Penfield, South Australia

Penfield is a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, in the City of Playford.

Penfield
Adelaide, South Australia
Penfield
Coordinates34.68335°S 138.62259°E / -34.68335; 138.62259
Population804 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)5121
LGA(s)City of Playford
State electorate(s)Taylor
Federal Division(s)Spence
Suburbs around Penfield:
Penfield Gardens MacDonald Park Eyre
Virginia Penfield Edinburgh North
Waterloo Corner Direk Edinburgh

William Penfold, one of the first settlers in the area, subdivided land he had bought in the Hundred of Munno Para in 1856 to create the township of Penfield. The area was commonly known as Peachey Belt or Peachy Belt. The boundaries have changed over the years, the original township being overshadowed by the government acquisition of land immediately south of the early town centre since the 1940s for construction of military facilities such as the Penfield munitions factory. As a result, much of the modern peri-urban locality of Penfield is used for industrial purposes rather than residential and the original town centre is no longer a population centre.

The remaining part of the Zoar Bible Christian Church, built in 1855, is the small cemetery.

History

Before European settlement, the Kaurna people inhabited the land.[2]

The district was surveyed in 1849, as part of the Hundred of Munno Para. Early settlers arrived in the area in the 1850s, clearing the land to grow cereal crops and graze animals. William Friend Penfold was one of the first to buy land there, and in 1853 he opened the Plough and Harrow Hotel (which closed in 1893 and was destroyed by fire in 1899).[3] In 1856 he subdivided land he had bought on section 4057, and a village was laid out at the junction of Penfield and Argent Roads (the Argents being another family of early settlers).[4][5] That intersection is now surrounded on three sides by RAAF Base Edinburgh.

Most of the settlers were converted over to the Bible Christian Church (a Methodist denomination) by Reverend Samuel Keen of Angle Vale.[6] The Zoar Bible Christian Church was built in 1855, which was demolished in 1956, although the small cemetery remains.[4][5] (It is near the Max Fatchen Expressway, accessed from Argent Road or the Stuart O'Grady Bikeway.[7])

In the early years, the village had two general stores, a police station, the church and the hotel. Penfield Post Office opened around 1856 and closed in 1951.[8] A government school was opened in 1874 and remained open until about 1940.[4][5] Another church, Sturton Primitive Methodist Church was further south, and the building still stands in the RAAF property, visible from Sturton Road.[9]

Two possibilities as to the origin of the area's former name, Peachey (or Peachy) Belt, which persisted until 1858, have been suggested: that it came from the native peach trees, or quandongs, which covered the area; or that the surveyor was Peter Peachey and the name came from him.[4]

A report in The Register on 10 November 1859, from a meeting in Peachey Belt, mentions a dinner given by James Philcox (a land speculator who named Evanston) at "Smidt's Hotel" before his departure from the colony in 1853. It is not clear whether this referred to the Plough and Harrow or another hotel in the wider area. The report says that Philcox had urged his 13 tenants to turn their attention to the cultivation of vineyards.[10]

A large amount of land in the area between Penfield and Salisbury was compulsorily acquired by the Australian Government's Department of Munitions in 1940 to establish a munitions factory, the Salisbury Explosives Factory, during World War II.[9][11] It led to the closure of the Penfield village.[12] That site now includes RAAF Base Edinburgh, Defence Science and Technology Group and industrial premises.

21st century

The boundaries have varied several times before the current precise boundaries were set.[13]

In the 2010s, the eastern part of what was then Penfield was developed for residential housing.[14] On 31 October 2017, this section was excised from Penfield and a new suburb of Eyre was created on the north side of Womma Road and western side of Stebonheath Road.[15]

The western part is mostly an industrial area wrapped around the northern sides of RAAF Base Edinburgh and south of the Max Fatchen Expressway. It includes an intermodal freight terminal on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line operated by SCT Logistics with a large warehouse and distribution centre operated for Treasury Wine Estates.[16]

See also

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Penfield (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. O'Brien, Lewis Yerloburka; Paul, Mandy (8 December 2013). "Kaurna People". Adelaidia. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  3. "Country News". Chronicle. 41 (2, 107). South Australia. 7 January 1899. p. 6. Retrieved 26 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. denisbin. "Penfield. Named after the Penfold family pioneers. Penfold grave in Zoar Methodist cemetery". Flickr. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  5. "Penfield". City of Playford. PlayfordsPast. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  6. Loyau, George E. (1885). "Rev. Samuel Keen" . Notable South Australians . Adelaide: George E. Loyau – via Wikisource. [scan ]
  7. "Zoar Bible Christian Cemetery Penfield, Playford, South Australia". Interment.net. Clear Digital Media. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  8. Premier Postal History. "Post Office List". Premier Postal Auctions. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
  9. Daina Pocius (28 January 2016). "Penfield township". Playford's Past History Blog. City of Playford. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  10. "Peachey Belt". South Australian Register. XXIII (4080). South Australia. 10 November 1859. p. 3. Retrieved 21 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. Bell, Peter (25 June 2014). "Defence Science and Industry". SA History Hub. History Trust of South Australia. Retrieved 19 January 2021. This entry was first published in The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History, edited by Wilfrid Prest, Kerrie Round and Carol Fort (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2001). Edited lightly and references updated. Uploaded 25 June 2014
  12. "Village And Farms To Disappear From The Good Earth of Salisbury". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 10 October 1940. p. 14. Retrieved 27 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Placename Details: Penfield". Property Location Browser. Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. 8 November 2011. SA0054311. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  14. "Eyre Penfield - AVJennings Community Development". AVJennings. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  15. "Welcome to the new suburb of Eyre". Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, Government of South Australia. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  16. Giuseppe Tauriello (15 April 2013). "Treasury Wine Estates' national distribution centre being built at Penfield". The Advertiser. Adelaide. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
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