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The Duncan Legacy:
Hughes Park Estate, Watervale

Read and listen below:
Current patrons of the Royal Adelaide Show
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South Gum Creek Station (Burra)
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Hughes Park Estate (Watervale)
The Hon John James Duncan, Liberal leader, lived at Hughes Park from 1874 - 1913
The Hon. J.J. Duncan is the Leader of His Majesty's Opposition in the Legislative Council, (and) is a worthy representative of the squatting industry, and he has at great personal sacrifice, devoted many years to the service of his country in the legislature.
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His vast experience in the business world renders his services in the legislature specially valuable.
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On pastoral and agricultural matters there is probably no better authority in either branch of the legislature. - The Critic
Above: 1906, Statue of Sir Walter Watson Hughes unveiled outside Adelaide Uni.
"Sir Walter's gift of £20,000 (for a university) was a staggering amount for those times. The centenary celebration of the statue unveiling commemorates his generosity and vision that has had a major influence on the lives of so many people."
Two South Australian nephews of Hughes,
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(Sir) John James Duncan MLC (1845–1913, illustrated at left) and
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Walter Hughes Duncan MP (1848–1906), both of whom (in 1872) were the members for the Electoral District of Port Adelaide (and the peninsula) and agreed to fund a memorial to their uncle.
In conjunction with the university, it was determined that the memorial to Hughes would be in the form of a statue located outside the first university building, the Mitchell Building, on North Terrace.
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The wall of the university on North Terrace had to be moved to provide space for the large statue.
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The bronze figure of Hughes was made by Francis Williamson (1833–1920). This Englishman was reputed to be Queen Victoria’s favourite sculptor. Read more...
Duncan Family notables:
(Sir) John James Duncan (1845 - 1913)
Politician and heir of the fortune of (Sir/Capt.) Walter Watson Hughes
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Brother of Walter Hughes Duncan MP (1848–1906)
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Husband of Jane Morison (Harvey) Duncan — married 5 Nov 1873, died 1874
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Husband of Lady Jean Gordon (Grant) Duncan — (1860 -1927)
married 27 Aug 1879
Lady Duncan from 1912 - 1927
Father of:
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Mary Hughes Fotheringham Born 8 Jan 1881 at Hughes Park
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Senator John Grant Duncan-Hughes, (1882 - 1962)​ Born 1 Sep 1882 at Hughes Park
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Sir Walter Gordon Duncan, politician (1885 - 1963) Born 10 Mar 1885 at Hughes Park, Father of
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John James Duncan, (1912 - 1997)
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(Capt.) Keith Anstruther Duncan, (1886 - 1955) grazier, Born 12 Nov 1886 in Glenelg SA
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Major Colin Robert Duncan OBE (1892 -1966) diplomat,
Born 29 Oct 1892 in Glenelg,SA and -
Jean Gladys Joan (Duncan) Dean (1896 - 1981)
Born 21 Aug 1896 in Mitcham, SA
Grandfather of:​
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John James Duncan, (1912 - 1997) Pastoralist, Died 9 Jun 1997 at age 85, Father of Walter and Jock below:
Great-Grandfather of :​
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Walter Duncan, Horticulturalist
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Jock Duncan, Pastoralist
Father of Andy Duncan (see right)
Duncan Family Heritage now...
Meet Jock and Walter Duncan:
Duncan Family at Hughes Park
Meet Alice and Andy Duncan:
Hughes Park Timeline
22 November, 2006:
Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, Governor of South Australia, and two descendants of Sir Walter - brothers Mr Walter Hughes Duncan and Mr Jock Duncan - unveiled the Sir Walter Watson Hughes statue on 22 November, in an echo of that earlier ceremony (illustrated above right)
Below: Sir S.J. Way and the Hon. Thomas Price, the Premier of S.A. and the Hon. J.J. Duncan, M.L.C. (left) attending the unveiling of the statue of Sir W.W. Hughes at the University of Adelaide.
Hint : Click on any dated entry to see the original news story
1851 - Captain Hughes leased "The Peak" at Hoyleton
1862 - HUGHES PARK HOMESTEAD ERECTED
1872 - SALE OF GUM CREEK STATION to HUGHES
1880 - DEATH OF CAPTAIN JOHN DUNCAN (OF WALLAROO)
1887 - DEATH OF WALTER WATSON HUGHES on New Year's Day, 1887.
1890 - FATAL ACCIDENT TO MR. ROBERT DUNCAN (HUGHES PARK)
1897 - PRESENTATION TO MR. J. J. DUNCAN
1897 - Property near Watervale, now being worked for gold
1900 - HON. J. J. DUNCAN, M.L.C. ELECTED UNOPPOSED
1900 - HUGHES PARK HOMESTEAD ENLARGED
1904 - Return cricket match was played on the Hughes Park Oval
1905 - Character Sketch —THE HON. J. J. DUNCAN
23 years in Parliament and one of the strongest men in the S.A. Legislative Council
1906 - DEATH OF WALTER HUGHES DUNCAN MHR (OF BURRA)
1906 - Cricket match between Hughes Park, Gum Creek and Watervale
1906 - HUGHES PARK LAND SALE - RESULTS
Mr. Duncan sells surplus 8,157 acres for over £41.000
1909 - HUGHES PARK BRIDGE DAMAGED
1911 - HUGHES PARK FIRE burns a large area
1912 - JOHN DUNCAN KNIGHTED
1913 - DEATH OF SIR JOHN DUNCAN, A WALLAROO PIONEER
1913 - KEITH DUNCAN MANAGES HUGHES PARK
1914 - A BIG ESTATE. WILL OF SIR JOHN JAMES DUNCAN
1923 - MR. & MRS. DUNCAN HUGHES visit Bedford Park Hospital
1924 - MR. J. G. DUNCAN-HUGHES M.H.R.
1927 - DEATH OF LADY JEAN DUNCAN
1927 - DAME JEAN DUNCAN'S WILL Estate of £96,727
1931 - ST. MARK'S CHURCH FETE AT HUGHES' PARK
1934 - DUKE'S VISIT TO HUGHES PARK
The estate occupies 10,000 acres, carrying 7,000 sheep, 80 head of cattle, and more than 30 horses.
1935 - Girl Guides' Rally At Hughes Park
1936 - SENATOR DUNCAN-HUGHES
1937 - British rifle team at Hughes Park
1939 - MR. J. G. DUNCAN-HUGHES formally endorsed BY LCL
1943 - CAPTAIN & MRS. J, G. DUNCAN-HUGHES at the Park again
1962 - DEATH OF JACK DUNCAN HUGHES, MC at Medindie
1963 - DEATH OF HIS BROTHER WALTER HUGHES-DUNCAN
at 56 Park Tce Parkside
1966 - Walter's wife Jessie died at Hughes Park
1974 - Grandson Walter Duncan moves to Hughes Park, renovation begins
2003 - Andrew and Alice Duncan move to Hughes Park from Gum Creek
2007 - Andrew and Alice move in to the renovated homestead
Captain Hughes
"Captain Hughes", was a pastoralist, a copper miner, public benefactor and a founder of the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
Hughes was referred to in tantalising ways, such as ‘a sly old fox' by Thomas Elder, an 'opium smuggler', [he] 'should have been hanged by the neck', and 'a crook'. He even confessed in one of his last letters to his nephew John James Duncan shortly before his death,
‘I’ve been a sinner all my life’- Patricia Sumerling
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"Shrewd, gentle and kind, he had little formal education but shared the Scottish respect for learning."
"(His) public spirit and rise in influence were outstanding in the colony." - ADB
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Early Life
A biographer of Walter Watson Hughes once wrote,
'The story of his fortunes and reverses reads more like romance than reality'.
Hughes was born in August 1803, the son of Eliza and Thomas Hughes of Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland. He went to school at the nearby town of Crail where he was later apprenticed to a cooper, making barrels for whale oil.
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On the Ocean Wave
He went to sea at an early age with lofty ambitions.
An obscure Scottish publication contains a quote from a letter he wrote to his father: ‘I sling my hammock in the forecastle, but I am resolved to spread my cot in the cabin.’
Being of a rather restless, roving disposition, he took to the sea, and rose to be chief officer of a vessel at the age of 26, when he made a voyage to India.
Before this he had a rough time of it on board a whaler, and in those days whaling was rough indeed — it is bad enough now, with all the modern appliances. His first seafaring essay was in a whaling expedition to the Arctic regions.
Tiring of this, however, and seeing a field open for him in Calcutta, he made a voyage there as chief mate of a ship in 1829. Succeeding in his venture he bought the brig Hero (pictured above), and in which he traded opium in the pirate-infested Indian and China seas. Hughes sold this ship, when he resolved to settle in South Australia. He was still captain of the Hero in June 1840, accompanying the Eliza which also bore up during a gale, heading for Timor.
Another ship named Hero had became a convict ship which arrived in Sydney in 1839.
Hughes had timed his move from smuggling spectacularly well, since the First Opium War was fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1842.
For nearly twenty years Hughes had lived sailing in the East; South Australia offered a fresh field for enterprise.
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Married in Adelaide
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Hughes made a number of trips to South Australia in the brig Hero before deciding to settle there in 1841, after which he arrived in the brand new ship Devon (which also carried 'sugar, flour, sundries and 116 ponies'), arriving at Port Adelaide from Singapore on January 9 1841.
Captain Hughes was already recorded as Captain on a prior voyage, sailing 13 March 1840 ➜ 29 April 1840, in the Hero from Singapore to Port Adelaide.​
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Since he actually arrived as a settler in 1841, (only visited on the Hero in 1840), on the cargo carrying ship Devon from Singapore in January 1841, to set up a business, the Devon may have been owned by him also, but its master was Captain Gettring. Hughes assisted his crew from the Hero to return to England, gather their families and emigrate to SA.
Later that year, on 21 September 1841, he married Sophia Richman (1824 - 1885), daughter of an early pastoralist and solicitor, James Henry Richman. and engaged in mercantile pursuits in conjunction with the firm of Messrs, Bunce & Thomson.
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He resided in Adelaide till shortly after the SA crisis of 1842 paralyzed business, when he started sheep-farming on the Yorke Peninsula on Lease 147.

Chairman of 'Elders-Smith' Mr.
Robert Barr-Smith has made a number of private observations of the Hughes' couple in his letters:
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"The Wallaroo Hughes are with us just now and we have much enjoyed their visit
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This is the first time we have had an opportunity of knowing her and we like her much She is full of fun and good qualities of a higher order. "
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"Hughes has greatly more natural talent and force of character than the average Ayrshire Squire – and Mrs. Hughes more talent than the Squire’s lady."
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"Given (which we have here) wealth & an introduction and the result is considerable."
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"Hughes likes the Colony but she does not."
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"As to Mrs Hughes’ relative position Colony versus old Country. It is just in the Colony she failed.
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People resented her wealth and wanted to shew they did not bow down to it. In Ayrshire they stood very well – and were much sought after"

Above: Hughes Park homestead in 2000.


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Pastoralist
Impressive explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks first owned the land on which Hughes Park is built, which Watervale founder David Davies had named Dalore (pronounced Dalorie), a Welsh name for 'best field,' and a very appropriate name for the beautiful spot now named Hughes Park.
In 1861 Walter Watson Hughes bought Dalore from Davies.
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For some years Captain Hughes searched for copper in the Watervale district, without luck, but bought the farmland land east of The Peak, now called Hughes Park, near Watervale.
Hughes Park is now a large historic property of 7,000 acres of land, leased by Hughes in 1845 and the homestead built by Hughes around 1860.
Using his own capital, he also bought land at Macclesfield and stocked it with sheep purchased from Edward Burton Gleeson for 5s a head.
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He was to become, however, one of the many victims of the financial crisis during Governor Gawler's regime. and later he trudged back to Adelaide on foot from Macclesfield with the same sheep; these were sold by the Government auctioneer, Bentham Neales, for 2s 6d a head.
He had salvaged enough from the wreck of his fortune to buy another flock before prices rose dramatically, and with these sheep he went north.
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In 1843 he also took out a leasehold run of 16 square miles near Wilmington with a flock of 6,000 sheep.
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In 1846 he took out leasehold lands by the Hummock Ranges and across to the Broughton Plains.
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In April 1846 he acquired a new leasehold at Hoyleton along the edge of the Clare Hills called The Peak west of Skillogalee Creek.
He lived in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield for a number of years, and then bought the lease at Wallaroo. The workers on his Macclesfield property were all the former sailors of the Hero.
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In 1857 he took over the Wallaroo run there from Robert Miller adjoining the Point Riley run held by Edward Stirling.
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He then organised a great trek of his flock, his workers and their families from Macclesfield to Wallaroo.
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Wallaroo was managed by his brother-in-law, Captain John Duncan, as Hughes mainly resided at The Peak.
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“He owned other land in the Watervale area and lived in a mud hut known as ‘The Peak’ out on the Hoyleton plains,” Andy Duncan said. “Then he built this home, which was single storey, and called it Hughes Park.”
Wallaroo
The land on which Wallaroo stands was first held by Robert Miller from 1 July 1851 (lease no. 147) over 104 square miles, stretching from a point 3 km south of Point Riley, South -East beyond Kadina, thence south to include Moonta, finally rejoining the coast at Tiparra Spring.
In 1857, Miller surrendered the lease when it was taken up by W. W. Hughes.
So with his brother-in-law, Captain John Duncan, who had married his sister, Joan, Walter Hughes took up Wallaroo Station which originally extended from Tiparra Springs to Tickara Springs, and from Wallaroo to Greens Plains. We know that wife Sophia also lived there, from a story about her horse, a mare, with a tendency to bolt, ridden by William Austin Horn.
On noticing that tree roots sometimes burned with a green flame, Hughes instructed all his shepherds and boundary riders to keep a sharp watch for any signs of copper ore.
One of the shepherds, James Boor, found a small mound of green carbonate of copper outside the burrow of a marsupial rat, but forgot about it until some days later when he mentioned it to Hughes' brother-in law, John Duncan, who was manager of the out-station.
Duncan told his fifteen-year-old son, also John Duncan, to take the news to his uncle, so the boy set off with samples of ore and an Aboriginal companion. It was 130 kilometres to Watervale where Hughes was then living at The Peak near Hughes Park, but because of severe drought the horses were in such poor condition that the journey took a week.
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Copper
Hughes immediately identified the ore as copper and engaged four Cornish miners from Burra Burra to test the site. Young John Duncan drove these men, Walter Phillips, William Pascoe, Richard Walter and Richard Turren, back to Wallaroo, and in true Cornish fashion one of them swung a pick round his head and immediately began to dig where it landed, striking, as luck would have it, the main source.
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When Captain Hughes first found traces of copper on his pastoral run in the early 1850s, he was short of funds and simply sat on his find while nurturing a valuable relationship with Edward Stirling, one of four directors in Elder, Stirling & Co.
Edward came to South Australia after receiving £1000 from his father, Archibald, who had been a slaveholder on four estates in Jamaica. (Edward Stirling was the illegitimate son of Archibald and a Creole woman) - Wikipedia
Edward Stirling (c. 1808 – 2 February 1873) was an early settler of South Australia. He established several pastoral properties and was a co-founder of what became Elders Limited, also serving two terms in the South Australian Legislative Council.
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"Unfortunately for Hughes, when shepherd Patrick Ryan could not (find him to) report the discovery directly to him, he called upon Hughes’ nephew (John Duncan), who turned him away believing his claims were due to his drunken state.
Turning Ryan away set him on a series of events whilst in an alcoholic stupor, that included making two other legal and binding agreements on his way to the Adelaide Land Office, including one in the Black Bull pub in Hindley Street.
When Ryan arrived at the office on 24 May 1861 with one of his new chums, publican Joseph Johnson, he was so drunk that when he was unable to describe the place of discovery, his first application was refused." - 'Fraud - Walter Watson Hughes & the Moonta and Wallaroo Mines', by Patricia Sumerling - also summarises the court battles ensuing
(Read more about Ryan in the sidebar at left)
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Hughes promptly pegged mining leases, and invited Adelaide merchants Thomas Elder, Robert Barr Smith and Edward Stirling, to put up capital. Patrick Ryan received a pension for life.
Hughes also had Ryan sign an agreement with him. Hughes then registered a further 26 buffer zone mining rights as well. Some later claimed Hughes had no moral or legal right to these Moonta mining rights but after years of court appeals and legal fighting the Privy Council in England ruled in favour of Hughes.
During the legal fight Hughes returned to live in England from 1864 to 1870, when the Privy Council finally dismissed a challenge to the ownership of the mines, and Hughes returned to S.A.
So the Wallaroo Mine Company, in which Hughes was the largest shareholder, was finally and legally formed. With profits from this venture, the other shareholders formed the pastoral firm of Elder, Stirling and Company.
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​For many decades Elder and Smith (now Elders) were pioneers of the pastoral settlements and were also stock and station agents in the state of South Australia.
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Read more: Clare Museum: Spirited Sir Walter Hughes

William Horn's Ride
In 1861 another shepherd, Patrick Ryan, chanced on some copper ore that had been thrown up by a burrowing wombat.
Despite Hughes' instructions that any findings were to be reported, Ryan kept the news to himself for some months before spilling it over a drink to the publican, Mr Johnston, at the Port Wakefield Hotel.
Johnston immediately went to Adelaide and applied for a lease of the area but was told he must give exact details of the site. Johnston formed a syndicate offering Patrick Ryan one-fifth share of the mine.
Walter Watson Hughes heard in Adelaide about the find and hurried back to Moonta where he offered Ryan a tenth share if Ryan would give him details of the site.
Hughes then returned to his property at Wallaroo where he had staying with him a young man named William Austin Horn, who had that morning started on a trip up the shores of the Gulf of St Vincent.
When Horn was about 16 kilometres from Kadina he was overtaken by a messenger with a letter from Hughes asking him to return immediately. Horn wrote many years later, ‘I was riding a fine upstanding mare belonging to Mrs Hughes, she had been lent to me in the hopes of my overcoming her tendency to buck and bolt, and as soon as I turned her head for home she bolted and I nothing loth let her bolt and was back in Wallaroo by 4 p.m.'
There he was met by Hughes who asked, "Can you get to Adelaide by nine o'clock tomorrow as some people named Day have started for Adelaide in order to forestall my claims for a mining lease and they have some 17 hours start but the Government offices don't open until 10 o'clock and I want you to get there before them" .
In a marathon ride William Horn covered 264 kilometres in twenty-two hours, and on his arrival at Adelaide he called on Mr John Taylor of the firm of Elder, Stirling and Company who rode to the Lands Office with him.
The rival syndicate was already there, but the office was not open. When the clerk put up the blind he recognised Mr Taylor, asked him what he wanted and dealt with his claim first. - The Philanthropist p.93
Above: Captain W W Hughes
Below: Original application for pastoral lease no. 147 (Both at SLSA)
Child: John Sansbury
At Wallaroo, Hughes had a relationship with a Narrunga Aboriginal woman known as Mary, who was the wife, in the 'blackfella way', of "Tom the King of Aborigines of Yorke's Peninsula".
They had a son, John Sansbury, who married Elizabeth Angie, in the 'whitefella way'.
John was the child of Walter and Mary, but 'Tommy' assumed the role of stepfather to John, Walter Hughes paying Tom a pension for life.
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According to Narrunga oral genealogy, John Sansbury was born in 1854 to “King Tommy” and “Queen Mary” leader of all the clans on Yorke Peninsula, and he was actually the biological son of Walter Watson Hughes.
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Another historian claims that John was more likely the biological son of his alcoholic and renegade brother, probably Alfred Hughes. who was in the colony on Hughes' Yorke Peninsula runs for a few years in the 1850s before Walter Watson Hughes sent him back to Scotland.
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Walter Watson Hughes never acknowledged any biological descendants.
When John Sansbury married in a church in 1874 he only listed his father as King Tommy. Presumably this church was at Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission which was established in 1868.
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While Walter Watson Hughes gave a pension for life to King Tommy, it is understood this was as compensation for his lands and King Tommy’s help in the discovery of copper.
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There is a poor quality photograph of John Sansbury in the 1870s which show some resemblance to Walter Watson Hughes or to his brother.
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Official white history states that Hughes never had children but the S.A. Museum’s archives hold the findings of Australia’s largest anthropological survey, overseen by Norman Tindale. It records that Hughes had a relationship with an Aboriginal woman and fathered a son named John Sansbury.
Australian of the Year and AFL star Adam Goodes (illustrated left) was not brought up in Aboriginal culture and had always wanted to connect with his heritage.
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In the Australian TV series of Who Do you Think You Are? (Aug 12, 2014) AFL king Adam Goodes’ discovered his four times great-grandfather was ‘Captain Hughes’.
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He and his mother, Lisa Sansbury learnt they are descendants of the full-blooded Aborignal woman Mary, and are from the Narungga people of the Yorke Peninsula.​
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Other Estates
Sourced from a chapter 'The philanthropist - Hughes Park' by Brown, Judith Margaret in "Town life in pioneer South Australia", p. 89-112, (held at the SLSA)
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In addition, Hughes also owned large properties north-east and north-west of Watervale where in the early 1860s he established Hughes Park station.
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He also bought Gum Creek Station near the Burra from Philip Levi, its 896 square miles (2321 km²) carrying 60,500 sheep from the estate of Philip Levi for the sum of £ 13 000.
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Oulnina Station (sold Fri 18 Jan 1907) was the pastoral home of politician Walter Hughes Duncan, who died in 1906. It was situated in the north-east on the railway line to Broken Hill, and comprising about 731 square miles, held under pastoral lease from the Crown, together with about 38,160 sheep. 53 horses and nine foals, 58 cattle and four calves; also plant and stores.
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In 1861 Walter Watson Hughes bought Dalore near Watervale from Davies, and in 1863 he added to his holding when he acquired Spring Vale from Mr Treloar, planting the first Riesling vineyards.
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As a town house he bought Torrens Park (now Scots College) in the suburb of Mitcham, a house which had been built by Sir Robert Torrens in 1854, and sold to Walter Watson Hughes (Torrens' partner in the Moonta Mines) in 1865.
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Hughes made some extensions to the house which he kept until he left Adelaide, when it was bought (only after repeated attempts) by Robert Barr Smith.
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Gum Creek Station (Burra)
Interview: ABC 13 October, 2009
125 years of farming by Tom Coull
Jock Duncan's Story
Over the past 125 years the Duncan family have seen many changes at Gum Creek Station.
The Gum Creek pastoral property originally extended from Farrell Flat to Mount Bryan, spreading over nearly 15,000 hectares, with the homestead being located in the Gum Creek locality.
Owned by the family since 1884, the property has survived severe drought, death duty claims and numerous changes in farming practices.
The current owner is Jock Duncan.
The site of Farrell Flat was part of the original Gum Creek sheep station.
Gum Creek station had several owners until it was obtained by Sir Walter Watson Hughes in 1884.
Known now as 'South Gum Creek', the farm is now of around 5,000 Hectares, situated west of Burra.
The original Gum Creek Estate was said to have covered about 30,000 acres, and is located to the East of Hill River station's Old Stone Wall.
Read more: Try and find the book: Gum Creek Station' Published 1961, (held at Burra Library)
'Sharp' Business
Patrick Ryan, another shepherd of Hughes, found copper at Tiparra Springs in May 1861.
Lodging claims for this site, which became the Moonta Mine, was not straightforward for Hughes.
With grievances against Hughes, Ryan tried to take out the claim with other friends, who became known as the Mills Syndicate.
When their application was botched by Ryan and rejected by the Land Office, Hughes made the claim on behalf of Ryan and for the four partners of Elder, Stirling & Co.
His interference was condemned by the Mills Syndicate as a blatant abuse of the mining regulations and protests by them and others saw a select inquiry, a Supreme Court case, an equity case in the Supreme Court and the first Privy Council judgement for South Australia.
But when funds ran out in 1868, the Mills syndicate settled out of court for £8,000, leaving Hughes and his partners owners of the Moonta Mine.
‘Technical errors’ in Hughes’ mineral claims were sanctioned retrospectively by the Mineral Lease Validation Act of January 1869.
Above: Hughes Park Homestead around 1875
View a whole album of Hughes Park Photos at SLSA

Gallery of Torrens Park House, Mitcham SA





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In 1872 Hughes extended his pastoral interests by buying Narrung Estate (Illustrated left), on the Lake Albert and Peninsula estate from the executors of John Baker's estate.
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This estate was sold again, on 28 September 1888, after Captain Hughes died, consisting of 13,132 acres of freehold and 9,437 leasehold land, in the Hundred of Baker. The horses, cattle, sheep, plant, stores, &c., were sold with 'the -estate, and the purchase-money amounts to between £50,000 and £80,000.​
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Knighthood
The Moonta mine had phenomenal success and was the first in Australia to pay over £1,000,000 in dividends. This was the source of his real fortune.
Hughes was knighted in 1880 and the English paper, The World, on 15 December 1880 announced,
'The Queen has conferred the honour of knighthood on Mr Walter Hughes, an Australian celebrity. He did better than "strike oil"; he discovered the Wallaroo and Moonta Copper mines, and became the richest man in South Australia.' (apart from Robert Barr-Smith)
Retirement & Death
When Walter Watson Hughes retired to England in 1873 (later suffering from cancer), John James Duncan and his uncle, Walter Richman, took over the management of his properties until his death in England on New Year's Day, 1887.
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Although Walter and Sophia Hughes returned to England in early 1873, just before they left Torrens Park House, Sophia’s sister Olive Richman married the Governor of South Australia Sir James Fergusson in March 1873. His first wife had died in 1871. Sir James Fergusson completed his term as SA Governor in April 1873.
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When Walter Watson Hughes and Sophia Hughes returned to England in 1874 they both had their portraits painted in London by Miss Margaret Thomas.
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Read more: Biography of Sir W W Hughes
In later years Hughes lived at Fann Court, in Surrey, where he died of cancer, after having been kept alive for the last four or five months by milk and brandy.
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He had married a daughter of the late Mr. J. H. Richman, and the Lady died in June, 1885, at Chertsey; and was buried on the Derby Day in Lyne Churchyard. She was very kind to the poor folk, who strewed flowers upon her grave.
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He leaves one sister, Mrs, Robertson, in this colony,
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also two nephews, namely, Mr. J. J. Duncan, M.P., and Mr. W. Duncan, of Oulnina, and
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two nieces, viz., Mrs. Corpe [wife of the Manager of the Bank of South Australia at Gawler), and Mrs. Gordon (wife of Mr. J. Gordon, of the firm of D. & W. Murray), and
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two brothers-in-law, Messrs. James M. Richman, of Watervale, and Walter Richman, of Adelaide (died 17 June 1904, aged 56).
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Eulogy
"He was a man with a broad and independent type of mind. He formed his own opinion about things, and did not fail to express his thoughts upon matters of moment, and though of a retiring nature he had (also) recognised his public duties".
Sir Walter Hughes had expressed a wish that the funeral should be of an unostentatious character, and this desire the executors endeavoured to strictly carry out.
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Sir Walter Hughes's estate in England was sworn under £35,000.
[No Report of probate for his Australian Estates]
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He has left his immense landed property in South Australia to his nephews,
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Messrs. John and Walter Duncan, and
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to Mr. James Richman, his brother-in-law.
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He has also left pecuniary legacies to a number of his relatives.
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Fancourt, where he died, is to be sold, and the proceeds put into the general English estate.
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The Long Story of the Copper Metropolis
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. ON THE WAY TO MOONTA. THE RAILWAY JOURNEY. No. I.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. A PROSPEROUS TOWN. MOONTA AND ITS SUBURBS. No. II.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. POSITION OF THE MINES. THE TOWN OF WALLAROO. No. III.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. WALLAROO SMELTING WORKS. GREAT EXTENSIONS PROCEEDING. No. V.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. THE WALLAROO MINES. THEIR DISCOVERY AND GROWTH. No. VI.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. MOONTA MINES. DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT. No. VII.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. THE HAMLEY MINE. OTHER PROMISING FINDS. No. VIII.
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THE COPPER METROPOLIS. ON THE WAT HOME. ACROSS CONDOWIE-PLAINS. No- IX.
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Arrival of Captain Duncan and Family at Port Adelaide
- (illustrated at left) Possible portrait of Captain Duncan (click for more info.)
-- Possible matching emigrant records,
South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Sat 11 Mar 1854 Page 2
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Taymouth Castle, 682 - tons.- John Duncan, master, with emigrants (not listed) 6 February 1854 ➜ 2 May 1854 Plymouth - Port Adelaide
OR...
South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Tue 24 Jan 1854 Page 2 SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE:
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BENGAL (barque), 350 tons, Duncan, master, from Liverpool Elder and Co, agents . Company's Wharf.
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22 August 1853 ➜ 19 December 1853 Glasgow - Port Adelaide
Or...
South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Tue 7 Feb 1854 Page 2
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Passengers per Nautilus (arrival reported on Saturday)—
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Messrs Chambers and Duncan.
South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Sat 18 Nov 1854 Page 2
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James Fernie (Ship) Built 1854, Tonnage 1,037 --
17 August 1854 ➜ 15 November 1854 Liverpool - Port Adelaide -
William, Margaret and Anne Duncan, Anne Duncan
Adelaide Observer Sat 24 Apr 1880 Page 22
DEATH OF CAPTAIN DUNCAN.
We quote the following in reference to the late Captain John Duncan, who died on April 9 1880, from the Wallaroo Times:
"Captain Duncan, whose name has been a household word in Wallaroo,
has departed this life, deeply regretted by all who knew him.
He was a native of Anstrather, Fife, Scotland; a sailor by profession, and came to Australia as mate of a ship. On his arrival, he engaged with Captain Hughes (his brother in-law), who was a sheep farmer at the Hummocks.
After a time he returned to Scotland for his family, but his intention of returning to the colony was not then carried out, and he made one or two voyages to India, in command of a vessel in that trade.
Eventually, however, be came to Australia with his family in 1854, and Captain Hughes having become lessee of the land about Wallaroo, Mr. Duncan, soon after his arrival, took charge of and began to develop what was afterwards known as the Wallaroo Run.
A few years ago he returned from a trip to his native country and resided near Glen Osmond. No man was better known in Wallaroo nor more highly respected than Captain Duncan.
When he arrived at Wallaroo Run the blacks were troublesome and the dogs very plentiful, destructive fires(were) frequent;
he underwent great hardships and trials through the loss of his wife before a medical man could reach the station.
He continued at Wallaroo as a partner in and in charge of the station
Read more:
Captain Duncan's Family: Sons
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John James Duncan was a politician in the colony and State of South Australia. J J Duncan was born the elder son of (sea) Captain J. Duncan
Inherited Hughes Park estate. (see much more below) -
Walter Hughes Duncan, MP for Burra, South Australia (see below)
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Robert Duncan (early death at Hughes Park,1890, see below left)
Walter Hughes Duncan
The second son of Captain John Duncan (as above)
This article is about the MHA for Burra, South Australia.
For the SA MLC, see Walter Gordon Duncan (below).
Walter Hughes Duncan (29 April 1848 – 12 May 1906) was a South Australian pastoralist and politician.
He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1906, representing the electorates of Onkaparinga (1896-1902) and Murray (1902-1906).
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Duncan was born the second son of (sea) Captain John Duncan (died 24 April 1880) in Anstruther, Fifeshire, Scotland, and
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came out to South Australia with his parents in 1854;
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his father was a partner with his brother-in-law Sir Walter W. Hughes, who was running sheep and cattle at Hoyle's Plains and on Yorke Peninsula in the vicinity of Wallaroo and Moonta.
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He was educated at Stanley Grammar School, at Watervale, at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, and studied for two years at Cambridge.
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He was a successful pastoralist, owning "Mernowie" of 1,800 acres (730 ha) near Marrabel and shareholder in the Wallaroo and Moonta mines.
Read more at Wikipedia​
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He was an attentive listener, and only ever spoke in Parliament on matters with which he was completely conversant. He was "one of Nature's gentlemen".
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He died suddenly at sea on the S.S. Ormuz (1906) on his return journey from London, somewhere between Port Said and Colombo, and was buried at sea.





Above: "Sir John James Duncan's career was perfectly rounded. He won success in every sphere of activity upon which he entered. Of him it may truly be said"
'Take him for all in all, we ne'er shall look upon his like again.'
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The oldest son of John James Duncan (above) was John Grant Duncan-Hughes, lawyer and pastoralist, who was born into the politically minded Duncan family on 1 September 1882 at ‘Hughes Park’, near Watervale, South Austtralia.
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He was the eldest of the four sons of John James (later Sir John) Duncan, pastoralist and politician, and Jean Gordon, née Grant.
His brother Walter would become a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1918 to 1962, and President of the Council from 1944 to 1962.
John Grant’s surname was changed to Duncan-Hughes when he was a child, in memory of his childless great-uncle, Sir Walter Watson Hughes, a pastoralist, whose fortune from copper mines on Yorke Peninsula helped found the University of Adelaide, and whose property, including Hughes Park, was left largely to John Duncan on condition that his son take the Hughes name.
Below: Strathspey , now Mercedes College at Springfield.
Hon. John James Duncan
Since Walter Watson Hughes and his wife were childless, and in his will he left his enormous holdings to various relations.
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Gum Creek Station and Hughes Park went to his nephew,
John James Duncan, with the proviso that his eldest son should perpetuate the name of Hughes by incorporating it with Duncan.
(Sir) John James Duncan (illustrated left) reduced the size of both properties for easier management.
- In 1902 the trustees of the late Sir W. W. Hughes's estate have sold Lake Albert station, near the mouth of the Murray, to Mr. Sidney Kidman, a well-known cattle dealer. The price is withheld, but it is understood to approximate to six figures. The estate comprises 31,000 acres, and carries about 30,000 sheep.
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In 1906, Hughes Park, Mr. Duncan sold a surplus 8,157 acres for over £41,000.
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At the same time he enlarged the homestead at Hughes Park, adding a second storey to accommodate his growing family.
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The Oulnina station and stock were sold by auction in 1907 to Mr. J. L McBride, of Kooringa, for £53,500.
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As his political commitments kept him in town for much of the time, he engaged Mr G.K. Soward to build a house in the suburb of Mitcham, a house to which he gave the name Strathspey (illustrated below, now Mercedes College at Springfield).