Janet Scarfe
Published: 2021-02-22
Total Pages:
Get eBook
Anlaby Station is one of South Australia's best known pastoral properties. Once stretching between Kapunda and Robertstown it was renowned for its wool, exotic gardens and the lavish lifestyle of the Dutton family who were its owners for one hundred and forty years. Three generations of Campbells lived and worked there. Scottish immigrant Hugh Campbell was a shepherd in the 1860s and 1870s, his sons were boundary riders and station hands, and one, Charles, was the property's overseer from 1904 to 1938. In their time, Anlaby reached its peak in land size and sheep numbers then shrank. Telephones, electric light and motor vehicles were unknown to Hugh but familiar to Charles's children. World War One and the Great Depression threatened the security of their lives. Hugh's other sons made different lives away from Anlaby: as a teamster in Broken Hill, as a police trooper and railway worker in the Northern Territory, and a drover in Queensland. Their parent's quest for opportunity in far-off places lived on. Another stayed closer to home but was estranged from the family on Anlaby. The Campbells stories have been recreated using Anlaby records, family photographs, newspapers of the day and other historical sources relating to South Australia, Broken Hill and the Northern Territory. This is a lively account of the Campbell family, the communities in which they lived and the changes they experienced. Anlaby's own story, previously seen through the Duttons' lens, is given new life.'The Campbells of Anlaby 1860 to 1940' is a skilful blend of family and social history.