Walter Duffield an energetic contributor to 19th Century South Australia as miller, pastoralist, politician
Walter Duffield built his 19th Century business in South Australia on flour mills at Gawler, Snowtown, Wallaroo and Port Pirie.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
Walter Duffield contributed energetically to 19th Century South Australia as a miller, pastoralist and politician. Born into farming family at Great Baddow, Essex, England in 1816, Duffield arrived in South Australia on the William Barras in 1839 and became a tenant on Jacob Hagen’s estate at Echunga.
In 1847, he moved to Gawler where, with some help from his sister in England, he bought the Victoria steam flour mill; it was burnt down three times, twice by arsonists, but he rebuilt it each time and added better machinery, larger wheat stores and cottages for his workmen. As his business and exports expanded, he bought other mills at Snowtown, Wallaroo, Port Pirie, and a share in the Union at Gawler.
He bought sections in the Gawler special survey in 1851 and began to build up the Para Para estate, winning prizes for his hams, wines and orchard produce, and making it attractive for local events, picnics and races. In the early 1850s, he leased the Princess Royal run and then bought Koonoona station near Burra where by 1863 he was shearing more than 40,000 merino sheep.
With tireless energy, he also bought more than a 1,000 square miles of pastoral leases, including Outalpa in northeast of South Australia and Weinteriga on the Darling River, and visited them regularly. He became a local director of the Bank of South Australia in 1859 and joined its Adelaide board in 1873. He was also a director of the Adelaide Marine and Fire Insurance Co., and a member of the Adelaide Club and the chamber of cmmerce.
At Gawler, he supported all worthy causes, was a pillar of the Congregational Church, opposed state aid to religion and served for many years as president of the local branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Popular for his liberal views and as a practical businessman, Duffield represented Barossa in the House of Assembly in 1857-68 and 1870-71, and was treasurer in premier John Hart’s ministry for five months in 1865-66 and under James Boucaut’s in 1866-67. His most noted legislation was the 1867 Dog Act that remained unamended until 1884.
Duffield was elected to the Legislative Council in 1873. Granted a short leave in 1878, he returned to the council but on the urgent advice of his family doctor resigned in 1880. He sold his pastoral leases, made his will and withdrew from all public activities.
His grandson,Walter Duffield, born in 1879 at Gawler, became Adelaide University’s brilliant science graduate and driving force behind Australia getting its first space observatory at Mount Stromlo near Canberra.