Clarendon is a small town in the Adelaide Hills, about south of the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...

and now regarded as an outer suburb of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. It lies within the

City of Onkaparinga The City of Onkaparinga () is a local government area (LGA) located on the southern fringe of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the Onkaparinga River, whose name comes from ''Ngangkiparinga'', a Kaurna word meaning women's river. It ...

council area. The Clarendon Weir is located in the town area, on the

Onkaparinga River The Onkaparinga River, known as Ngangkiparri or Ngangkiparingga ("place of the women’s river") in the Kaurna language, is a river located in the Southern Adelaide region in the Australian state of South Australia. Rising in the Mount Lofty Ran ...

History

The

Kaurna people The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurna ...

were the original inhabitants of the area. On 21 October 1840, Richard Blundell was granted the title to Section 801 of the

Hundred of Noarlunga The Hundred of Noarlunga is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia covering the far south-western Adelaide metropolitan area south and west of the Sturt River and north and west of the Onkaparinga River. It is one of the eleven hundreds ...

, after the area had been surveyed. In 1846

James Philcox James Philcox (22 January 1812 – 31 March 1893) was an English land speculator and property developer in the 1840s and 1850s in the colony of South Australia. He is credited with naming the inner eastern Adelaide suburb of Marryatville as well a ...

purchased part of the section and subdivided it, selling the allotments and creating the town. In 1848, what remained of Section 801 was sold to Philcox's friend George Morphett, who later surveyed more allotments, and others added blocks adjacent to the town. In December 1846 the Clarendon vineyards were developed on land purchased by English benefactor

William Augustine Leigh William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

(1802–1873), one of many parcels of land bought through his agent Sir

John Morphett Sir John Morphett (4 May 1809 – 7 November 1892) was a South Australian pioneer, landowner and politician. His younger brother George Morphett was also an early settler in South Australia. Early life Morphett was born in London, th ...

(including two town acres between

Currie Currie ( gd, Currach, IPA: �kʰuːᵲəx is a village and suburb on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated south west of the city centre. Formerly within the County of Midlothian, it now falls within the jurisdiction of the City of Edi ...

and Hindley Streets in the

city blocks A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within ...

, hence the naming of Leigh Street). A vineyard was created by 1849, probably by John or George Morphett.

Edward Peake Edward Peake (29 March 1860 – 3 January 1945) was a Wales international rugby union three-quarter and county cricketer. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford, Peake would win a Blue for cricket before representing Gloucestershire. Peake is most ...

bought the winery from Leigh, built the first cottage on the site, and sold it to Joseph Gillard, who owned it for 40 years, selling most of the wine to

Penfolds Penfolds is an Australian wine producer that was founded in Adelaide in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold, an English physician who emigrated to Australia, and his wife Mary Penfold. It is one of Australia's oldest wineries, and is currently p ...

. The winery complex was converted into a

conference centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

in the 1970s. By 1866 the town was described as a regional centre "in the midst of a fine agricultural district, where wheat, peas, and potatoes are largely grown". The Clarendon area, Coromandel Valley and

Kangarilla Kangarilla is a small rural town and locality around from Adelaide city centre, in South Australia. The area, formerly inhabited by Kaurna people, was settled by Europeans in 1840, not long after the British colonisation of South Australia. Tod ...

focused on

orchards An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of lar ...

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...

s and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

production in the early years, but after revised farming practices were introduced after the 1860s,

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s were planted at Clarendon and other areas, and many

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

began producing and exporting wine. Early trade was built around local vineyards and around proximity to the

, and from 1894 to 1896 the Clarendon Weir was constructed, enhancing the local economy.

Heritage buildings

Many buildings in Clarendon were put on the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

and restored over time, including the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Court House and Police Station, the Bible Christian Methodist Church, the 1875 Methodist Church (now Uniting), the Oddfellows Hall and General Store.

References

Suburbs of Adelaide Towns in South Australia Populated places established in 1840 {{SouthAustralia-geo-stub

History

Heritage buildings

Further reading

References