Businessman and MP Joseph Fisher creates Woodfield House at Adelaide's Fullarton for royal visit in 1867
Joseph Fisher in the garden of Woodfield House, corner of Fullarton Road and Fisher Street, Fullarton, in Adelaide's eastern suburbs, around 1900. The Italianate mansion he had built to host a royal visit in 1867 is at left with the original single-storey home owned by James Verco next to it.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia, colourised and edited by Kelly Bonato for A Colourful History Facebook page.
Woodfield House, a South Australian state-heritage-listed mansion at Fullarton in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, was built by businessman and parliamentarian Joseph Fisher so he could host Prince Alfred, duke of Edinburgh, on his visit in 1867. The Italianate mansion with a three-storey tower and gracious classical lines was completed, next to his existing single-storey residence, in time for the visit.
Born in Brighouse, Yorkshire, England, in 1834, Fisher arrived four years later in South Australia with his parents, merchant Joshua and Hannah, brother and two sisters on the Pestonjee Bomanjee. His father opened a grocery in Hindley Street, Adelaide city, but died in 1841, leaving young Joseph in the care of businessman Anthony Forster.
After five years at the Oddfellows School, Fisher began working at his guardian Forster's office. In 1848, Forster was offered a partnership in the South Australian Register newspaper but soon withdrew. Fisher, who’d gone to the Register with Forster, stayed on, graduating from odd jobs to accounts. In 1852, Fisher visited the Victorian goldfields and, in 1853, became a proprietor and commercial manager of the Register and Observer newspapers. He guided the business through many storms, advancing his own interests and those who worked with him.
In 1857, Fisher married Anne, daughter of merchant Henry Farrar. That year, he bought the single-storey house on the Woodfield House property from James Verco, a merchant and state and local politician; also father of famous Adelaide doctor Joseph Verco.
With his integrity, plain speech and geniality, Fisher was widely sought in Adelaide for business advice. As agent for colonists such as John Ridley, who had retired to England, he gained further inside information. His own investments, including shares in two large sheep stations and the clipper Hesperus, were varied, safe and seldom changed. His directorships included the Bank of Adelaide, the Port Adelaide Dock Co., the South Australian Gas Co. as well as insurance, pastoral and mortgage firms. He retired from the Register in 1865 and sold his share to John Howard Clark.
In 1868, Joseph Fisher was elected to the South Australian parliament, representing Sturt in the House of Assembly and, in 1873-81, sitting in the Legislative Council. He served on many committees, often as chairman. An advocate of private enterprise and municipal government, he was a sharp critic of laws he deemed unnecessary and of ministries that ignored the property owners’ rights by resuming private land with inadequate compensation. In 1880, when a restrictive Chinese immigration bill reached the Legislative Council, his uncompromising opposition led to its rejection as an unChristian, uneconomic measure that meddled with imperial matters. His firm stand was unpopular and cost him his seat in the 1881 election.
In retirement, Fisher travelled widely with his family in the Australian colonies and New Zealand and visited Britain five times. An enthusiastic gardener, he delighted in working among his roses and trees in the large Woodfield grounds. He renovated his home, built up a fine collection of local art and entertained friends. In the cricket season, he regularly occupied the same front seat in the members' pavilion at Adelaide Oval and for nearly 25 years was South Australian Cricket Association vice president.
Fisher died at Woodfield in 1907, leaving an estate valued at £72,400. He donated £3,315 to institutions to avoid the 10% succession duty that to him was “an unjust and unwise exaction … tending to check the flow of public spirited benevolence” .The list of benefactors included hospitals, churches, convalescent homes and parks. The largest gifts were £500 for South Australia’s National Art Gallery and £1,000 to Adelaide University for the Joseph Fisher medal and a lecture in commerce every alternate year.
