Lyrup Cemetery
This is a small cemetery which looks down
on the River Murray and the township of Lyrup.
The
Australian
Cemetries website has details (as at 2007) of those that are
buried at the cemetery. Unfortunately Samuel
McIntosh to whom the settlement of Lyrup owes much of
its success too is not buried in this cemetery. I believe his
legacy should be more well known, so have incorporated his
biography into this listing.
How Lyrup Got It's Name
Lyrup is named after a shepherd's or
boundary rider’s quarters named ‘Lyrup Hut’, which was near the
junction of the Murray and Pike Rivers. The ‘Lyrup Hut’ was built
and named by the lessees of Bookpurnong Station. It was the only
existing building or named landmark in the area. There are no
surviving records of Bookpurnong Station to tell us how or why the
hut got its name.
When two government officials chose the
site for the settlement in late February 1894 they used this name
for the settlement.
It was the most successfully placed
village settlement. Lyrup’s pumping station was able to be located
on relatively flat land, not too high above the river level, even
at times of low river. Additionally, the sandy clay soil around
Lyrup was more productive than the shallow ‘mallee’ soil around
most of the other settlements. The settlers at Lyrup came to the
realisation earlier than those at other villages that they had less
irrigated land than was needed to grow enough crops to support
their population. Their initial pump was insufficient but when it
was replaced in 1898, the villagers’ attempts at irrigation were
much more successful. In 1897, the Lyrup village association
requested that the land commissioner approve changes to their rules
to allow a more co-operative form of association rather than
communal. The changes granted to the settlements rules
included:
- The replacement of the board of
management with an individual manager
- The coupon system only to be retained as
a system of monitoring and recording the work done by individual
settlers for the association
- Work outside the settlement to be allowed
with membership to the association to be retained by completing £70
worth of work for the settlement or by paying 10/- per week if
outside work was engaged in.
The Lyrup settlers were resistant to what
they saw as government interference in their affairs and were at
first unwilling to take the advice of the village settlement
expert, Samuel McIntosh. Eventually, however, his recommendations
were heeded and in combination with the new administration of the
settlement by a manager reduced the mismanagement and internal
wrangling like that which marred the other settlements.
Lyrup expanded and by 1924 had 600 acres
of irrigated land. Today, the settlement of Lyrup still
exists as a town and irrigation area. The village association has
survived too – it presently owns and runs the irrigation and
drainage systems of the land owned by members, and supplies
domestic water to Lyrup.
Who Was Samuel McIntosh
Samuel McIntosh (1867-1939), irrigation
administrator and horticulturist, was born on 11 December 1867 at
Findon, Adelaide, eldest child of Daniel McIntosh, labourer and
later farmer, and his wife Mary, née Allison (d.1874). Sam's
parents had migrated from Ayrshire, Scotland in 1866. Following
education at St Clair, Woodville, Houghton and Telowie, he worked
on his father's mixed farm at Tickera, upper Yorke Peninsula,
helping to prepare the land for cultivation by scrub rolling and
water carting. Here on his father's orchard he saw at first hand
the benefits of irrigation from the Beetaloo reticulation system.
He also joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Manchester
Unity lodge at Tickera and became secretary and presiding
officer.
In June 1891 McIntosh went to Renmark on
the River Murray and found employment with
Chaffey
Brothers Ltd, at five shillings and sixpence per day, as a planter,
grader and ganger, before being appointed head ganger in the
planting section. Next year, offered the opportunity to gain
experience in California with one of the Chaffeys' experts, he
preferred to stay at Renmark, where he was foreman of the gang
grading and irrigating the channels on the river blocks until
mid-1898. During this time he learned much about management of his
workers and assessing the fertility of the soil for
cultivation.
To stem the flow of South Australians
following
William
Lane to Paraguay, in March 1894 the first village settlements
on the river were started. On the instruction of the Chaffeys,
McIntosh assisted Lyrup settlers by planting the first vineyard and
laying out irrigation channels. As chairman of directors of the Ral
Ral Prospecting Co., he went to Western Australia in 1895 but soon
returned to the river settlements. At the end of that year Chaffey
Bros went into liquidation, owing huge amounts in wages to its
employees and holding thousands of acres of unsold land. Appointed
chairman of the employees' committee, McIntosh settled at Renmark
and ran an orchard and ornamental tree nursery. He assisted with
the report to the South Australian parliamentary sub-committee on
Chaffey Bros' affairs. As a consequence, the commissioner of crown
lands made McIntosh expert for village settlements, at an annual
salary of £200; his role was to advise and instruct settlers in
better horticultural methods, in the hope that their settlements
could become self-sufficient, while keeping the government informed
of their progress and problems.
On 10 September 1896 at Kadina, Yorke
Peninsula, Samuel married with Congregational forms Constance Effie
Taylor. They went to live at Overland Corner on the Murray, where
McIntosh established the earliest experimental river irrigation
plot in the colony. He was also appointed assistant inspector of
fisheries and had the use of the first motor launch on the river.
Several years later he recommended the establishment of a floating
fish hatchery, but the radical concept was not followed through.
McIntosh gained the confidence of the village settlers, his
diplomacy with his government employers enabling many local
problems to be solved. His reports helped a South Australian royal
commission (1899-1900) to wind up six unsuccessful village
settlements, with bad debts written off and village lands being let
under perpetual lease.
In December 1900 McIntosh moved his family
to Waikerie, where he started a river irrigation experimental
orchard and vineyard. His position was renamed village settlement
inspector; this was reduced in scope in 1903 when the Markaranka
Irrigation Co. offered him the part-time position of general
manager and he moved to North West Bend. He was also appointed
manager of Holder settlement and irrigation administrator for the
New Era Fruitgrowing Co.
McIntosh resigned his various appointments
in 1906 to become chairman of government irrigation boards and
manager of the Murray Bridge experimental farm, in addition to
river fisheries and village settlements. In January 1910 he
inaugurated the Government Irrigation Department in South
Australia, becoming officer-in-charge of irrigation and reclamation
works the following July, at a salary of £450 per year; in March
1911 he was appointed director of irrigation. Next month he left
for Europe and North America on behalf of the South Australian
government, primarily to observe irrigation practices. He brought
back valuable information to be assessed for suitability for local
irrigation needs.
During and after World War I McIntosh was
involved in the State government's plans to establish returned
soldiers on blocks along the Murray, using his knowledge of river
conditions, soil and suitable crop types. In 1923 a three-man
irrigation commission replaced him; McIntosh was one of its members
but resigned in October 1926. At the age of 58 he established a
fruit block at Berri on his own property, Moy, with his son
Douglas.
With all his official appointments,
McIntosh still managed to find time to become involved in local
organizations. A member of the Morgan District Council and the
first Renmark Literary and Debating Society and Model Parliament,
he founded the Murray Bridge Fathers' Association and Agricultural
Bureau and the Murray River Progress Association. In 1901 he had
been appointed a justice of the peace. He also served as chieftain
of the Murray Bridge Caledonian Society; his sporting interests
included the Murray Bridge and South Australian rowing
clubs.
Detailed diaries that McIntosh kept from
about 1895 to 1935 recorded his visits to river settlements, the
work he oversaw there, his plans for improvements, meetings
attended, notes regarding equipment used and crops planted and his
overseas trip in 1911. They revealed the dedication with which he
undertook all his projects, his official appointments and
associated activities. He also wrote articles, including 'Lucern
cultivation and management' (Bulletin of the Department of
Agriculture, 1910) and 'Irrigation in South Australia' (Journal
of Agriculture of South Australia, 1914).
Predeceased by two sons, McIntosh died on
21 February 1939 at Berri and was buried with Anglican rites; the
attendance at the funeral was the largest in the district to that
time. His wife and their three daughters and one son survived him.
There were many tributes in the local newspaper to his personality,
ability and outstanding contribution to the establishment of
irrigation work along the Murray.
Source:
Australian Dictionary of Biography (On-line
Edition)
The Cache
The cache container is a 200ml Sistema
container. There is room for the log book, a pencil for you to
record your find and for a small number of swap items. If you carry
a pencil sharperner, you might like to sharpen the pencil for the
next logger.