Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindrum, from Adelaide start, pots Australia's first wine gold medal/ top billiards dynasty
Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindrum, international gold medal wine maker in 1873, and a champion billiards player. Right: His grandson Frederick William Lindrum III with his nephew Horace (1952 world professional snooker champion), He was older brother of Walter (world professional billiards champion 1933-51). All three were famous for making the rare 1000-break feat.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindrum was another extraordinary example of the influx of multi-talented Germans to South Australia in the 19th Century.
Lindrum, a young Prussian student of philosophy, arrived in South Australia on the tiny Princess Louise in 1849, with other political refugees from the failed social revolution in Germany in 1848.
Lindrum had two special skills: playing billiards and making wine.
His billiard playing would be the first put to the test. His win against the great British champion and “the world’s supreme master”, John Roberts Snr., signalled the start of the Lindrum legend: five world-class Australian champions, including Horace and Walter, in the same discipline in only four generations. Lindrums dominated cue sports for 105 years.
Lindrum later excelled as a vigneron, setting himself up in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood.
This led him becoming one of the great winemaking pioneers as Australia’s first gold medal winner for South Australian shiraz at the London International Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1873 and, by invitation of the French, he became Australia's first international brandy judge at the Paris Exhibition, 1874.
Clara Lindrum, a granddaughter of the original Lindrum, also played billiards but could never test her talent, due to lack of female competition. She proved herself in another completely different field: by forming Australia’s first Dixieland band in 1922.
Over the years, branches of the Lindrum family maintained an interest in wines, including some sourced from Langhorne Creek, south of Adelaide.