Colonial Settlers on the River Torrens
Roger Irvine
The Kaurna people lived peacefully and productively along the River Torrens, or Karrawirra Parri, for millennia. This book describes their way of life and their displacement by the first generation of European settlers.
The outstanding achievement of the settlers on the upper Torrens was the contribution they made to the development of horticulture. They transitioned from grains and livestock to producing huge quantities of melons and an impressive diversity of fruits, vines and vegetables.
Roger Irvine details the lives of these settler families, including notables such as Charles Campbell who gave his name to 'Campbell Town', Joseph Ind whose property 'Little Paradise' provided a name for another suburb, and A.J. Murray who chose 'Athelstone' as the name of his farm, for reasons now difficult to trace.
The inhabitants of the upper Torrens have witnessed many changes, including both setbacks and successes. Colonial Settlers on the River Torrens reflects on an area that has had many incarnations, and the river that continues to flow through it.
Roger Irvine lives on the banks of the River Torrens in Campbelltown, only a short distance from Charles Campbell's original homestead. He grew up on a farm in the south-east of South Australia. A year as an exchange student led to a degree in Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, followed by over three decades in the commonwealth public service. He obtained a master's degree in international relations from the ANU and, after leaving Canberra in 2003, a doctorate from the University of Adelaide.
Colonial Settlers on the River Torrens is Roger Irvine's second book, the first being about expert predictions of China's future. His interest in the history of two outstanding heritage buildings at Lochiel Park - Lochend, built by Campbell, and Lochiel Park House, by David Mundy - led to an intensely stimulating period of research about the first European settlers on the upper reaches of the Torrens, of which this book is the result.
