details

Statement of Significance

This group of 16 trees planted in 1864, and 16 progeny, were brought from Pennsylvania to Willunga and planted along the boundary of Delabole quarry, exploited by Cornish slate quarrymen. This tree is known for its impenetrable barrier qualities, as in stock fencing; it was also used for the shafts of tools and carts, because of its durability. Many quarrymen came directly to Willunga from Cornwall. James Sibley Jacobs came via Pennsylvania, bringing the seeds/fruit of the Osage Orange with him, which he planted for later use.

History

This small plantation was planted in 1864 as a boundary line of trees, along what was an active slate quarry until 1903. they are now twice the age, but half the size anticipated in their places of origin.

Location

On a former slate quarry site, Delabole Road, Willunga South

Other

It is a very early planting of this American tree, perhaps the first in South Australia, brought by a Cornish quarryman for use in tool making or stock hedging

Notes

OSAGE ORANGE TREES, WILLUNGA, 2016 (nomination details)
Willunga
The township of Willunga, on the boundary of the Hills Face Zone, was first surveyed in 1839; part of a wider survey south of the new town of Adelaide.
It was quickly occupied as allotments became available for settlement. The building material, slate, discovered nearby, was an encouragement to build, as was the government road from Adelaide to Encounter Bay. Government offices were established; the town continued to grow; settlers built homes.
Slate was first discovered by Edward Loud in March 1840, which drew some settlers to Willunga, but the township also became the centre of the large agricultural district between the Mount Lofty Ranges and the sea. By the 1850s Willunga was the administrative, industrial and religious centre of this region. Slate became both an important building material and a source of work, and several quarries came into existence, and were successful in part or in whole for several years until the market for slate declined. One such quarry and village settlement was called Delabole.
Delabole quarry and village
Delabole is situated about 3kms south of Willunga. It was named by Cornish settlers, who either knew of, or came from, the quarrying village of Delabole in Cornwall.
Piddock and O’Malley (see sources) poetically describe South Australia’s Delabole as:
“Nestled in a valley in the hills above the town of Willunga lies the village of Delabole, once a thriving community of quarrymen and their families. The cottages of Delabole were constructed of rammed earth walls, and exposure to rain has gradually destroyed them. Doorways and windows that were intact in 1968 are now gone, and walls recorded as recently as 1996 have disappeared.
The Willunga slate quarries played an important role in the development of local industries in the colony of South Australia in the nineteenth century. This is recognised by the listing of the Delabole Quarry on the South Australian State Heritage Register, as is the village of Delabole, adjacent to the Quarry, as is the nearby Bangor Quarry.”
There were several quarries in and around Delabole, itself not far from Willunga. Their timelines were:
• Loud’s Quarry, begun by Edward Loud in 1840
• Delabole Quarry, also begun in1840, by Loud’s neighbour Sampson Daw, closed 1903
• Martin’s Quarry reopened in 1846, renamed from Loud’s Quarry (after its owner, Thomas Martin). It was leased to Thomas Williams and Thomas Polkinghorne.
• Bastian’s Quarry was opened up in 1846, by Sampson Bastian , a short distance from Martin’s quarries. Bastian’s and Martin’s quarries were located near Glenunga Creek in the Beltana Gully and operated independently for over forty years.
• Under the Waste Lands Act, the Daw and Polkinghorne partnership was dissolved in 1852
• Bangor Quarry, one of the three quarries owned by the Martin family, was worked from 1855, by Messrs Kernick, Male and Cobbledick, on land owned by the Hon. William Everard.
• Middle Quarry, managed by James Sibley Jacobs from 1864, was a further quarry face put to use
• Daw held the Delabole quarry until 1861 when it was purchased by John Allen
• Allen sold it to the Delabole Slate Company of Adelaide in 1865
• John Allen repurchased the quarries from the Delabole Slate Company in 1872
• The Delabole Quarry was the main supplier of roofing slate in Australia between1840 and 1893
• The growing popularity of galvanised iron from the 1860s began Delabole’s slow decline; it finally closed in 1903, when it was sold for grazing.
• It’s likely that the village was abandoned by 1890, before the closure of the quarry, and that its residents moved to the township of Willunga.
The allotment on which the Osage oranges were planted is quite large; No: 387 Delabole Rd, Willunga South. In 2016 it is owned by Mr. G. P. Spurgin, PO Box 498, Willunga SA 5172.
James Sibley Jacobs
James Sibley Jacobs (1829-1888) was one of the Cornish quarrymen associated with the Delabole quarries. Following the downturn in Cornish quarry work, around 1854 J. S. Jacobs became one of many Cornishmen who sought work overseas. Some went to South Africa, some tried South America, and others came to South Australia. Jacobs first tried Pennsylvania. He and his family are recorded in the 1860 USA Federal Census as living in Plainfield Township, Northampton County, PA. James was described as ‘a slater, born in England.’ To avoid becoming embroiled in the American Civil War of 1861, the family left for Australia in 1863, arriving in Willunga in 1864.
Martin Dunstan’s lengthy research into the Jacobs’ family credits James with introducing the Osage Orange tree into South Australia, saying ‘His time in North America may have brought him in contact with it’. It was traditionally used for crafting hand tools, as shafts for horse-drawn vehicles, and for planting prickly, impenetrable hedging, so it may have had potential as a workman’s tool, or a hedging plant.
James Jacobs was the only Willunga quarryman named in contemporary reports as having been to North America, so it’s reasonable to credit him for bringing its seeds to Willunga in 1864.
Piddock and O’Malley quote Dunstan (1998) saying that James Jacobs planted Osage oranges seeds at Delabole, among other domestic plants like almond, Arum lily, blackberry and dog rose as a ‘need to beautify the bleak denuded hillside around the village and the practical need to provide food.”
These trees were advertised in the South Australian Register newspaper, of September 1871 as useful for fences (hedging). It is possible that several quarry men might one-day try its wood for tools and for fencing purposes, once a mature tree was available to them. This was an idea in prospect, because it would take some time after their 1864 planting, before they developed harvestable wood.
In the slate museum at the Willunga Courthouse, the National Trust has a container carved by Tom Couchman “from wood from Osage orange trees planted at Delabole Slate Quarry by Cornish quarry families migrating from the USA” (donated by Ruth Baxendale).
The Osage orange: a description
The Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), is a small deciduous tree from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. Despite the name "Osage orange", it is a member of the mulberry family Moraceae. It typically grows 15-18m tall, and is naturally short-lived, reaching only 75 years or so.
In 2016 there are some 16 trees that can be deemed ‘original’, meaning that they were planted in 1864. Several of them have collapsed, and some are dead or dying. Some collapsed trees, whose trunks are more or less horizontal, have grown substantial ‘replacement trunks’, and are in healthy condition. A similar number of smaller trees appear to be seedlings that are growing well, on a steep slope heading downhill from the not particularly level verge. All trees are within the property boundaries.
The trees are not cared for, or acknowledged on site for their historical significance. It is posited that they were planted for later use as stock fencing or, when the timber is mature, for wooden-handled tools. Some wood is ready for craft use, and it would be a pity if it were not used by local crafts people. The original planting, perhaps of 12-16 trees, has doubled in number over the last 150 or so years.
One of the original trees, perhaps the most typical, was measured at just past noon on 24 October 2016, by Glenn Williams and Michael Heath. The dimensions were:
Ht (measured using a clinometer*): 8.8m
Spread (N-S) (measured using a plastic tape measure): 9.2m
Spread (E-W) (measured using a plastic tape measure): 13.5m
Trunk circ at 1.3m (measured using a plastic tape measure): 2.37m
Age: 152 years old in 2016
*The tree was down-slope from the verge, and an allowance of 1.2m was made for this.
Other examples of this tree occur as a windrow at Anlaby homestead and four trees at CSIRO’s Glenthorne Laboratory, O’Halloran Hill. There are about 32 at Delabole. The date for planting of 1864 may be earlier than at Glenthorne. While this is not yet known, it is possible that James Sibley Jacobs was the first to introduce this tree to South Australia (more data of the other trees is needed).
It seems very unlikely that any other Cornishman would have travelled to Pennsylvania, pocketed some seeds, and left the USA for South Australia at that time.
The cultural notes for this species indicate that it is a short-lived species in its natural habitat, living only to 75 years or so, but typically reaching 18m tall. The nominated trees have reached half the anticipated height in twice the anticipated age. This difference between the tree’s performance in its natural habitat and its performance in South Australia is of scientific interest.
The average temperature of Osage County is 15.8ºC. Willunga’s is 21.1°C
The average annual rainfall of Osage County is 330mm.Willunga’s average is 655mm
The earliest botanical account of this tree, by William Dunbar, a Scottish explorer, is from a journey he made in 1804 on the Mississippi River. Its common name is a reference to the Osage Nation, an area where a particular group of American Indians lived.
The genus Maclura is named in honour of William Maclure (1763–1840), a Scottish-born American geologist. The specific epithet pomifera means "fruit-bearing". The fruit resembles a large, yellow-green orange, with a roughened surface. Although not poisonous to humans or livestock, it has a poor taste and an extremely hard texture. Leaves are alternate and simple, a long oval terminating in a slender point. They are thick, firm, dark green, shining above, and paler green below when full grown. In autumn they turn bright yellow. The leaf axils contain formidable long spines.
It is a dioecious plant with female and male flowers on different trees.

Mature bark Mature fruit
•
Leaves Female inflorescence
The Osage orange is used as a windbreak in the USA, giving it one of its colloquial names, “hedge apple”. Its heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very dense, flexible, and capable of receiving a fine polish. It is prized for tool handles, fence posts, and other applications requiring a strong dimensionally stable wood that withstands rot and is very durable in contact with the ground.
The nominated trees are 10 or so, planted around 1864, making them 152 years old; about twice the age reached in their natural habitat. They are in good condition. They are not irrigated or cared for in any way. They are in Delabole Rd, Willunga South, in allotment No: Alt 354 Sec753, Plan No: FP 164177, and are in the Hills Face Zone.
City of Onkaparinga Heritage Listing 1997
Built Heritage Property Details
Stand of Osage Orange Trees k

Address: Delabole Road
Suburb: Willunga South
Allotment No: Alt 354 Sec 753
Plan No: FP 164177
Zoning: Hills Face
Area: Heritage ID No: 397
Type of Listing: Local Heritage Places
Ownership: Private
Conservation Plan:
Description
A bank of Osage Orange trees is located along the Delabole Road overlooking the Delabole Slate Quarries. These trees are unusual in South Australia and are believed to have been planted by Cornish Quarrymen who went to Pennsylvania, America, to work in the slate quarries there, and later came to the Delabole Quarry, Willunga bringing seeds of the trees with them. The hard wood of the Osage Orange was considered very suitable for making handles for tools. The botanical name is 'Maclura pomifera' and it is a native of North America. This group contains around ten trees in clumps and the trees have extremely thorny branches and they are deciduous. The growth and foliage closer resemble mulberry trees and the trees produce yellowish fruit resembling large mulberries. The fruit is not edible. This group of trees is an interesting example of an introduced exotic species which is closely associated with one particular historic activity in the area.
Extent of Listing
The row of trees should be retained and cared for as necessary to ensure their longevity. New trees should be encouraged if earlier plants die off in order to retain a grouping of this species.
Source: MDVC1997 McDougall and Vines Conservation and Heritage Consultants (1997)
Statement of significance
This group of 16 trees represents an early settler example of using trees from other countries that would allow them to produce their own tools, and stock-enclosing hedges. This was their eye to the future in a new country whose resources and plant material were less familiar to them than those from overseas.
Three credible researchers; Susan Piddock, PhD, Pauline O’Malley, PhD, and Martin Dunstan, a respected local historian, state that James Sibley Jacobs (1829-1888), a Cornish slate quarryman, was the first person to bring Osage Orange seeds from America to South Australia in 1864. He planted them in the all-but-vanished village of Delabole, south of Willunga, where they can be seen thriving in Delabole Road 152 years later.
Sources:
• Ruth Baxendale (pers comm.) National Trust, Willunga DATE ?
• Brooks Family Tree (March 2004) Tribal pages.com
• Dunstan, Martin: a talk “ Jacobs Family History”, 17 May, 1999
• Dunstan, Martin: “Slate-a Cornish way of life”, 1998
• Faye Lush, Willunga National Trust, pers.com, September 2016
• Peters, Arch: a talk “The Jacobs History, 6 October, 1973
• Piddock, Susan : “Understanding the Cultural landscapes Symposium” 15 July 2005, Flinders Uni
• Piddock, Susan. (2007). “Slate, slate, everywhere slate: the cultural landscape of the Willunga Slate, Quarries, South Australia.” Australasian Historical Archaeology Vol 25.
• Susan Piddock and Pauline O’Malley (1996) “From Cornwall to South Australia: The Delabole Quarry and Village”; chapter 21
• Pam Smith, F. Donald Pate, Robert Martin, “Valleys of Stone” Kopi Books, 2006
This nomination was compiled by Michael Heath, September, 2016

NGO/NTSA/STT/WillungaOsageorangedelabole/Sep16