71 Gawler St | Courier Office (Foundation 1 Op Shop)
71 Gawler St, Courier Office (Foundation 1 Op Shop) If you take a step back from the façade of this building and look up, you will see the Courier name across the parapet. The building was erected as an office and printery in 1884 by Charles Morris Russell Dumas (1851-1935), founder of The Courier newspaper. Dumas was the […]
66-68 Gawler St | Mrs Starling’s Shop
66-68 Gawler St, Mrs Starling’s Shop A story that is often repeated about this place is that a staircase to the second floor was omitted by mistake by the builder in 1865, and this necessitated the addition of an external staircase until one could be accommodated inside. This tale does not, however, take into account […]
63 Gawler St | Gray’s Inn
63 Gawler St, Gray’s Inn Gray’s Inn was constructed in 1855 by Benjamin Gray (1809-1879), brewer, builder and surveyor of Blakiston. There were more than a dozen pubs, large and small, in the Mount Barker and Littlehampton district in the nineteenth century, and Gray’s Inn is one of only three survivors, along with the Mount […]
60 Gawler St | Old Police Station
60 Gawler St, Old Police Station In the original plans for the town of Mount Barker two blocks of land in the centre of the town were set aside. One was reserved for the Post Office and Police Station, and the second was for the use of the Church. This is the site of the […]
58 Gawler St /33 Hutchinson St | Post and Telegraph Office (Von Doussas)
58 Gawler St /33 Hutchinson St, Post and Telegraph Office (Von Doussas) In the original plans for the town of Mount Barker two blocks of land in the centre of the town were set aside. One was reserved for the Post Office and Police Station, and the second was for the use of the Church. […]
55-57 Gawler St | Barker’s Drapery (Peter Shearer)
55-57 Gawler St, Barker’s Drapery Peter Shearer) Mount Barker Springs farmer Thomas Hamlyn (1801-1883) purchased this site for £30 in 1853, amongst other local property invesments. It was not in the family for long, because in 1854 he sold it to Thomas Good, (1822-1889). Good had emigrated in 1849 aboard the John Mitchell with his friend Charles […]
53 Gawler St | Chapman’s
53 Gawler St, Chapman’s This building is recognisably the same structure that appears in photographs of Gawler Street from the 1860s, which makes it one of the oldest shops in Mount Barker. Over the years several different kinds of enterprises have been launched here, meeting varying fortunes. The first proprietor was Henry Hooper (1827-1861), who […]
48-50 Gawler St | National Bank of Australasia (NAB)
48-50 Gawler St, National Bank of Australasia (NAB) In the original plans for the town of Mount Barker two blocks of land in the centre of the town were set aside. One was reserved for the Post Office the Police Station, and the second was for the use of the Church, divided equally between the […]
45-47 Gawler St | Wilkinson’s Chemist (Terry White Chemmart)
45-47 Gawler St, Wilkinson’s Chemist (Terry White Chemmart) In 1877 this site was bought by James Trego Williams (1836-1903), previously manager of the National Bank at Gawler. Williams may have acquired it for a commercial office, having gone into partnership with Francis Cornelius (1849-1896). He supplanted Frederick Stone, Cornelius’s previous associate. Like Cornelius & Stone […]
35 Gawler St | St Bell’s Drapery (TownMed)
35 Gawler St, Bell’s Drapery (TownMed) The first shop to operate from this site was the Mount Barker Boot and Shoe Depot, opened in 1854 by London-born William Barker (1802-1873, unrelated to William Barker who ran the drapery at 55-57 Gawler Street). He advertised an “immense variety of ready and well-made Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Boots, […]