Malachi Brain – Grazier

Introduction

When Malachi heard the rattle of the William Mitchell’s anchor plunging to the depths of Holdfast

Bay in South Australia, he must have felt an enormous sense of relief. The date was 27 August 1840.

Malachi, his wife Louisa and their three young daughters had successfully endured a three-month sea

journey to start a new life in a colony that had been occupied by Europeans for barely four years. The

adventurers however, were now confronted with fresh challenges: finding a home with adequate

comfort and ensuring a source of income to provide the family with long term financial security. How

Malachi and Louise overcame those challenges is the focus of this story.

While there is adequate objective evidence available in the South Australian archives to at least

navigate part of Malachi and Louisa’s journey, there is little material available for us to “fill in the

gaps” and share Malachi and Louisa’s emotions during that journey. To compensate, and maintain

some continuity in the story, I have relied on a number of comparable sources such as memoirs,

historical works, biographies, diaries, newspaper articles and letters. I have identified these sources

where appropriate.

Arrival

Malachi and Louisa’s first challenge was to find accommodation on land. Pending the construction of

adequate wharves at Port Adelaide, until the late 1840s the anchorage for large ships such as the

William Mitchell was in Holdfast Bay, almost directly opposite the town of Glenelg and approximately

five kilometres from shore. Passengers who didn’t have pre-arranged accommodation at Adelaide

were required to stay for up to ten days on their ship until they could be accommodated at the

official migrants’ camp “Emigration Square” located in the West Parklands (now at the corner of

North Terrace and West Terrace) near the Torrens River. The camp was in effect a staging post for

migrants until they found their own accommodation or were moved out with short notice to allow

for new arrivals.

Those passengers with private accommodation were, shortly after arrival, taken ashore by boat to

Glenelg where they either walked the twelve kilometres to Adelaide, or, if they could afford it, hired

alternative transport such as bullock and dray. Once all the passengers were ashore, their ship would

move to Port Adelaide where the passengers’ household furniture and effects could be more easily

unloaded for collection. 1

It appears Malachi and his family found their own temporary accommodation without having to

trouble the public purse. In 2006, a relative sent me a bundle of documents relating to the Brain

family. Among those documents was an undated and anonymous newspaper article containing a

lengthy obituary to Mary Clarke Brain (nee McCrea), Malachi and Louisa’s daughter-in-law, who died

at Grong Grong, New South Wales on 14 September 19341. The following words are included in the

obituary:

I may mention incidentally, that Mr. [George Masters] Brain’s father pitched his tent on the site

of the present Adelaide … Town Hall, on his arrival from Somerset

I have not been able to identify the author of the obituary nor the name of the newspaper in which it

was published. The Adelaide Town Hall was built in 1863 and is located about two kilometres to the

east of Emigration Square. However, if the report is accurate, clearly at some stage after their arrival

in Holdfast Bay, Malachi and his family managed to find alternative accommodation to Emigration

Square and by implication were able to fend for themselves.

Reproduced below (thanks to the State Library of South Australia) is a lithograph (B1134) from a

drawing by Samuel Calvert of Adelaide c1850, just ten years after Malachi and Louisa arrived, looking

north west from a point in Strangways Terrace in North Adelaide.

B1134

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Coromandel Valley

As noted in my previous essay, Malachi was a tailor in Somerton before he emigrated and one would

expect him to resume his trade in the new colony. It appears however that in early 1841 at the

latest, Malachi was planning to become a farmer; in March of that year he successfully applied to the

Cattle Register officer for a cattle brand2. The farm he had in mind proved later to be in the

Coromandel Valley, near Upper Sturt in the Adelaide Hills about 17 kilometres south of Adelaide.

Interestingly, this community derived its name from the ship Coromandel which visited Port Adelaide

in January 1837, two weeks after the colony had been officially proclaimed. Just before the ship was

due to depart a number of the crew deserted and fled to the safety of the bushlands south of

Adelaide where they managed to avoid capture until after the ship left. Most of the deserters were

subsequently captured but in the absence of available prosecutors they had to be released. When

pioneers later settled in the area it was initially named West Sturt but the residents, including a

number of the deserters’ descendants, persuaded the authorities to rename the community

Coromandel.3

An entry in an almanac4 reveals that in 1844 Malachi Brain was living on a small farm which he most

probably rented in the Coromandel Valley and on which he had “8 acres of wheat, ½ acre garden, 16

cattle and 1 pig”. The photo below shows a section of the Sturt River Linear Park in the Coromandel

Valley.

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The South Australian Birth, Death and Marriage records reveal that Malachi and Louisa had two

children while they were living in the Coromandel Valley: Henry Masters Brain who was born on 29

August 19445 but sadly died of small pox on 4 March the same year6; John Brain who was born on 10

June 1846 (see my earlier essay “John Brain – Wheat Farmer”). Subsequent records however

establish that Malachi and Louise had another son called George Masters Brain who was probably

born between August 1840 and late 18437. As far as I can ascertain, George’s birth or baptism has not

been officially recorded.

Skillogalee

In 1847, Malachi started to accumulate a substantial portfolio of real estate. Ownership of land was,

after all, one of the founding principles of the Wakefield migration system governing the

establishment of South Australia: sell the land at a fixed price and apply the revenue to finance

immigration. By the time Malachi was ready to participate in the property market however, the

government had introduced a system whereby Crown land was sold by public auction to the highest

bidder with a reserve price of £1.

On 16 June 1847 Malachi bought 81 acres8 at the reserve price of £1 an acre9 at Skillogalee in the

Clare Valley. Once again, Malachi chose to live in a community with an interesting name: the word

Skillogalee “is taken from a type of gruel or skilly, which the first surveyors made, when camping on

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the banks of [Skillogalee] creek.”10 The document recording Malachi’s purchase recorded his address

as Upper Sturt and his occupation as tailor. It is curious that after running a small farm for at least

three years Malachi still chose to record his occupation as tailor; perhaps he had been conducting a

part-time tailoring business to supplement his farm income.

Malachi’s relocation to the South Australian mid-north coincides with the economic impetus

provided by the copper mining boom in the Burra area. The miners started transporting their export

ore by bullock wagons along the Gulf Road from the mining area to Port Wakefield creating along the

Clare Valley route numerous private support villages including Auburn, Watervale, Hoyles Plains and

Leasingham, all within a short distance of Skillogalee11.

Malachi clearly arrived in South Australia with a substantial amount of money. Between 1851 and

1862, he purchased a total of 1,333 acres for an outlay of £1,375.5.0. Most of his land in Skillogalee

consisted of adjoining blocks which effectively became a consolidated estate of 677 acres. The

balance of his land (619 acres) was in the neighbouring Hundred of Hall. In addition to his land

purchases, Malachi made the most of the government’s Crown land licence and lease arrangements

to increase his access to grazing land. During the financial year from 1 July 1853 he obtained a licence

to graze 76 cattle on Crown land in the Upper Wakefield12 and in addition, for 30 months he leased

16 square miles (over 10,000 acres) of Crown land in the Hundreds of Hall and Blythe at an annual

rent of £413.

Malachi almost certainly built his first home in the Skillogalee area on section 350. For reasons I have

noted below, the title to the Skillogalee estate vested in Malachi’s second eldest son John Brain in

about 1874. To finance a new venture in the Quorn area, John resolved to sell the estate including

section 350 by public auction in 1877. In the newspaper advertisement14 for the auction, it was noted

that the estate’s homestead is “situated on Section 350, consisting of well-built Stone House of five

Rooms, with Cellar, Dairy, Sheds, and other Outbuildings”. A conveyancing deed15 confirms that

Malachi was living on section 350 six years after he purchased it in 1847 – more than enough time

for him to have built a new home for his family.

After they moved to Skillogalee, Malachi and Louise had two more children, Jane and Edith. Jane was

born on 20 June 1848 at Penwortham16, about five kilometres from Skillogalee while Edith was born

on 21 April 1851 at Adelaide17.

Zion Chapel

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A gesture for which Malachi has been widely celebrated in the local community is his donation of a

small plot from one of his blocks in Skillogalee to the Bible Christian Church. The land from which the

donation was made was section 493 consisting of 102 acres. Malachi had purchased the block on 25

May 1856 and subdivided it by carving off an acre from the north-east corner which he then gifted to

the trustees of the Bible Christian Church on 10 January 1863. The trustees arranged for a chapel to

be built on the property. Laurie Cowled, a descendent of Jane Brain, one of Malachi ’s daughters,

described18 the chapel as standing

on an eminence which commands a magnificent view of wooded hills and two lovely valleys.

Above its door is a heavy stone lintel in which the words “Zion A.D. 1862” are deeply carved.

Zion, which means a holy hill where God dwells, was the name chosen by the Bible Christians

for the chapel.

Apparently the Zion Chapel and its surrounds was a very popular social venue for the surrounding

community. An article in a local paper celebrated the heritage listing of the “Upper Skilly chapel and

cemetery” in the Plains Producer of 17 June 1993 and noted that the “Old timers tell of sulkies, traps,

drays and tethered horses lining the four approach roads [to the chapel] for 400 metres from the

sandy picnic spot.”

The photo below was taken from the grounds of the Zion Chapel and shows the pastures to the north

east.

The chapel fell into disuse and was eventually beautifully renovated as part of a project to establish

the Skilly Hills Olive Grove and Function Centre. The history of the Function Centre including the

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chapel and Malachi’s involvement is available on the Function Centre’s website19. Below is a 2015

photograph of the renovated chapel.

Bromley Park

Numerous references to Malachi Brain refer to his homestead or his homestead block as “Bromley

Park”. I have noted above that Malachi had most likely built a residence on section 350, the first

block he had purchased in 1847, but he also built a stone house he called “Bromley Park” on section

493 of the Hundred of Upper Wakefield. The remains of the homestead are located on the west side

of Skillogalee Creek on the opposite side of the town of Leasingham. I suspect that when Malachi ’s

son George or perhaps John was old enough, Malachi may have allowed either or both of them to

live in the section 350 house after Malachi built the Bromley Park homestead.

The current owner of section 493, Jeff Schiller, recently sent me these two photographs of the

remains of Bromley Park:

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Norwood

Having established himself as a grazier, Malachi apparently resolved to diversify and at a cost of £300

purchased a one-acre block of vacant land in the recently developed Adelaide suburb of Norwood.

The Norwood Council’s records reveal that Malachi constructed a large house at what is now 35

Beulah Road near the corner of Runge Street where he lived from 1857 to 1858 before returning to

the Clare district. He sold the property for £210 on 11 August 1864.

A newspaper report confirms that Malachi had built and was actually living in his Norwood home by

November 1856. An article in the Adelaide Times20 reported that August Gottschalk was charged with 8

breaking into “the dwelling house of Malachi Brain, at Norwood, with intent to steal, on the 2nd

November” 1856 but was later acquitted by the jury.

Malachi’s Death

Malachi died a relatively young man aged 58 on 19 January 1865 from cancer of the tongue 21. He was

farewelled in a brief report in the Adelaide Observer:

On Saturday the mortal remains of Mr Brain, an old well-to-do settler of the neighbourhood

were carried to their last resting place in the Bible Christian burial-ground attached to Zion

Chapel, Skillogolee. The deceased had been a great sufferer from a severe cancer in the throat

and tongue, which from its position was beyond the reach of surgical skill. The funeral was

numerously attended …

Below is a photograph of Malachi’s headstone which records that he was aged 55 when he died.

However, he must have been at least 58 at the time because he was baptised on 9 November 180622.

The following words inscribed on the headstone are a variation of the New Testament ’s Book of Revelation 14.13:

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To the memory of Malachi BrainWho departed this lifeAt Skilligolee CkJan. 19 1865Aged 55 YearsLord I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors: and their works to follow them.

Few words however, could better honour the passing of such a person as Malachi Brain than the

following tribute to the South Australian pioneers written by author Jean Moyle:

Their’s was the hard way. They were not left any handsome legacies of farms or homes and

sheds by parents before them. They became those parents. They had no mechanical devices.

They had to make them. Their progress was slow and arduous, but progress they did.

Necessity was ever the mother of invention and it is recorded that the early methods of wheat

farming, by South Australians, were so efficient, that they were copied by the farmers of the

much earlier settled U.S.A. Also to the sons and daughters of the pioneer must a share of the

praise be given for, in so many cases, they too have been part of the bone and sinew that

shaped their country’s destiny. 23

10

11. New South Wales Death Registration Transcription Ref. 1934/13398.221841 South Australian Government Gazette at page 403 Trove, Advertiser, 12 January 1914, page 7.441844 South Australian Almanac.55Genealogy SA, South Australian District Birth Certificate Transcript, date of Registration 10 October 1844.66 Genealogy SA, South Australian District Death Certificate Transcript, date of Registration 5 March 1845.77George Masters Brain is the subject of my next essay on the Brain family. The first official document recording George ’s father is his Marriage Certificate dated recording his marriage to Mary Clarke McCrea on 13 April 1881 at Wagga Wagga. In that certificate George’s father is recorded as Malachi Seward Brain, his mother as Louisa Masters, his age as 36 and his birthplace Adelaide. 88Section 350 County of Stanley. At this stage The Hundred of Upper Wakefield had not been proclaimed.99 Memorandum No 147 dated 15 June 1847 Section 350 County of Stanley.1010Jean V. Moyle, The Wakefield, Its Water and Its Wealth (Self-published, 1975) page 111.1111 See Susan Marsden, The Lower North of South Australia – A Short History available at the URL:http://www.sahistorians.org.au/175/documents/the-lower-north-of-south-australia-a-short-history.shtml.1212 The South Australian Government Gazette 1853 page 480.1313 The South Australian Government Gazettes 1861 page 320, 1862 page 108 and 1862 page 776.1414Trove, Evening Journal Saturday 3 March 1877 page 4.1515The conveyancing document is the memorandum evidencing Malachi’s purchase of his property in Norwood.1616Genealogy SA, South Australian District Birth Certificate Transcript, date of Registration 2 August 1848.1717 Genealogy SA, South Australian District Birth Certificate Transcript, date of Registration 23 May 1851. I note that the witness to the registration of Edith’s birth was Elizabeth Clark of King William Street. Perhaps Edith was born at Ms Clarks residence.1818Laurie Margaret Cowled, Windmills & Farms, Self-published, 1987 page 65.1919 www.debstar.com/folio/skillyhills/contact.html2020 Monday 1 December 1856 page 2.2121 Genealogy SA, South Australian District Death Certificate Transcript, date of Registration 23 January 1865.2222 Ancestry.com, Somerset, Church of England, Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1531-1812.2323Jean V. Moyle op cit pp 5,6.

Darryl Massie© 25 May 2023