Murray near Morgan was, until 1978, known as 'Bryant Creek'. Henry Bryan, a member of Governor Gawler's exploration party, who was lost in the bush on 15 December 1839.
An early plan held in the Department of Lands (Draw 27, Plan 2), which pre-dates 1860, shows a creek rising near Mount Bryant (sic) and named Mount Bryant Creek; this feature does not appear on modern-day maps. An examination of Department of Lands docket no. 455/1953 suggests that the Department erred in 1978 when Bryant Creek near Morgan, which rises on section 139 Hundred of Eba, was renamed Bryan Creek. Information on a mine at Mount Bryant is in the Chronicle, 31 March 1866, page 2g.
We are indebted to Mr K.J. Mack of Loxton for raising this issue and informing us of Mr August Fettke's book titled My Life, My Home, My Story, where at page 2 he says Bryant Creek (near Morgan) was named after a horse-tailer who hanged himself from a box tree before the land was cut up for closer settlement. The tree in question stood to the west of the "old golf clubhouse, where the little creek crosses under the north road some distance toward Morgan from the Burra Creek bridge."
General Notes
The name predates 1880 because the Register of 14 November 1879, page 5c says:
-
During a squall on Monday a very serious accident took place on the sheet of water known as Bryant's Creek Lagoon near the North-West Bend Station...
(Also see Observer, 6 February 1886, page 11b.)
