Our Fruitful Record - Land
The Kaurna people, the first inhabitants of the Adelaide Plains, had access to water and abundant sources of food in the area we know today as the Campbelltown Council area. The first European settlers were attracted to the River Torrens and water courses and cleared land for farming, orchards, market gardens and stock. By the 1870s market gardens close to the River Torrens were supplying markets with celery, cabbage, cauliflowers, beans and onions.
Vegetable growing was the staple industry of the Campbelltown area until the mid 20th century. Land began to be subdivided in 1960s for housing. The last sections to be developed were the market gardens near the river.
The area of the Campbelltown Council is more than 2,400 square kilometres from the River Torrens on the north to Magill Road in the south and from Glynburn Road in the west to the Mount Lofty Ranges in the east. From about the mid 19th century three distinct villages were settled in the area: Magill, Paradise, Athelstone and Campbelltown. Before World War II the population in the Campbelltown Council area was less than 5,000. In 2017 the ABS reported it was 51,322.
"[In 1953]… start from here [Lower North East Road, Campbelltown] to Newton Road, that was all grapes, all grapes, nothing, no trees, nothing, just the grapes and that’s it…" - Ilda Cavuoto
Pictured: Fry family land and tractor, 30-acres on Lower Athelstone Road, looking North West.
"…I have memories of other families near us… there were quite a lot of Italian families living around us when I was a kid. Ann Street… didn’t have heaps of houses in it, it was much more a country environment than a suburban or city environment, although it was gradually changing." - Margaret Emery
Pictured: Emery family, preparing the celery crop (fertilizing), December 1986.
"…we used to run a few cows down along the creek. During the day we’d take them out and let them feed along the edge of the road; just tie them up with a chain. And then at night you’d ...just let them go and they’d walk back to the shed where they used to be milked, they’d just knew to go back there." - Dennis Lorenz
Pictured: Lorenz family leased for eight years part (12 - 13 acres) of Section 808 in Athelstone from the Government before Linear Park was established. Dennis Lorenz with the celery, view to the East, January 1992.
"…after the ‘40s the Adelaide suburbs virtually stopped at Payneham because it was all market gardens." - Paul Emery
Pictured: Lorenz family homestead, 'Manresa Cottage', Athelstone.
"…’56, we bought the property on Gorge Road, 171 Gorge Road, the corner of Silkes road alongside the Reservoir… I still remember we paid 4,000 pounds for the land and five and a half acres and we paid 7% interest at the time… the land was alongside the Reservoir and had olive trees all around and 40 acres… it used to be used for backup water in those days, it was actually to feed the water… from Kangaroo Creek…" - Sam Mercorella
"[The Athelstone area]… it’s just progressively and gradually went from a rural area to a sub-division and it’s changed from a situation where when we were school children we could name nearly everybody in the district and now you’ve got a job to know your next door neighbour." - Hartley Ey
Pictured: Charlie D’Angelica’s wife, Pellegrina (Pearl), tilling their garden at Whites Lane Newton, circa 1949.