Address & Contact
Old Gum Tree Reserve 43 McFarlane Street Glenelg North
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Web: https://www.holdfast.sa.gov.au/oldgumtree
PROCLAMATION DAY AND THE OLD GUM TREE
Proclamation Day is one of the most important days in the history of the City of
Holdfast Bay and South Australia.
It all began on 28 December 1836 when a flotilla of ships had already landed along with the Colonial Secretary Robert Gouger. A makeshift
camp of tents and transportable huts had been established just beyond the sand dunes, near a freshwater creek now known as the Patawalonga. At 2pm and with the temperature hovering around 40°c, the Cygnet and Buffalo vessels sailed into
Holdfast Bay against a backdrop of fires in the
Mount Lofty Ranges. In the first boat sat Governor Hindmarsh, his Secretary George Stevenson, the Resident Commissioner Hurtle Fisher and their families.
The official Vice Regal Party entered Gouger's tent where the commission was read and the oaths administered to
the Governor and his Council. They then emerged, and in open woodland beneath a distinctively arched old gum tree, Stevenson read the document known as the ‘Proclamation of South Australia’.
In 1857, just after
Glenelg had become a municipality,
John Hector, owner of the land on which the gum tree stands gifted the land to the
Glenelg community.
Glenelg is consequently recognised as the oldest
European settlement on mainland South Australia and each year on 28 December, the Proclamation document is read at the site of the Old Gum Tree.
- See more at:
https://www.holdfast.sa.gov.au/oldgumtree#sthash.lWviyWlX.dpuf