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Para Para Estate Gawler History extract from
Conservation
Management Plan PARA
PARA : HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Walter Duffield December 1839, the colony of South Australia was barely three years old, and the William Barras lay anchored off Holdfast Bay. A 23-year-old passenger, Walter Duffield from Essex in England, was lowered into a small boat, sitting, perhaps lying in a blanket suspended from a swaying spar. With the long sea voyage behind him and just £60 to his name, Duffield was about to embark on another journey, one that was to bring him wealth, influence and respect. Para Para, the mansion he built at Gawler, is a physical reminder of that journey. The first leg of his journey saw Duffield behind a bullock team, carting wood from the Mount Lofty Ranges down to the township of Adelaide. He then settled at Echunga, a tenant of Jacob Hagen, a fellow passenger on the William Barras albeit one with considerable capital who had established himself as a woolgrower, shipping agent and money-lender. Duffield however was not content to remain a tenant farmer. In 1847 he struck out on his own and moved to Gawler where, with the help of his sister in England, he purchased the Victoria steam flour mill. He lived in a small red brick house in Finniss Street. In 1849 he enlarged the flour mill. Two years later the Victorian goldrush almost emptied the town of Gawler of its male population, but proved a boon to Duffield. The price of flour rose from £12 to £37 per ton. Duffield was on his way to prosperity. He enlarged the mill once more in 1853. Although it was subsequently destroyed by fire on three occasions, in 1867, 1868 and 1876, twice by arsonists and once accidentally, Duffield rebuilt it each time with better machinery, larger stores and cottages for his workers. He purchased a second mill in Gawler, the Union mill, in 1863. He also established mills at Snowtown, Wallaroo and Port Pirie. Duffield diversified his expanding empire. In the early 1850s he leased the Princess Royal pastoral run with some 5000 sheep. He then bought the famous Koonoona Station near Burra where by 1863 he was shearing over 40,000 merino sheep. He moved further afield purchasing Outalpa Station in the north-east of the colony and Weinteriga Station on the River Darling in New South Wales. He had over a thousand square miles of pastoral leases spread across the country. With tireless energy he visited them all regularly, on horseback, by buggy and by coach. In all his business activities Duffield was known as a man of honour and integrity. In 1859 he was appointed a local director of the Bank of South Australia, a position he held until 1873 when he accepted a position on its Adelaide board. He was also a long serving director of the Adelaide Marine and Fire Insurance Co. Duffield played an important role in the public life of his community. He was a founding member of his local Congregational Church and served as president of the local branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society for twenty-six years. He was a strong supporter of local causes. He was chairman of the Mudla Wirra District Council and hosted the first meetings of the Barossa West District Council in his offices. In 1857 he was elected to represent the district of Barossa in the colony?s first parliament. He was returned in the three following elections, representing the district continuously until 1868 when he lost election. The electors had obviously not been swayed by his action the previous year when he returned his gold rail pass, arguing that members of parliament should, like all others, pay for their own travel. He was re-elected in 1870. Duffield held the office of Treasurer in two successive governments. Generally considered a liberal conservative, his parliamentary career has been described as ?useful, if not spectacular?, his major claim to fame being the introduction of the 1867 Dog Act requiring the registration of all dogs. After a number of years representing his local district, Duffield was elected to the Legislative Council in 1873. Five years later, in failing health, he was granted leave of absence. He returned to the Council in the following session but found himself unable to continue. ?His health so completely broke down and his intellect became so impaired that he had to retire absolutely from business and public life.? He resigned from parliament in 1880, disposed of his pastoral leases and withdrew from all public activities. On 5 November 1882, aged only 66, he died at Para Para. Duffield?s former mill employees led the funeral procession as it made its way past the closed shops and half-mast flags of Gawler to Willaston cemetery. Walter Duffield was survived by his wife Phoebe, whom he had married in Adelaide on 7 March 1842, his son David Walter Duffield, born 1851, and five daughters, Sarah, born 1842, Mary, born 1844, Louisa, Emily, born 1848, and Ellen. His estate was valued at £117,000, a far cry from the £60 with which he had started his 43-year journey in South Australia.
MacGeorge had arrived in South Australia in 1854 and quickly established a reputation as an architect. Much of his work has now disappeared. He was responsible for the Savings Bank of South Australia building in King William Street, later used by the State Tourist Bureau, the Congregational Church at Port Adelaide and ?a house for H. Dundas Murray at Rosedale (now Holland House) which is a kind of miniature of the ?castles? then being built for wealthy manufacturers in Britain?. The other claimant for the title as architect of Para Para is Daniel Garlick, a claim supported by the National Trust. Garlick had arrived in the colony in 1837 as a 19-year-old youth and became one of the its most notable architects. He set up in business with his father as a successful builder and timber merchant. Later the family moved to Munno Para East and began farming on a 450 acre property, after which Daniel set up in practice as an architect in Gawler. Exactly when this occurred is unclear, sources citing dates ranging from 1851 to about 1860. Similarly these sources refer to him shifting his practice to Adelaide as early as 1855 or as late as 1864. Garlick is said to have been responsible for the design of some 30 to 40 churches, as well as the same number of banks in South Australia. He was responsible for the original buildings of Prince Alfred College as well as the south wing of the Adelaide Town Hall. Both claimants would be worthy architects of Walter Duffield?s mansion at Para Para. Both were prominent architects of the time whose work was likely to have been known to Duffield. Garlick?s claim may be considered the stronger simply because of his closer association with Gawler.
It has been suggested that the 1873 painting of Para Para was the work of the Scottish firm Lyon and Cottier, more particularly their employee Charles Gow. Gow is also considered responsible for the painting of Ayers House in Adelaide. Although there is no documentary evidence to prove this, there is a weight of circumstantial evidence clearly set out in Taylor's history of Ayers House. The work is "world-class", of such high quality that it could only have been done by "a firm of well-practised, trained and highly talented decorative artists." Several of the motifs used in Ayers House are known to have been designed by the firm and the similarities between the schemes in Ayers House and Para Para - the motifs, colours, line work on the doors and the geometric line work elsewhere - suggest they are the work of the same person. The firm established business in Sydney in 1873 with Lyon and two assistants, Charles Gow and Andrew Wells, coming from Scotland. It is likely that Gow completed the work at Para Para whilst in Adelaide and before he began work on Ayers House. It is also possible that Gow was responsible for painting Sir Edwin Smith's house, The Acacias, now Loreto Convent. These three interiors rate very highly among the few existing painted decorative interiors of grand South Australian buildings, public or private.
The Duke of Edinburgh twice visited Para Para. In 1867 he made an unscheduled stop there for refreshments when visiting Kapunda and Gawler. Two years later he accepted a more formal invitation to lunch. But Para Para was not just a home, it was a working farm. Duffield was a successful farmer and an active competitor in local agricultural shows. At the inaugural Royal Adelaide Show he won first prize for two bushels of his wheat. The sample was later exhibited in London. At the first Gawler Show he won prizes for his hams, grapes, apples, plums, peaches and sweet melons.
Following the death of Walter Duffield, Para Para remained in the Duffield family until 1924. In his will dated 18 September 1879, Walter Duffield named five executors, two of whom later renounced probate. The three remaining executors, his son David Walter Duffield, Frank Makin and Thomas Bowen, took control of Duffield?s estate, including Para Para. The major beneficiaries were to be Walter?s grandchildren. In fact his wife Phoebe paid ten shillings to the executors for the right to occupy the house during her widowhood. Their son David paid a further ten shillings for the right to occupy the house, subject to his mother?s prior right, for his lifetime. He paid yet another ten shillings for the right to occupy a further 188 acres of the property during his lifetime. Phoebe Duffield retained her right to occupy the house until her death on 15 May 1890. David then had the right to occupy the house as well as the land for the remainder of his life. It would appear, however, that David might not have been as successful a businessman as his father. In 1889 his interest in the land, together with other land he owned in Adelaide, was transferred to the Bank of South Australia for £2,470 described as being portion of the money owed by him to the bank. The day before his mother?s death, David?s interest in the house was put into the hands of a trustee. By 1909, however, he had regained his interests. David Duffield died on 24 January 1922. His death extinguished that interest in the house and land. During the period between Phoebe?s and David?s deaths, Para Para was occupied by a number of tenants. There was Mr. Lewis who taught piano and the Misses Nott who ran a school for young ladies. But Para Para was no longer the estate it once was. The vineyards were gone, as were the orange groves and the ?botanical? gardens.
Henry Woodcock did not have a chance to enjoy, or profit from, Para Para. He died on 22 May 1924. The property remained in his estate until 1940, during which time it was again tenanted and left to fall into disrepair. Some of the occupants were there legally and they used the property for a variety of purposes including a horse stud, a dairy and a slaughterhouse. Others did not have the same legal sanction, entering illegally, breaking windows and destroying much of the interior.
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