Countrywide - 1986

Ian Doyle Reporting

Early this century decades before road and rail transport was developed much of Australia's rural produce such as wheat and wool was transported to the major ports by sailing ship.

In some states such as South Australia the trading catches became the lifeblood of the growing country centers and returning with their back cargos of building materials and fertilizer they allowed the opening up of many new areas for farming.

The arrival of the ketches was a major event in the remote communities along the coast where the memories live on. 

As part of South Australia's 150th anniversary celebrations, the ketch Falie retraced the old trading route, calling at over 30 ports collecting her cargo of handsewn and hand harvested grain.

There were dozens of ketches like the Falie plying the waters off the coast of South Australia at the turn of the century they carried wool and wheat and livestock and just about  anything else that would pay.

The Falie was built in Holland and launched in 1920 she cost the Spencer Gulf Transport Company the grand sum of £3,600. Over the past 66 years she's been a regular visitor to grain ports in southern Australia she took part in the New Guinea campaign in World War II and on the night of May 31st 1942 she is credited with helping to sink one of the submarines that attack Sydney harbour.

The Falie is now owned by the people of South Australia, her restoration costing  $1.4 million and tens of thousands of work hours. Everything about this catch makes her worthy as the flagship for South Australia's Jubilee 150 celebrations.

The ketches were the lifelines for country South Australia. Their heyday was in the mid 20s.

Rail and road transport and steam ships that could keep more or less to a timetable gradually took their place but for a time sail was supreme things were done differently then most of the work was manual and horsepower had some meaning. All the grain was bagged and it had to be lumped from paddock to drey, from drey to wharf, and from wharf to ship. 

Wheat stacks two stories high and stretching as far as the eye could see were a common sight. Wheat lumpers bloss like Jim Cronin who in the 1950s was a member of the elite Cumins crew a gang of lumpers revered as the best in Australia. 

“The first day we shifted out 4,000 bags in a working day which took about 7 hours that was really something because no one else had ever done it but then it went on we never got less than that. 

Day after day over 4,000 bags out of the stack. The man up in the truck would have to lump at 26 bags a minute that's over two ton a minute they never got any spell at that they just went in hour after hour. 

You had to be fit to stand up there and keep throwing those bags around it certainly knocked me around me myself I busted my diaphragm and bags fell on my head and kinked my neck and had repercussions. 

I busted the bottom of my spine and twisted my knee and how many more other things that can happen to a person it wasn't easy and sometimes the trucks would be wet you'd lump the first bag in the morning the be oil on the bottom of the railway truck and down you go with the bag on top of you had to get up carry on as if nothing happened.”

In the 50s the basic wage was about £10 a week and we were earning £100 a week £120 a week.

Jim's brother Pat Cronin was a bag sewer and one of the best he's although he has lost a bit of his speed but the technique is something you never forget.

When a good tally for a day was 500, Pat Cronin had sewn 641.

When bulk handling replaced the bags it signaled the end for the catchers and the men who bagged and lumped the wheat the Cronin brothers are survivors but in 1986 they're disillusioned with what's happening around them they no longer see any future on the land. the piece of ground

The single most tangible link with the grain trade of the past are the scores of jetties that dot the South Australian coastline.

It's not until you see a wagon laden with wool and wheat being drawn by a Clydesdale albeit at leisurely pace that the real significance of these sometimes forgotten timber structures

King of the River screens in Victor 

EMMA HEIDENREICH 

On July 26 at 2pm, Walkley Award-winning filmmaker Daniel Clarke’s ‘King of the River’, a documentary exploring the life of harbour master and maritime legend, Ian ‘Kingy’ King, will have it’s first mainland screening at Victa Cinema. The documentary has connections to towns like Victor Harbor and especially the coastal people along the trading routes across South Australia. It also captures the inevitable changes over time from working harbour to a holiday destination. 

In the documentary, Mr Clarke interviews Kingy during the final week of his life, during which he donated his large collection of stunning historic imagery, most of which had never been seen publicly. The King of the River documentary is a stunning visual journey into the unheralded maritime and merchant shipping history that shaped American River and Kangaroo Island. 

The film tells the story of the Ameri can River settlement as told by the passionate harbour master and the people who knew him best, including colleague and mentor Chris Frizell. 

Coincidentally, Ian King’s daughter, Vivien Osborn, now lives in Victor and will be in attendance at the screening, as will Mr Frizell, a retired merchant seaman and Ketch historian who sailed out of American River on vessels such as the Falie and Nelcebee. “I’m beyond excited and honoured to announce that King of the River will be shown at the Victa Cinema,“ Ms Osborn said. “Many thanks to Daniel Clarke for weaving his magic and bringing this to life. Dad would be grinning from ear to ear.“ 

The documentary first premiered in May at American River as part of the 2025 SA History Festival. Tickets $15 per person, run time is 1 hour 7 minutes. Book tickets online at www.victacinemas.com.au/ limited tickets will be available at the door.