Farming in the Wanilla Community

1947-1960

In 1948, the first employees of the Department of Lands moved to Wanilla to begin clearing the land for the return soldiers from World War 2.

The main camp & workshop was set up at Byles homestead. Each man employed was paid on a daily basis. Sheep were bought from Ted & Jean Carter from Edillilie and the workmen killed their own sheep.

The mail, bread & stores came up from Port Lincoln every Tuesday & Friday. Cresco brought up super phosphate to the area.

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1947 - 1960
War Service Blocks - List of land allocation
1960 - 1990
1990 - present

As the scrub was logged it was burnt, the sugar gum areas were dozed & dragged over with a huge log. Many thousands of posts & strainers were cut from the trees and then dipped in creosote.

The tractors worked all year clearing & only stopped when laid up for repairs. The main repairs were replacing broken springs & brakes. The tracks were shipped over to Adelaide for renewing. After the burn, the land was ploughed and then worked back by a twin disc plough.

Seeding would commence about the first of March; five combines minus floats would sow 40 acres each per day. Two trucks would cart the super & seed to the combines. One man acted as an offsider to fill the combines, do the greasing & get smoko ready.

Things that were a nuisance in those days were kangaroos & emus a plenty. The workers ploughed over snakes & scrub bees (very nasty & savage).

As well as farming it was necessary to do surveying, fencing & road making. Houses & sheds followed with the search for water with dams & mills being erected. Each block had 2 watering points.

Finally 35 sections were allocated within the Wanilla district. See list of land allocation.

Life as a farmer began in the district.