George Goyder a major influence of many 19th Century South Australia government activities/ issues, including climate
George Goyder as South Australia's surveyor general wearing (at right) the uniform of senior public servant in the 19th Century British tradition. But Goyder's public service was chacterised by field work in South Australia's most rugged regions (top left). Janis Sheldrick's biography, Nature's Line, portrays Goyder as a surveyor, environmentalist and visionary.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Wakefield Press
George Goyder was a major influence on 19th Century South Australian government for more than 40 years in surveying, constructing railways, valuations, forestry, conservation, mining and many other activities and issues, most notably climate change.
Goyder rose through the government bureaucracy to be become a senior public servant as surveyor general, a role characterised by his field work in South Australia’s most rugged and remote regions. His “line of rainfall” was the most famous result of his work and he surveyed the Northern Territory for a site for the capital at Palmerston, later Darwin.
Known as South Australia’s most efficient public servant, Goyder often went into the field checking surveyors and taking over the actual survey work from incompetent men. During this time, he wrote thousands of letters every year. As inspector of mines, he visited many of the newly discovered sites and became known as “Little Energy”. Goyder tendered his resignation as surveyor-general three time but was persuaded to withdraw them because the South Australian government valued his services so much.
Goyder, in his wide interests and activities, has been described as a "specialising generalist". This generalist approach to society was attributed to his early education in the Pestalozzi method (an influence shared with Albert Einstein). Both Goyder's parents, David and Sarah, were trained Pestalozzian teachers and David Goyder a prominent advocate for setting up Pestalozzi schools throughout Great Britain. Johann Pestalozzi teaching method employed the learner’s “head, heart and hand”. He saw the potential of children’s education to create adults able to support sustainable democratic societies.
George Goyder also was outside the mainstream in being baptised in Liverpool, England, in 1826 into the New Jerusalem Church, based on the teachings of Swedish mystic Emanuel Swednborg. Goyder's father and uncle were ministers within the church.
When the family moved to Glasgow, Goyder joined an engineering firm and studied surveying. He migrated of New South Wales in 1848 at 22 and settled in Melbourne.
In 1851, Goyder relocated to Adelaide to meet up with the Smith family from England who were members of the New (Swedenborg) Church. Goyder entered the South Australian public service that year and married Frances Mary Smith at Christ Church Anglican in North Adelaide followed by an unofficial wedding ceremony in the New (Swedenborg) Church in Carrington Street, Adelaide city.
In 1853, Goyder became chief clerk in the South Australian government lands and survey department. Four years later, he was assistant surveyor general and, in 1861, surveyor general, until 1893.
Goyder was the first European explorer to see great salt lakes in the Sputh Australian inland in flood and to witness the huge change that followed drought breaking. His experience put him decades ahead of his contemporaries. who satirised him as the discoverer of the inland sea. in understanding the Australian climate. When he attempted to adapt the pattern of settlement to climatic reality by defining the border of the zone of reliable rainfall, his repeated warnings about the threat of drought were scorned.
Goyder introduced settler Australians to the idea of variability of climate, and the limits to agricultural possibilities for the inland.
