Archives Assignment

Archives Assignment

History of 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta

Aims

The aims of this report are to research and subsequently establish the history of 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta (South Australia), while discussing any interesting facts that may be uncovered throughout the research process. The focus of the research will be on primary sources, however, some secondary sources will be utilised to facilitate in establishing a well-rounded history of this piece of land. Research into the property 14B Tassie Street will be conducted using the resources of the current owner of the property (Neville Deer), the State Library of South Australia, the Land Services Group office and State Records of South Australia. Throughout the research process I will endeavour to trace the ownership of this property from the time of European settlement in this particular area up until the present period. I will also endeavour to establish the history of any structures which have been built on this piece of land, including who built them, when they were built, and the dates and nature of any extensions, additions or alterations which have been made. The purpose of the research which will be conducted on this piece of land is to ultimately produce an evaluation of the archaeological potential of this site, based on the research. Hence, the overall aim of this report is to determine the archaeological potential of the property 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta (South Australia), based on the information extracted from documents discovered throughout the research process.

Methods

-  As the property in question (14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta) is the piece of land on which I have resided for 19 years of my life, and has been under my father’s ownership for approximately 30 years, the first step of my research process was to discuss the history and details of the property with my father in order to get a rough idea of the basic information regarding the property.

-  From this conversation I was able to establish the Hundred of the property, the current lot number, the date my father purchased the property, the name and occupation of the person from whom my father purchased the property (as well as the name and occupation of her deceased husband), detailed information and descriptions of the structure on the property (both past and present), a brief history of the area surrounding the property, as well as details of an interesting discovery my father made when digging holes for a new side fence.

-  I was also able to obtain a copy of the current Certificate of Title for the property (LSG 5440/93; see page 1 of Appendix 1), along with the Diagram for the Certificate of Title (LSG 5440/93; see page 2 of Appendix 1), which my father purchased in 2007 in order to plan further renovations to the current structure on the property.

State Library of South Australia

-  After gathering information from my father, the first repository I decided to visit was the State Library of South Australia (SLSA), in order to search for any maps relevant to the property under analysis (14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta) and subsequently locate this property on any maps found.

-  As I had already established the current allotment number of 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta, from the Certificate of Title obtained from my father (LSG 5440/93; see Appendix 1), I also wanted to attempt to determine the old allotment number of the property in order to facilitate the search of earlier titles once I commenced research at the Land Services Group office.

-  Once in the SLSA, I acquired assistance from a staff member at the front desk to search for maps relevant to 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta. The fact that I had already established the Hundred of the property (Davenport) from the Certificate of Title obtained from my father (LSG 5440/93; see Appendix 1) facilitated the search for relevant maps immensely.

-  The staff member entered ‘Davenport’ into the search engine and was immediately able to locate eight maps relevant to the property in question. Only seven of these maps, however, were accessible. This was due to the fact that the eighth map, of the Hundred of Davenport in 1883, had recently been digitised and for some unknown reason could not be accessed.

-  The staff member retrieved the seven maps of the Hundred of Davenport (ranging from 1874-1960) out of the storage room and allowed me to view them in the reading room, after I obtained a temporary library card.

-  Once in the reading room, I analysed each map (beginning with the earliest, 1874, and progressing to the most recent, 1960) in an attempt to locate the piece of land now known as 14B Tassie Street and, accordingly, determine the old allotment number. Although I know the layout of Port Augusta really well (as it is my home town), I found it really difficult to determine where the property now known as 14B Tassie Street would have been situated on the Hundred of Davenport maps.

-  As time was limited to view the maps in the reading room of the SLSA, I took a close-up photograph of each of the seven maps, so that I could analyse them further at a later stage. I also took a full view photograph of the map of the Hundred of Davenport in 1887, so as to provide an idea (for the benefit of this report) of what each map looked like in full view (all of the Hundred of Davenport maps looked very similar). Note – I had to fill out a form to be given permission to photograph the maps.

-  In order to accurately deduce the location of 14B Tassie Street on the Hundred of Davenport maps found in the SLSA, I decided to analyse a current map of central Port Augusta (see Appendix 3) and compare it to the seven Hundred of Davenport maps. By comparing and contrasting permanent landmarks such as the parklands, jetties, Railway Station and Spencer’s Gulf, along with the arrangement of the streets and the overall structure of Port Augusta, I was able to locate, if only approximately, the location of the property now known as 14B Tassie Street on the seven Hundred of Davenport maps.

-  I subsequently highlighted (in yellow) where the property under analysis (14B Tassie Street) is located on both the current map of central Port Augusta (see Appendix 3) and the photographs of the seven Hundred of Davenport maps (see Appendix 2).

-  Although I was eventually able to locate the property in question on the Hundred of Davenport maps, I was not able to deduce the old allotment number of the property because the location where the property in question would have been situated does not have any allotment numbers.

Land Services Group

-  After completing my research at the SLSA I progressed to the Land Services Group (LSG) office so as to research and establish the history of ownership of 14B Tassie Street, along with any other information that could be found.

-  The first thing I did when I reached the LSG office was get onto a computer and search in the ‘Historical Name Index Enquiry’ for the name of the person who my father told me he purchased the property from (Evelyn Grantham). This would, in turn, enable me to locate the earlier Volume and Folio numbers of the property in question, the earlier Certificate of Title, and lead me to any other documents relating to the property.

-  To do this, I entered the first letter of Evelyn Grantham’s surname (G) into the ‘Historical Name Index Enquiry’, which brought countless entries up onto the screen. Each entry was labelled with a year or date range and a type (there were two types: private or companies/government/other). I searched through each entry for Evelyn and/or Lancelot Grantham (Lancelot was Evelyn’s husband).

-  Once I found Evelyn and Lancelot Grantham in an entry, I took note of the corresponding Volume and Folio numbers and proceeded to search for their names in the remaining entries in the ‘Historical Name Index Enquiry’.

-  After I had finished searching the ‘Historical Name Index Enquiry’ for Evelyn and Lancelot Grantham, I exited this search and entered the Volume and Folio numbers which I had noted earlier (that corresponded with Evelyn and Lancelot Grantham in the entry found in the ‘Historical Name Index Enquiry’) into the ‘Title Enquiry’.

-  This brought an earlier Certificate of Title for the property (LSG 1429/33) onto the screen, which showed the original owner of the property and traced ownership of the property from this original person up until Evelyn and Lancelot Grantham. It also showed the history of mortgages taken out on this property, along with a caveat which was lodged in 1948.

-  Due to financial restriction I was not able to obtain a copy of this earlier Certificate of Title. Hence, I had to write down all of the information I required. Due to the fact that this earlier title is very old, and cursive writing was used in its production, I found it incredibly difficult to decipher what was written. With the help of a staff member, however, I was able to acquire all of the information I required.

-  I then searched for the property in the ‘Crown Lease Enquiry’ and ‘Property Books Enquiry’ using the relevant Volume and Folio numbers. I was not, however, able to retrieve any further information or documents from these areas.

State Records of South Australia

-  After I had done as much research as possible at the LSG office, I went to State Records of South Australia (SRSA) to undertake further research on the property.

-  The first thing I did when I reached SRSA was get onto a computer and do a keyword search for ‘Davenport’, in the hope of finding assessment books or any other form of documentation relating to this area.

-  I then decided to refine my search in order to specifically locate assessment books for the Davenport area. Hence, I typed in ‘Davenport AND assessment books’, which proved to be far more rewarding. I wanted to locate assessment books for the Davenport area in order to try and find any trace of the previous owners of 14B Tassie Street in the documents held at this repository.

-  I managed to locate various assessment books for the Davenport area, none of which proved to be of any use.

-  As I didn’t have any luck finding any of the previous owners of 14B Tassie Street in the assessment books for Davenport (now known as Woolundunga), I decided to search for each of the previous owners of the property (discovered at the LSG office) by using the keyword search.

Results

The property under consideration, 14B Tassie Street, Port Augusta (South Australia), is 441m² and is classified as allotment 62 in the Hundred of Davenport (LSG 5440/93; see Appendix 1). The registered proprietor of the property is Neville David Deer (LSG 5440/93; see Appendix 1), my father. From discussions with my father, I was able to discover a great deal of information about 14B Tassie Street, a lot of which would not have been available to me without his knowledge and memory. As I was not able to find any information about the structure on 14B Tassie Street throughout my research in the repositories (SLSA, LSG & SRSA), the only information I have on the structure (my childhood home) is what my father has relayed to me.

My father purchased the property from Evelyn Grantham in January of 1980. There has only ever been one main structure on the property, which has been renovated by my father over the years. The original structure, built pre-World War II, was corrugated iron clad with a timber frame and a corrugated iron roof. It consisted of six main rooms: three bedrooms, a lounge and dining room, a small kitchen in the rear (with a back door) and a narrow rumpus room to the side which was ventilated with louvers. At the rear of the rumpus room was a small enclosed corrugated iron bathroom which consisted of a hot water service with outlets that led straight to the hand basin, as well as a shower which rose over a bath. In between the bathroom and the back door leading out of the kitchen was a small closed in porch. In the backyard there was a small asbestos clad structure, which contained a toilet and a laundry. When occupying the property, Evelyn Grantham used to run a small laundry business out of this structure to supplement income, while Lancelot Grantham worked as a commercial fisherman. There was no driveway present on the property when my father purchased it. In 1983 my father commenced renovations on the original structure. He changed the interior of the house so that it consisted of three bedrooms, a laundry and toilet, an open plan entrance/dining room/lounge room, and a slightly larger rear kitchen. He reclad the building with “hardiplank” wall panelling, and replaced the original ceiling in the kitchen and the entrance/dining room/lounge room with compressed strawboard.

The property, 14B Tassie Street, is located approximately 200 metres south of the main beach in Port Augusta. Stone cottages were built across the road from the property in the 1920s, separating the property from the beach. A dual line railway thoroughfare was positioned between these cottages and the beach. The Commonwealth Railways Roundhouse was situated approximately 400 metres to the north-east of the property. The roundhouse originally housed steam locomotives, but towards the end of the 20th Century it was utilised for the maintenance of freight rolling-stock wagons. A flour mill, customs house and other commercial buildings were situated alongside the beach. While digging holes for a side fence, my father discovered that there was pure beach sand and shell grit only a few feet below the surface. He also uncovered vast amounts of glass, bottles, bones and lead net sinkers (none of which he kept, unfortunately). From this, it could be surmised that the main beach area across the road from 14B Tassie Street was originally an inlet/bay which would have ended right near where this property is situated.