Auburn

History

The first European to explore through the Auburn district, in April 1839, was John Hill, who was followed one month later by Edward John Eyre. On 10 March 1840 John Morphett selected a special survey of 4,000 acres on the Wakefield River as land agent for three English investors, Admiral George Lambert, Edward Rice M.P., and Robert Slaney M.P. Very soon after, just outside the southwest corner of this survey, a pioneering character named William Tateham squatted on the Wakefield River, living in a riverbank dugout from where he provided hospitality to travellers. The spot, which later became the site of Auburn, was for a time named Tateham's Waterhole or Billy Tatum's because of this. In October 1849, Thomas Henry Williams, a copper-smelting superintendent at the Burra mines, received a land grant for what was to become the Auburn area. During the next few years Williams sold off allotments to bullock teamsters and others. The first building – a well-appointed hotel named the Rising Sun Inn, which still stands – was built in 1850 and so Auburn Village was begun. The hotel's enterprising proprietor, Joseph Edwin Bleechmore (c. 1809–1887), also founded the town's school, which opened in May 1855 under Joseph S. Cole, later of Stanley Grammar School. The Spalding railway line from Riverton opened on 5 July 1918. The railway was closed and removed in the 1980s and is now the Rattler trail. The name of Auburn, probably applied by Williams, is doubtless derived from a line in a poem by Oliver Goldsmith, Sweet Auburn, loveliest village on the plain.

Most-observed species

• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  684
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  650
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  591
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  563
• Red Wattlebird

  Anthochaera carunculata (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  529
• Little Raven

  Corvus mellori Mathews, 1912 · Aves
  499
• Striated Pardalote

  Pardalotus striatus (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  364
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  346

Most recent

• M 4.3 — 2024-04-17
  8 km ENE of Jamestown, Australia
• M 4.4 — 2020-05-14
  15 km WSW of Burra, Australia
• M 3.1 — 2008-12-04
  17 km ESE of Crystal Brook, Australia
• M 2.7 — 2007-08-03
  23 km SSE of Burra, Australia
• M 2.5 — 2007-06-12
  26 km E of Angaston, Australia
• M 2.7 — 2006-08-26
  41 km NE of Kapunda, Australia