Simpson Newland
CMG (2 November 1835 – 27 June 1925), pastoralist, author and politician, was a pioneer in Australia who made significant contributions to development around the
Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...
. He was also an author of practical works and novels.
Early years
Newland was born in
Hanley, Staffordshire
Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke ...
, a son of Rev.
Ridgway William Newland
Rev. Ridgway William Newland (c. 1788 – 8 March 1864), frequently spelled "Ridgeway", was an English Congregationalist minister who with his large family emigrated to the young colony of South Australia, where he had a considerable influence in ...
(died 1864) and his wife Martha Newland, née Keeling (died 1870), who emigrated with their eight children to South Australia aboard the ''Sir Charles Forbes'', arriving in June 1839.
He and his siblings were educated to a high standard at home by their mother.
[
Simpson Newland was at first a sickly boy, but the open air life improved his health, and he became a competent stockrider and bushman. His evenings were largely given up to improving his education with the help of his mother.
]
Pastoralist and prosperity
In 1864 Newland took up station life on the Darling River
The Darling River ( Paakantyi: ''Baaka'' or ''Barka'') is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its conflu
ence with the Murray River at Wentworth, New South Wales. Including its longes ...
in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
some 50 miles from Wilcannia
Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th ce ...
, and became more and more interested in the indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
and the natural history of the country. He improved the breeds of his sheep and cattle, and by age 40 had become very prosperous. On 12 September 1872 at Buckanbee, New South Wales, he married Jane Isabella Layton.
Undelcarra
In 1876, with three sons, they moved to Adelaide and bought a mansion at Burnside which they called "Undelcarra"; Newland continued to manage the stations from Adelaide. George Debney was a leading furniture maker in Rundle Street and one of the first owners of the estate that was later known as Undelcarra. The estate stretched north from Second Creek, between Lockwood Road and Hallett Road up to approximately where Statenborough Street is now located. The Debneys lived on the property from the 1850s till 1877 when it was sold to Simpson Newland who significantly enlarged the house and called it Undelcarra.
Undelcarra belonged to Simpson Newland between 1876 and 1911. He is best known as author of the book ''Paving the Way'', but was also a pastoralist from the River Darling area where his Marra Station had an out-station named Undelcarra which is said to be Aboriginal for 'under the hill with running water'. The estate passed into the hands of Torrens Ward, solicitor from 1911–1919. It was purchased in 1919 by Alfred Allen Simpson
Alfred Allen Simpson (15 April 1875 – 27 November 1939) was an industrialist in South Australia and a partner in the firm A. Simpson & Son, founded by his grandfather Alfred Simpson. He was the mayor of Adelaide from 1913 to 1915.
History ...
of A. Simpson & Co whitegoods manufacturers. The final subdivision was in 1969, but the house still stands in Undelcarra Road and is still owned by his descendants. The gatehouse, which is still on Lockwood Road near the bridge over Second Creek, was converted into a private residence and the main driveway re-routed to have access from Undelcarra Road. The gates that are now seen there were originally on Glynburn Road at the end of the driveway to the house ''Erindale''.[
]
Politics and public life
He entered the House of Assembly
House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level.
Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
in 1881 as member for Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with Nicolas Baud ...
, and soon afterwards brought in a measure to build a north to south railway on the land grant system which was defeated.
In June 1885 he became Treasurer of South Australia
The Treasurer of South Australia is the Cabinet minister in the Government of South Australia who is responsible for the financial management of that state's budget sector. The Urban Renewal Authority, trading as Renewal SA, lies within the T ...
in the Downer ministry but, finding the strain of his duties too much for his health, resigned the position a year later.
He took much interest in the development of the River Murray and revived the question of the north–south railway. He succeeded in getting a royal commission appointed to consider it, and as chairman of the commission personally examined the country as far north as Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
. In two pamphlets, ''The Far North Country'' (1887) and ''Our Waste Lands'' (1888), Newland gave an account of his journey and his views on the possibilities of the districts traversed. In 1889 he visited England and while there heard of the discovery of rich ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...
at Broken Hill
Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...
. He had acquired an interest in the new field and this now became very valuable.
Author
On his return, encouraged by his friend Sir John Langdon Bonython
Sir John Langdon Bonython (;Charles Earle Funk, ''What's the Name, Please?'' (Funk & Wagnalls, 1936). 15 October 184822 October 1939) was an Australian editor, newspaper proprietor, philanthropist, journalist and politician who served a ...
, for whose paper (The ''Advertiser'') he had written a number of articles, he wrote his novel, ''Paving the Way'', which embodied many of his experiences as a pioneer and with indigenous people.
He went to England again in 1893 and arranged for the publication of his book. It was released the same year and was given a good reception by the critics. A second edition was published in 1894 and it has since been several times reprinted. Newland also published a second novel, ''Blood Tracks of the Bush'', in 1900, which was less successful than his earlier work, "partly because inferior, but also because he courageously and accurately portrayed horrific mass-murders of Aborigines by police and pastoralists. The public was not ready for such honesty."
In 1895 he produced several articles for the Adelaide Observer
''The Observer'', previously ''The Adelaide Observer'', was a Saturday newspaper published in Adelaide, South Australia from July 1843 to February 1931. Virtually every issue of the newspaper (under both titles) has been digitised and is availabl ...
as part of that newspaper's "Old-time Memories" series: ''Some Aboriginals I have known'', and ''A band of pioneers''.
North–South railway line
On Newland's return to Adelaide at the end of 1893, he began collecting material for a pamphlet on the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
, and the necessity for its being linked to the south by a railway.
In 1899 he visited England and obtained the promise of support from financial interests in London, and returning to Australia obtained parliamentary sanction for the construction of a railway on the land grant system in 1902. His pamphlet, ''Land-Grant Railway across Australia: The Northern Territory of the State of South Australia as a Field for Enterprise and Capital'', was published by the government at the end of that year. In 1906 he again went to England and succeeded in floating a company to undertake the building of the line. On his return he found that a Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
government under Thomas Price had come into power, and as the policy of Labor was opposed to building lines on the land grant system, Newland realized that nothing could be done at the time.
Other interests
He resumed his work on the development of a river port on the Murray, he had become a vice-president of the River Murray league in 1902, and the question was kept alive in 1903 and 1904 by holding public meetings. On 28 July 1904 Newland was elected president of the league, and the necessity of developing the Murray was kept steadily before the public for many years. A great step forward was made in 1914, when the Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
, Sir Joseph Cook
Sir Joseph Cook, (7 December 1860 – 30 July 1947) was an Australian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1913 to 1914. He was the leader of the Liberal Party from 1913 to 1917, after earlier serving ...
, pledged £1,000,000 from the Commonwealth if each of the three states interested would spend a similar amount, which is what occurred.
Newland had many interests. In 1895–1900 and again in 1920–22 he was president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia
On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A branch was formed in Victoria in the same year. In July 1885, both the Queensland and the South Australian branches started.
In ...
, and in 1906–23 president of the South Australian Zoological and Acclimatization Society. He deplored the European destruction of the environment and proposed that the Coorong area should be reserved for Aborigines and the land reforested. In 1922 he was appointed C.M.G. (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III.
...
).
He had published a pamphlet in middle life, ''A Band of Pioneers, Old-Time Memories'' (2nd ed. 1919), which included an interesting account of the arrival of his family in 1839. This was incorporated in his ''Memoirs of Simpson Newland'', written in the last year of his long life. It was completed on 6 June 1925 and showed him to be still in full command of his mental powers. He died three weeks later, but before he died he knew that it had definitely been decided to complete the north to south railway line; his other dream of a (sea-)port at the mouth of the Murray still awaits fulfilment.
Family
Newland died on 27 June 1925 at North Adelaide, survived by his wife and three of their five sons. His ashes were taken to his spiritual home, Victor Harbor, for burial.
Colonel Sir Henry Simpson Newland DSO, CBE (1873–1969), their eldest son, was an accomplished surgeon known for his public works and as a founder of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Philip Mesmer Newland (1875–1916) was an Australian sportsman who excelled at Australian rules football, cricket and lacrosse. He played Sheffield Shield cricket for South Australia as a wicket-keeper and toured England with the Australian Test team in 1905. He played Australian rules football with the Norwood Football Club and captained Norwood's 1904 premiership winning team.
Major Victor Marra Newland MC, OBE (1876–1953), their third son, had a distinguished military career, was a successful business man, a member of the stock exchange, and in the period 1933–38 represented North Adelaide for the Liberal and Country League in the House of Assembly.[
Doctor Clive Newland (1878–1919), a graduate of London University, had a practice at Morphett Vale. He was killed in a railway accident, when the motorcycle he was riding collided with an oncoming train.
Ralph Dimmock Newland (1880–1933), their youngest son, represented South Australia at lacrosse.]
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Paving the Way: A Romance of the Australian Bush'' (1893)
* ''Blood Tracks of the Bush: An Australian Romance'' (1900)
Autobiography
* ''The Far North Country'' (1887)
* ''Old Time Memories: a band of pioneers'' (1895)
* ''Memoirs of Simpson Newland, C.M.G. Sometime Treasurer of South Australia'' (1926)
See also
*Electoral district of Newland
Newland is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after pioneer Simpson Newland, a prominent figure in nineteenth-century South Australia. It is a 69.3&n ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newland, Simpson
1835 births
1925 deaths
19th-century Australian novelists
Australian male novelists
Australian non-fiction writers
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
People from Hanley, Staffordshire
Politicians from Adelaide
Writers from Adelaide
Treasurers of South Australia
Members of the South Australian House of Assembly
19th-century male writers
Male non-fiction writers