Gawler, South Australia
, population 19,000) is a town in the state of
South Australia. The name is the family name of the second
Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia,
George Gawler.
Gawler is 40 km (25 miles) north of the state capital,
Adelaide. It is close to the major wine producing district of
Barossa Valley. Topographically, Gawler lies at the confluence of two tributaries of the
Gawler River, the
North and South Para rivers, where they emerge from a range of low hills.
A
British colony, South Australia was established as a commercial venture by the South Australia Company through the sale of land to free settlers at £1 per acre (£247/km²). This differed from other Australian states, which were either established as penal colonies or made use of convict labour (
Western Australia). Gawler was established by a 'special survey' for a syndicate of colonists and the town plan was devised by the colonial surveyor,
William Light, the son of
Francis Light who founded
Penang,
Malaysia. Gawler was the only town planned by William Light other than Adelaide.
Adelaide became a model of foresight with wide streets and ample parklands. After Light's death, it also became a model for numerous other planned towns in South Australia (many of which were never built). As the only other town planned by Light, Gawler is ironically dissimilar to Adelaide's one square mile (2.6 km²) grid. Both townships in fact respond well to their respective sites. The heart of Gawler is triangular rather than square, a form dictated by the topographical features. The parkland along the riverbanks and a
Victorian preference for public squares are there but Light was aware that he was planning a village, not a metropolis.
Gawler prospered early with the discovery of copper nearby at
Kapunda, which resulted in Gawler becoming a stopping point on the way to Adelaide. Later, it developed industries including flour milling and manufacturing steam locomotives.
With prosperity came a modest cultural flowering, the high point of which was the holding of a competition to compose an anthem for Australia in
1859, four decades before statehood. The result was
The Song of Australia, written by
Caroline J Carleton to music by
Carl Linger. This became in the next century a candidate in a national referendum to choose a new National Anthem for
Australia to replace
God Save the Queen.
Generally, however, Gawler was, and remains, a commercial centre for the Mid-North districts of South Australia and, increasingly, a dormitory town for Adelaide. The hit Australian television program
McLeod's Daughters is shot at "Kingsford", a working property outside Gawler.
Gawler is in the
Town of Gawler local government area, the state electorate of Light and the federal
Division of Wakefield.
*
Town website*
Map of Gawler
