Union Chapel, built in 1844

Located on Penrice Road, the Chapel is one of the oldest churches in South Australia.  Seating 96 people, it was built with money from George Fife Angas, for use by all denominations.  Just eleven years later, a larger union Church was built in the main street, now the Zion Lutheran Church.  You can see the spire from the Chapel’s front door.  The Chapel, built of local stone, has a gabled roof originally clad with blue grey slate.  The timber floor had a baptismal cavity for Baptists.  A group of Angaston people restored the Chapel in the early 1990s and it now hosts a range of functions.  Open by arrangement - contact Kingsley Ireland on 8564 2561 or Barossa Council on 8563 8444.

Zion Lutheran Church,  built 1854-55

Built as a larger Union Church after the village outgrew the Union Chapel, Zion has local bluestone walls with soapstone quoins and surrounds.  After a Church division in 1861, it was a Baptist Church until 1928.  Then it was used for storing building supplies before being refurbished and rededicated as a Lutheran Church in 1941 after the Lutheran Church in Hill Street burnt down.  Across the road is Rose Villa.
   Front door access

Rose Villa, built 1855

This delightful home opposite Zion Church, was built as a manse for the Reverend John Hannay, a Baptist Minister who led the Union Church from 1855 to 1865.  Hannay, the son-in-law of George Fife Angas conducted baptisms by full immersion.  Immersions upset some parishioners who set up alternative congregations.  Note Rose Villa’s bluestone walls and local soapstone quoins and openings.  The nearby Memorial Reserve was once part of the Hannay’s garden.

Angaston Hotel, built in 1846.

The original bluestone and red brick single storey construction was added to in 1879 and then rebuilt in 1914 as a double storey.  It catered for a growing travelling public as a result of the new railway and the new road and bridge in Salter’s Gully (on the western end of the village).  The mural of Bacchus, God of wine and fertility, in the saloon, and the decoration above the entrance way is worth a look.  Behind the Hotel are the red brick and stone stables which housed travellers’ horses, and the remains of stone walls of the Council pound for stray animals.

Franklin House, built in 1847

The original owner of this house was Horace Dean, Angaston’s first doctor.  He saw patients at his residence and in many outlying areas.  Horace Dean was also a stipendiary magistrate and a local councillor.  The Angaston District Council held its inaugural meeting here in 1853.  In 1857, Horace Dean was elected to the House of Assembly where he was exposed as a fraud by George Fife Angas.  The property was the station master’s residence from 1911 until 1968.

Angaston Town Hall, opened in 1911.

The outstanding Angaston Town Hall is a tribute to village residents.  Built of grey marble on a base of local bluestone with a village green in front, it replaced the original institute, when an expanding population needed more room for cultural activities.  Construction was subsidised by the Angas family, but drought and World War I took its toll and it took many years to pay off the Town Hall debt.  Silent movies were popular from 1914 and sound cinema from 1931, and was the first publicly owned picture theatre in Australia..  The public library continues in the front rooms and the Hall is used for many functions.
   Disability toilet

Old Police Station and Courthouse, built 1855-56.

George Fife Angas deplored drunken and unruly behaviour.  He wrote in 1851:  ‘There were persons prowling amongst sheep stations and shepherds’ huts in the neighbourhood, who did untold injury in making the shepherds drunk with spirits slyly introduced, but no one had authority to apprehend them’.  Angas lobbied the Government for the area’s first police station.  He then donated the land and building materials.  The complex eventually included stables, courtroom, magistrate’s room, and cells for wrongdoers.  The building has nine inch Baltic pine and slab slate floors.  The Old Police Station is now a private residence. 

Former Barossa Council Chambers, built 1980.

Situated on the corner of Washington and Fife Streets.  This recent building of local marble shares features with older Angaston buildings.

Uniting Church, built in 1878.

The Manse – alongside the Uniting Church – has a deciduous wisteria growing on the northern verandah, an early solution to summer sun.  A red brick chapel at the Church rear was built in 1861 as the Congregationalists’ first Church after leaving the Union Church.  The bluestone Gothic revival style Church was built to accommodate growing numbers.  Magnificent original stained glass windows, and plaques inside are in memory of local identities.  Services are held every Sunday.

Caithness Girls School, built late 1800s

Situated at 12 Hill Street, and built as a private residence, it became Caithness Girls School in 1924.  It was run as a day and boarding school for daughters of outlying families.  After the school closed in 1935, founding teachers, Misses Tucker and  Elliott, established a boarding house.  The gracious old home has been restored and now offers bed and breakfast as Caithness Manor B&B. 

Marble Lodge, built in 1914-15.

This style of Federation home is rare in South Australia.  It was built for John Dallwitz a local land agent and District Clerk (1903-20).  The house took seven stonemasons and other tradesmen 13 months to build in pink, grey and white marble to the 1913 design by prominent Adelaide Architect C. W. Rutt who had also designed the clock tower building at Yalumba winery.  Dallwitz failed to marry his Eudunda sweetheart for whom some say he built the house.  Others say that Dallwitz expected Kaiser Wilhelm to win World War I and built the house for his representative.  Local builder Kevin Rohrlach purchased the 2.5 hectare property in 1974.  Marble accommodation suites were added in 1994 and operated as Marble Lodge B&B.

St. Hugh’s Anglican Church, built in 1931.

Situated in Schilling Street.  A £500 Angas bequest enabled a wood and iron building to be replaced by this stone Church.  Two beautiful stained glass windows over the altar came from the former St. Faith’s Chapel at Collingrove, and two more are memorial windows.

Old Angaston Council Chambers, built in 1922.

Located on the corner of Schilling and Murray Street.  Angaston District Council, formed in 1853, used this red brick building from 1922 until 1980 when larger premises were built in Washington Street.  Today Angas Park Fruit Company owns and uses the building for offices.

The Former Bank of Adelaide,  built in the 1880s.

It is believed that Mr Johann Schilling’s first home, a thatched dugout, was at the rear of this block about 1840.  This grand building was first a boarding school until the Bank of Adelaide opened here in 1894.  This brought confidence to the town after the droughts, depression and isolation of the early 1890s.  The building is now a private residence, with Wine Tastings and Sales in the former Bank rooms at the front of the building.

Former Methodist Church, built in 1864.

Several local identities donated money for the Church.  It closed after 1969 amalgamation formed the Uniting Church, and is now privately owned.

Doddridge Blacksmith Shop, built 1876.

Located in Murray Street.  Hardy and brother Bert were third generation Doddridges working this Blacksmith Shop.  In 1965, when in his eighties, Hardy shod his last horse.  He kept working other parts of the ‘smithy’ until the 1970s.  Doddridge’s Blacksmith Shop shod cart and riding horses, and made wrought iron for carts, buggies, ploughs and tools.  Blacksmith shops were an essential part of rural life and this is one of the very few remaining main street ‘smithies’ in South Australia.  It is an extremely significant vernacular industrial building.  After Hardy’s death in 1981, the people of the district purchased the smithy’s equipment to keep the collection together.  The Blacksmith Shop is open regularly,  run by volunteers on Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm and on Public Holidays.

Old Flour Mill, built 1885.

Situated in Tyne Street, just off Murray Street, the Angaston Mill is remarkable.  It is probably the only roller mill of its period in working order in South Australia.  It was built by Edwin Davey as the Eureka Roller Mills with money he made on the Victorian goldfields.  Frederick Laucke bought the mill in 1933 and his family worked it until it closed in 1976.  The construction is an excellent example of early flour mill architecture.  Note the timber and iron verandah supported by un-sawn gum trunks.  All milling equipment is intact.

Brauhaus Hotel, opened in 1849.

In Murray Street.  When William Doddridge arrived in Angaston in 1849 he built a blacksmith’s shop and the second hotel in the village.  The small single storey hotel was named the New Inn.  After a two storey addition in 1884 it was renamed The Commercial. The proprietor in 1912, Elizabeth Macdonald, completed the second storey.  The hotel became The Brauhaus in 1979.
   Side & rear access

Angaston Cottage Industries.

The old, modest, shop reflects the early retailing days of Angaston.  Built of timber and iron, the shop now houses a remarkable enterprise, initially the idea of Mrs Helen Hill Smith.  This is a co-operative of more than five hundred contributors of home made crafts and foods, including fresh farm cooking, jams and preserves, fresh flowers, garden vegetables and hand knits. It is next door to famed Schulz Butcher Shop.

Schulz Butchers Shop, Circa 1950s.

This building retains its original 1950s detailing;  original board floors and wall tiles, and the original A C Schulz Butcher sign.  Both German and English style meats are sold at Schulz’s in the traditional manner.

48 Murray Street – now Timeless Books shop, built 1870.

This charming 2-storey residence was built in 1870 for Mr W. Sayers, then passed on to his son Mr H. Sayers by 1890.  Mr H. Sayers occupied the premises and at this time it was rated as house, shop and clubhouse.  Two-up was the favoured game at the clubhouse.  This part of the building is now affectionately known as ‘the tower room’.

Original Angaston Cemetery, 1847.

Sidetrack down Hannay Crescent to the original Angaston Cemetery.  Of the 223 people originally buried here, six out of ten were small children.  Poor sanitation, an unreliable water supply and a lack of immunisation and antibiotics resulted in death from bowel diseases, gastroenteritis, consumption, convulsions, typhus and typhoid.

Old National Bank, built in 1867.

Prominent in Murray Street and built to a design by top South Australian architect Edmund Wright, the National Bank operated in Angaston for forty six years.. 

With the railway established in 1911, Angaston became a communications and transport centre and an ideal location for banking activities.  Today the building is no longer a bank;  it is privately owned and houses Barossa Music Festival offices as well as a residence.

The former Masonic Lodge, built in 1867.

In 1856 the Angaston Mechanics Institute started in rented rooms.  By 1867 they needed space and the local Masons needed a home.  The two pooled funds for a building to accommodate both.  George Fife Angas gave the land and £100 towards the building.  When the new Institute (the Town Hall) was built, the Masons became sole owners and it was called the Masonic Lodge.  It is now a private residence.

Old Post and Telegraph Office, built in 1880.

By 1846 mail came weekly to Angaston from Gawler.  Twenty years later a telegraph was installed in the Police Station.  This building was erected in 1880 to house the merged Post and Telegraph services.  The first telephone exchange was installed in 1911, with just ten subscribers.  An automatic exchange, installed in 1952, now caters for about fourteen hundred users.

Hill House, built 1851-1881.

Situated at the corner of Washington and Lindsay Street, this beautiful stone house incorporates the original two roomed cottage built in 1851 by William Hague, general store-keeper.  In 1880 extensions were made to the cottage by James Heggie, a policeman turned landowner and vigneron.  He named it Hill House.  Restoration in the 1990s of both house and garden present them in the style of the late nineteenth century.  Part of the house today is used as Bed & Breakfast accommodation.

Angaston Stone Arch Bridge, built 1865.

Situated on the Angaston-Nuriootpa Road as you enter the town from Saltram Winery, Angaston Bridge or The Stone Arch Bridge was opened on December 6, 1865 by Governor Sir Dominick Daly K.T.   Miss Salter, escorted by G. F. Angas, broke the bottle or christened it.  Joshua Crann was the contractor and James Bidge the builder.  This bridge is among the few existing examples today where a key-stone is used in such work.  It is believed the only other (or one of them) is situated at Tarlee.

(Click for a slideshow of local images)