Dr Samantha Battams joins Steve Davis and Keith Conlon for a deep dive into her new book Paving the Way, tracing the founding families of South Australia from German vineyards to Irish immigration and one very surprising DNA revelation, before Keith and Steve preview their upcoming History Festival show, History Hit Parade, with a rousing original river shanty.
South Australia’s History Festival gets a fitting soundtrack in episode 432, and it arrives in three distinct voices: a geneticist-historian overturning stones in founding-era South Australia, Mr South Australia himself bringing context and colour to every corner of the conversation, and an original paddle steamer shanty that had Keith Conlon attempting to haul imaginary ropes.
Dr Samantha Battams is back for her fourth visit to the Adelaide Show, this time with a book that drops her own family tree right into the founding moments of this state.
There is no SA Drink of the Week in this episode. The interview was recorded at the State Library of South Australia with a room booking that had a firm end time, so Steve, Keith, and Samantha made the most of every minute with stories instead.
The Musical Pilgrimage this episode is Steve Davis and the Virtualosos performing Away Away: The Canally Crew Song, an original river shanty written in tribute to the paddle steamer PS Canally, which is being restored at Morgan and set to relaunch in late May 2026, and the song features in Keith and Steve’s show, History Hit Parade show at the Mercury Cinema.
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Running Sheet: All Singing All Reading South Australian History Festival
00:00:00 Intro
Introduction
00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week
There is no SA Drink Of The Week this week.
00:02:09 Dr Samantha Battams on Paving the Way
May is South Australian History Festival month, and if you want to know why that matters, consider this: the western suburb we now call Grange was once known as Reedbeds, where Captain Charles Sturt made his first home while the colony was being developed. One of our guest’s ancestors was the gardener there. Dr Samantha Battams has written a book that puts her own family tree right in the founding moments of this state, and she’s launching it at the History Festival on 15th May. Samantha, has previously been on The Adelaide Show in 249 – Captain Harry Butler and his Red Devil, 279 – The Secret Art Of Poisoning, and 344 – True Crime SA style.
The western suburb we now know as Grange was once called Reedbeds. Captain Charles Sturt made his home there in the colony’s earliest days, and one of Dr Samantha Battams’ ancestors was his gardener. That’s the kind of connection Paving the Way is full of.
Battams’ three-times great-grandfather, Johann Gramp, arrived at Kangaroo Island in 1837 as an eighteen-year-old orphan aboard a vessel that wrecked shortly after. He had lost both parents by age seven, worked for a baker in Bavaria, and made his way to Hamburg where the South Australia Company was recruiting German labourers. He would go on to establish what Keith Conlon describes as the first commercial vineyard near Jacobs Creek.
Keith also notes that he gets there by a roundabout route, and Samantha fills in the Bavarian versus Prussian distinctions that get flattened when viewed from Australian distance. The animosity ran deep enough that during the First World War, Bavarians were reportedly directing Allied forces toward Prussian positions. The Prussian Lutheran refugees who arrived sponsored by George Fife Angus get their own thread. Their pastor Kavel had travelled to London and secured passage for a group who had been holding secret chapel meetings in barns rather than accept the king’s new prayer book.
One Schulz ancestor was accused by the pastor of leaving for earthly reasons rather than faith. Steve’s response: “I think had it been the time of the prosperity gospel, he would’ve been welcomed with open arms.
“From Germany to Ireland, and the Fahy family from County Clare. Edmund Fahy arrived with two younger sisters, one of them just ten years old, and the family was almost immediately separated. Edmund headed to the Kapunda mines while the girls went south with an aunt. Samantha spent years untangling the network of Irish immigrants who came out together, sponsored one another, and intermarried across the colony.
One thread leads to Dave Graney. “I’ve always loved Dave Graney,” Battams says. “I didn’t know I was related to him.”
The Rumbleow family at Encounter Bay ran the first tourist operations in the area. Caroline Rumbleow, who married a man named John Cakebread (“What a name,” says Steve), was said to be the inspiration for a character in the novel Paving the Way by Simpson Newland, which also gives Battams’ book its title.
Family accounts suggest Newland followed Caroline to the Ballarat goldfields and asked her to leave her husband. It did not eventuate.
Samantha undertook a cultural consultation before writing sections involving Aboriginal people. Old newspaper language was either replaced with more appropriate terminology in square brackets or, in one case involving a funeral pyre, stripped of its sensationalist framing while the story itself was kept. She also describes firsthand colonial accounts of a corroboree of 500 people on the banks of the Torrens near what is now the Paradise Bridge.
The interview closes on a revelation hidden since 1890. Battams had her DNA tested to find her adopted father’s biological family, and dismissed a recurring surname, Hazelhurst, as irrelevant to her mother’s side. A later ancestry update showed 25 per cent of her DNA tracing to northwest England and Wales. Following the Hazelhurst name led to Christchurch, New Zealand, and to the conclusion that her great-grandmother Edith Thompson was already pregnant when she married, with a father other than the man recorded.
The cover of Paving the Way is a photograph of Edith and Battams’ grandfather. “The true story had been kept from 1890 to 2025,” Battams says.
Paving the Way is being launched at the 2026 History Festival on 15 May. Dr Lanie Anderson, a previous Adelaide Show guest (107 – Lainie Anderson: View from the hills), will launch the book.
00:27:59 Musical Pilgrimage
In the Musical Pilgrimage, we feature Steve Davis & The Virtualosos‘ “river shanty” song, Away Away (The Canally Crew Song).
Steve Davis wrote this original river shanty after time spent aboard the PS Marion, sister vessel to the PS Canally, a paddle steamer launched in 1907 that is now being restored at Morgan ahead of a relaunch in late May 2026.
Keith Conlon puts the song in context: Morgan once had queues of paddle steamers and six freight trains a day departing with river cargo. He also produces a story about a paddle steamer loaded with materials to build a pub at Bourke that ran aground in a drought and only floated free two years later, by which point the pub had been built by other means.
Away Away is one of ten original songs Steve has written about South Australia for History Hit Parade, the show he and Keith Conlon are performing at Mercury Cinema during the 2026 South Australian History Festival. Keith is confident audiences will want to sing along. A stage jig from Keith is, in his own assessment, highly in doubt. Booking details are in this link: History Hit Parade tickets and information. It’s on Monday, May 11, 11am, and Sunday, May 17, at 4pm and it will simply be an enjoyable show of historical anecdotes, fun, and music.
Here’s this week’s preview video
There is no video this week.
SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.
An AI generated transcript – there will be errors. Check quotes against the actual audio (if you would like to volunteer as an editor, let Steve know)
432-The Adelaide Show
===
Steve Davis: [00:00:00] Hello, Steve Davis here. Welcome to episode 432 of the Adelaide Show Podcast. And we have something a little bit different, a little bit special ’cause it’s History Month in South Australia. Well, the month of May is history month and. I’m doing a show for the History Festival with none other than Mr.
South Australia, Keith Conlon. It’s called History Hit Parade. He’ll join me again at the end of this episode to play one of the songs that will feature to give you a taste of, uh, what we talk about, and we have a returning guest for her third visit on the Adelaide Show. Um, or, or fourth visit. I’ve just been corrected from the wings.
My goodness. Samantha Battams is with us and she has a new book out. Called Paving the Way. Standby. We’re getting into it straightaway. It’s a great taste of history. It’s being launched during History Month as well.[00:01:00]
Caitlin Davis: In the spirit of reconciliation, the Adelaide Show Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout South Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Theme: That lady, lady,
lady. Lady.[00:02:00]
Steve Davis: May is South Australian History Month, and if you wanna know why that matters, consider this. The Western suburb. We now know as Grange was once known as Reedbeds is where Captain Charles Sturt made his home back in the early days, and one of our guest ancestors was the gardener there, Dr. Samantha Battams, who has written a book that puts her own family tree right in the founding moments of this state.
She’s launching it. At the 2026 History Festival on May 15, Samantha, welcome back for the fourth time.
Dr Samantha Battams: Thanks very much, Steve.
Steve Davis: It’s nice to have you here. Keith, I’m gonna throw to you first, Johan Gramp and Barossa. What does that name mean to you? Just off the cuff?
Keith Conlon: Fundamental. He’s, he’s the man. He’s the one who is regarded as the first commercial vineyard on and [00:03:00] what’s more, he’s doing his first work building, his first cellar up Jacobs Creek, which has now become perhaps our most famous creek in the world because of wine.
And so he’s a fundamental founder of the wine industry, but he sort of gets there in a roundabout way, which is I’m sure somewhere that Samantha can take us.
Steve Davis: And Samantha, if my late night reading is correct. Uh, I believe he was your three times great-grandfather.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes, that’s right.
Steve Davis: He arrived an 18-year-old orphan at Kangaroo Island
Dr Samantha Battams: in 1837 On the Soul Way.
Yeah, which was wrecked shortly after.
Steve Davis: How does that become then, has he become then the baro? Leading the great wine making dynasty.
Dr Samantha Battams: I don’t know. He was actually orphaned at a young age. His father was about 30 years older than his mother. He was the last child in the family. He was an orphan by the time he was seven.
I’m not sure who he grew up with, [00:04:00] but he worked for one of the bakers in barbarian, so it was actually barbarian. Mm-hmm. Where most of the Germans that came here were, were Prussians and I do,
Keith Conlon: yeah. Ians and so on. And so he’s not in the same tradition is he? But they all end up there together.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes. So he made his way with, I think he was a good friend of Kleeman, and he made his way to Hamburg.
They were looking for opportunities. He also was a Protestant, and that was difficult in Barbaria as well as in other states. At the time. They were sort of being excluded by a Catholic political group, and so he, there were a number of them from Barbaria making their way up to Hamburg and the South Australia companies were looking for Germans as laborers.
And, um, Dutton, um, and family saw the Germans as you know, excellent laborers and hard workers. Good hard workers. Yeah. So he made his way up to Hamburg and [00:05:00] caught the boat and, um, arrived as I think the youngest member of that group of Germans.
Steve Davis: Is that the blessing and the curse of us here in Australia?
We look at. Germany, and they’re all Germans, but the Germans know they’re all from different mini nations and provinces.
Dr Samantha Battams: Well, in actual fact, I’ve heard stories during the First World War where barbarians were telling the allies where the Prussians were, that there was. Such animosity between the Barbarians and Prussians who’d been at war in the past, um, for many years.
And the barbarians are known to be a lot more laid back and jovial than, than the Prussians as well. Like there, there was a lot of, um, animosity between them.
Steve Davis: I just wanna pick up on the Prussians while we’re here, because in your book, uh, you talk about them religious refugees, they came over in a group, uh, sponsored by George Fife.
Angus, however, you know, there’s a, there’s a name we all know.
Keith Conlon: He, he, he’s, there’s a fateful meeting that happened about now in [00:06:00] 1836. So it’s got an alternate. It’s before anything’s happened. On the ground here on Ghana country. He, um, CarVal the, the most famous pastor of the group. Uh, he, he went to London to, to visit, didn’t he?
He went, he went and talked to George Fife, Angus, who was so impressed by the possibilities that you’ve outlined already. These are good people that he, uh, he, he basically gives them the. The, the, the passage.
Steve Davis: Oh.
Keith Conlon: And so they are now a group that land, uh, thanks to the sort of English investor side of the South Australian story.
Steve Davis: Just picking up on the seriousness of the religious aspect here. Um, your ancestor Schultz was accused by the pastor involved in this group of leaving for earthly reasons rather than faith. Um, looking at what he ended up building, do you think he was right?
Dr Samantha Battams: Well, it is interesting because everyone talks about, you know, [00:07:00] how they were persecuted and of course there was a new king that developed a new brand of Lutheranism.
And you know, the group that my lot belonged to were. Basically wanted to keep their traditional and they believed. Right. You know, Lutheran Faith,
Keith Conlon: it’s an old prayer book, isn’t it? Yes. They love the old prayer book and
Dr Samantha Battams: Exactly.
Keith Conlon: But it’s, it, I, I think many of us don’t realize how, how persecution worked.
Mm-hmm. And they’re at the point where they’re hiding their pastors in, in barns and holding secret chapel meetings because the new king said it’s the new prayer book or nothing.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes. And so, however, so they came to. Port Adelaide and they settled at Clems.
Keith Conlon: Mm.
Dr Samantha Battams: And um, they were on the Prince George, which was one of the first two boats, I think it was.
Could have been the first. And they were actually, where they settled, their very house is now marked at a memorial at Clems.
Keith Conlon: Oh, they’re, they’re right in the Memorial Park
Dr Samantha Battams: right there. Yes, they’re right in the [00:08:00] Memorial Park. The Shilts, and I didn’t realize this until DNA testing, but it was actually. A father and, um, his family.
And then the eldest son was regarded as a separate family, but through DNA testing, I realized it was father, son, and, um. Yes. So the sun was said to be here not for religious reasons, but for earthly purposes.
Keith Conlon: He wanted to make a quid,
Dr Samantha Battams: yes,
Steve Davis: I, I think had it been the time of the prosperity gospel, he would’ve been welcomed with open arms.
Um, now another person, we’re just gonna a, a quick waltz through your book today because it, it’s so dense. There’s so many stories in there, but I wanna talk about Edmund Faye. He comes over from Claire in Ireland with his two younger sisters. One of them’s only 10 years old. They’re separated almost immediately.
She goes to Mount Gambia, he goes to the Kander mines. What do we know? About how that [00:09:00] family stayed connected over such a distance.
Dr Samantha Battams: Well, I was gobsmacked to see the interrelationships of those who actually did come from Claire. So firstly it took me a really long time. But, um, I realized they had an auntie called Hera Farhi, not Faye, I mean saying Fay ha Nora Fahy, who was a widow.
She married a grainy. So Dave Grainy is one of the, um, oh, Dave
Steve Davis: Grainey,
Dr Samantha Battams: the great descendants, the, the great singer. I’ve always loved Dave Grainy. I didn’t know I was related to him. And then
Steve Davis: can you sing?
Dr Samantha Battams: I can’t. But although Irish in the family were singing and my niece is a beautiful singer, she’s actually a star.
So
Steve Davis: sorry. Back to Fahy.
Dr Samantha Battams: Back to Fahy. Fahy. It’s a bit strange for me to say that now. Um. So Edmond goes off to Kapunda. He had two sisters, Mary and 10-year-old Bridget [00:10:00] that go with their auntie to Mount Gambia. Um, it looks like the aunties come over on the singles where we were looking for single servants in 1855.
Keith Conlon: Certainly were, yeah, but we were bringing out shiploads of them. You might be able to tell us more. The, the, there was a, a shipwreck. Um, just off McLaren Vale or just off Norlan? The Nash walk nearly, they’re 10,000 miles. You know, they’ve traveled and they run into the flippant, but basically, luckily not, um, they, they sort of grounded rather than crashed.
But you’ve got more than a hundred of these young Irish girls up on the cliff thinking, what on earth are we doing here?
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes,
Keith Conlon: in the middle of the night.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yeah. And there were hundreds of them. So Heno. Uh, grainy. Yes. Ne Farhi has sponsored her children, which is the cousin to Edmond and his sisters. So the girls go to their auntie, I presume their parents have died in the potato famine, [00:11:00] and Edmond is sponsored by.
Prank card and Stuckey, who were friends of, uh, Sterling and were involved in the Kander mines and the girls are sponsored by Edward Sterling. And then another, the landlord called Gagan in. Claire has also sponsored his children as well as the number of grannies. So there’s all these friends and relatives sponsoring each other as well as prominent south Australians.
Um, and so Edmond marries Margaret O’Leary from Kil Kenny, and they have, um, a number of children. One of them, my ancestor, Michael Patrick Fay, he’s actually a founder at Marrack in Mount Gambia, sets up the first community hall, sets up the first schools on the school committee, the first annual Fay, the football, the tennis, you [00:12:00] name it.
So he’s a very prominent
Steve Davis: Oh, and is he the same as Michael Patrick Fahy.
Dr Samantha Battams: Sorry, as I was corrected last night on Irish radio.
Steve Davis: I know, I know.
Theme: Yes.
Keith Conlon: A question ’cause I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet. Um, uh, this, these, um, Claire uh, um, Germans barbarian, are they Catholic?
Dr Samantha Battams: No, these, sorry, we’re going to the Irish Nows.
The Irish are Catholic.
Keith Conlon: Okay. Because,
Dr Samantha Battams: yes,
Keith Conlon: because I think one of the things that we forget in South Australia is that not all winemakers were German Lutherans. There was a group of German Catholics who came out and were the foundation of the Clear Valley and, and the loveliest thing, and I’m, I’m sure you’ve visited it, seven Hill.
Yes. Lovely winery, formerly a seminary and so on, started out by Father Kran Witter, who was their priest that they managed to get to bring out with him.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes. And I, I actually think Margaret O’Leary’s brother was James O’Leary. He was an Osler at the Sir [00:13:00] John Franklin Hotel. Ah, he actually died there. And the.
The ghost. People like Alison Osborne. Yes. Believe his ghost is haunting. The Sirer John Franklin Hotel.
Steve Davis: Um, I, I, you’ve got a, a link to Dave Grainy. There’re singing in your family, even maybe though you don’t have it yourself, but people around you have you write. So many books beautifully. Uh, I wanna talk about a novel because the Rumble Below family at Encounter Bay, I am jumping through your book here.
They started the first tourist operations in the area. There’s a suggestion that one of the women became the inspiration for a character in a published novel of the time. Who was she? What was the story there?
Dr Samantha Battams: So she was Caroline Rumble. She was, um. The child of Malin rum below, let’s say the first and.
She actually married someone called John Cake Bread. [00:14:00] She,
Steve Davis: what a name.
Dr Samantha Battams: So she was said to be the character of Petrol in Paving the Way by Simpson Newland. Ah, that makes, and he describes her as someone who is most unlike, you know, usual woman because she’s fishing. She’s, um, you know. At one with nature.
They said that she grew up with the local Aboriginal people down there. Just mm-hmm. Just the Ram and Jerry
Keith Conlon: people are, yeah. So
Dr Samantha Battams: Ram and Jerry,
Keith Conlon: this is down at, we we’re at, we are just between Victor and in er Bay, aren’t we? And the Bluff?
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes.
Keith Conlon: We at Yuki, I think it’s still because I,
Dr Samantha Battams: it was actually called Newland Town initially.
Keith Conlon: There you go. And one of the, one of the memories that many people will have when they read your book, I’m sure is that they’ll remember the Rumble Below Fish Shop.
Dr Samantha Battams: Exactly at that was there for many, many years. Many years. Yeah. And so Carolyn, um, was said to be, they were said to be sweethearts, but I’m not sure about that because she married at 17.
Who? Who? I think it was more of a [00:15:00] case of Simpson Newland being infatuated with her. ’cause one of the ancestors actually said that when Carolyn and John now Cake bread went to the Ballarat diggings, like the Glastonbury did, the relatives, um, Simpson Newland was said to follow her and ask her to leave her husband to get with him.
And it didn’t eventuate.
Keith Conlon: This is the. There’s
Dr Samantha Battams: many stories in this. There is a scandal. Scandal. Well, there’s a lot of of scandals in this book and I haven’t shid away from it.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Do you know what I love about this? And this is, I think it’s my journey. You know, I’ve loved your books before and I’ve read them out of a sense of duty to some degree.
Yeah. Something shifted over the last few years. I think it’s the year of writing songs about South Austral and reflecting on the history. What I am loving, I’m looking forward to getting into is how everything meshes with everything. Exactly. Girls. You just drop the potato famine [00:16:00] into conversation, you go, there’s another connection.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes.
Keith Conlon: And it’s, and and then within South Australia it’s, there’s a mosaic, but, oh, you, you, it just thinking on that bit
Dr Samantha Battams: Yeah.
Keith Conlon: Relates to that bit over there.
Dr Samantha Battams: Exactly. I mean, in the, in the Rhine poisoning case, the, the perpetrator says, oh, that he’s taken his daughter and she was happy ’cause she saw Harry Butler fly over.
Adelaide and I was like, oh wow. Fantastic.
Keith Conlon: The great hero pilot of York Peninsula. Yes. His, his, his plane is still there at men to this
Dr Samantha Battams: day. Yes, and I’ve written a, a book about him where, what was that book called? Called Nephew Les Parsons. The Red Devil. The Red Devil.
Keith Conlon: That was the name of his plane. Of course.
And you can still see it. Yes. There’s a lovely side story. There’s this, and I’m sure you have this happening. I found another. Harry Butler story, which you I’m pretty sure will know, but when the Royal Adelaide Show was moving from the Jubilee Oval, you know, off just off North Terrace, and they’d been, you know, they’re gonna move out to the Ville Showground, they were preparing the [00:17:00] ground.
Harry’s on one of his trips, has a bit of engineering trouble and landed on the oval before it was even finished.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yeah, he actually, that was bit of a sad story for him because, oh. People were concerned about, um, the safety of aircraft. Yeah. And he’d had a few little incidents like that. And one was landing on the oval, which we
Keith Conlon: talk about.
Oh yeah. But the, the, by the way, the Adelaide show grand people were delighted ’cause everybody flocked to it and it got in the papers and people knew where it was.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yeah.
Steve Davis: People don’t know this, but Keith and I to promote our show again. Find an old biplane somewhere and just crash land somewhere, uh, suitable.
I don’t know where. Glen Gval, I’m a great bass fan. Well, we could,
Keith Conlon: speaking of footie, there’s another story which said in, I don’t think Samantha might know this one, but during a big, um, charity carnival on the Adelaide Oval back in the 1920s, 1929, sort of depression times they had in order to again, help attract the crowd.
They had the ball bounced for a celebrity game from a plane, and that [00:18:00] was another one of, of those pilots who were really daredevils, weren’t they? They made their money.
Dr Samantha Battams: They
Keith Conlon: were out of doing really daring things.
Dr Samantha Battams: And there’s one thing in the Harry Butler book where Sir George Murray, who’s the acting governor at the time, he’s planting trees in Gallipoli Grove and South Terrace.
And Harry Butler’s dropped two planes, uh, trees from the plane. And so George Murray says, oh, there may be bigger trees dropped from greater heights in the future, but these trees have the honor of being the first.
Keith Conlon: I’ve never heard that. So, wow. And that little grow, they’re probably pine trees that are still there.
Dr Samantha Battams: Yes.
Steve Davis: So The Red Devil, another Dr. Samantha Madams book you need to pick up. Going back to my earlier comment, which was about three hours ago, in which I noted how everything’s enmeshed, I have so far noted that we’re talking about a lot of our, um, people from Europe, et cetera, but closer to home. I do wanna note that you did a cultural consultation before writing some sections of this [00:19:00] book that involve Aboriginal people, which I just note maybe not every family historian does I, I, I’m not gonna throw any shape.
What did that process open up for you that w you wouldn’t have found on your own? And were there some things that you ended up deciding? Not to include.
Dr Samantha Battams: I was quite pleased because I have done a lot of research in Aboriginal health and worked with Aboriginal health ethics committees in the past. So overall, the person who did the review said that they were really pleased with it and just had some minor suggestions.
So there was also a bit of debate between her and another historian, which won’t. I won’t name about the appropriateness of some language, so. In the old newspapers, there was a lot of language used, which we wouldn’t consider appropriate today. So I’ve just said that, um, you know, where I did include them, these were not my [00:20:00] views, but of views from the past.
But it was sometimes that they were very inappropriate and I actually replaced them. And with square brackets with a more. Appropriate terminology.
Caitlin Davis: Mm-hmm.
Dr Samantha Battams: So there were a couple of those, and then there was a description of a funeral pyre that I just took out some of the wording that was the contemporary wording in the newspapers because it.
Of the, the flavor of it, the sensationalist flavor of it. I did include the story, and that was a really interesting observation. I think it was Alice Rumbelow who witnesses this funeral pyre, and at the time, cremation wasn’t popular in South Australia, although it was the first state to introduce cremation.
And I think that was perhaps because there was viewing of, you know. Aboriginal people, um, you know, so
Keith Conlon: we had some understanding from family members who could say, yes, my grandparents [00:21:00] can remember one, and so on. Yes. So you reckon that sort of went into the culture a bit?
Dr Samantha Battams: Yeah, it was, and it was reported in a newspaper how Alice.
Talks about, um, you know, these aboriginal people, um, wailing and the practices that they were using, anointing themselves, um, with oils. And, um, that was really fascinating for me. And then there were observations of a, another family. Seeing a corrobor of 500 people on the banks of the Torrance near the McDonald Bridge, the Paradise Bridge.
Mm-hmm. So, because they were colonists, often when they died or near their death or before their death, they were interviewed by the newspaper. So I was really fortunate to have these firsthand accounts, or it was their sibling reporting what their, um, you know, sibling had seen. So that was. Really lucky because they’re very, um, uncommon.
It’s really hard to find those contemporary accounts and it was just because they were [00:22:00] first European ums there that I was able to have some of those accounts and some of them were a bit shocking too, I have to say.
Keith Conlon: Y that’s, we, we, we are, we’re really just beginning to understand the nature of conflict and beginning the reconciliation process, aren’t we?
Dr Samantha Battams: Exactly. That’s what I think. And I mean, there was tension described, especially because this, um, ancestor spoken about. Earlier who worked for Captain Charles Stern, his name was William Bury, and after he did gardening, he saved up and his wife worked too, took in washing and ironing. They saved enough money to get a a Bullock Dray and he transported provisions to the borough mines in the very early days.
Him and his son talk about. A great deal of tension with the Aboriginal people and, um, NAR and Jerry and, um, you know, even further north and how they always had to be [00:23:00] someone keeping watch at night. Mm-hmm. But they also talk about, his son talks about his father giving provisions to Aboriginal people. Um, but sometimes there was tension because they said, you know, they wanted more and, and whatever.
Um, but. Then there was another interaction where there was conflict. And he said an aboriginal, what he called an aboriginal policeman, um, basically, um, got in the way and reprimanded the aboriginal person who was causing the conflict. So there was, you know, lots of interesting stories found,
Steve Davis: and, and this is the stuff that requires a book.
It’s not a newspaper article. There’s so much nuance and I, I, I’m looking forward to tucking into it. Mm. Um, I just should let our dear listener know we’ve booked a room here at the State Library. We’re about to be kicked out. So I’ve got my final question I wanna throw at you. This is a very unusual Adelaide show interview.
’cause normally we run about three hours, but I, I want, I need to know this. A DNA result revealed [00:24:00] Samantha, that people you’d spent years researching weren’t actually your biological relatives. Now, as a researcher, is that. Gutting, or is that just another new thread to follow?
Dr Samantha Battams: Um, that will probably have to be another book in itself, I think.
But I, myself and, um, and auntie spent years researching the family, but I had my DNA tested because my father was adopted and I wanted to know his biological family. And so I said to people helping me out, like DNA. Um, researchers. Oh, don’t worry about mom’s side. It’s all sorted. But you know, I know everything on that side.
We’ve traced it right back. But one of them said, well, what’s this hazelhurst name that keeps coming up? They said to me this years ago, and I’m like, don’t worry about that. I don’t know. Anyway, last [00:25:00] year I couldn’t, when they did the latest. Ancestry update. I saw that 25% of my DNA came from Northwest England and Wales, and nobody I knew had come from there.
And I’m like, okay, let’s have a look at this Hazelhurst name. Sure enough, it was from Cheshire and a specific place, ho Lake, right on the edge of, um, you know, the coast in, in England. Um, so one. Hazel Hurst and his nephew traveled to New Zealand and, um, he set up a blacksmith store. He, he built a community hall that was known as, uh, after him and became a very prominent person in, in Christchurch.
Um, so I had been researching. Um, my great-grandfather who I thought a Captain Charles Miller, an elusive sea captain, but there were no DNAs related to the [00:26:00] Millers and his wife Heslop. Again, no DNAs related to Heslop, but there were for, um, the next generation, not George Miller, but George Miller’s wife.
Who was Edith Thompson and there were lots of Thompsons and um, Parsons, which was her mother’s name, but I thought, hang on, what’s going on here? So it just dawned on me that. Edith Thompson, she was in New Zealand just before she got married. And, um, my great-grandfather, her husband, George Miller, was in Victoria, had just moved to Victoria.
And so, um, that he traveled back to New Zealand to marry her. However, it’s pretty clear that she was already. Pregnant. And so this is Edith on the cover of the book and my grandfather, and now I know that, um, yes. Wow. The, the true story that had been [00:27:00] kept from 1890 to 2025.
Steve Davis: Uh, on that note, my family and I about to go to New Zealand, say, look out, uh, that could girls, you might have another brother or sister.
Um. And from a different father, goodness me, Dr. Samantha Adams, you always have this knack of overturning little stones and pebbles and finding lovely little things underneath just as, uh, Mr. South Australia, Keith Connan does as well. I know you’ve got the book launch. You’re doing a book signing as well.
What I will do is I’ll put all those details in the notes.
Dr Samantha Battams: Thank you. And I just wanted to say, um, thank you in advance to Dr. Laney Anderson, who’s helping me launch my book.
Steve Davis: Oh, wonderful. Yes, and she is another alumni of the Adelaide Show podcast. She has been a guest previously too,
Keith Conlon: and her and her daily posts are just brilliant because she’s bringing out those stories one at a time.
Yes, exactly.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Dr. Samantha Battams, thank you again for being part of the Adelaide Show podcast. Thank you
Dr Samantha Battams: so much, Steve and Keith and the Adelaide Show.[00:28:00]
Keith Conlon: And now it’s time for the musical pilgrimage.
Steve Davis: In the musical pilgrimage, we are gonna play a song by Steve Davis and the Virtualosos. It’s one called Away Away the PS Cane Crew song. Uh, that is a new paddle steamer and Keith. Um, I almost called you Keith Martin, then Keith,
Keith Conlon: that’s, you’ll have to wait for our show.
Yes. During the history festival to get that one.
Steve Davis: Um, so Keith, uh, this, this, the paddle steamer cane 1907 was, uh. Launched, uh, it’s just been restored by the great people on the river Murray.
Keith Conlon: A hundred years on it’s
Steve Davis: back. Yes. And Morgan is its home place.
Keith Conlon: Oh, Morgan. Now you’re talking about a river town. A port,
Steve Davis: yes.
At the end of May, 2026, thereabouts, it’s going to launch again, which is fantastic. I was inspired to write this song [00:29:00] when I was on its sister vessel. The PS Marion. Oh, wonderful. Uh, which if you get a chance
Keith Conlon: Oh yeah.
Steve Davis: Please put it on your bucket list. Yeah. Have a cruise. Please.
Keith Conlon: Go on a day trip on the Marion out of Manam.
Where? It sits by the manon.museum.
Steve Davis: I did a two day trip. Oh, three day trip actually.
Keith Conlon: Oh, so you got on Friday
Steve Davis: night
Keith Conlon: because in its time it was a really toffee.
Steve Davis: Yes.
Keith Conlon: River cruise.
Steve Davis: The old
Keith Conlon: lady, the go went and all that.
Steve Davis: The Old Lady of the river. Mm. In our show we’re doing for History Month, which is called History Hit Parade, we’re playing 10 different original songs I’ve written about South Australia.
Mm.
Steve Davis: Um, and I hope you come along. There’s lots of anecdotes, you’ve, you’ve shed light on songs that I’d been researching and different parts and I pick up a few things and it’s just joyful the anecdotes that will flow.
Keith Conlon: Well, it’s been fantastic from my point of view too, because you brought what is on the one hand a a love song, uh, and, but you’ve also brought it, like in this case, here’s an imaginary, um, it’s not a sea shanty, it’s a river shanty.[00:30:00]
It’s a
Steve Davis: river shanty.
Keith Conlon: But, but as soon as I had, I thought we could have heard that sound 150 years ago up at Morgan. Morgan, for instance, which has a huge red gum war for at least half of it left today. There were cues of paddle steamers from up and down the river. There were six trains a day. Left Morgan with the stuff on the paddle, steamers it.
There were the semi trailers of their day that it was a, it was actually a revolution in transport, but it was also a tremendously romantic time. They, these paddle steamers, they, they just sound and smell and sniff of history.
Steve Davis: And it’s nice being on them. ’cause I was on the Marion and we would be going down the river and the birds, the ducks were quite happy for this grand old lady to go past.
’cause it’s part of nature.
Keith Conlon: Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Davis: Unlike the jet skis and the, the rowboat, not the, um, the, the, the, the speedboats, et cetera. But I’m glad you mentioned the freight. ’cause two things I wanna just squeeze in before we listen to the song. [00:31:00] You talked about how there was time before we had all the lock systems.
Keith Conlon: Yep, absolutely. They went up and down and if there was a drought you could get stuck. And there is a legendary story about one paddle steamer loaded with materials to build a pub at Burke up the top of the darling, and it runs outta water and the story goes that. Two years later, it finally re floated and got there and they’d built the pub some other way.
So, oh look, it’s, it’s a beautiful part of our life. Our lost,
Steve Davis: and that just reminds me at the time of riding the strait of ous, ous is being blockaded, diesel is scarce, and our freight industry is under threat. And so interesting to see how different threats come from different. Directions, but So
Keith Conlon: bring back the steam engine.
Steve Davis: Bring back the steam engine. Especially now we’ve got locks. Um, the other thing is you mentioned all that freight. This song was a reflection on just how much the p the Ps cane was a workhorse. Talking about going up and down, grabbing the wheat, grabbing the wall. Yeah. Taking other things [00:32:00] to sell back up the river.
It’s a bit of fun. Um. I hope you enjoy it. It’s called Away Away the Cane Crew song. Let’s have a listen. Oh,
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: oh, oh. Way around the bend. Oh, hey, with anything you send, we have your wool down in the hole. It’s full of oil. Greasy gold
and back again
around the bend
with anything I. Your week down in the hold, it’s bristling full of grainy gold.[00:33:00]
We’ve been too long away.
We’ve been too long away. Stop now. Stop now. Engineer. We see the dog is drawing near.
We’ve been too long.
Away. Away. Away around the bend, away, [00:34:00] away with anything you send. We have some flour in the hole with pots and pans. We’ll trade for gold away, away, away, then back again.
Dawn brings another day. Dawn brings another day. Stop now. Stop now. Engineer. All hands, Lobb. All stand clear. Dawn brings another day.[00:35:00]
The.
Steve Davis: That’s a way away. The Canal Crew song. Um, I just have, have to, you know, Keith Con was up doing a jig as that was as well
Keith Conlon: as you do, I mean. Was singing along and trying to get the rope around the thing at the front. And, oh,
Steve Davis: well you, are you gonna do a jig on the actual event at the history hip parade? Say,
Keith Conlon: that’s really highly in doubt,
Theme: okay.
Keith Conlon: To put a sing, I, I got a feeling a whole lot of us are gonna
Theme: wanna sing it.
Steve Davis: Yes,
Keith Conlon: yes.
Steve Davis: Uh, that’s a very simple song done and hopefully in that style that would seem not out of place back in that time. I’ll put links to all the details in the show notes so you can book through, bring a crew of people along, a crew.
There you go. Of people along. [00:36:00] And enjoy history. Hit parade. Keith Conn, thanks for being part of the that show, but also this episode of the Adelaide Show. We might have more in the, the, the pipeline. Of course, there’s pipelines to the River Murray as well. Uh, it segue heaven here. We could be
Keith Conlon: all day on your segues,
Steve Davis: and I will just say.
We say goodnight to Don Dunton at the end of every episode. We’ve done it since 2013. One of the songs we are featuring is called Goodnight Don in the show. Yeah,
Keith Conlon: it’s a very meaningful song, but it gives us a chance to reflect on some of the joys of the Dunton era.
Steve Davis: So until next time, thank you, Keith.
Keith Conlon: Great pleasure,
Steve Davis: and it’s good night for me, Steve Davis. Goodnight, Dawn.
AJ Davis: The Adelaide Show Podcast is produced by my dad, Steve Davis. If you want to start a podcast or get some help producing creative content, talk to him. Visit steve davis.com au. Thanks, aj. I’m Caitlyn [00:37:00] Davis, and I agree with everything my sister said, but there’s one more thing to say.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or a review ’cause that will make my dad really happy. Oh, and one more thing. If you really, really liked it, please help a friend put the Adelaide Show on their phone. Thanks for listening. Listening.
Buzz Buzz.
Theme: Lady Who? Lady.
Lady. Lady who?