Chicago – South Australia

Did you know that South Australia once had a suburb named Chicago?

 Chicago was an industrial area 5 miles from Adelaide, which had a school and its own football club.[1] The Yatala South District Council decided that the name needed to be changed due to confusion with Chicago South Australia mail being mistaken for Chicago, Illinois, USA mail.
 The Chicago Post Office, South Australia, stated it did not matter that the name was changed, as it was to avoid confusion.[2] However, there was conjecture in local newspapers that the real reason the name change was first suggested was that the ‘name reminded them too much of gangsters, daylight hold-ups, and "Scarface" Al Capone.’[3]

Names suggested for the renaming included Booth and Makinville (in honour of Mr. Norman Makin Speaker of the House of Representatives), Killarney, Northview or Suburbia.[4] Mawson was suggested but rejected due to the name being used in Western Australia.[5]  Braeville and Mapleton were also suggested but were vetoed by the Nomenclature Committee, owing to similar place names in Australia.[6]
While new name suggestions were considered some members of the public believed the area should be absorbed into nearby suburbs, such as Islington, Kilburn, SunnyBrae, and Islington Park. and Braeville. Ultimately, the Yatala District Council of the day, overseen by chairperson, R.A. Thompson, would have the final say on the name.[7]

A name was chosen by the council and debated in Parliament. Kilburn was chosen as it complied with official requirements, ‘inasmuch, as it is a wholesome word; and does not clash with any existing place names in the Commonwealth.’ [8]   The News reported on the name transition the following,

Kilburn is the designation of a private subdivision adjoining Chicago. Hitherto the name has not been recognised officially in the Lands Titles Office. There is a suburb of London called Kilburn, and the name also occurs in Yorkshire and Derby Shire. In an earlier form: it is mentioned in Domesday Book, and its roots have reference to church and stream. Chicago is a Red-Indian word for "wild onion."[9]

The Mail, not long after the announcement of the name change from Chicago reported,

'Kill— Burn'

'What's in a name?' asked Shakespeare. Residents of Chicago will find that there is more in one than meets the eye. For the new name for Chicago, near Port Adelaide, is Kilburn. And Kilburn, according to the residents, sounds much more aristocratic than Chicago, which is reminiscent of battle, murder, and sudden death.
Kilburn, they say, suggests the emerald isle, with ruined castles dreaming by moonlit lakes and moss-covered walls and leprechauns.

But the Fates have conspired against Kilburn for latest cables from Chicago, America, state that gangsters after killing off their victims are suspected of burning the bodies.

Thus— Kill-burn.

It seems that Adelaide's Chicago cannot escape association with us shady namesake.[10]

 

Also changed at the same time, announced by Governor Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven, was the suburb name Mellor Park, which was changed to Lockleys.[11]

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2025

Photos:

Gregory's  Street Directory of Adelaide and Suburbs, State Library of South Australia, Map 36 (1936), https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/2108#idx12271

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[1] 'Chicago Club', News, (25 February 1925), p. 5.

[2] 'Renaming Chicago', News, (15 February 1930), p. 3.

[3] 'Name of Suburb Changed', The Standard, (23 March 1960), p. 7.

[4] 'Renaming Chicago', News, (15 February 1930), p. 3.

[5] 'Chicago Renamed', News, (26 April 1930), p. 3.

[6] 'Renaming Chicago', News, (7 April 1930), p. 4.

[7] 'Renaming Chicago', News, (15 February 1930), p. 3.

[8] 'Exit Chicago!', News, (3 May 1930), p. 3.

[9] Ibid.

[10] "Kill-Burn"', The Mail, (24 May 1930), p. 3.

[11] 'Kilburn Vice Chicago', The Advertiser, (13 August 1930), p. 10. 

 Adelaide’s Lost Mooring Mast Conspiracy.

Adelaide's Two Clock Towers 1939

  Recently on the Haunts of Adelaide Facebook page, I had to ban a subscriber who often made claims associated with a lost technology conspiracy theory. While I am mostly happy for people to believe whatever makes them comfortable, this gentleman’s persistence, inconsistent statements, lack of historical knowledge and context, and often, angry and illogical statements led me to ban him from the page. I thought I might address the conspiracy theory here, to hopefully educate people on some of the quirkier beliefs currently infiltrating our community.

Adelaide Town Hall 1889

  A small sub-genre of the ‘lost technology’ conspiracy, is that airships (also known as zeppelins) and sky docks, such as the one built at the Empire State Building in New York, were removed to hide an advanced technology from the human race. This is even though it is historically documented that the mooring mast is still on the Empire State Building, and the idea was discontinued due to the constant strong winds and serious safety concerns making the application impractical.[1]
One believer in the theory proclaimed that the towers on the Adelaide GPO, and the clock tower on the Adelaide Town Hall were once used for passengers to board tethered airships that could travel at great speeds in the sky to other cities.

  The first airship was invented in France in 1850 by Pierre Jullien. The first steam-powered airship flew in 1852 and was invented by Herni Giffard.[2] The first round-trip in an airship was flown by Charles Renard and Arthur C. Kribs in 1884. Renard and Kribs flew the electric motor-propelled La France for 8 kilometres. It wasn’t until after World War One that airships were capable of commercial transatlantic flights. They were considered by some as a quicker and cheaper way to cross an ocean than a ship. However, after the tragic destruction of the Hindenburg airship in New Jersey in 1937, interest in airships waned and was replaced by fixed-wing commercial aircraft.[3]

  Australia’s first airships were bought by Alan Bond in 1987 from the UK’s Airship Industries in Cardington (which Bond Corp owned).[4] They were 16-seat vehicles equipped with two Porsche 930-67 piston engines and painted in Swan Premium colours (Swan Brewery was owned by Bond.) They were sourced from the UK, and flown over Fremantle during the America’s Cup, before being utilised as a tourist attraction over Sydney later the same year.[5] Bonds airships attracted controversy after offering $200 joyrides over Sydney in 1987. The airship joyrides were short-lived after hundreds of complaints about noise, privacy and advertisements for alcohol and tobacco.[6]

  As a counterpoint to the conspiracy theory that the technology was lost, Alan Birchmore said in a 1988 interview with Anne Burns,

Airships were overlooked for so long because the technology wasn't there to make them work. They just had to wait in the queue for technology to make the tough new materials available and a brilliant designer to put them to work.[7]

Bonds airships were withdrawn from use in Australia in 1993.[8] One of those airships now flies in Japan, the other in the USA. Airships are still utilised in the USA as floating advertising billboards, further debunking the conspiracy theory of ‘lost technology’.

  The Adelaide General Post Office was completed in 1872. It took another three years before the clock was installed in 1875. The Adelaide Town Hall was opened in 1866. It was 69 years later in 1935 that former Lord Mayor, Sir J Lavington Bonython donated a clock to be placed in the tower. The electric clock was switched on in 1935.
  I am yet to see photographic evidence of any airship attached to a mooring dock on any Adelaide building. Such a grandiose event would have been documented by one of Adelaide’s many photographers of the period. “But those photos were wiped from history,’ I hear the conspirators say!
Why hide airship technology from the public, what would it achieve? Who would try and delete this part of history – the Illuminati, shadow governments? It is almost, always a ’them’, a person, government, or secret society with power, that the conspiracy theorist doesn’t trust, often for spurious personal reasons, or to feel a sense of belonging to a larger group of like-minded people.[9] I have no doubt that I’ll now be accused of being a shadow operative or whatever term is used for someone who doesn’t believe this conspiracy theory is real!

King William Street  1936

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2025.

 

Photographs:

Ernest Gall, King William Street, Adelaide [B 1581], Acre 203 Collection, State Library of South Australia, (1889), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+1581

King William Street [B 6832], State Library of South Australia, (1936), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+6832

Adelaide's two clock towers’, [PRG 287/1/8/28], Robjohns collection, State Library of South Australia, (1939), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+287/1/8/28.

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[1] Tandy Chou, Lost Zeppelin Mooring Mast Of Empire State Building: Forgotten Sky Dock, Tourist Secrets, (2024), https://www.touristsecrets.com/travel-guide/weird-amazing/lost-zeppelin-mooring-mast-of-empire-state-building-forgotten-sky-dock/.

[2] Tim Sharp, The First Powered Airship | The Greatest Moments in Flight, Space.com (2012), https://www.space.com/16623-first-powered-airship.html.

[3] Jeremy Hsu, The Zeppelin Hindenburg: When Airships Ruled | The Most Amazing Flying Machines Ever, Space.com, (2012), https://www.space.com/16632-zeppelin-hindenburg.html.

[4] 'Bond's airship gamble', The Canberra Times, (20 February 1988), p. 4.

[5] Roger Garwood, ‘146969PD: Alan Bond with a model of the Bond Airship used during the America's Cup, Fremantle, 1987’, State Library of Western Australia, (1987), https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b4797475_1.

[6] David Monaghan, From the Archives, 1987: Bond’s ‘blimps’ have Sydneysiders up in arms.’, The Sydney Morning Herald, (2022), https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-the-archives-1987-bond-s-blimps-have-sydneysiders-up-in-arms-20220729-p5b5ro.html.

[7] 'Bond's airship gamble', The Canberra Times, (20 February 1988), p. 4.

[8] ‘VH-HAA.’, Airhistory.net, (2020), https://www.airhistory.net/photo/266682/VH-HAA.

[9] Jan-Willem van Prooijen, Conspiracy thinking: A scapegoat is always useful, Unesco, (2021), https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/conspiracy-thinking-scapegoat-always-useful

 

 A Haunting at Olympic Field – Coober Pedy

 Coober Pedy, South Australia is, known for its opals and underground housing. The outback location was originally home to the Antakirinja Yunkunytjatjara people, who knew the area as ‘Umoona’. Europeans first called the area the Stuart Range Opal Field, named after John McDouall Stuart, who explored the area in 1858. In 1920 a post office was established at the location, so a new name was chosen, ‘Coober Pedy’ which is an aboriginal term for ‘white man in a hole.’[1]

 On the outskirts of the town of Coober Pedy sits the Olympic Opal Field. It is claimed that during the late 1980s, in the evening, miners would report seeing the ghost of an old miner wearing a wide-brimmed hat, carrying a lantern, walking across the field. The miners would investigate, only to see the apparition disappear before their eyes.

  It is not known who the apparition may have been in life, but 3 men have died on Olympic Field. Those three men, Yanni Vosvouris, Nick Nathanael and Gregory Digaletos were killed when a cave collapsed on them in 1980. A cross marks the location of their deaths.[2]

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2025

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[1] ‘History,’ Coober Pedy Retail, Business & Tourism Association, (2025), https://www.cooberpedy.com.

[2] ‘1990 0102,’ Coober Pedy Historical Society, (2023), https://www.cooberpedyhistoricalsociety.org.au/items/1990-0102/.

 Gawler's Unfulfilled Commercial Precinct

  In 1954, the Gawler Council was planning for future population growth. They estimated that Gawler would soon reach twenty thousand people and that the town centre would have to be redesigned to accommodate the extra traffic.
A survey was conducted and showed that at the time Gawler’s main shopping area consisted of 84 Shops, Willaston had 6 shops, Gawler South, had 7 shops, and ‘other areas' (e.g. Evanston) had 5 shops.

The plan to increase shopping in the town included expanding the shopping precinct west towards Reid Street and closing Jacob and Tod Streets to vehicles between Murray Street and Dundas Street, forming a pedestrian precinct for shopping.[1]

Today we Have the Woolworths Complex and Drakes west of Main Street, and an Aldi opening in 2025. However, no streets have been closed, and the 'shopping precinct' is still unattached, e.g. - no mall or shopping centres like Munno Para or Elizabeth. 

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[1] 'PLANNED FOR GAWLER OF 20,000 PEOPLE', Bunyip, (5 November 1954), p. 1. 

 A Haunting at Bowden and Brompton

 

In 1903 the women of Brompton and Bowden became terrified of the vagaries of a ghost! Women, and some men, became afraid to leave their homes at night in fear of encountering the ghost haunting the streets. Some men began to arm themselves for self-defence if they encountered the terrifying spirit, but one has to wonder what effect a bullet would have upon the non-corporeal.

 According to The Advertiser (newspaper), the ‘ghost is everywhere, and nowhere in particular’. The ghost appeared in East Street Brompton at midnight, as witnessed by a young man in the neighbourhood.
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the same young man witnessed the apparition again. This time the witness provided an odd statement about the ghost, when he stated, ‘The ghost of someone hath appeared to me two several times by night—at Brompton once, and this last night here in the Bowden brickfields. I know my hour is come."[1]
 

At 9pm Tuesday, the screams of a child shouting on Drayton Street, Bowden were heard. ‘The Ghost! The Ghost! It’s gone up the street!’  the child screamed, which attracted a small crowd of onlookers. None of the crowd were brave enough to chase the ghost down. Frightened women, who were witnesses to the ghost claimed it attacked the child, clasping it in its ghostly arms and almost scaring the child to death…the child lived, and the ghost escaped into the night.[2]

 

The police later ascertained that the ghost was an ‘unfortunate woman’ who could not held responsible for her actions. She was dressed in a ragged and torn white dress, with unkempt hair, and a sullen white face, which gave her a spooky appearance in the moonlight.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

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[1] 'A Ghost at Hindmarsh.', The Advertiser, (4 February 1903), p. 4.

[2] 'A Ghost at Hindmarsh.', The Express and Telegraph, (4 February 1903), p. 2. 

 Haunted Kapunda by Allen Tiller

 

  Kapunda, dubbed the 'most haunted town in Australia,’ after a 2001 documentary, is full of history, mystery, and the paranormal. In 2019, MSN.com voted the North Kapunda Hotel the 8th most haunted hotel in the world.  Kapunda’s hauntings were featured in the documentary Kapunda: Most Haunted Town in the Western World and the television series Haunting: Australia.

  What makes Kapunda, a historic mining town in South Australia, so haunted?
Join paranormal investigator, historian, and researcher Allen Tiller as he dives into 20-plus years of research into a town his ancestors helped establish. Read about a one-legged pushbike riding ghost, a haunted lolly shop, murders, mining accidents, the truth about Dr Blood, Haunting: Australia’s paranormal investigation in the North Kapunda Hotel, and Allen's connection to some of the most haunted buildings and ghosts in Haunted Kapunda!

 

HAUNTED KAPUNDA by Allen Tiller

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Haunted-Kapunda/dp/B0DV4R599T

#AllenTiller #hauntedkapunda #haunted #kapunda #southaustralia #history #ghosts #paranormal #trueghoststories

A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church

 A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church: The First 100 Years.

The Kapunda Congregational Church, located on Chapel Street, Kapunda served the local community for more than 100 years. Many of Kapunda’s well-known citizens including William Oldham, James and William Shannon, the Hawke family, and Sir Sidney and Lady Isabel Kidman attended the church.
A Welsh Congregational Church, located on Stow Street, Kapunda also existed in the town, sharing many of the same Reverends’, but preaching almost exclusively in the Welsh language.
This publication documents the first 100 years of the Kapunda Congregational Church, its Ministers, some of its Deacons, parishioners and their lives, giving some insight into the church's influence on the town of Kapunda, its politics and the lives of the Congregational Church community.

Purchase here: A History of the Kapunda Congregational Church by Allen Tiller

#Kapunda #church #congregational #religion #history #allentiller #author #book

A History of the North Kapunda Hotel:

 A History of the North Kapunda Hotel:

 The First 100 Years

– by Allen Tiller

  Built in 1848 by the North Kapunda Mining Company, the North Kapunda Arms Hotel opened to the public in 1849. The original building was a single-story hotel with a double-storey accommodation wing for miners and travellers on Franklin Street (now Crase Street). The accommodation building still stands today and is the oldest original structure of the building.

  John Bickford was the first publican of the North Kapunda Arms Hotel, the first licensed hotel in Kapunda. It narrowly beat out James Whittaker at the Sir John Franklin Hotel on Main Street by one week.

  The North Kapunda Hotel, as it is known today, is an icon in the town and has featured in many of its notable historic occasions, including the reading of the Riot Act in 1893 by Corporeal Hugh Gray Queale during local political upheaval.

  This book investigates the building's first 100 years of history, including the many publicans who worked and lived in it and their families, the 1866 reconstruction, the Bachelor’s Hall, Crase’s Assembly Rooms, and the many clubs, foundations, societies, and religious groups that used the hotel as their base of operations.

Available here: https://amzn.asia/d/6HJxVrD

#Kapunda #history #allentiller #Northkapundahotel #southaustralia

 Dumb Criminals - Car Theft.

In July 2019, a 34-year-old man, and a 23-year-old woman, stole a blue Holden Commodore from Blakeview, in the northern suburbs. The criminal duo drove to the Christies Beach courthouse, parking at McDonalds across the road. The man was due to face charges that morning for stealing a car. A police officer noticed the car and recalled that one of a similar description had been reported stolen, so they ran the plates.[1]

The man, from Whyalla Norrie and the woman from Whyalla Stuart, were both arrested and charged for stealing the car after facing the courts for the original charge, of stealing a car! The man was also charged for driving while disqualified.

Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes told the ABC, ‘He'd actually stolen a car and turned up to court to face charges of car theft. We're hoping that when his partner attends court next month she catches the bus, and we just break this vicious cycle!”[2]

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

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[1] Brendan Cole, ‘Man Facing Car Theft Charges Turns up at Court in Another Stolen Car, Gets Arrested,’ Newsweek, (2019), https://www.newsweek.com/adelaide-car-theft-australia-1452130.

[2] ‘Man facing car theft charges arrested after allegedly arriving at court in another stolen vehicle,’ ABC NEWS, (2019), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-31/man-arrested-for-allegedly-turning-up-to-court-in-stolen-car/11370986.