Grassdale with Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island: In the Kangaroo Island region of South Australia
At the western end of Kangaroo Island just past Kelly Hill Caves, there's a turn-off to one of the island's lesser known attractions - historic Grassdale. It’s accessible by walking trail or on a guided tour with Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island. And while it’s now owned and managed by National Parks and Wildlife, much of it was cleared by a remarkable women named Lucy Edwards. She spent a lot of time living on her own at Grassdale Cottage.
Even today with four wheel drive access it feels like a long way from anywhere. So it must have seemed incredibly remote for Lucy when she arrived as a new bride in 1949 from, as she would put it, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It wasn’t long before Lucy gave birth to a son Robert, but tragically her husband Klemm died soon after leaving her alone with her three-year old boy.
As Alf Bennett of Adventure Charters of K.I. explained, it was a tough life. “Here she was by herself - clearing the land and trying to provide a living for her son. They lived in a two-roomed house that was basically a bedroom and a kitchen. There was no running water, no electricity, and no phone. And they built a little lean-to at the back so Robert had somewhere to sleep.”
In total, about six hundred acres of scrub was cleared for sheep grazing. Lucy did most of the work and the machines she used now quietly rust away on the edge of a clearing.
Alf reckons it’s like a farm graveyard. “There are a couple of tractors and I reckon they've done a bit of work in their day. The last twenty years or so she was out here by herself. She would have cleared a bit of land and dug the ground and grown a few oats.”
As you drive around Grassdale there are occasional signs of one of Kangaroo Island’s first industries. Bark from the ancient Yakkas, or Grass Trees was used to make shellac and explosives. Now, remnants are making a slow comeback.
“It was a big industry from the eighteen eighties to the nineteen thirties. But because they take such a long time to grow the industry died a natural course. It takes about a hundred years for the trees to get a metre tall.”
Occasionally, you’ll also find stands of dryland tee-tree which, thankfully, Lucy spared from the tractor and are now providing a home for the wildlife that remains at Grassdale.
It's just one of the locations visited by Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island on their tours of the Western end of the Island. For bookings contact 8553 9119
Other visits that Postcards have had with Adventure Charters of Kangaroo Island
