Collingrove Homestead: In the Barossa Valley region of South Australia
Nestled in the rolling hills around Angaston is a stately home which says a lot about the staggering wealth generated by the early pastoralists of South Australia. Collingrove, now a National Trust icon was formerly owned by the Angas family which played a key role in the development of the state.
Today, Collingrove's story is available to us all over tea and scones with manager, Patti de Ruiter. For guests, this little ceremony sets the tone for the tales of staggering opulence to come.
“Their main industry was merino sheep and the hereford cattle - bringing them into the state and obviously getting their properties established with the three homesteads - Collingrove, Lindsay House and the Hill River.
Collingrove was home to the Angas family for one about one hundred and twenty years.
George Fife Angas was a strong supporter of the new colony of South Australia. He risked enormous capital by backing what was effectively a brave and radical experiment - a colony of free settlers which would tolerate a diversity of religous beliefs and political opinions. But a new colony needed willing workers who could eventually plant crops and later buy their land from the South Australia Company, of which Angas was Chairman. And so he financed the emigration of German settlers from Silesia. Many of them settled here and left a lasting legacy with the rows of vineyards scattered across the Barossa. John Howard Angas, George's son came out to Australia to oversee this wave of German immigration and the expansion of the Angas family's massive pastoral holdings. He built Collingrove in 1856 and named it after his wife Suzanne Collins. In time the Angas family became fabulously wealthy.
“The Angas’ were very keen travellers. They travelled all over the world and a lot of the items in the house are souvenirs of their travels.”
Today, guests can browse at trophies from Darkest Africa and enjoy dinner in a room where the movers and shakers of a young colony gathered to discuss the issues of the day.
“With three kitchens in the homestead the servants would have sat next door listening for their cue when they were needed.”
In the bedrooms there are photos of polo tournaments and reminders that later members of the Angas clan were educated at Oxford, of course.
Collingrove was a small village complete with it's own church. But the money for all this was generated by a much larger flock scattered across massive properties throughout the State.
“By the 1880s, the Angas family owned nearly fifteen million acres. That's about one third of the State of South Australia.”
Most of us will never know such wealth but we can get taste by booking a night’s accommodation at Collingrove. For more details please email info@postcards.sa.com.au
