George Brookman's 19th Century gold bonanza reflected in two state heritage mansions in Adelaide's Gilberton
South Australian mining magnate George Brookman's first mansion, Craigmellan (inset), at Edwin Terrace in Adelaide's Gilberton, was followed by the bigger Ivanhoe in the same street. Craigmellan was used as the music teacher's house in the South Australian film Shine.
Main image courtesy Federation Adelaide Facebook
Two state heritage listed mansions, Craigmellan and Ivanhoe, at Edwin Terrace in the Adelaide inner northern suburb of Gilberton reflected the1880s wealth of South Australian mining investor George Brookman.
Brookman, who began his life in Glasgow in humble circumstances, arrived as a two-year-old with his family at Port Adelaide in 1852. He was educated in Adelaide and worked with D. and J. Fowler, a major grocer and wholesaler s in Adelaide. He then set up Finlayson and Company grocery with William Finlayson.
Brookman made most of his money from investing in gold mines in Western Australia and in trading shares. He was admitted to the Adelaide stock exchange as a broker in 1890 and he set up Coolgardie Gold Mining and Prospecting Company in 1893 with other investors. The gold finds there made him very wealthy. He also invested in Broken Hill silver lead and zinc mines. He built his own Adelaide city office building in 1896. He was chairman of the South Australian Electric Light Company for many years, a director of Mintaro Slate mines, a member of the South Australian House of Assembly, and chairman of Walkerville Council for three terms. He also was in the state’s Legislative Council between 1901 and 1910.
Brookman's financial success enabled him to become a general philanthropist, as well as involved in many topical issues of the day. In 1903, he bought the O’Halloran Giles Darlington property that he renamed Glenthorne Farm. He bought a flock of Dorset Horn sheep from John Melrose’s stud at Ulooloo and bred sheep and he bred White Orpington fowls. He was an avid gardener and had a property at Meadows where he bred flowers and plants for his floristry hobby.
He was an active Congregationalist and was most remembered for his role in starting the School of Mines because of his mining and metallurgy interests. He donated £15,000 to the School of Mines and the main building, Brookman Hall, opened in 1903. It became the City East campus of the University of South Australia.
Craigmellan, Brookman’s first grand house in Edwin Terrace, Gilberton, was built around 1883 after his 1878 marriage. It was probably designed by architect Edmund Wright (at the time partnered with J. H. Reed). It was assessed as “an outstanding representative of an Italianate mansion of the 1880s, one of the major periods of domestic architectural design in South Australia”. In 1889, Brookman built the bigger Ivanhoe – named after the gold mine of the same in Koolgardie, Western Australia – at 9 Edwin Terrace with two acres of extensive grounds and gardens. Its Italianate architectural style and detailing was probably the work of architect Alfred Wells.
A large late Victorian two-storeyed villa residence of distinctive asymmetrical design, with some Italianate elements combined with traditional Victorian domestic architecture, Ivanhoe was innovative for elements such as the square porch that heralded later Edwardian design styles. It became one among similar mansions for pastoralists and mining magnates in Edwin Terrace and Medindie and Gilberton generally.
Brookman was knighted in 1920 for his World War I and repatriation services and died at “Blair Atholl” house at Medindie in 1927.
