Henley Beach, the Future Ramsgate of South Australia.

Extremely rare c.19th panorama and plan of Henley Beach, South Australia made to promote the Henley Beach Estate subdivision of sections 2030, 448, and 449, Yatala which were advertised for sale on September 1882, with the sole agents being Lawrence & Brook, Melvin Chambers, Adelaide. The suburb was promoted as the Future Ramsgate of South Australia.

The area was described in 1866 as being a small village, ‘one mile west of Fulham’. Later, in May 1874 the Register advertised the ‘Township of Henley Beach: While admitted to be one of the finest in the colony, [it] has been somewhat neglected owing to the road not being made. The District Council and private enterprise, however, have overcome this.

The history of the sections is that on 1 November 1850, William Bartley obtained the land grant of section 448 and also purchased section 2080 from the South Australia Company in 1856, both of which he sold to James MacGeorge in August 1873 and then in May 1877 Arthur Harvey, Henry S. Anthony and William P. Wicksteed purchased the land and laid out the ‘official’ town of Henley Beach. Part of the land subdivided included sections 2080 and 448 which on 26 January 1860 had been advertised in the Register on page 4a stating; ‘Town of Henley Beach’ as being a subdivision of sections 2080 and 448 into blocks of from 2 to 4 acres ‘free from all the noxious smells which have been cause of complaint elsewhere’.

Supplements From the original edition of Frearson’s Monthly Illustrated Adelaide News