William Magarey, the second generation of the family in Adelaide business, following Thomas and James
John Ridley's Hindmarsh flour mill (top) near Adelaide taken over by brothers Thomas and James Magarey in 1849. James Magarey died 10 years later in the wreck of the Admella off South Australia's southeast coast.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Art Gallery of South Australia (Wreck of the Admella 1859 by Charles Hill)
James Magarey, who arrived with his brother Thomas in Adelaide, via New Zealand, from England in 1845, died in South Australia’s worst maritime disaster: the wreck of the Admella in 1859.
Four years after moving to Adelaide, the Magarey brothers took over John Ridley’s flour mill at Hindmarsh near Adelaide’s city centre. Thomas later run the mill on his own and built up pastoral interests around South Australia, while James Magarey moved to the colony of Victoria to run Gannawarra Station on Gunbower Creek (a tributary of the River Murray). He later moved to Laurel Bank Villa at Geelong in that colony. His son William James worked on his father's station and moved to Geelong with him.
James Magarey died while travelling between South Australia and Victoria on the Admella (named for its Adelaide, Melbourne, Launceston route) in the wreck off South Australia’s southeast coast in 1859.
William Magarey took over the flour mill at Hindmarsh and bought another at Port Pirie. He became involved with the South Australian community as a member for the seat of West Torrens in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1878 to 1881. He was on the boards of the Savings Bank of South Australia, National Mutual Life Association and the South Australian Woollen Company.
He was also chairman for some years of the Executor and Trustee Agency Company and British Broken Hill Proprietary. William Magarey was an enthusiastic member of South Australia's Volunteer Force (a pre- Australian federation militia).
In 1864, he married Anna Eliza Bundey, a sister of Henry Bundey. They had a daughter Edith May, who died before 1920, and a son, William Ashley Magarey, (1868–1929), South Australian lawyer and originator of the Magarey Medal for the best and fairest player in the South Australian (Australian rules) football competition.
William Magarey, around 1908, became afflicted with rheumatism but refused to relinquish any of his duties until he was unable to walk.
