Nuriootpa, Tanunda, Light Pass, Collingrove House, Strait Gate Church

Shunning all things winery, we set out to explore a little of the Barossa's social history, starting at Light Pass (the name of a town no less) and Luhr's Cottage. One has to assume, as it can't be verified, that Light Pass was named in honour of Colonel William Light, Surveyor General of SA from the beginning in 1834 to his untimely death in 1838. He set-out Adelaide, the capital of the colony, and much of the Barossa valley, named after the Barrossa Ridge, part of the area around Cadiz in Spain where the Battle of the Barrossa took place. The name Barossa came about due to a public servant clerical error, the 'r' being dropped when it was being registered. Nothing changes, it seems

Anyhow, Luhr was one of the earliest German settlers and built this cottage in 1845, next to the Immanuel Lutheran church, at which he taught in the school.

Brian is taller than the Luhr cottage. Light Pass, SA

Right across the road from the cottage is this quaint Post Office, which had a steady stream of mail-getters while we were there.

Post Office. Light Pass, SA

I wandered over to take a snap and said hello to a fellow who was sticking up a notice. In a short space of time, I knew that he was the Pastor at the Immanuel Church , and that the Church right behind the PO was called the Strait Gate, that it was a reference to verse from Matthew, and that it had been built by faithful, including the Luhrs, who had broken away from the Immanuel after some disagreement on some obscure point of religion. The two churches are both Lutheran, both in the same synod and both within 100 metres of each other.

From the street, the Strait Gate (what an apt name for a church) is an imposing tower, built in 1877 and is all that's left of the original church.

We were poking about and a woman took us under her wing and unlocked the modern church and showed us around, mentioning that the original Pastor's cottage was out the back. We went round the back and sure enough, a shed / barn / shack of sorts, built of mud and straw pressed in between timber studs still stood there. She mentioned that one end was were they lived, the other was for the cows, as they did in Germany.

Pastor's cottage, Strait Gate Lutheran Church.  Light Pass, SA

Pastor's cottage, Strait Gate Lutheran Church.  Light Pass, SA

As we were looking over the adjacent cemetery another fellow asked if we wanted anything in particular. He sounded more German than the Germans, but turned out to be fifth generation Australian. He was wearing a shirt with Kurtz Vineyard emblazoned on it and we mentioned that the first grave in the yard also bore this name. He laughed and said yes, that was his father and grandfather, and that great-grandfather and his father were buried over the road in the Immanuel graveyard. He did not know why, but did know that he in his turn would be buried right there next to his father.

We then went a little further down the road to Collingrove House, home of the Angas family who had sponsored many of the early German settlers to emigrate to the new colony.

The house is magnificent and strikingly English compared to the Germanic style of everything else in the valley.

Colligrove House. Angaston SA

Colligrove House. Angaston SA

Colligrove House. Angaston SA

Colligrove House. Angaston SA

 For $6 each we were given admission and a self guided tour of the original house. Considering where it is and when it was built (compared to Luhr's cottage or the Pastors shed, say) it was stunningly opulent. I think it's even better than Vaucluse House owned by that NSW upstart, Wentworth. The story is that old man Angas sent his clerk out to SA along with the emigrants, to look after his business interests, namely to make sure they paid their loans back, which they did, right down to the last penny plus interest. This clerk fellow however, also bought 28000 acres of land on his behalf at 1 pound per acre, which sent Angas very close to bankruptcy. He called the clerk back to England and replaced him with his son, who set about building up a massive fortune, at one time owning some 14 million acres (or 1/3) of the colony of SA. Old man Angas eventually sold up in England and came out to live here as well. One of his descendants donated the property to the National trust in 1974.

Basking in their reflected glory, we ordered the Devonshire Tea at $10 a head. Here's Judy about to indulge:

Colligrove House. Angaston SA

A visit to Maggie Beer's is almost obligatory, and while Judy watched the cooking demo, I took a walk around the small lake and took some snaps.

Turtle. Maggie Beer Farm. Nuriootpa SA

Maggie Beer Farm. Nuriootpa SA

Quince tree. Maggie Beer Farm. Nuriootpa SA

Duckus Sarseup. Maggie Beer Farm. Nuriootpa SA

Bit of a long day really and we went looking for a winery platter like yesterday, but they all closed at 3pm. Beating our previous best, we ate lunch at 345 at the local bakery in Tanunda