Ehrenfried Branch Pioneers of Johnburgh district
Johnburgh & the Arnolds
Johnsburg is like a flashback to a bygone era, when settlers were carving out a new life on the rapidly expanding frontier and South Australia was the grain bowl of Australia. The buildings appear much as they were when the town was proclaimed in 1879. It became home to a few hundred people at its peak and included two post offices as well as a general store, a hotel, blacksmith and a saddler. All are long gone. The Johnburgh School started in 1891 and educated 85 children in 1899, running on and off until it closed in 1967. Today, the closest school is at Orroroo, half an hour away to the south.
The fall of Johnburgh highlights the story of many South Australian country towns and the withdrawal of people from the inland for the past 100 years. Towns developed mostly as the hub of farming communities, for mining and to service the rail network, have been going out of business virtually since they were settled, some only lasting a few years.
Nowhere has the retreat from the country been more extreme than in the Upper North of South Australia, due mostly to the remarkable, but totally unjustified development of country towns in the region in the 1870s. Settlers flooded into the region during a brief unrealistic period of development, even though a large part of the Upper North lies north of Goyder’s Line.
Eventually, when the seasons turned against them, they realised that Goyder was right. Today, many Upper North towns, stretching from near Spalding in the south, west to Spencer Gulf, north to the Flinders Ranges National Park and east into the dry pastoral country, have reached a point of no return.
The Arnolds in Johnburgh
A stone plaque set in the dry paddock with the Southern Flinders Ranges backdrop reads ‘A tribute to the foresight and courage displayed by the pioneers of the Johnburgh District 1876 – 1976. Unveiled March 21 in 1976.
Section 137C Hundreds of Oladdie near Johnburgh was held by FH Arnold – Friedrich Herman Arnold, fourth child of Ehrenfried. He and his wife Helena (nee Obst) lived in their family home on this site.
(Page 310 Changing Pastures)
Land was open for offers on 25 December 1878 and Ehrenfried Arnold applied on 2 May 1879 for land to the value of 382 pounds. Johann August briefly farmed the land. August has purchased land in 1872 on Yorke Peninsula (ref page 332 Changing Pastures) The first year at Johnburgh had good rains but poor rainfalls including the seven year drought from 1896 to 1902, made it challenging for the newly arrived settlers. Brothers, August and Fredrich worked in the Port Pirie smelters for a time.
A perpetual lease was issued to Ehrenfried’s fifth son Johann August on 9 November 1900 for rental of 1 pound, 5 shillings and 4 pence per annum.
Ana Maria Dorothea Arnold, eldest child of Ehrenfried, married Friedrich Wilhelm Hombsch who had taken up land in 1876 in Johnburgh. Their properties in the Hundred of Olladie wee Sections 120 & 121. His two brothers, Dave and Carl also had property here. Realising in the early 1900’s that long term prospects for the family was limited, Fredrich moved his family of nine children to the Tamworth area in New South Wales. One of the children Emma remained in South Australia as she had married.
(page 296 Changing Pastures.
The map of Johnburg Southern Flinders Ranges shows the homestead site of Friedrich Herman.