CHAPTER 17 | 1930–1938 – The Dead Dog Bounce
In 1936, the South Australian Historical Society was formed to celebrate South Australia’s centenary and the contribution of German families. Its aims were modest. Among its objectives was to reinstate German place names, including Hahndorf, Klemzig, and Lobethal. It also proposed to prepare the historical record of German immigration and settlement in South Australia in 1836. This included the achievements of many German settlers, among them Martin Basedow, a founder of Roseworthy Agricultural College; Johann Menge; Dr Richard Schomburgk; and Joseph Seppelt. But its ambitions to create closer ties with Germany through participation in an air race and the visit to South Australia by a German warship suggested to intelligence services that the organisation was exposed to external political doctrine. Indeed, as Dr Kerrie Round wrote in the 21st issue of the Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia in 1993, ‘what had been acknowledged by the South Australian community as a celebration and commemoration of South Australians became, to the intelligence section of the Australian Military Forces, a deliberate undermining of the Australian way of life and an attempt to mobilise German-Australians to the cause of the Third Reich’. At this time, 10% of South Australia’s population was of German heritage or origin, and, in 1938, the Barossa Valley comprised the largest German–Australian community in South Australia. Fears of a fifth column at the outbreak of war resulted in an overreaction by federal authorities, which further contributed to a general unease in the Barossa community. Many families remembered the cruel de-Germanisation policies of the South Australian government during World War I. And many vignerons of German descent believed their lives would become difficult once again. ––––––
. . . A large and still-growing wine industry bolstered the demand for barrels. In central Adelaide’s Mile End, Jack Babidge took over the family cooperage business in 1936. Most of the timber was hand split or quarter-sawn American oak or Tasmanian ‘Stringy’ oak. Although the workshop was heavily mechanised with hooping machines, jointers, buzzers, and saws, Babidge & Sons employed 60 coopers. The business supplied barrels, mainly hogsheads, to wineries and for wine exports but also looked after the wooden casks and vats at West End Brewery. Many of the barrels in hogshead format (66 imperial gallons, or 300 litres) were made to export wine. Aside from hogsheads, Babidge also produced large vats, the largest being a 50,000-gallon vat for Hamilton Winery at Glenelg. Babidge also supplied Angove’s, Hardy’s, Tolley’s, Seppelt, Yalumba, and, later, several others, including Château Tahbilk, McWilliam’s, and d’Arenberg.
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