Gawler Institute starts in 1857 as town shows growing confidence in being 'colonial Athens' of South Australia

Dr George Nott (left), surgeon turned writer, was four times president of the institute at "colonial Athens" Gawler, as drawn by James Shaw in 1866-67.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

South Australia’s first public museum was in Gawler – a boom town from the 1850s, confidently claiming to be the “colonial Athens” for its leadership in cultural and scientific interests. 

Gawler was blessed in this regard by the confluence of passionate and community-minded businessmen, led by Richard Turner and James Martin, plus in the influx the area of German scientists, philosophers, doctors, educators, lawyers, arts and museum – political refugees (not religious, like pastor Augustus Kavel’s earlier Lutherans) from the failed 1848 revolutionary uprising.

In Gawler during 1848, local mill owner Walter Duffield’s proposal for a mechanics institute providing adult education to male labourers didn’t attract members – perhaps a sign of South Australia’s divergence from the rigid class system in England and Scotland.

But Gawler was inspired in 1857 – the year it was declared a municipality – to enthusiastically pursue having a literary institute. That year had confirmed Gawler as gateway to the north and the copper discoveries at Kapunda and Burra. Also in 1857, Gawler was linked to Adelaide by rail, alongside a metalled road, connected to the outside world by metallic telegraph and William Barnet started printing office of The Bunyip newspaper. A railway station and courthouse, designed by eminent colonial architect Edward Hamilton, were among showpiece public buildings opened.

One hundred Gawler people were at the courthouse in 1857 for a meeting, chaired by miller, pastoralist, businessman and Barossa member of parliament Walter Duffield, that decided “it is desirable that a public library and reading room be established” as the Gawler institute.

Duffield’s milling partner Richard Turner (and the town’s first mayor) was first president of the institute, housed in rented premises in Murray Street. With a librarian appointed, by April 1858 it had 926 books and 150 paid subscribers. In 1859, £10 was allocated to buy maps and a globe of the world for the reading room.

Public lectures were also organised. One of the first was by Colonel Robert Torrens on the “Benefits of the Real Property Act” while Dr George Nott lectured, among other subjects, on “The anatomical structure and workings of the eye”. Originally a physician and surgeon in High Street, Gawler, Nott turned to writing and was four times president of Gawler Institute where his “literary tastes, large mindedness, enthusiasm, and capacity for work did much to give the institution that stamp of progressiveness.”

Also a gifted artist and theatrical actor, Nott was a member of the infamous Humbug Society, became the first editor of The Bunyip newspaper and his “A short sketch of the rise and progress of Gawler (1860s)” was the earliest published history of Gawler. He was also Gawler mayor in 1865.