Historic Kadlunga Estate, Mintaro
Updated: Mar 2, 2022
James Stein - Two Runs - The Heritage of Kadlunga - Gulf Road - Previous Owners - Stately home & working farm for sale - Kadlunga ownership changes twice - The Backstory - Kadlunga sold to NT Pastoralists - Kadlunga Re-sold - Edmunds boomerang back into Central Australia - References
Kadlunga, a well-known homestead and estate built in the 1850s, is located near Mintaro, 126 kilometres north of Adelaide and 19 kilometres south east of Clare, and is primarily a cropping, sheep breeding and cattle operation.
The house has seven bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, large living areas, a dinning room plus a tennis court and swimming pool.
First Settler
James Stein was a pioneering European settler of South Australia’s mid north and founder of the now heritage-listed Kadlunga estate.
In 1838 James Stein, aged 33, and his personal companion, 17 year old John Price, convened an expedition from Bathurst NSW to the colony of Adelaide, with approximately 5000 sheep and 5000 cattle.
His party consisted of 30 Englishmen (and a number of Hindustani coolies??) headed by Evelyn Pitfield Sturt, brother of explorer Captain Charles Sturt.
By c1838, Stein's expedition was pasturing in the Upper Wakefield River district.
In 1839, an official report from Edward John Eyre to John Ainsworth Horrocks documents an interesting aspect of the survey of the area:
In their the survey of the Upper Wakefield and the twin rivers Hutt and Hill, surveyor brothers William and John Hill refer to Stein and the British flag at Flagstaff Hill, 10 km east of Mintaro.
Burra and Mintaro Runs
In 1840, Stein was recorded as having two Runs, one at Burra and the other at Mintaro (the Mintaro Run).
[Colonial spelling was Mintadloo. The Ethnologist of the SA museum interpreted the aboriginal word Mintingadlu as based on Minti meaning net and Ngadlu meaning water, a place of various streams criss-crossing.]
Stein and Sturt, in 1840, were assessed as being at Kadulunga, 3 km west of Mintaro with 2600 ewes, 400 wethers, numerous cattle and some crops.
The homestead is approached by an avenue a mile in length, planted with a variety of ornamental trees.
Many other plantations can be seen from the house, and the whole property shows that considerable care and money has been spent in improving and beautifying it.
All these trees were felled by recent NT Owners, the Edmunds !
Kadlunga
Kadlunga was a half-way house for the mule teams on their journey from Burra copper minefields to Port Wakefield. The scion of a Scottish whisky distilling family that fell into financial troubles, James Stein arrived in Sydney in 1833 and became a squatter, a pioneer grazier, in New South Wales.
In 1841, after the discoveries by John Hill and Edward John Eyre in South Australia's mid north, Campbell and Stein pioneered their own sheep runs.
Stein's run extended from Mount Horrocks, through Farrell Flat around the headwaters of the Wakefield River, stretching over surrounding rolling hills and plains to include parts of Burra Creek.
Stein established this homestead on a tributary to the Wakefield River, in a valley beneath Mount Horrocks, and named it Kadlunga,
possibly an Aboriginal word for 'sweet hills', after the abundant honeysuckle located there at the time,
OR the aboriginal name for 'hills and water'
OR now understood to mean 'netted water' (Fish Nets?)
The property was also known as Katalunga in its early period.
The original picturesque stone homestead buildings of Kadlunga estate, founded by Stein, were listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1978.
Stein built the original homestead, completed in 1857, constructed of random coursed bluestone.
That house was incorporated into the 1919-20 alterations, when the house was virtually rebuilt.
Since the rebuilding little has been altered, having been in the Melrose family since 1916. The building is in good condition and is well cared for.
The two-storey homestead was renovated in 1919-20, and was surrounded by park-like grounds, which a previous recent owner (the Edmunds) has cleared, to local dismay.
In 1841, after the discoveries by John Hill and Edward John Eyre in South Australia's mid north, Campbell and Stein pioneered their own sheep runs.
Stein's run extended from Mount Horrocks, through Farrell Flat around the headwaters of the Wakefield River, stretching over surrounding rolling hills and plains to include parts of Burra Creek.
Among Stein’s shepherds were several “Afghan” men, also called “coolies”, originally brought as servants from India by E.B. Gleeson, a settler at nearby Clare. They are reputed to have named Burra Burra Creek.
In 1845 William Strear, a shepherd employed by Stein, found the copper ore that led to discovery of the boom Burra copper mines, although Stein gained no personal profit.
In 1842, Stein's occupational lease and staff were as follows —:
T. Diprose, Base Station, Princess Royal, a fortification painted by landscape artist S.T. Gill.
J. Logan, head camp, Logan Gap and Logan's Creek Reserve. He returned to England in 1860.
E. Sturt, head camp, Kadulunga Springs, section 173.
M. William, outstation, Apoinga.
T. Semple, outstation, Burra Creek, Burra 1839.
Two other Semple brothers arrived in SA. The married brother squatted at Mintaro.
J. Farrell, outstation, at a permanent lagoon between Farrell's Flat and Merildren. Farrell's Flat is thought to be named after Rev. James Farrell who served the Anglican Mission at Mintaro.
Tie Tee Wies, outstation, Mintaro Reed Beds, a market gardener whose descendants remained in Mintaro until the 1880s.
W. Tateham, outstation, Wakefield River, Auburn, married with 3 children, took up employment with Joseph Gilbert on his Crystal Brook run.
Tateham was the first person to purchase a Mintaro town lot under the direction of Gilbert who laid out the town of Mintaro. Tateham and his family departed to the Victorian goldfields, where he died.
L. Levett, a shepherd at Mintaro. His daughter Sarah, born in 1843, was recorded at the Mintadloo Run Anglican Mission in Mintaro.
G. Kite, married with 6 children, head drover based at Mintaro and later the pound keeper at Kite Street, Mintaro and a bullock contractor.
H. Huxtable, married with 5 children, bootmaker, saddler, based at Mintaro. His descendants remained in Mintaro until the 1920s.
Carrying increasing debt, Stein became insolvent in 1848 and died destitute in 1877.
The original picturesque stone homestead buildings of Kadlunga estate, founded by Stein, were listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1978.
Stein built the original homestead, completed in 1857, constructed of random coursed bluestone.
That house was incorporated into the 1919-20 alterations, when the house was virtually rebuilt.
Since the rebuilding little has been altered, having been in the Melrose family since 1916. The building is in good condition and is well cared for.
Stein established this homestead on a tributary to the Wakefield River, in a valley beneath Mount Horrocks, and named it Kadlunga, possibly an Aboriginal word for 'sweet hills', after the abundant honeysuckle located there at the time.
However, the property was also known as Katalunga in its early period.
Gulf Road
From 1849 to 1857 bullock and then mule teams travelled the Gulf Road between Burra and Port Wakefield carting copper ore to the port, and returning with coal and other supplies, covering 10 miles per day.
The Mintaro Belt, a wooded section of the Gulf Road, had a backlog of copper ore 'bullocky' jinkers negotiating around Mt Horrocks, through the Kadlunga property.
Because of this backlog of waiting trains of ore, the Mintaro Belt became an economic boom for Mintaro saddlers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, chaff-cutters, also with soup kitchens and a sly grog shop.
The Gulf Road (illustrated above with the two seasonal routes in blocked markings) passed 2km north west of Mintaro (far-right of above map) through Kadlunga which was now owned by the English and Australian Copper Co, land also claimed by James Stein.
Stein's legal battle with the two major mine companies of Burra over Princess Royal and Kadlunga continued for several years to no avail, and eventually financially devastated him.
History's only acknowledgment of James Stein is a street in Mintaro named after him.
Renovation
The two-storey homestead was renovated in 1919-20, and was surrounded by park-like grounds.
Previous Owners
Sir Samuel Way, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia purchased the property in 1881.
His Kadlunga Station later became a merino sheep stud and Percheron horse stud, successively owned by
John Chewings (1859-1937), geologist and anthropologist, who was born at Woorkongoree station, near Burra, third son of John Chewings, pastoralist, and his wife Sarah, née Wall.
(Sir) Samuel Way (1836-1916), chief justice and lieutenant-governor of SA. In 1872 he also bought Montefiore, a North Adelaide mansion where he spent the rest of his life; while at the Bar he also bought Sea View, a farm near Noarlunga;
on his property at Kadlunga he grazed the improved Shropshire sheep which he had introduced into Australia.
He was delighted when a great pastoralist greeted him in Sydney not as the chief justice, but as 'the breeder of Shropshires'.
Alexander John Melrose, (1860-1938), pastoralist, was born at Rosebank, near Mount Pleasant.
In 1884 he began management of another Melrose property, Ulooloo, which was a combination of two stations, Kadlunga and Wookongarie, in the mid-north.
With the Kapunda grazier, Henry Dutton, Melrose purchased the 12,900 hectare North Booborowie station in 1897 for £98,000, taking responsibility for its management.
Melrose was also a significant shareholder in the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd.
In 1910 the government, anxious to achieve closer settlement and provide farmers with a greater amount of good land, had purchased the North Booborowie property.
Provided with ample wealth, Melrose became a prominent philanthropist, giving generously to a number of charities and institutions.
His best known bequest was £10,000, given to the Waite Agricultural Research Institute in 1927 to finance its chemistry laboratory. Melrose was knighted in 1928 and the following year the laboratory at the Waite Institute was named in his honour.
Kadlunga for Sale 2016
South Australian wool grower Hamish Gosse is selling his family's historic Kadlunga homestead and 2367-hectare property in the Clare Valley with an asking price of $22 million.
Mr Gosse told The Advertiser his grandfather Alexander Melrose, purchased the property for four pounds, seven shillings and six pence an acre.
Mr Gosse, in his 70s, is selling the Mintaro property – with stock of 4900 merinos, more than 100 Charolais cattle and about 60 hectares of vineyards – on a walk-in, walk-out basis, with all stock and plant intact, Elders agent Ian Jaensch said.
"He just wants to move on," Mr Jaensch said. "Hamish is looking to get out."
Homestead and land package
The two-storey stone homestead, built about 1857, has 2367 hectares of land as part of the sale.
The property, 130 kilometres north of Adelaide, has 36 dams, 15 bores and wells and two water licenses, with an annual average rainfall of 600 to 650 millimetres.
It has been in Mr Gosse's family since it was acquired by his grandfather, South Australian politician Alexander Melrose, in 1916.
The two-storey stone homestead, built about 1857, has six upstairs bedrooms, three recently modernised bathrooms, a sunroom, office, sitting room, servery/kitchen, entrance hall and large cellar.
The adjoining garden has an inground swimming pool and tennis court.
The land, comprising 22 separate titles, has between 1000 and 1200 hectares in wheat, beans and canola crops.
The vineyard, established in 1998, is planted with merlot, cabernet and shiraz grapes and is leased to Treasury Wine Estates until 2028.
The wool production is high-yield – more than 70 per cent, depending on seasons – with the flock averaging about 18 micron.
Outbuildings include a cottage; sheep yards and a stone shearing shed; cattle yards; and hay and machinery sheds.
Plant and equipment includes two tractors, a trailer and Loxton Slasher for mowing and windrowing.
“It’s a substantial place, it’s like a little town really ... there are four inhabitable places on it ... you have a wonderful lifestyle and property that would give you enough income to live on.”
Elders Real Estate agent Ian Jaensch said the property was productive, as well as historic.
“It’s an iconic, well-known property ... it is hard to secure this sort of property in the Clare/Mintaro/Burra area. It has assured rainfall and it has a diversity of uses; grazing, cropping land and the vineyards,” he said.
“Because it such a high spot, the Broughton and the Wakefield rivers start here, it is an extraordinary neck of the woods.”
“It is unique because it retains its own water, on a lot of properties the water runs off to the
next door neighbour, but at Katalunga it stays there.
Kadlunga has been in Mr Gosse's family since it was acquired by his grandfather, South Australian grazier Alexander John Melrose, in 1916.
His grandson Hamish Gosse is now selling the successful commercial property having built up beef, grazing, wool and wine businesses at the Mintaro farm. The iconic station is being offered in a private sale with a $22 million price tag.