We had a 2 night stay in the Barossa Valley, but had no idea what we would find. Wine and great foods certainly, but also an attractive landscape with a close knit array of towns carrying so much history. Mengler Hill provides a great overview. The big surprise was Gawler – a thriving town seeped in history with magnificent buildings and homes. And we had barely heard of it before. All definitely worth a visit.
We were in the Barossa, based in Nuriootpa, on 10 – 11 April 2019.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
South Brighton > Nuriootpa ~ 94kms.
History
The traditional owners of the Barossa Valley are the Peramangk First Nations people. The Peramangk people lived on and facilitated the land for thousands of years. The area was rich in supplies, including plants for food and medicine, animals for meat and plenty of fresh water.
They cultivated the land and cared for it to ensure it remained prosperous. They regularly conducted burnings to help regenerate vegetation and drive animals away from the undergrowth. These methodical burnings help to cultivate the vast natural open spaces that characterise the Barossa today.
The Peramangk and Kaurna people (based around Adelaide) regularly met to exchange goods and conduct ceremony.
For a New World wine region, Barossa has a long history and distinguished heritage. Its name has been synonymous with winemaking virtually since the day European settlers arrived in what was then the colony of South Australia in 1836.
The German mineralogist Johannes Menge had already reported back to the London-based South Australian Company that the fertile area north of Adelaide would surely support “vineyards and orchards and immense fields of corn which are matchless in the colony”. One early arrival noted similarities with France’s Rhone Valley.
The Peramangk First Nations people may have helped present the land in such a positive light. They regularly used fire to drive animals from the scrub and help regenerate native vegetation, and this continual process transformed the landscape into open parkland that appealed to the European eye.
New arrivals wasted no time in planting vines producing wine. From the start there was a clear commitment to develop a world-class wine industry. Four of the 12 oldest companies or continuously operating wine brands in Australia are based in Barossa – Penfolds, Orlando, Seppeltsfield and Yalumba. The region was also among the first in Australia to define itself based on characteristics such as topography, climate, soil type and land use.
The original name was spelled “Barrosa” after the Barrosa Ridge in the Spanish region of Andalusia. However, there was an error in the registration process and “Barossa” it became. The region’s German heritage is obvious to any visitor, but there is English blood in its parentage as well.
Undoubtedly, however, the two most important names of the early years were George Fife Angas, the English shipping merchant who chaired the South Australian Company, and August Kavel, a Lutheran Pastor seeking a place to resettle his flock of Silesian farmers and tradesmen who were facing religious persecution in Germany. Angas helped fund the first three ships that left Hamburg in 1838, and Kavel was determined that the German community’s debts to Angas would be honoured. He also encouraged his parishioners to remain in their communities, rather than look elsewhere for work, and to form a united settlement.
The three major towns of the Barossa all have distinctive personalities. Tanunda is generally recognised as the most German of the three, with long-standing traditions dating back to the 1840s. Since many of the German settlers came from Prussian Silesia, they called the Barossa Neu-Schlesien, or “New Silesia”. Angaston is considered the English town as it was settled predominantly by Cornish miners and other British. The third (and largest) town, Nuriootpa, was influenced by both the German and British settlers, and today is the commercial hub of the Barossa and it is where most of the larger shops are located.
The villages of Bethany, Langmeil and Krondorf were laid out in a style used for centuries in the colonial lands of eastern Germany, and Barossa’s landscape is still distinguished by many Lutheran church steeples. Australia’s first bilingual newspaper, The German-Australian Post, was published in Barossa in 1848.
Day 1 – Wed 10 Apr – To and at Barossa
We did not have far to go to get from Brighton to Nuriootpa, so delayed departure until around 9.30, after peak hour traffic. We had planned to go up the coastal roads, keeping to the west of the city and hoping to get a bit of a look at the coastline and beaches to the north. But it was difficult to get onto a road that took us north on the beachfront, and we soon abandoned that plan and simply got Siri to take us out of Adelaide.
It was a drive through suburban Adelaide for some time until we got towards Gawler. The landscape was generally cleared lands, perhaps for wheat, with mountains in the background. We were immediately impressed with this Gawler and determined that we would make sure we got back to have a good look the next day, when we would be doing a Barossa tour. We saw some stunning buildings.
The Big 4 Barossa is a large caravan park, nestled around an AFL oval so the entrance and office is a long way from the campsites. The sites we went for were grass and look to be quite roomy. But then we had a problem – as Kerry drove The Cruiser in, I saw that the vent cover for the fridge on Mobi was missing. It must have fallen off somewhere on the road up. I checked the frame of the cover and one of the latches had broken. It’s so nice to have grass under foot again.
We finished setting up. Our site is long but quite narrow – which we discovered when another van came in beside us – despite the fact that there were about 10 empty sites just past us. Why do parks do that? The facilities are very good, and there are plenty of them. We got both Optus (our 4G modem plus my phone) and Telstra (Kerry’s phone).
While I went back to the office to ask about any van repair place in town – no there was not, only in Gawler – Kerry had rung around and found that the Gawler service centre had a replacement in stock. How incredible lucky was that. So we were going to see the lovely Gawler a lot sooner than expected.
Half an hour later we are at the caravan service centre with the new vent in hand, at a cost of $87.50. From there, we went into the town to explore this marvellous place. In 2016 Gawler had a population of 23,500 and this is predicted keep growing to over 40,000 in future years. Gawler is recognised as the major regional and cultural centre for communities to the north of Adelaide. And we had bearly heard of it before we got there.
The churches in town are each a statement of the grandeur of a past era, and there are so many of them.
We walked into a more residential area and just drooled over one house. The owner were in the garden and we had a chat. The dogs started barking at us, we thought in a friendly way, and the owners came to have a chat. Gorgeous house and garden.
The owners told us that there were a few streets up the nearby hill that had been declared as a historical precinct, only one of two in the state. He pointed us in the direction and we quickly found it. Its centre is a relatively short street with a church at each end facing each other.
And between these churches are some of the most lovely homes we had come across. Almost all with lovely gardens too. We stopped for a chat with a lady who was pruning her pepper tree.
We also walked the main street of town, fascinated by the architecture. We came away thinking Gawler was a very special town. It clearly has a rich history that is evident through its striking architecture and heritage collections.
We drove back to Nuriootpa and had a quick look around town before getting back to the van park.
Day 2 – Wed 11 Apr – The Barossa
Today was our drive through the Barossa, and we were shocked at how small it is. Out first stop is Angaston, and there are many fields of grapes on the way.
Like so many towns in the area the town has some stunning architure. One of the first we came to was the lovely Rose Villa built in 1855, as a manse for the Baptist Minister who led the Union Church from 1855 to 1865.
Next was the Angaston Hotel, from 1846. This was originally built as a single storey bluestone and red brick hotel. It was added to in 1879 and rebuilt in 1914 as a two storey hotel which dominated the intersection.
There are so many great buildings – here are just some examples.
From there we went to Menglers Hill (Lookout and Sculpture Park). We saw a large signpost to the Hill but then nothing else. So again it’s “Siri, drive to Menglers Hill”. And so she directed us. The lookout provides great views over the wineries and farmlands that provide the core of the region’s landscape.
The park hosts a number of distinctive abstract art pieces that have been sculpted by a number of renowned artists at a duo of events – the first of these held in 1988, and the following on the 20th anniversary in 2008.
From there we went to Tanunda. The architure………
As we make our way to Seppeltsfield we pass some of the 2,000 date palm trees that were planted here during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The palms certainly make a statement. Most of them look very healthy, especially seeing they are nearly 90 years old.
The Seppeltsfield Mausoleum has a towering view over the village of Seppeltsfield, the winery and the local surrounds and is steeped in history. Over thirty members of the greater Seppelt family have been interred in this Mausoleum since 1925.
We were soon at the massive Seppeltsfield Winery. The facility itself has become a tourist destination in its own right. There is a large new cellar, a restaurant, the Jam Factory, Segway Sensations, Benno’s Kiosk and the huge gardens provide activities for the whole family. We had a good look around as it is impressive, even though it seemed to us over the top. The tasting room was packed and we did not participate.
From there we went to the Maggie Beer’s Pheasant Farm near Nuriootpa for even more goodies, spied a lovely little church on the way. This has a different, more relaxed feel compared to the Beerenberg farm shop at Hahndorf. This shop is better as you can taste most things. There was also a new chef doing her stuff in the Beer kitchen. I love Maggie’s stuff, so quickly grabbed a basket and put some chutneys in. We also tasted the pates – brilliant, so some went in also.
We walked around the farm and saw the most amazing birds There was a pea-hen with a small chick – so cute, as well as so many different types of pheasants, geese, ducks and more peacocks.
Back at Nuriootpa, we walked through the town, although there are not so many historical buildings there. We did some final shopping as we do not know what is at the Flinders Ranges where we will be for the next 3 nights.
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