History of Burnside - Early Villages

Early Villages

The village of Kensington was established in May 1839, only 29 months after the foundation of the colony. The village was primarily agricultural and had a close relationship with the nearby village of Norwood. The two villages formed one of Adelaide's first municipalities in 1853 as Norwood and Kensington, evolving into today's City of Norwood Payneham St Peters. Parts of Kensington that are now included in Burnside are the suburbs of Kensington Gardens and Kensington Park. The village of Makgill (later Magill) was first established as the 524-acre (2.1 km2) Makgill Estate, owned by two Scots—Robert Cock and William Ferguson—who met on board the Buffalo en route to the newly founded colony. It was named after Mrs Cock's trustee, David M Makgill. Ferguson, who was charged with farming the estate, built the estate's homestead in 1838. Soon after farming started, the two were short of funds, and thus Magill became the first foothills village to be subdivided. The village of Glen Osmond was closely associated with the discovery of silver and lead on the slopes of Mount Osmond by two Cornish immigrants. Their discovery of minerals provided the colony with valuable export income, at a time when the early South Australian economy was not yet established and facing bankruptcy. Governor Gawler visited the early discovery and the first mine, Wheal Gawler, was named in his honour. South Australia's first mine exported overseas throughout the 1840s, providing employment to early Cornish and then German immigrants after several mines were bought by a German businessman. The early village assumed a strong Cornish, and later a German character. Mining declined after an exodus of workers when a gold rush began in 1851 in the neighbouring colony of Victoria.

The Anderson family was the first to settle the land that was to become the village of Burnside. They brought with them good character testimonials from Scotland, valuable farming experience and 3000 pounds; however, the farming patterns in Scotland differed greatly from those in the antipodes, and the family failed to adapt. The Andersons moved on to Morphett Vale in 1847, selling their land and abandoning their homestead. The buyer of the Anderson land, William Randell, soon decided to build a village in his new property in 1849. He hired surveyor and planner Nathan Hailes to lay out the new village. Hailes was both surprised and disappointed when he found that it had already been settled and left—especially since the growth and adaptation of European foliage to the area. The first villages to be established in the region, those of Glen Osmond, Magill and Kensington had existed for some time when the new village of Burnside was proclaimed. The new village was in a good position to grow; it was bounded by two major thoroughfares, Burnside (now Glynburn) and Greenhill Roads, and had the advantage of lying on Second Creek. The village was soon attracting residents; some of whom were wealthy Adelaide folk building an estate in the foothills, and others who were more concerned with working the land. The village was described in advertisements by Hailes in 1850 as "Burnside the Beautiful" with advantages of "perpetual running water, extensive and diversified view, rich garden soil and good building stone ..." with a "... direct, newly-opened and unblemished route to Adelaide".