When Henley Had a Golf Course!

When Henley Had a Golf Course!

From Sandhills to Fairways Before 1929, golf at Henley and Grange was more improvised than organised. Local boys, including Ron Jones, fashioned clubs from boxthorn branches and played across the West Beach sandhills, planting flags on dunes to mark their holes. Later...
Hooves in the Sand: Horses at Henley & Grange

Hooves in the Sand: Horses at Henley & Grange

Saddles, Sand, and Survival In the earliest years of the colony, reaching Henley or Grange was a real challenge. Military Road and parts of what became Grange Road were little more than sandy tracks, often impassable in wet weather. Most visitors came either by boat,...
Bruce Gray (alias Saltbush Bill)

Bruce Gray (alias Saltbush Bill)

Bruce Gray was born in 1889 on ‘Frogmore’ at West Beach. Growing up among horses, cattle, and sheep, he often watched Sidney Kidman’s mobs of cattle pass through the district. At eighteen, Bruce joined Kidman’s empire, working across the outback and developing his...
Bob the Wonder Dog

Bob the Wonder Dog

Bob was a black and tan Kelpie sheep dog. While still a young pup he became the pet and constant companion of Albert Ide, a blacksmith and general tradesman of Grange. Bob was beside Albert every day. Early in his life Bob began performing at the Henley carnivals and...
The Henley Line

The Henley Line

Did you know that there was once a ‘street railway line’ right next to Military Road that ran all the way from Grange to Henley Beach terminating at Kent Street just past where the Henley Police Station is today? Both steam locomotives and later (from 1956) Redhen...
Henley Beach Swimming Pool

Henley Beach Swimming Pool

Narrated by Helen Lewis   Have you heard of Dawn Fraser, Australia’s swimming legend? She was voted Australia’s greatest ever female athlete in 2013. She won four gold and three silver Olympic medals at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, Rome in...
Improved Postal Facilities Needed at Grange!

Improved Postal Facilities Needed at Grange!

“The postal facilities at Grange are a hundred years behind the times,” said Mr. G. W. Stacey, on Tuesday morning, 30th March 1909.  Feature image: Marett’s Store and 1st Grange Post Office, c.1890(Courtesy of State Library of South Australia B 15190 –...
Hendrika (Henny) de Vries

Hendrika (Henny) de Vries

Hendrika de Vries, born and raised in Amsterdam, emigrated to Adelaide with her family as a young girl and became a swimming champion, young wife, and mother in Adelaide. The H&GHS recorded an online conversation with Henny from her home in Santa Barbara...
Bill Tipler

Bill Tipler

COMING TO AUSTRALIA Bill Tipler arrived in Australia from the UK as a £10 Pom aboard the P&O Otranto in 1956, accompanied by his mother, May, father William, and sisters Elizabeth and Jennifer. Before making the journey, he completed an apprenticeship in pattern...
Merv Allen Remembers (Part 3)

Merv Allen Remembers (Part 3)

Fishing We used to go do a lot of fishing on the jetty, but my older brother was a better fisherman than I and we’d ride our bikes down to the jetty mainly in the night to catch Tommy Ruffs....