This interesting rural town with a significant agricultural past abounds with art and places to explore.
The southern side of the Eyre Peninsula is part of the traditional lands of the Nauo people (various alternative spellings).
Christian Gottlieb Teichelmann (1807-1888), and Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann (1815-1893), Lutheran missionaries and pastors, were the first Europeans
to work and establish schools for the Aboriginal people of South Australia. Their anthropological inquiry concerned such matters as, marriage laws, ceremonial life and religious beliefs of Aboriginal people; as well as linguistic and ethnographic records of various Aboriginal groups, including those living on the Eyre Peninsula.
The Native Tribes of South Australia
They seem never in a hurry to start in the morning, and it usually requires a great deal of talking and urging, on the part of the more eager, before a movement is made. When arrived at the camp, which is always some time before sunset, the first thing to be done is to make a fire and roast the small animals that they may have killed (kangaroo and other large game, being roasted on the spot where it is killed, and what is not eaten then, carried piece-meal to the camp.) After the meat is consumed, the women produce the roots or fruit picked up by them during the day; and this dessert also over, the rest of the evening is spent in talking, singing or dancing. (Schürmann, 1879)
Never, upon any account, is the name of the deceased mentioned again for many years after, not from any superstition, but for the professed reason that their mournful feelings may not be excited, or, to use their own expression, "that it may not make them cry too much." If they have occasion to allude to dead persons, it is done by circumlocution, such as these: I am a widower, fatherless child, childless, or brotherless, as the case may be, instead of saying: my wife is dead, my father, child or brother is dead. If a death occurs among them in the bush, it is with great difficulty that the name of the deceased can be ascertained. In such a case, the natives will remind you of incidents that may have happened in his lifetime, that he did such a thing, was present on such an occasion, &c., but no persuasion on earth will induce them to pronounce his name. (Schürmann 1879)
Renowned as a fierce warrior and immoderate lover is Welu, who, being foiled in his amours by the Nauo people, determined to exterminate the whole tribe. He succeeded in spearing all the men except Karatantya and Yangkunu, two young men, who flew for shelter into the top of a tree. Welu climbed after them with the intent to murder them also; but they had the cunning to break the branch on which he was standing, when, tumbling headlong to the ground, a tamed native dog seized and killed him. He has since been changed into the bird that now bears his name, and which in English is called the curlew, while the memory and names of the two young men who escaped his fury are perpetuated by two species of hawk. (Schürmann 1879)
The Nauo is spoken in the southern and western parts of this district, and seems to deviate from the Parnkalla by a broader and harsher pronunciation and different inflexions or terminations of the words, verbs as well as nouns; many words, however, are totally different. (Schürmann 1879)
[T]hey seem to think that the fate of man in this world is in some degree dependent on his good or bad conduct. The following anecdote will best illustrate their views on the subject: It was reported by a native that at or near Streaky Bay a black man had been shot by a whaling party for spearing a dog belonging to them, and which had been furiously attacking the native; some time after, the crew of a whaler wrecked in that neighbourhood came overland to Port Lincoln, and when it was hinted that perhaps one of them had shot the black man, the natives at once assigned that act of cruelty as the cause of the shipwreck. (Schürmann 1879)  |
| The picture represents four Aboriginalsgetting ready to dance at a "Corrobboree" at Carriewerloo Station.Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 1 July 1905 |
First Europeans
In 1627, aboard the vessel
Gulden Seppart (Golden Seahorse), the Dutch Captain Francois Thyssen and Pieter Nuyts charted the area around Ceduna, SA.
In 1802 Matthew Flinders mapped the coastline of the South
Australian coast between January and April 1802, in the
HMS Investigator. |
| Matthew Flinders, English explorer |
In January 1803, the Frenchman Louis-Claude de Freycinet charted the area for the Nicholas Baudin expedition, which circumnavigated the globe. In 1811 he
published the first map showing a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
In 1836 Colonel William Light surveyed the Port Lincoln area.
Edward John Eyre
explored and extensively mapped the land of the Eyre Peninsula, 1839–41.
1900s
From 1846 South Australian counties and hundreds were established to enable regulation and administration of
land transactions. The Hundred of Cummins was proclaimed in 1903, with land sales beginning in 1904. Prior to this, the area mostly consisted of pastoral leases.
Farmers began buying land in the Hundred of Cummins in 1904, which was named after the politician William Cummins, a member of the Upper House in Adelaide, from 1896 to 1907, for the district of Stanley at Clare.
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| MR. WILLIAM PATRICK CUMMINS,M.P. Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 14 November 1896 |
Ernest Albert Atkinson and John Durdin established a farm in partnership, on Sect 2 Hd of Cummins. Some of this land was subdivided to create a town at the junction of several roads beside the railway line.
Pioneering in Cummins District.
Wheatfields Replace Mallee Scrub. Experiences of Mr. John Durdin.
Mr. John Durdin, of Cummins, who celebrated the 72nd anniversary of his birth on Tuesday was born at Cape Jervis. Although he left his native district at an early age. he can well remember the methods adopted there at harvest time, when the reaping was done by hand, and the wheat thrashed by a horse thrashing-machine. His father was the first farmer in the Cape Jervis district to use a Mellor stripper. The machine was drawn by a team of bullocks. With the opportunity of only eleven months at school Mr. Durdin started work at an early age, driving bullocks when only 11 years old. His father took up land at Kulpara, then known as South Hummocks, in 1869. A few years later he removed to Lochiel, where he resided for 6 years, then returning to Kulpara and taking up land in the hundred of Clinton.
Mr. John Durdin was married in 1884 to Miss Bidgood, the 'ceremony being conducted at the Methodist parsonage, Kadina. Mr. and Mrs. Durdin lived on the farm at Kulpara for 25 years and in 1904 in company with Messrs. C. H. Atkinson and W. Farmilow, he left for Cummins, travelling overland with teams and belongings. The journey occupied 13 days. The party arrived in this district on February 14, 1904, camping for a week near Cabot's Hill, The country was thickly covered with mallee and it was a difficult matter to find a clearing large enough on which to erect a camp. Mr. Durdin and his eldest son lived in bachelor style for 2 years, all provisions being procured at Tumby Bay. Other early settlers in the district were Messrs. O. A. Hall, B. Dangerfield, Laube Bros., and the Siviour family.
The first post office was at White's Flat and later at Stokes. Mr. W. Cabot of Yallunda Flat for a considerable period was butcher for the district and the distributor of local mails. The settlers at that time realised the disadvantages of poineering, and always worked with a view to assisting each other. Mrs. Durdin joined her husband at Cummins in 1906, where they have resided since. Mr. Durdin has seen the district transformed from a forest of mallee without a 'railway to a prosperous wheat-growing district with the town an important railway junction. He has always been actively connected with the Methodist Church as trustee, Sunday-school worker and choir leader. For over 45 years he has been a member of the Albert District Independent Order of Rechabites and is a P.C.R. of the order. The members of the family are : — Mesdames A. J. Kock (Lameraa) and A. Fuss (Cummins), Miss Durdin (Cummins, Mr. J. R. Durdin (UnT garra), and Pastor Ira Durdin (Stradialbyn). There are also 17 .^randchildren, Mrs. Durdin's three brothers are J. J. Durdin of Prospect, S. DuWin (Wallaroo), and T. Durdin (Melton.)
Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1954), Friday 22 November 1929, page 3
The Cummins show was first held in 1904.
The galvanised iron Institute, built in 1906, was used as the state school from 1912 to 1921. In the 1920s, the Anglican Church rented
the building and bought it later, to use as a hall.
The first building in Cummins was the little wood and iron Institute on land donated by Mr John Durdin
The Port Lincoln-Cummins railway, completed in 1907.
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| Cummins Cashstore and post office, SA, Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 23 January 1909 |
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| Cummins Show, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 11 November 1911 |
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| Cummins Methodist Church, completed in 1912, located at 68-72 Bruce Terrace, Cummins, SA. Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 21 December 1912 |
WWI
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Ernest Albert Atkinson: ATKINSON. Service number 1878. Private 10th Infantry Battalion. AIF WW1. Born 5 Dec 1893. Home Town: Cummins, Lower Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Died Killed in Action, Hazebrouck, France, 18 April 1918, aged 24 years
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1920s
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| The Tod River is the only stream on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia with a reliable water flow. The Tod River Reservoir was built across the river between 1918 and 1922. Port Lincoln and Cummins, and thousands of acres in the southern part of the Peninsula will receive water from this point. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 11 March 1922 |
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| SCENE AT CUMMINS RAILWAY YARD,. WHICH AT THE TIME OF TAKING PHOTOGRAPH WAS FULL FROM END TO END WiTH WATER TANKS AND EMPTY TRUCKS. Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 28 April 1923 |
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| Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 24 April 1926 |
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| Mr. P. D. S. Cooper, of Cummins, with the one-ton truck he purchased from Maughan-Thiem Motor Company. News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Tuesday 20 December 1927 |
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Henry Siviour, with his two sons, Messrs. William and Richard Siviour, took a tract of land comprising 14,000 acres at Cummins, Eyre's Peninsula, SA, in 1903. Mr. Siviour was the first farmer in that locality. News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Thursday 2 May 1929 |
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| The post office and railway yard garden at Cummins, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 17 October 1929 |
1930s
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| The new flour mill at Cummins, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 19 November 1931 |
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| Mr. A. C. Fuss's homestead at Cummins having spent a couple of years there, and helped to construct the railway line to Whyalla. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 7 September 1933 |
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| Cummins Ramblers, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 October 1934, |
SA centenary hall opened, built from brick, in 1936.
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| West Coast Recorder (Port Lincoln, SA : 1909 - 1942), Thursday 4 February 1937 |
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| Cummins Institute, SA, West Coast Recorder (Port Lincoln, SA : 1909 - 1942), Thursday 4 February 1937 |
1940s |
| DANCE AT CUMMINS. The R.A.O.B. Centenary Ball was held at Cumminsrecently. Some of the dancers who attended. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 30 May 1940 |
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| CUMMINS SHOW. A corner of the showground at Cummins, where a record show was recently held. The attendance was about 3,000, and the gate takings £190. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 6 November 1941 |
Private Advices (1942, October 2). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954)
The Cummins Area School was officially opened in 1942 by Sir Shirley Jefferies, Attorney General and Minister of Education in the Butler and Playford Governments from 1933 to 1944.
1950s
The Eyre Peninsula rail network
in operation since 1907, was once the largest employer in the region, with over 600 workers in the 1950s and 1960s.
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| The new Cummins Hospital, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 October 1951 |
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| These women members attended the recent Lower Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Bureau conference at Cummins. They are, back (from left) — Mcsdrmes J. Walter, M. Murchison and T. Nicholls, Miss B. and T. Pope and Mrs. F. Rowe. Front —Mesdames F. Coles and B. Sharp and Miss M. Gardiner. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 2 October 1952 |
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| Eyre Peninsula country carnival footballers as they returned from a bus trip in the hills yesterday afternoon. They are (from left)— Top, W. Lawrie (Cummins),L. Freeman (Pt. Neill) and V. Woods (Pt. Lincoln). Front, F. Post (Cleve), J. Mo Gcever (Pt. Lincoln), D. Harvey (Pt. Lincoln) and J. Cronin (Cummins). Eyre Peninsula country carnival footballers as they returned from a bus trip in the hills yesterday afternoon. They are (from left)— Top, W. Lawrie (Cummins),L. Freeman (Pt. Neill) and V. Woods (Pt. Lincoln). Front, F. Post (Cleve), J. MoGcever (Pt. Lincoln), D. Harvey (Pt. Lincoln) and J. Cronin (Cummins).Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Thursday 2 July 1953 |
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| Cummins Ball, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 29 July 1954 |
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| Cummins SA Show, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 November 1954 |
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| A machinery field day was held at Cummins on Thursday last week when there was a big attendance of farmers from southern Eyre Peninsula. ABOVE (left to right): Messrs. R. Sands, D. Fitzgerald, H. Hodge, R. Lockwood and F. Roedigea interested in one of the many implements. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 26 August 1954 |
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| A spectacular parade of tractors and farm implements at a recent field day at Cummins, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 2 September 1954 |
2008
The Cummins Christmas Wonderland was started in 2008 by a very small group of volunteers, who created fun displays celebrating Christmas and other children's themes.
Around Cummins
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| House on Railway Terrace, Cummins, SA, built 1910 |
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| Cummins Institute, SA, built 1936 |
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| The Gothic porch and facade of the Methodist Church built in 1912 and still in use as the Cummins Uniting Church, SA. denisbin |
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| The railway workers accommodation barracks in the Cummins Railway Station yards, SA. denisbin |
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| The Presbyterian Church. First church in Cummins, SA. Opened October 1912. Closed 1921. Became the Masonic Hall 1926. Now privately owned. denisbin |
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| The state school began in the Institute in 1912. This stone and brick school room was built in 1921. Now used as a kindergarten, Cummins, SA. denisbin |
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| Mosaics in the SAR South Australian Railways themed park. The bronze statue of a wheat lumper. Cummins, SA |
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| Mosaics in the SAR South Australian Railways themed park. The bronze statue of a wheat lumper. Cummins, SA |
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| Cummins Milling was established in 1930 during the depression by Aubrey Heidenreich, SA. The first mill burnt down in 1933, so the existing building was rebuilt in 1934 |
Things To Do and Places To Go
