Yes it’s true, I can’t get enough of my great great grandfather James Heneker born Westwell, Kent in 1826 and emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1839.
Although early in this blog I have written about many of the events in his life, I couldn’t help but publish this article taken from “The Adelaide Observer” Saturday 19th May 1900. This was written 17 years before his death in 1917.
This is the article written:
AN OLD NORTHERN IDENTITY.
Our Beltana correspondent writes:—”A
week or two ago I came across Mr. James
Heneker, an old identity of the North,
whose quiet little home at Beltana would
never lead one to suppose that he had seen
all that he has to tell about. Mr. Heneker
landed at Holdfast Bay on June 19, 1839,
and was employed soon afterwards
as a Shepherd at the foot of
the Black Hill, now Marybank, at 30 shillings
per week and rations found. He was
afterwards shepherding at Thebarton when
the first house was built there.
A Shepherd’s Hut built of stone with a thatched straw roof, beside a river.
The occupant of the dwelling looks out a window, The location is not known.
“Photograph and information courtesy of SLSA, Shepherd’s Hut [B58005/13] Photograph. [publication date approx. 1888]”
[James Shepherd Hut for protection, may, of course have not been as large as the one on the photograph above.]
“He remembers the funerals of Colonel Light and
the Rev. C. B. Howard, the first colonial
Chaplin. At one time he worked as a
bullock-driver for Mr. John Hill, who
raised the flag at the proclamation of the
colony. He formed one of the party of
thirteen soldiers who were sent to the
Murray in the early days to protect people
travelling from New South Wales with
cattle and sheep, and was present at the
opening of the new Port Adelaide in 1840.
Mr. Heneker, while in the employ of Mr.
Smith, commonly known as ‘Long Jim,’drove
the second lot of miners to the Burra Burra
Mine. In 1847 and 1848 he worked for the
late Hon. John Baker, and assisted to
build the house at Morialta.. He was
married in 1849, by Dean Farrell at old
Trinity Church, and lived for a time in the
neighbourhood of Nairne. He carted the
big engine up to the Callington Mine with
a team of forty-four bullocks. After re-
siding in the South-East for a few years
he went to Blinman in 1869, and has
remained in the North ever since. In 1871
he was engaged to cart poles for the over
land telegraph line, and travelled as far
north as Alice Springs. Mr, and Mrs.
Heneker celebrated their golden wedding
on December 18, when they were entertain
ed by their relatives and friends in the
Jubilee Hall. The congratulations and good
wishes of the townspeople were conveyed
to the aged couple by the Rev. F. W,
Wilkinson, and they were also made the e
recipients of several presents.”
The original newspaper article is as appears below:
“The Adelaide Observer (SA: 1843-1904) Saturday 19 May 1900, Page 27” courtesy of trove.nla.gov.au
Heneker - a Pioneering family from Kent to South Australia 
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