This rather grand property behind a high stone wall on North Terrace is home to the Governor of South Australia – Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in South Australia. The Governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice on the State’s Premier and while, in recent times, Governors have typically served for around five years the appointment is “at the Queen’s pleasure.” The Governor is not to be confused with the Queen’s other ‘guests’ – prisoners – who may also serve time “at Her Majesty’s, or the Queen’s, pleasure”.
The then British Colony of South Australia’s first Government house was a rather modest three room affair of earth and wood with a thatched roof, built in 1837 by marines from the HMS Buffalo. The HMS Buffalo was the ship on which the first Governor elect, John Hindmarsh, and other early settlers of South Australia arrived into Holdfast Bay, Glenelg on the 28 December, 1836. It was on that day that Hindmarsh read a proclamation, on behalf of King William IV announcing that the government and State of South Australia had been established.
Hindmarsh spent his entire term in this modest thatched abode, situated between what is now Adelaide Railway Station and the Torrens River, and his successor, Governor Gawler, resided there until he was able to move into the first section (the east wing) of the present Georgian style Government House which was completed, on his request, in May 1840 – making it the oldest Government House in Australia. The former thatched ‘Government Hut’ was destroyed in a fire in 1841.
The stone walls around the boundary of Government House and the first guard-room and flagstaff were built around 1847. Major additions to the house itself were not sanctioned by London till the mid 1850s. By the end of the 19th century it looked pretty much as it does today though there have been refurbishments and upgrades in the intervening years.
There are two problems for the average tourist – firstly, the great unwashed are only permitted through the gates on special open days – two per year and, secondly, the wall along North Terrace is of such a height that it is difficult to see across without drawing the attention of security guards, while the shrubbery along the King William Road perimeter is too dense to afford the visitor anything other than small glimpses here and there. I took pictures 1 and 2 attached by holding my camera above my head and hoping for the best – so in reality I did not see what you (and I ) see in the photos.
Perhaps because of the lack of access to Government House, its official website includes an interesting section entitled ‘Inside Government House’ (http://www.governor.sa.gov.au/node/22). This, in addition to providing lots of excellent pictures of the interior of Government House, is rich in detail about the various rooms and items depicted.
While the website refers to a murder in the ballroom – that of the Inspector of Police, Richard Pettinger, in 1862 by one of his former employees, John Seaver, who had recently been sacked for drunkenness while Pettinger had been promoted over him – it does not refer to speculation that the first person hanged in South Australia is buried in grounds of Government House.
That being so, do indulge me while I tell you about the hanging of Michael Magee.
In 1837, within months of the establishment of South Australia the colony’s first sheriff, Samuel Smart, was shot and wounded by a gang who broke into his cottage. An Irishman, Michael Magee, was found to have fired the shot which wounded Smart and for this he was sentenced to death. Governor Hindmarsh was adamant that an example be made of Magee such that crime might not become a major issue in the fledgling colony which, by that stage, did not have a police force worth talking about.
On 2 May 1838, having eventually found a willing executioner, the cook of the ‘South Australian Company’ at which Magee worked and thus an acquaintance of Magee, who disguised himself by wearing a mask and hump, Magee was hanged from a gum tree on nearby Montefoire Hill.
The hanging was botched and Magee was able to grab the rope and lift himself, whereupon the executioner grabbed him by the legs and hung with him until he was dead. Amid cries of ‘murder’ from some of the 500 onlookers the hangman was whisked away from the scene under police escort while Magee’s body was equally quickly removed and, allegedly, buried in an unmarked grave in the grounds of Government House which was being constructed at the time.
The rather gruesome affair was captured in a sketch by artist JM Skipper who, it appears, attended the execution (picture 5). The original sketch is held in the State Library of South Australia – B 7797 to which I credit this picture.
Address: Corner of North Terrace and King William Road
Website: http://www.governor.sa.gov.au/
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The Rambling Wombat 