A town with a history to be proud of
A Monument to the Heroes of Ucolta Next to the Ruins of Ucolta Memorial Hall
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There are some who say that a town should be judged on the qualities of its people. That a populace is the sum of its achievements. This may be particularly true for small country towns, which live or die on the labours of the men and women who dwell there.
Ucolta in mid-north South Australia was created out of adversity. The nearby town of Lancelot was founded around 1877 and attracted enough farmer settlers to build a school, church and hotel. But only five years later drought devastated wheat yields, and the hard times continued through the 1890's when drought returned.
A new South Australian Railways line from the (now ghost) town of Terowie to Broken Hill bypassed Lancelot completely, and a small settlement developed alongside the railway station and tracks at Ucolta in 1894. The general store from Lancelot moved to Ucolta, and Lancelot continued its slow decline into a ghost town.
Unloading Wool at Ucolta Railway Station (Image: Murray Billett Collection mb-b16-098 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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Innovation from Necessity
Meanwhile, an enterprising and ingenious inventor in Ucolta was at work on his farm, and realised the importance of doing more with less. In 1893 Robert Perkins was granted the patent rights for his idea - the Perkins bag lifter, and received sole manufacturing rights to his invention for 14 years. The bag lifter was a simple but extremely effective way to save labour when loading a cart. With the help of local men, Perkins made more than 17,000 bag lifters at the blacksmith's shop on his Ucolta farm. An affordable selling price saw the Perkins bag lifter sold throughout South Australia and interstate for many years.
After Robert Perkin's death in 1930 it was said a memorial to the late Mr. Perkins should be taken up enthusiastically by every farmer and every farmer's man, not only in South Australia but throughout the Commonwealth.
Abandoned Derelict Railway Workers Cottages
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Extremes of Weather and Hardship at Ucolta
With a railway siding and up to 20 trains daily to take wheat to market, you might think that the farmers of Ucolta would be happy. But life above the Goyder Line was hard, and rain was rare. When it did come, it arrived in copious quantities causing floods and creating a massive lagoon two miles wide. It must have been a pretty sight, with a blaze of colourful flowers in bloom, and wild ducks, flamingo and other birds delighting in the natural wonder.
Settlers asked for a goods shed to be built at Ucolta to prevent their produce being damaged by heat and rain. They also complained that not enough railway trucks were available to transport their harvest away to market. A number of railway workers were based in Ucolta and in 1911 the South Australian Railways Commissioner authorised cottages to be constructed for workers. With almost 100 tons of firewood sent from Ucolta railway station in a week, there would be plenty of work for the railway workers.
Hutton's Lagoon at Ucolta (Image: Murray Billett Collection mb-b16-086 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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Reference weekendnotes.com/ucolta
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