Lucindale in Bakers Range.
The ancient sandy ranges of the South East run parallel to the ocean with separating swamp flats. Bakers Range is where Lucindale is located and the next range towards the coast is Avenue Range. This was ideal country for pastoralism and the first to confront the local Aboriginal Buandik people were white leaseholders John White who took up a 135 square mile run called Ardune or Avenue Range in 1845 and James Brown who took up 69 square miles called Kalyra in 1849. Not long after moving to the Avenue Range James Brown was committed for trial by Captain Butler the Magistrate in Robe for murdering five Aboriginal people. One newspaper in Adelaide called it “wholesale murder”. Brown was tried in Adelaide but acquitted as there were no white witnesses able to give evidence against him as there was only evidence from Aboriginal people and their evidence was not legally accepted. Brown’s reputation was rightly tarnished after this tragic event. (After he died his widow created the James Brown charity Trust, perhaps to atone for her husband’s sins.) The other early pioneers of the district were McIntosh and McRae from Naracoorte who took up Crower run in the Baker Range. Small areas of these grand leasehold estates were resumed by the government for closer settlement in 1876 when the Hundred of Joyce was declared.(The Hundred was named after the 3 year old daughter of Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave who had recently died and the town was named after the Governor’s wife- Lady Lucinda Musgrave.) The planned horse tram and later steam railway line from Kingston to Naracoorte passed through the ranges in 1876 on its first leg into the Tatiara and Bordertown. Only one town was surveyed along the route and that was Lucindale which blossomed almost overnight in 1877. Not surprisingly the first residence erected in 1877 was for the railway station master and it also served as the first Post Office. Wheat farmers moved into the better drained areas of the district and the first wheat was railed out of the town in 1878.
By 1880 Lucindale had more than a hundred residents, a general store, hotel, Primitive Methodist stone church (1879) and a wooden Presbyterian Church which was replaced with a stone one in 1880. It was still being used by Presbyterians in 1978 but is now a residence. The Primitive Methodist church became the church hall when a new tin Methodist Church opened in 1906. It was later demolished in 1963 to make way for the erection of the current Uniting Church. The old tin 1906 church still stands behind this and it is now used as the hall. The Anglicans leased the Primitive Methodist church in 1881 for their services. The Anglicans then built a stone church of their own in 1884. It was demolished when a new Anglican Church was erected in 1963. The Presbyterian Church of 1880 still stands but it is now privately owned by a shearer. Almost next door to the old Presbyterian Church which closed in 1977 with the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia is the Catholic Church which was built in 1959. It is currently up for sale. In the early years Lucindale was a very Scottish district with its own Caledonian Society but this soon changed as more non Scottish settlers moved into the district. This also explains why the Presbyterian Church was the second stone church built in the town. By 1880 Lucindale had a stone school room and head teacher’s residence to replace the 1877 wooden school room. It is now the town kindergarten. The District Council of Lucindale was formed in 1878. The Institute and library was erected in 1890 and some new front rooms were added in 1912 as the Council Chamber but in the 1970s this was all demolished for new modern Council Chambers.
In the early 20th century Lucindale regained some momentum. The Institute was used as the Council Chamber from 1907 and then completely taken over to the Council in 1911. In 1911 work started on the K Drain to drain the swamp flats and increase the productivity of the land. The drainage works were completed by 1918 although later drainage works were also undertaken by the government again in the early 1950s. The drains in this area were built westwards to Reedy Creek which is near Kingston. The Art Deco Police Station in the Main Street was completed in 1929 to replace an earlier building. The school in Lucindale grew as the small school at Avenue Range township closed in 1957. Lucindale School eventually became a Higher Primary School offering continuing high school level classes in 1958 and in 1976 it became Lucindale Area School. The railway station in Lucindale is now a museum but the line has had a chequered history. The station was unmanned from 1927 but then restaffed from 1938. The line from Kingston to Naracoorte was converted from 3’6” gauge to 5’3”gauage in 1953. Freight traffic declined and the line was closed in 1987. But Lucindale is still a small town with big spirit as volunteers from the local Lions Club (the whole town only has 300 residents) organises the South East Field Days over two days in late March. Around 25,000 people attend the Field Days, with 500 to 600 exhibitors and Australia’s largest sheep shearing competitions. These South East fields Days began in Lucindale in 1978.
