Early life - On the Ocean Wave - Copper Calls - Discovery Disputed - Moonta Mine - Milestones - Fortunes Made - Goes Roving - Benefits - Later Life - References
Sir Walter Hughes' life was roving and yet sly
"Captain Hughes", was a pastoralist, a copper miner, public benefactor and founder of the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Hughes was also described in such tantalising ways, such as ‘a sly old fox' by Thomas Elder, 'opium smuggler', [he] 'should have been hanged by the neck', ' a crook'. - Patricia Sumerling
Early Life
Sir Walter Watson Hughes was one of those strong-spirited, clear-headed men who carve out their own fortunes by dint of untiring energy and self-reliance.
He was the son of the late Thomas Hughes ; was born in the town of Pittenween, in Fifeshire, Scotland, in August, 1803, and was educated in the small town of Crail, where he was apprenticed to the trade of a cooper.
On the Ocean Wave
Being of a rather restless, roving disposition, however, he took to the sea, and rose to be chief officer of a vessel at the age of 26, when he made a voyage to India. Before this he had a rough time of it on board a whaler, and in those days whaling was rough indeed — it is bad enough now, with all the modern appliances. His first seafaring essay was in a whaling expedition to the Arctic regions.
Tiring of this, however, and seeing a field open for him in Calcutta, he made a voyage there as chief mate of a ship in 1829. Succeeding in his venture he bought the brig Hero, and traded between Calcutta and China, mainly in opium. For nearly twenty years he lived in the East; but the climate telling upon his constitution, and South Australia offering a fresh field for enterprise, he came to this colony in 1840, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in conjunction with the firm of Messrs, Bunce & Thomson. He resided in Adelaide till shortly after the SA crisis of 1842 paralyzed business, when he started sheep-farming on the Hummocks on lease 147. He lived in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield for a number of years, and had stations near Watervale and Wallaroo.
Copper Calls!
For some years Captain Hughes prosecuted a search for copper in the Watervale district, and when he obtained his Wallaroo property the search was continued in that locality. On the Wallaroo beach he discovered specimens, and was so confident of the result that he communicated the discovery to his employees, (his shepherds) who were instructed to gather and bring to him anything they came across which had the appearance of the mineral. Captain Hughes evidently had most implicit reliance in the future mineral wealth of the district, and in the course of time his expectations were fully realized.
By his personal observation in the northern part of Yorke's Peninsula, where he had an outlying run (good only for winter sheep grazing), he was convinced that mineral deposits existed, and he instructed his shepherds to keep a vigilant look-out for minerals. Two shepherds in his employ succeeded in finding specimens near where the Wallaroo Mines are situated, in 1859, and some months subsequently at the celebrated Moonta Mine area, in 1861— the greatest mineral discovery ever made in South Australia in those times.
The discovery of this, the great pioneer copper mine of the Peninsula, is attributed to a wombat—one of the burrowing breed. In 1860 a shepherd named Boor, in the employ of Captain (afterwards Sir) W. W. Hughes, was attracted by the green contour of the mound at the entrance of the wombat's underground home. This green stuff, on assay, proved to be carbonate of copper. The small excavation made by this little furry four-footed miner, was destined to influence the fortunes of South Australia to a most remarkable extent.
When Hughes first found traces of copper on his pastoral run in the early 1850s, he was short of funds and simply sat on his find while nurturing a valuable relationship with Edward Stirling, one of four directors in Elder, Stirling & Co. Edward came to South Australia after receiving £1000 from his father, Archibald, who had been a slaveholder on four estates in Jamaica. (Edward Stirling was the illegitimate son of Archibald and a Creole woman) - Wikipedia
When Hughes' shepherd, James Boor, found copper on Hughes’ Wallaroo property in December 1859, Stirling and his brother-in-law, John Taylor, invested in the venture. Six months later, when all three faced insolvency, Stirling and Taylor tried to resign from the company and take half the company assets with them. However, Robert Barr Smith got wind of their plans and called their bluff. In a smart move, he and Thomas Elder then also became partners in the mines. (All of the investors were Scottish - 'The four Scots')
The first four miners to work the Moonta deposit came from nearby Wallaroo Mines which had opened the previous year. Their first job was to sink trial pits. The ore from these shallow shafts was hauled to the surface in a bucket by means of a horse whim. At the surface it was the job of the pickey boys to dress the ore. The rich ore known as prill was bagged and transported to the smelters.
Smelting operations to treat the copper ores were consequently established 5 miles away on the coast at Port Wallaroo in 1861.
Moonta Milestones
By 1875 Moonta had a population of twelve thousand and
was the second largest town in South Australia,
surpassing Cornwall as the largest copper region in the British Empire.
in the 'Copper Triangle' of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo was home to the largest copper mining operations in the Southern Hemisphere.
Over 2% of the Australian population lived in the district at that time
and the Moonta Mining Co. was the first mine in Australia to pay a million pounds in dividends
Moonta Discovery Disputed
George Boothby, a clerk in Thomas Elder’s counting-house in 1860 tipped off Captain Hughes, the owner of the Moonta mineral lands, that the actual discoverer, a shepherd employed by Hughes, Patrick Ryan, who had found copper at Tiparra Springs in May 1861, was (drunkenly) blabbing about his discovery of copper ore. Hughes used the tip to ensure he won the mining claim. Supplying Ryan with drink, he found out the exact location of the discovery, then rushed to stake his claim. Ryan tried to take out the claim with other friends, who became known as the Mills Syndicate. When their application was botched by Ryan and rejected by the Land Office, Hughes made the claim on behalf of Ryan and for the four (Scots) partners of Elder, Stirling & Co. So Captain Walter Watson Hughes became involved in the saga that surrounded the legal ownership of the Moonta Mine. Ryan earned a payment of £6 per week from Hughes, which he drank, and soon died. His widow was then paid instead. In a dispute that raged between 1861 and 1870, the 'five Scots': Captain Hughes and four co-owners were accused of fraud causing a select inquiry, a Supreme Court case, an equity case in the Supreme Court and the first Privy Council judgement for South Australia. But when the accusers' funds ran out in 1868, the Mills syndicate settled out of court for £8,000, leaving Hughes and his partners owners of the Moonta Mine. The Moonta Mine was worth fighting for, as it proved to be the first South Australian company to generate a million pounds in dividends. - Read More
(A fascinating side issue is the removal of SA High Court Judge Benjamin Boothby, who was widely believed to be insolvent, and
whose judgements benefited the Five Scots
and whose son George was employed by Walter Hughes
and George Boothby gained forty Moonta shares worth £40,000 for his initial help with registration of the mining claim.
and who later sold off shares to the benefit of his insolvent father) - Read More
Moonta Mine
The Honourable Thomas Elder was
one of the colony’s most influential men and a key player in the Moonta Mines from the start. His mercantile firm of Elder, Stirling & Co. were the lead financiers of the Moonta Mines, investing £80,000 until the mines paid off. Elder himself was chairman of directors and co-equal largest shareholder, and the driving force behind the Mines’ funding and development for thirty years. Hughes and Elder then led the formation of the Moonta Mines Proprietary in 1861. Sir Walter was also a large shareholder in the Wallaroo and the Moonta Mines Companies, and his property in the district was nearly all mineral country. The copper discovery at Wallaroo came in the very nick of time, as the Burra Mine suddenly failed shortly after. This failure would have meant the exodus to other parts of the world of thousands who were dependent on the Burra for a livelihood. The late Captain Roach, at that time Manager of the Burra, was asked to recommend a practical miner to open up the Wallaroo discovery. The late Captain Eneder Warmington was selected for the position, and that gentleman, taking with him a party of Burra miners, proceeded to the site of the new discovery—a discovery that transformed a third-class waterless sheep run into a busy hive of industry. The mines proved a source of extraordinary benefit to this colony, and for years the revenues were enormous.
By 1866 Wallaroo had 36 smelters and burned approximately one-tenth of all the coal shipped from Newcastle in NSW. The two mining towns of Moonta and Kadina and the port of Wallaroo, all connected by railways, became known as the Copper Triangle and grew to make South Australia an economic powerhouse for nearly 60 years.
Captain Henry Richard Hancock became Chief Captain and Superintendent of the mines in 1864 at the age of twenty-eight. His appointment followed the ten week strike by the miners who had complained about continuous
Their main grievance had been the Warmington's mining methods which, they said, were twenty years behind the time. Hancock put Moonta on the map and ruled the mines for thirty-four years. Dressed in his long coat and wearing a belltopper this benevolent dictator maintained strict discipline as he organised and controlled the mines.
He was responsible for numerous improvements at Moonta such as the introduction of skips, the invention of the Hancock Jig and the use of kibbles. Hancock was also responsible for the employment of local Aborigines on the mine. An Adelaide paper reported in 1869 that on 18 May at the Moonta Institute, a tea meeting was held for the benefit of the Aborigines working at the mine, with their lubras and piccaninnies. A goodly number of them are in constant employment and earning between three and four shillings a day.
Moonta Mines contains a number of individually heritage-listed sites, including:
557 Milne Street: Moonta Mines Uniting Church
Verco Street: 1870 Miners' Cottage
487 Verran Terrace: Moonta Mines Model School
Fortunes Made
The four directors of the Elders, Stirling Company were Robert Barr Smith, Thomas Elder, John Taylor and Edward Stirling, and with Captain Hughes were the major shareholders. During 45 years of mining these fortunate five (Scots) shareholders have
divided £2,000,000 of money between them;
produced £13,000.000 worth of ore
at a cost of £11,000,000,
the greater part of which—two thirds at least—has been spent on labor in South Australia (and legal fees).
These few figures are sufficient to indicate
how important the mines have been to the State
and Sir Walter Hughes's actions meant much to the advancement of his adopted country.
The Wallaroo Mine prior to being incorporated with the Moonta Mine produced
491,931 tons of ore,
of a money value amounting to £2,229,096,
and paid £430,254 in dividends.
The Moonta Mine before the amalgamation took place produced
545,127 tons, which realized £5.113,252,
of which sum £1,168,000 was disbursed in dividends.
Since the amalgamation of the two mines in 1890
the combined output to the end of 1897 was 226,318 tons of ore,
valued at £1,876.134.
Dividends paid £104,000.
The total Quantity of ore produced by the two mines from the date of discovery to the end of 1897
was 1,263,376 tons,
which realized £9,218,482,
and the total dividends declared for the same period were no less than £1,702,254.
If we deduct the latter amount from the total received for the ore, we find that the enormous sum of £7,516,228 was paid away in wages and the material necessary to work the mines.
Hughes goes Roving
Captain Hughes also turned to sheep farming near Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills and by careful management salvaged enough to buy another flock which he took north. In 1851 he took up The Peak at Hoyleton in the mid-north and in 1854 with his brother-in-law, (Sir) John Duncan, and family leased the vast Wallaroo station.
Hughes also owned large properties north-east and north-west of Watervale and planted the first Riesling vines at Springvale where in the early 1860s he established Hughes Park station (originally called The Peak).
He also bought Gum Creek station near the Burra, which went from Hill River's Eastern boundary (Stone Wall) to Mt Bryan; its 896 square miles (2321 km²) carrying 60,500 sheep.
In 1872 he bought the Lake Albert and Peninsula estate, a property later increased to more than 33,000 acres (13,355 ha).
He also owned Torrens Park near Mitcham, which was later sold to Robert Barr Smith and then became Scotch College.
Quelltaler Winery at Watervale. was also started by "retired" sea captain, Walter Hughes.
Benefits
Sir Walter Watson Hughes (d. 1887) was a benefactor both to the University and to the Presbyterian Church.
He was probably instrumental in bringing the first Presbyterian minister to this State in 1839.
A pioneer member of the Gouger Street Church, he financially supported the Presbyterian Church throughout the State.
The window on the western side of Scots Church, “Jacob", was dedicated in memory of Sir Walter Watson Hughes. This window was originally in the Flinders Street Presbyterian Church.
In 1872 the council of the new Union College, which included Hughes's friend, Rev. James Lyall of the Flinders Street Presbyterian Church, approached Captain Hughes for a donation. His gift of £20,000 so exceeded the council's expectations that it decided to use the money to found a university instead. Hughes wanted two professorships to be endowed.
So one great benefit of Sir Walter Hughes was the University in Adelaide. His original gifts of £20,000 for the establishment of certain chairs led to a similar endowment from Sir Thomas Elder and to the passing of the University Act. That was the beginning which led to the existence of the present university whose buildings, professional staff, graduates. and readers deserve to be regarded with pride by this State. Other endowments have followed, the late Mr. J. H.Angas being another munificent patron.
Another act which brought Captain Hughes into prominence was his association with Sir Thomas Elder in the payment of all expenses connected with Colonel Warburton's exploring expedition to the north westerly interior.
In consideration of his patriotic exertions in connection with the welfare of the colony in those departments in which he took a practical interest Captain Hughes received the honour of knighthood in 1880.
Later Life
In 1864 Sir Walter visited England, where be remained till 1870, when he returned to this colony. In February, 1873, he again went to his native country, where he had since resided. In his later years he lived at Fann Court, in Surrey, where he died in 1887, after having been kept alive for the last four or five months by milk and brandy.
He had married a daughter of the late Mr. J. H. Richman, and she died in June, 1885, at Chertsey; and was buried on the Derby Day in Lyne Churchyard. She was very kind to the poor folk, who strewed flowers upon her grave.
Hughes didn’t have any legal children but he did father an illegitimate son, John Sansbury, by an Aboriginal woman from Moonta called Mary, who was brought up by the Aboriginal leader of the Yorke Peninsula’s Narungga people: “King Tommy" – a descendant of whom is Adam Goodes. This episode of the SBS family tree series Who Do You Think You Are? screened in August, 2014 - Read More
He left one sister, Mrs, Robertson, in the South Australian colony,
also two nephews, namely, Mr. J. J.Duncan, M.P., and Mr. W. Duncan, of Oulnina,
and two nieces, viz., Mrs. Corpe [wife of the Manager of the Bank of South Australia at Gawler), and Mrs. Gordon (wife of Mr. J. Gordon, of the firm of D. & W. Murray),
and two brothers-in-law, Messrs. James M. Richman, of Watervale, and Walter Richman, of Adelaide. while the other is unmarried.
There was a third daughter the late Mrs. Canaway), who died last year.
The erection of a statue to him, the gift of the late Mr W.H. Duncan and the Hon. J.J. Duncan, (Hughes' nephews) in front of Adelaide University is a fitting tribute to his memory and particularly appropriate to the founder of the University.
References
OBITUARY. Death of Sir Walter Watson Hughes South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Mon 10 Jan 1887 Page 2
THE ceremony of unveiling the statue of the late Sir Walter Watson Hughes The Kadina and Wallaroo Times (SA) Wed 5 Dec 1906 Page 2 SIR W. W. HUGHES.
Sir Walter Watson Hughes | SA History Hub Shortly before his death on New Year's Day, 1887, Walter Watson Hughes wrote to his nephew, 'I have been a sinner all my life. ... By Patricia Sumerling.
Fraud - Walter Watson Hughes & the Moonta and Wallaroo ... An extract from 'Walter Watson Hughes and the Moonta and Wallaroo Mines' by Patricia June Sumerling. MA Thesis, Department of History, Flinders Uni
Biography - Sir Walter Watson Hughes - Australian Dictionary ... Sir Walter Watson Hughes (1803-1887), pastoralist, mine-owner and public benefactor, was born on 22 August 1803 at Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland
Walter Hughes - Wikipedia Sir Walter Watson Hughes (22 August 1803 – 1 January 1887), who before his knighthood was frequently referred to as "Captain Hughes", was a pastoralist...
Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered: British Colonial Judges ... The complete saga of the Moonta Mines affair is addressed by Patricia Iane Sumerling in 'Walter Watson Hughes and Moonta and Wallaroo
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