WILLIAM RICHARD RANDELL

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PRELUDE

The RANDELL family disembarked at Holdfast Bay from the sailing vessel Hartley in 1837, the year following Proclamation: - At that time, William Richard was only 13 years old: - Nevertheless, when interviewed in 1903, at the age of 79, W. R. Randell retained-"a vivid recollection of being carried through the surf at Glenelg on the shoulders of a sailor", when "there were thousands of blacks about, especially on the Adelaide plains", and "there was not a single house in Adelaide".

Early records relating to the Randells are sparse: - Nevertheless, the overall impression is that William Beavis RANDELL, the family patriarch, came to South Australia as 'chief miller' for the South Australian Company. - In what appears to have been a classic bureaucratic bungle, however, all the mill machinery and the steam engine to drive it, were unloaded into storage on Kangaroo Island where they lay idle from 1837 to 1840: -The 'miller' without a Mill, meanwhile, who, in Devonshire, had also been a general farmer, was appointed to the position of 'Manager' of the South Australia Company's flocks.

In 1840 the milling equipment was eventually transhipped from K.I. to Adelaide and a mill was built adjacent the Hackney Bridge on land that is nowadays known as the 'Old Mill Reserve'. -But William Beavis seems never to have managed this Mill, though he did build a house near the Hackney bridge and his sons were employed in the mill for time to time: - The S.A. Company chose instead, to lease-out the mill to a number of different millers and William Beavis remained the full-time Stock Manager for the S.A. Company, until he retired from that position in 1844.

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THE BIRTH OF A DREAM

Around 1847 William Beavis built a home at Gumeracha on land he had purchased some years previous. He named the property 'Kenton Park' and bred cattle there on his own account: -Besides the house acres, the Randells also had right-of-way to a strip of land, not at all uncommon in the early days of pastoral leases, which stretched all the way from Gumeracha to the River Murray. William Beavis, and his sons, regularly drove cattle to and from, as well as up and down, the west bank of the River Murray: -As time passed, William jun., became very much enamoured by the river, and similarly by the exploits of Captain Charles Sturt.

A young William Richard began to ponder on the adventurous notion of placing a cargo steamer on the Murray and, in the early 1850s when the colony of South Australia was losing most of its manpower to the gold-diggings at Ballarat & Bendigo, William Richard was dreaming of steamboats carrying produce to the diggings, and to the settlers, who otherwise had only the slowest of transport, the bullock wagon, on which to transport their produce and supplies: - WR's dream became somewhat of an obsession with him, and he eventually confided his thoughts to his father. William Beavis, however, threw cold water on the idea and told William jnr. to stick to things he understood: -Also, at about this time, William Sen., built a family flourmill at Gumeracha, it appears that the sons rented the mill from their father and ran the milling business. - In this mill, William Richard began to gather his first hand information about the intricacies of steam engines.

Finally, in 1852 and at the age of 28, William Richard decided to turn his dream into a reality: - He employed some carpenters at Gumeracha and without any prior experience, indeed he had never even seen a steamboat, he began to build the framework for a small steamer. - The hull was later carted, with great difficulty, over the ranges and across the plain to the Murray river, where it was re-assembled under his supervision and became known as the 'P S Mary Ann'.

The 'Mary Ann' measured 55ft long by 9ft wide. It was powered by a single 8hp engine and could carry 20 ton of cargo. The cylinder for the engine was obtained in Adelaide and was made by a German engineer, Mr Claus Gehlken, of Hindmarsh. The boiler was made in the shape of an iron tank, square in section, with a single furnace passing through the middle. The side, bottom & top plates were flanged and riveted together and the end plates were bolted to the shell thus formed, sheet lead being used to make the joints. - When in use, the boiler is reported to have assumed alarming proportions and, for safety sake, a chain was wrapped around its middle, wooden wedges were then driven in between the chain and the sides, in an effort to control the 'bulging': - Even with the chain in place, however, when proceeding at speed, the sides and top of the boiler were reported to swell in and out like a concertina.

William Richard, in this small vessel and with no previous experience in navigation, navigated the River Murray as far upstream as it was possible to go. -In so doing, he rightfully earned the title of 'First Steam Navigator of the River Murray'; - a title which he greatly cherished.

P. S. MARY ANN