Ninth Street 8

**Fast Facts**
Place type:	Building
Address:	8 Ninth Street
Town or Locality:	Gawler South

DESCRIPTION:

This diminutive single-storey, double-fronted parapeted Victorian cottage of overpainted stone featuring rendered quoins, dressings and cornice mould. The hipped roof is concealed by the parapet walls, and includes a skillion addition to the rear. The windows are timber-framed, doublehung sashes to either side of a central half-glazed timber door. Chimneys are rendered, with moulded caps, to either side wall. A non-original straight verandah to the façade is supported on square timber posts. A non-original picket fence defines the front boundary.

STATEMENT OF HERITAGE VALUE:

Constructed during the early 1870s or prior, the cottage at 8 Ninth Street, Gawler South demonstrates the influx of small worker’s cottage accommodation which prevailed in this portion of Gawler South which lay adjacent to the concentration of industry on Goose Island. The diminutive scale, parapeted roof form and use of local stone and brick construction lends a distinctive Gawler appearance. Of note is the association with John Coxall, a miller by trade and later publican of some of Gawler’s successful hotel businesses.

BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The original plan of Gawler prepared by Light, Finniss and Co in 1839 was extended as additional townships were added over the next two decades. These townships included: Willaston in 1848; Gawler East in 1849; Bertha in 1850; Evanston in 1853; Gawler North, Gawler West and Bassett Town in 1857; and Gawler South in 1858. Gawler had by then already become an established commercial centre with its own local industry and trades, serving both the farming districts and its own growing population.

Completion of the railway connection from Adelaide to Gawler in 1857, and the location of the railway terminus at some distance south of Gawler Town and the commercial precinct along Murray Street, created an opportunity for landowners south of the South Para River. The new township of Gawler Town South was laid out in 1858 on Section 3 of the Gawler Special Survey, comprising 379 acres originally allocated to Edward Moore in 1839. One hundred and fifty allotments were offered for sale at a public auction on 22 March 1858 held by Green and Wadham, land agents, on behalf of the proprietors of allotments A B & C Smith and Cullen. The availability of cheaper land convenient to the station and to the numerous local industries, which were by then becoming established on the south side of the river, was attractive to investors, and many of the initial land purchases were speculative, anticipating the subsequent growth in industrial activity and resident population.

The allotment was located in Ninth Street, one of a handful of streets running off Water Street in a small section of the subdivision enclosed by a loop of the river on three sides and known as Goose Island. The area was prone to flooding and was not densely occupied for many years. It was characterised by small (1/4 acre) blocks where residents kept market gardens, chickens and other livestock.

Certificate of Title to Allotment 12 of Blocks 18,19, 20 and 21 of section 3, laid out as the Township of Gawler South in the Hundred of Mudla Wirra was issued to John Coxell of Gawler South, publican, on 7 June 1870. John Coxell (1830-1890) was a stone dresser and miller by trade, who emigrated from Lincolnshire in England in early 1853. He worked as a flour miller some years before becoming publican of SheaOak Log in Gawler around 1866, then the Mill Inn, Gawler in 1868, and the Globe Inn (now Kingsford Hotel) Gawler in 1875.

In 1874 the title was transferred to Elizabeth Tindal, a widow, who some years later married Henry Wakefield. This was her third marriage, the first being to John Bee Baldock with whom she had seven children. Baldock died in 1860, and in 1872 Elizabeth married James Tindal, who died in 1874. Elizabeth whose maiden name was Rogers had previously worked as a domestic servant. Henry, a Gawler hairdresser and fancy goods merchant with premises in Murray Street died in 1881, and Elizabeth, who by then was living in Clare, in 1899.

The property was mortgaged and in 1901 a foreclosure order was issued in favour of the mortgagees. The property was subsequently transferred to Robert Henry Barnet of Gawler, managing editor of the Bunyip and son of its founder, in 1904. On his death in 1917 the property went to Robert Routledge Barnet.

The small cottage on Allotment 12 is of an early construction date, suggesting that it may have been built during John Coxell’s period of ownership prior to 1874. The style and scale of the building is typical of worker’s cottages, intended as rental properties for employees of local industries or businesses.

Please <click here> to view photos of 8 Ninth Street.

Acknowledgments

This report has been prepared by the following people:

• Nancy Cromar (Flightpath Architects)

• Deborah Morgan (Flightpath Architects)

• Kate Paterson (Flightpath Architects)

• Douglas Alexander (Flightpath Architects)

The study team would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people:

• David Petruzzella (Strategic Planner; Town of Gawler)

• Jacinta Weiss (Cultural Heritage Centre Coordinator; Town of Gawler)

• Jane Strange (Senior Development and Strategic Policy Officer; Town of Gawler)

Gawler History Team Inc. thanks: Flightpath Architects, Ryan Viney and the Town of Gawler for allowing us access to this important document of Gawler History.

www.flightpatharchitects.com.au

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