Dead Man's Pass
| Place type: | Site |
|---|---|
| Site type: | Natural feature |
| Town or Locality: | Gawler |
The naming of Gawler’s most famous park, Dead Man's Pass, was a bit of a historical accident.
- In 1839, explorers found a body of a man (likely an exhausted traveler) inside a hollow tree.
- Lacking tools to dig a grave, they simply sealed the hollow tree with bark and mud to protect him from dingoes.
- For years, travellers would nervously pass "the tree with the dead man," until the name eventually became official for the entire ford.
For many citizens, what is called Dead Man’s Pass extends along the South Para River from the north/western edge of the ford that links Murray Street to Gawler South. It then travels under the area where the swing-bridge existed, extending upstream, parallel to Gawler Terrace, for about two kilometres. It ends near the first major left hand bend of the river, closest to where Gawler Terrace meets One Tree Hill Road.
The first authentic account we have of the presence of white men is that given by Dr. Nott in his 'Short Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Gawler,' written in 1860. He says: — 'About three and twenty years ago an exploring party sent out by Messrs. Light and Finniss, returning from the neighbourhood of the Barossa Ranges, fell in with a wanderer in the scrub, worn out with exhaustion, hunger and thirst. 'After relieving his wants and lifting him into their dray, they carried him as far as a ford on the South Para River, when on attempting to rouse him they found him dead. 'Having no implements wherewith to dig a grave, they placed his body upright in the hollow of a tree by the river side and covered it decently with bark and sticks. 'A short time afterwards it was discovered by another exploring party and properly interred near the spot. 'The place of burial to this day retains the name of the Dead Man's Pass, and is now the ford crossing the South Para at the southern extremity of Murray street, Gawler. 'At this time the ford itself and all the surrounding district was occupied by Mr. Horrocks as a sheep station.' In the same year Mr. Finniss and Colonel Light passed through the locality on the 'Pork and Pickle expedition.' They found the bones of the dead man and buried them. Colonel Light viewed with favour the site of Gawler as he recognised that it was on the road to the north and the Murray. — Extracted from "The History of Gawler" by E. H. Coombe
Extract from Colonel Light's diary (supplied by courtesy of the Mayo family;--- 13th January, 1839. Returned to the Para. We halted here the rest of the cay. Having heard before of a dead body being there under an old tree, we examined the spot and found it. There is a mystery in this affair as it has been kept a secret. The skull is large and the flesh almost entirely gone. Part of his dress remained. His trousers of corduroy seemed good as far as his knees - under those much torn. His shirt on one part contained much coagulated blood. The body was covered over again and some of his clothes packed up and conveyed to Adelaide.
Extract from the reminiscences of the Hon. B. T. Finniss (courtesy Travers C. Borrow): Travelling with Colonel Light on one occasion before the selection of the Gawler Survey, we camped at the Gawler River and whilst resting there we were surprised to find a dead man buried in an upright position and plastered with clay. No part of his body was visible except the toes. The wild dogs had evidently discovered the corpse and had somewhat mangled the feet. It was evidently a white man's burial place from the clothes. The story that was circulated in Adelaide as to the cause of the death of this unfortunate man originated with a party under the charge of Mr. Bernhard. It was stated that travelling to the north, having a dray with them, on nearing the ford of the Gawler River, a man in a distressed state rushed from the scrub west of the line of the road and fell down in an exhausted state, perishing for want of food and water. He was taken every care of, but died very soon after meeting this party, which preceded ours on the way north. They had buried him in this tree and plastered him in to save his body from the wild dogs. We afterwards called this tree "Dead Man's Tree," a large hollow gum tree. The dead man was supposed to have been a sailor, escaped from some ship off Port Gawler, who had lost himself in the scrub in his endeavour to reach Adelaide, and thus perished miserably.
Extract from the "Southern Australian[1]" of January 16, 1839: Suspicious case…. The body of a man, buried some time ago in the bush to the northward, was ex-humed last week by Colonel Light and Mr. Finniss whilst those gentlemen were out on their surveying expedition, and it was found that the shirt, vest and trousers of the deceased were stained with blood, and his pockets were turned inside out.
The clothes were brought to Adelaide for examination by the authorities and we hope a strict investigation into the affair will be held. At the time of the reported death of this man in the bush, many months ago, no inquest was held, as there ought to have been, and we trust the coroner will not be allowed to neglect his duty.
Extract from "The Bunyip" of May 8, 1869: On Tuesday last, as workmen employed on the cutting at the lower end of Murray street (Dead Man's Pass) were taking some earth away they unwittingly disturbed the resting place of some relic of humanity. A skull and leg bones of a man were taken from the soil near the river, and would have been interred by Mr. Hutchinson but that Mr. , James Martin sent a messenger and had the vestiges of mortality conveyed to his premises, where since they have been pretty generally inspected by the curious in such matters. The skull is of rather limited intellectual development, and by many were supposed to be that of a native, but Dr. Nott pronounced otherwise, and the general appearance of the bones of the legs would certainly lead to the belief that it was that of a white man of powerful frame. The most feasible explanation we think is contained in our "Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Gawler," published in 1861.
'For ages the sun had risen and set upon the site of Gawler. But the soil was virgin to the foot of white man. The music of the bush was a continuous symphony of primitive nature, uninterrupted by a single note from the vast orchestra of civilised industry. The landscape preserved its features through the centuries, only putting on such changes of vegetable and animal life and physical form as were incidental to the action of the eternal forces working silently, but surely. Amid all the stamp of nature was unchanged. The kangaroo and the wallaby sported on the hillside and in the dale. Even the mighty diprotodon had found habitation at this spot. In the round of the centuries and the process of the ages here it might have seemed was a place immune from the conquests of that subduer of nature's forces civilised man. But he came! And he saw! And he conquered! The coming of the new man was probably in the year 1837.'
Diprotodon was a marsupial mammal which lived at the same time as Procoptoda. It grazed on the plants which grew near salt lakes and is an ancestor of the modern wombat found in this area.
Children had this section of the South Para River as an ideal playground and the more adventurous wended their way further upstream to seek out the infamous Black Bob's Cave.
In the 1950's, Gawler South children would think twice about riding their bikes in the heat over to Gawler West's Ryde Street, to Paternoster's swimming pool (there was no Gawler council swimming pool until the 1960s). They preferred to use the waterholes along Dead Man’s Pass for their swimming, despite the prevalence of leeches in the water.
The ford near the swing bridge eventually got sealed and was recently used as a segment of the Tour Down Under route.
- For many more photos of Dead Man's Pass over the years, please click here. For photos of the bridge click here.
- Please click here to view historical information from the 1998 Danvers Heritage Survey regarding this location. <1>
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Related Articles
External Links
References
- ↑ Suspicious Case. (1839, January 16). Southern Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1838 - 1844), p. 3. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71685028
- History of Gawler 1837-1908 compiled by E H Coombe
- Brian Thom
- Paul Barnet
- 1. Danvers Architects Gawler Heritage Survey 1998 The Corporation of the Town of Gawler (June 1998)
Memories of Dead Man's Pass
Rememberer::bt remembers: When riding to school or to the shops, there was always the great challenge to cross over the swing-bridge in the shortest possible time. From the right side of the picture, it was easy riding to reach the tree stump where we were sure the body was buried in the 1830s. But the last 15 feet was a steep descent with a difficult 90 degree left hand turn onto the dirt footpath. If one did not skid down strongly, there was the prospect of progressing headlong into the wire fence and wormwood hedge; a scenario not recommended. Before one got home from school, this bridge was also handy to throw the remnants [or all] of mother's school lunch sandwiches, to the delight of the ducks below. I think it was c1962 when the swing-bridge got taken down.
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