Australia So Much to See

Hugh and a native stockman were on the western portion of the run with cattle, during the night of violent thunder storm came, causing the cattle to stampede, the two men saddled their horses and rode out to the mob, the deluge caused a flash flood in the Willochra creek, it was while attempting to cross the creek, possibly in darkness that Hugh was swept from his horse and drowned.

His grave is not far from where he drowned, six years after his death his family had a tablet of Scottish granite shipped out, from his home land, it was hauled to its site by a bullock team, from Port Augusta, experts have estimated the weight to be one and a half tons, at the turn of the century his sister Lady Hamilton cam to Australia to visit his grave.

Hugh only had a few huts built on the Kanyaka run. After Hugh’s death, under subsequent owners and particularly under resident manager John Randall Phillips, Kanyaka station grew in size until it was one of the largest in the district.

Hugh Proby's grave

Kanyaka Station was first taken up and stocked by Hugh Proby, the third son of the Earl of Carysfort, from Ireland. He arrived in South Australia in May 1851.

Having both money ($10,000) and connections, Proby was soon looking for pastoral land to establish a cattle run. Towards the end of 1851 Hugh Proby had taken up his first run on lease number 74, called the Moockra Range Run in the Flinders Ranges.

By February 1852 he had secured another run, Kanyaka on leases numbered 117 and 118, and had them both stocked with 1,200 head of cattle. By the end of May had a total of six men working for him, including an American, Tom Coffin, who had later a mountain near Copley named after him.

Sacred to the memory of the third son of the Earl of Carysfort, who was drowned while crossing the Willochra Creek, August 30th, 1852, aged 24 years. This tablet was placed over his grave by his brothers and sisters in the year 1858.

From the shearing shed there is a walk trail to the waterhole, but this is shorter if taken from a signed parking areas near the highway. This is a spring fed permanent waterhole in rocky terrain. The name Kanyaka may be derived from an Aboriginal word meaning "Place of Stone".

Close by, Death Rock is a seven metre high quartzite rock, and is said to be named as it was a place where Aboriginals came to die. It is an Aboriginal Historic Site.

Kanyaka shearing shed ruins, the shearers quarters to the right.

The shearing shed was a 24 stand shed.

Resources

Signage at sites

Hawker Visitor Information Centre, referencing Quorn and District centenary book Kanyaka

South Australian History – Kanyaka

South Australia – Death Rock and Kanyaka Waterhole

Wikipedia – Kanyaka

South Australian History – Gordon

SACRED

TO THE MEMORY OF

HUGH PROBY,

THIRD SON OF THE EARL OF

CAREYSFORT;

WHO WAS DROWNED

WHILE CROSSING

THE WILLOCHRA CREEK

AUGUST 30th 1852

AGED 24 YEARS

Take Ye Heed, Watch and Pray: For Ye

Know Not When The Time Is. MARK XIII.33

THIS TABLET

WAS PLACED OVER HIS GRAVE BY HIS

BROTHERS & SISTERS IN THE YEAR

1858.

Follow our continuing South Australian tour.

Only stock yards remain at the location of Gordon, a historic site where a township was proclaimed in 1879. There was a hotel, store, blacksmith, butcher, baker, and a Bible Christian Church. We passed another historic site, Willochra, where nothing remains of the buildings which had dated back to 1878. These settlements were also casualties of the drought years that followed the wheat boom.

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