On 6 August 1859, 167 years ago, the new steamer Admella, less than two years after her maiden voyage, was wrecked on a then uncharted reef now known as Carpenters Reef, about 30 km north-west of Cape Northumberland and 4 km north-west of Cape Banks. This was South Australia’s worst maritime disaster, with the loss of 89 lives, including many children, and one of the rescuers.
Of a total complement of 113 passengers and crew, only 24 survived, rescued eight days later after a horrific week of rescue attempts in appallingly rough wintry conditions.
The iron-hulled SS Admella of 209 net tons departed Port Adelaide at 5.30 am on Friday 5 August, bound for Melbourne, under command of experienced Captain Hugh McEwan. He had taken her on this route many times before. Also on board were six horses including three thoroughbreds entered in the Champion Sweepstakes in Melbourne (forerunner to the Melbourne Cup), being transported in makeshift stalls on the deck.
After leaving the shelter of Kangaroo Island they were confronted with the first heavy swells from the Southern Ocean, and one of the horses had fallen in its stall. So the captain altered course to face the south-west swells head-on while the horse was righted, then the ship resumed its previous course.
On 24 June each year we remember the life of Adam Lindsay Gordon, cut short on this day in 1870 when his lifeless body was discovered in the coastal scrub at Brighton beach.
One of our members, Nanette, was recently in Melbourne and, while there, paid a visit to Gordon’s grave at the Brighton General Cemetery, where she laid a wreath of wattle (which she personally crafted) in remembrance of the poet. Gordon was buried in a plot owned by his good friend William Trainor who is now also buried there.
Four months later, a monument was erected over his grave due to the efforts of many of his admirers including his close friend Major Thomas Durand Baker (later Sir), John and George Riddoch, Frank Madden, Marcus Clarke, John Shillinglaw, George Gordon McCrae, Alfred Henry Massina, and the Power brothers Robert, Herbert and William (Willie). Major Baker instigated a subscription with the dual purpose of erecting a monument, and making provision for his widow Maggie.
In June 1884 Elizabeth (Eliza) Lauder (nee Bright) wrote to the sexton at Brighton cemetery, enclosing £1 to plant a wattle tree ‘with the beautiful yellow blossoms’, also some snowflakes, on Gordon’s grave. She wrote that she had also sent by train some violets from her own garden. Until 1901, she paid the sexton Joseph Smith to maintain the grave at her own expense, until widowhood and heavy financial losses compelled her to ask for assistance from William Furlong’s wife Minaille (Minnie), secretary and co-founder with her husband of the Australian Literature Society, and president of the Lindsay Gordon Lovers’ Society until her death in 1941. Mrs Lauder’s brother Edward Bright was the ‘Ned’ in Gordon’s well-known poem ‘The Sick Stockrider’.
In 1898 the Furlongs hosted the first of the annual Australian Poets’ Night, along with literary friends, on the anniversary of Gordon’s death, an idea originated by Minnie.
June 1892 was the first recorded pilgrimage to Gordon’s grave, when John Howlett-Ross, following a visit to England, laid a wreath given to him by Mrs Jane Lees (nee Bridges), Gordon’s first love. The ceremony was witnessed by John Whiteman, Mr and Mrs Kelly, and many Melbourne literary figures.
Thereafter, annual pilgrimages were held in June at the gravesite for many years. From 1902, the Australian Literature Society looked after the grave until 1909 when arrangements were made with the Trustees of the Brighton General Cemetery for the proper care and maintenance of the poet’s grave.
From 1 September 1910, when Wattle Day was first celebrated in many states, this also became the first of regular annual pilgrimages to Gordon’s grave when sprigs of wattle were laid. On 1 September 1912 about 2000 people attended the annual pilgrimage. For the ensuing years to at least 1918, thousands attended the annual pilgrimage on 1 September.
Travel back in time at historic Yallum Park homestead, Penola. On Sunday 24 May 2026, learn about Adam Lindsay Gordon through the play Reckless, read by actor David Reed, in Yallum Park’s elegant dining room, as you enjoy an English afternoon tea supplied by Chef Ian Perry of Red Shack Café, Penola. The late Christina Hindhaugh’s play was performed for 14 years from 1993, in both Victoria and SA. Play-reading about 50 mins. Guests to be seated by 2 pm.
Cost $70 per head, $50 for ALGCC members. Only 25 tickets available.
On 15 February 2026, Brighton Cemetorians will conduct a guided walk with the theme of Yorick Club members. The general public with special interest are invited to join the tour. Brighton General Cemetery is located at the corner of North and Hawthorn Roads, Brighton.
Formed in 1868 this was a meeting place for men from the areas of art, literature and science. Prominent members included Marcus Clarke, Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon. Within the Brighton Cemetery are the graves of a number of well-known members, including Tom Carrington, David Wheeler and George Walstab.
After 155 years, the grave of Adam Lindsay Gordon has undergone major renovation in the last two years – underpinning, plaque replacements, and an information bollard. This is a great opportunity to see Gordon’s grave, learn more about Yorick Club members and also see other significant graves at Brighton.
ALGCC president Russell Harrison will be attending and would welcome other ALGCC members. If you are attending, please also let him know (Russell Harrison – 0400 825 220).
For the tour, bookings essential with Lois Comeadow, Brighton Cemetorians on (03) 9558 4248.
Melbourne’s legendary Yorick Club began in 1868, when 64 men connected to ‘Literature, Art or Science’ paid £2 2s each to become foundation members. Famed poet Adam Lindsay Gordon and author Marcus Clarke were at the heart of the ‘brilliant literary coterie’ whose exploits fuelled the myth of wild ‘Bohemian living’ during that era. Other members included notable ‘newspaper men’ and senior civil servants.
Join us to view the superb refurbishment of Adam Lindsay Gordon’s grave and meet other celebrated figures from that exuberant era. These include cartoonist, illustrator and writer Tom Carrington, former chief of Hansard David Dickenson Wheeler, journalist George Arthur Walstab and also to hear about other members.
The Yorick club began with a series of informal meetings at the office of Frederick William Haddon in Spring Street. Among its earliest members were Marcus Clarke and Hamilton MacKinnon (his literary executor), Adam Lindsay Gordon, James E. Neild, John Shillinglaw and writer/journalist George Arthur Walstab (1834–1909), author of Looking Back (1864), Julian Thomas (aka ‘The Vagabond’), barrister William McKinley, journalist Malcolm Stark, and James Duerdin, who served as secretary.
‘With a human skull for a mascot and rules that parodied the gentlemen’s clubs of establishment Melbourne, Yorick members gathered in rooms adjoining the offices of Melbourne Punch to smoke clay pipes, drink from pewter mugs, recite poetry and generally engage in horseplay. Money was tight so they constructed club chairs, appropriately, from bundles of newspapers.’ [https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/yorick-club]
The club members originally met at King’s Café in Collins Street before establishing clubrooms above Haigh’s tailor shop, and within a year membership had grown to 100. What started as a lively, boisterous affair, the club developed into a respectable institution and expanded its criteria to admit men in the professions. For many years it had rooms at the Victoria Buildings, adjacent the City Club Hotel on the corner of Collins and Swanston Street. In 1966 the club merged with the Melbourne Savage Club, with which it had had a cordial rivalry for some years.
The 19th Annual General Meeting of the Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee Inc. will be held on Sunday, 23 November 2025 at 3.30 pm AEDT via Zoom.
To attend the meeting, please email President, Russell Harrison – algccpresident@gmail.com – for the link to join.
In order to nominate for the committee or to vote for an office bearer, you will need to be a paid-up member. See application form on the website.
Adam Lindsay Gordon was obviously an early admirer of the wattle tree, as he described them fondly in many of his poems.
Elizabeth Lauder (nee Bright), a personal friend of Gordon when he worked in the south-east of South Australia, in 1884 sent money to the sexton at Brighton Cemetery, to plant a wattle and other flowers on his grave. She paid for the upkeep of the grave from 1870 to 1900, and regularly sent floral tributes. The first wattle cutting she sent died but the two more were subsequently planted and grew well for many years until a storm caused the demise of one. The other grew to a great height before being removed. However, its seeds were saved and grown.
The Wattle Day movement had its beginnings in 1889 when the Australian Natives’ Association (ANA), a male-only organisation formed in 1871, proposed a motion by its vice-president of the Adelaide branch William J Sowden, at a meeting on 20 September 1889, to form a ladies’ society in conjunction with the ANA, to ‘advertise the objects of the ANA outside of its own membership’, This was to be known as the Wattle Blossom League.
The proposal was officially approved at the ANA’s first annual conference on 13 March 1890, followed five days later by the first wattle blossom social, held in the Adelaide Town Hall, and attended principally by ladies, but all wearing a sprig of wattle blossom (Acacia pycnantha), a tradition insisted upon at all meetings. There was the first rendering of a song titled ‘Australia’, written by Mr CC Presgrave, set to music by Herr M Heuzenroeder, and sung by Mr R Nitschke.
The Wattle Blossom League also designed its own flag in January 1891. However, later that year some prominent members of the League withdrew and it dissolved.
Following the activities of the South Australian League, in February 1891, a Melbourne newspaper proposed that wattle should become Australia’s national floral emblem. The next significant event was the formation in 1899 of a ‘Wattle Club’ in Victoria by field naturalist Archibald J Campbell. For several years the club organised bush outings on the first day in September.
The first Wattle Day was held in Hobart in 1838 to mark 50 years of British settlement in the Australian colonies.
Following the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, enthusiasm for a national day of celebration began across the country. The first suggestion of a Wattle Day was made by Mr Campbell during a speech in Melbourne in September 1908 and in August 1909 a public meeting held in Sydney agreed to encourage the coordination of all states in this endeavour. By July 1910 a branch of the Wattle Day League was started in South Australia, with Will Sowden as its Vice-President. Another branch began in Melbourne by AJ Campbell in September that year. The first ‘national’ Wattle Day was celebrated in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on 1 September 1910. Queensland followed in 1913 and that year Sydney planted 200 wattle trees in Centennial Park.
Although plans to celebrate Wattle Day nationally were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, Wattle Day served as a strong symbol of patriotism during the war with the Red Cross using it as a focus for fundraising for the war effort. Early Wattle Day activities included planting of wattle trees in school grounds, school lessons on botany, street decorations of wattle blossom, and wearing sprigs of wattle, often sold for charity.
Wider acceptance of a national Wattle Day was achieved at a major Australian Wattle Day League Conference in Melbourne in January 1913. Branches were formed in a number of states, and the golden wattle was incorporated into the design of the Australian Coat of Arms in 1912 following the recommendation of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher.
[For further information, see The Wayfarer June 2025, Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee Inc.]
On 28 July 1864 – 161 years ago – Adam Lindsay Gordon made his famous ‘leap’ over a four-foot-high post and rail fence alongside the Blue Lake with his horse Red Lancer. This feat came about when Lindsay was out cross-country riding with several friends, when each would dare the other to clear any obstacle he could. While discussing remarkable feats on horseback that they had witnessed, or taken part in, he decided to show them a feat they would not be likely to imitate. Having cleared the fence, he had a mere eight-foot wide ledge on which to turn his horse and jump back onto the road, which he did.
The previous day, three of the riders – Lindsay Gordon, William Trainor, and Robert Learmonth – had competed in the Border Handicap Steeplechase in Mount Gambier, a race of four miles with six jumps over a course of almost virgin scrub encircling the town. These three competitors were closely matched, finishing with barely a length between them. Robert Learmonth won on Ingleside, William Trainor was second on Longbow, followed by Lindsay in third place on Modesty.
Once home to the poet of Australia, Adam Lindsay Gordon, the heritage-listed ‘Dingley Dell Cottage’ houses memorabilia of the poet and horseman where he spent nearly three years from 1864 until he moved to Ballarat in 1867 with his wife Maggie and baby daughter, Annie Lindsay. The cottage was a source of inspiration for his poetry, and from where he trained and rode many of his horses.
When Gordon was elected to the South Australian Parliament in March 1865, he rented a house at Glenelg, and Dingley Dell became their summer residence, and also their home between parliamentary sittings. During one of these visits, Gordon planted the fig tree and dug the well, both still there.
It was also during his time staying at Dingley Dell, that he sent many racing rhymes to the sporting paper Bell’s Life and the Australasian. It seems he found the peace and serenity of Dingley Dell and the nearby Southern Ocean (connected by several bridle paths) inspired him to write many of his poems which he contributed to various publications, some under one of his several nom de plumes.
When purchased from George Randall on 8 March 1864, section 138, on which the cottage sits, covered 101 acres, for which he paid £350.
Over the 150 years since Adam Lindsay Gordon’s death on 24 June 1870, there have been many pilgrimages to both his grave in Brighton General Cemetery, and also to Dingley Dell Cottage, Port MacDonnell.
A four-hour opening of the cottage on 17 May 2025 has been organised, through the auspices of National Parks and Wildlife Limestone Coast, by the Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee Inc., formed in 2006 to preserve and commemorate the works and memorabilia of the poet.
Adam Lindsay Gordon is the only Australian poet to have a bust in Westminster Abbey; there is also a replica bust in Penola. Renowned also for his horsemanship, especially steeplechasing, Gordon was posthumously inducted into the Australian Jumps Racing Association’s Gallery of Champions in 2014, and in 2023 he became a Colonial Era Inductee to the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
A gold coin donation will assist the organisation in the maintenance and preservation of, among other things, Gordon’s grave in Brighton General Cemetery, Melbourne, which is in progress. Apart from regular maintenance of the gravesite, the four main marble plaques on the monument which had deteriorated have now been replaced, thanks to a generous donation, and the committee has also installed an informative plaque at the site.
Open Saturday, 17 May, 10 am – 2 pm
Dingley Dell Conservation Park, 10 Milsteads Rd, Port MacDonnell
Due to the small size of the cottage, bookings are required by phone or email, to Lorraine Day, 0417 856 963, or adamlindsaygordon@gmail.com
A guided tour of Dingley Dell Cottage, a short talk, and poetry reading, will be at 11 am and 1 pm.
The book Gordon of Dingley Dell: The life of Adam Lindsay Gordon will also be available to purchase on the day, signed by the author.
Many people may remember hearing these lines at some time, and many may be able to recite them, but not many may know that they were written by Australia’s national poet – Adam Lindsay Gordon – who had a significant impact on the history of South Australia.
Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace.
Held every year on 21 March, World Poetry Day celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity.
World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, ‘with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard’. The first World Poetry Day was commemorated on 21 March 2000.
The theme for World Poetry Day 2025 is ‘Poetry for Peace and Unity’. This theme highlights poetry’s role in fostering harmony, bridging cultures, and expressing deep human emotions.
World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media. As poetry continues to bring people together across continents, all are invited to join in.
Check out the life and works of Adam Lindsay Gordon – www.freestylepublications.com.au – or https://adamlindsaygordon.org.
160 years ago, on 6 March 1865, it was announced that Adam Lindsay Gordon was elected as a new Member to the fourth South Australian House of Assembly. He joined returning Member for the electorate of Victoria, John Riddoch.
Gordon had beaten the incumbent, Attorney General Randolph Stow by 11 votes, to become a Member of the Victoria district of South Australia. This brought about the resignation of the Henry Ayers Ministry.
The electorate of Victoria covered the whole of South Australia between the River Murray and the Victorian border.
Adam Lindsay Gordon’s foray into political life came about at the end of 1864 when the electors of the district were becoming dissatisfied with the incumbent representative, Attorney General Randolph Stow, who was considered to be giving too much support to the squatters.
Gordon and his young wife Maggie had already been living at Dingley Dell for about six months and he was becoming well known throughout the electoral district of Victoria, South Australia, where he lived, for his horsemanship and poetical talents. In August 1864 Gordon’s poem The Feud was published in the Border Watch, a month after he executed his famous dare-devil leap over a fence on the edge of the Blue Lake and, in October, his verses inspired by ‘My Old Black Pipe’ were published in Bell’s Life. The electors wanted a local man who could go to Adelaide and give proper attention to their interests.
On 11 January 1865, a deputation of the townspeople went to Dingley Dell with a ‘respectably signed’ requisition to encourage Gordon to stand for the coming elections. Gordon did not think he was suitable for such a responsible office, being a poor public speaker, and also having little acquaintance with the pressing issues of the day. However, with some influence from John Riddoch, and further persuasion from Father Julian Tenison Woods, who believed it would give Gordon ‘a much-needed and useful occupation, and might even lead to a brilliant career’, brought about his acceptance.
At a public meeting in Mount Gambier on 18 January, chaired by Dr Wehl, Gordon put forward his priorities for attention should he be elected. He was in favour of the Real Property Act, of the government borrowing money for such works as roads, bridges, jetties, and so on – whatever would benefit the colony and develop its resources – provided it was managed by a wise government. He promised to do his best to ensure ‘that the country districts obtained their fair share of the revenue for public purposes’. He was in favour of having a good road between Penola and MacDonnell Bay and would ‘advocate an immediate inspection and report as to the best mode to do it’. He also favoured continuing with the existing education system and of increasing the salaries of country teachers.
SA Hansard on 23 May 1865 recorded that ‘Mr. GORDON took the oath and his seat for the Electoral District of Victoria.’ On 31 May, Gordon made his first parliamentary speech:
Mr. GORDON said that it appeared to him that there were two questions to be considered – first, the amount of evil, real or imaginary, which would accrue to the holders of present annual leases; and secondly, what amount of good, if any, would be reaped by the general public as a set-off to the losses of the lessees. Any person having the most superficial knowledge of pastoral affairs must see that disastrous consequences would fall upon the lessees if compelled to leave the land at a short notice. It was, however, an ill wind that blew nobody good, and perhaps some land-sharks might make a dishonest penny in running up the leases. It was clear to him that neither agriculturist nor merchant, nor any honest class of the community, would profit by the loss entailed on the lessees by the forced sale of their runs. The hon. member Mr. Townsend spoke as if nearly every member of that House came pledged to support Mr. Goyder’s valuations. He was not a squatter, and had no interest in squatting; but he was not returned pledged to support Goyder’s valuations. In fact, he told his constituents in language not strictly Parliamentary – (a laugh) – that he would not support Goyder’s valuations. He believed that in many respects the squatters had only themselves to blame; and in the question of valuations especially, if they had any grievance to complain of, it arose out of their own consent to accept the valuations of one individual. (Hear, hear.) He might say that he knew plenty of places where 240 sheep were calculated to the square mile which could perhaps fairly carry from 40 to 80 head. They had heard of a gentleman in advance of his time who had recently been charged with lunacy. He thought that the squatters might with equal justice have been taken up on the same charge. He thought that there could be no advantage in sacrificing the squatters, and no man could fail to see the hardship that must accrue to many of them if their runs were put up to auction as proposed. If any class could be shown to derive a benefit, perhaps they would not complain; but it would be folly to throw the squatters overboard if nobody was to be a gainer. He was disposed to support the motion.
Gordon also favoured seeking a grant to erect a district hospital at Mount Gambier, and this he promised to do without delay. John Riddoch had already promised a handsome sum for this work as a supplement to any Government grant. Lindsay disagreed with George Goyder’s valuations of leases for the squatters, saying the system was grossly unjust, that it was not fair to appoint one man to value all the runs in the colony. Many of the runs were greatly overvalued and several lessees were later forced to sell. Although Lindsay was considered to be an advocate of the squatters, he had no interest in squatting property and showed no favouritism towards the squatters. He sought merely to ensure fair dealings for all, whether squatter or farmer. Despite being fond of racing personally, he did not believe the country should support racing, but rather the Government should ‘support gymnasiums and kindred sports that promoted the healthy development of the body, more especially in connection with public schools’.
During his term in the House of Assembly, Gordon spoke nine times, presented four petitions, carried a motion for the erection of a hospital at Mount Gambier, lost by 12 votes to 16 a motion for building a railway from Naracoorte to Robe, and attended sundry other matters for his constituents.
He soon tired of politics and was reported spending much time drawing caricatures of the members and making sketches of horses; his abstinence from speech-making became noticeable and his appearance in the House gradually lessened. On 26 October 1866 a ‘call of the House’ was made, and it is recorded that ‘Mr Gordon was the only member who did not answer nor excuse his absence’. Adam Lindsay Gordon resigned his seat in the South Australian House of Assembly on 20 November 1866. While in the House he was popular and was greatly missed by many who enjoyed his company, wit and interesting conversation.
