Pioneer Park, situated on MacDonnell Street, Naracoorte is a great spot to view the township of Naracoorte.
Stop for a picnic or BBQ and enjoy the wide green lawn and undercover barbeque area. Of interest to train buffs is the 1877 V9 class steam locomotive - the only one in Australia! From Pioneer Park it's only a short walk to the CBD.
Explore the 50th anniversary memorial of the municipality of Naracoorte and the commemoration of the pioneering families of Naracoorte. The Park was the former Naracoorte-Kincraig Cemetery (scroll down for more information).
1877 V9 class steam locomotive
Naracoorte is home to the only 1876 V class steam locomotive in Australia and the oldest preserved South Australian steam locomotive.
V9 was lead engine in a class of four light, narrow guage locomotives built by Beyer Peacock (Manchester UK), for the new Kingston – Naracoorte line. Ordered by the SA Government, V9-12 were constructed in 1875 and delivered, crated, in 1876. Re-assembled in Kingston, V9 first steamed over the new line on 9th December 1876. (Four more engines, V143 – 146 were built in SA in 1893).
V Class were 0-4-4BT (Back Tank) engines based on an American design Beyer Peacock had modified for Norwegian Railways, but 25% smaller. This design maintains a consistent weight and traction effort over the driving wheels on the light track, which at 35 lbs/yd, was the lightest used in SA.
The new line was celebrated when V9 successfully hauled a special New Year’s Day 1877 Picnic Outing to Kingston carrying around 500 passengers in open wagons with the town band playing!
V Class continued mainline service until 1879 when the larger W Class took over. V9 remained as shunting engine at Kingston until 1888, when it was transferred to the Northern Division of SAR, as V 10 – 12 had been. In total V9 steamed 488049 miles (785439km).
V9 was to be condemned in Peterborough, but in 1955, it was presented to the Corporation of Naracoorte as a historical relic and placed in Pioneer Park, alongside engine WX18, which was sold in 1985.
In 1984/5, Naracoorte Lions Club, supported by the Corporation, undertook a full restoration of V9 ready for the State Jubilee 150 Year. In 1986, V9 was placed in the “station” where we see it today.
History of Pioneer Park
William Macintosh arrived in the district in 1845 and a few years later had the private township of Kincraig surveyed on the southern side of the creek, with the area now known as Pioneer Park as the cemetery. In 1859 the State Government surveyed land on the northern side of the creek for a new township to be known as Naracoorte, with quarter-acre blocks for sale, and decreed that the cemetery had to be moved for sanitary reasons. A directive from GW Goyder in October 1861 stated: “For sanitary considerations it has already been decided to alter the site of the cemetery from A to B, removing the few bodies that have already been interred.” The Government proposed to pay for the bodies to be moved to the new cemetery, but there was strong opposition to this by local residents, with a wish that the cemetery be closed and left as a reserve.
Goyder’s directive included a map and shows that the graves would have been located just north of the train engine. A letter from a resident to the Crown Lands Department promised to provide “the nearest approach to the number buried in present cemetery”, but unfortunately this information has not survived.
There is no record of the exact date when the current cemetery on Stewart Terrace opened but the Government Gazette of September 1864 included Naracoorte in a list of cemeteries to which new regulations applied, and the earliest headstone at the current cemetery relates to a death in January 1865. A public meeting was held in September 1865 to appoint trustees for the new cemetery, and Messrs Carter, Gore, Gunning, Grieve, Horsfall, Attiwill and Agar were nominated.
Only three people are definitely known to be buried in the old cemetery:
Bertha Doughty, wife of Charles Doughty - died September 1861 age 35
Isabella Macintosh, wife of William Macintosh - died October 1862 age 33
Catherine Patterson, daughter of Hugh and Ann Patterson - died March 1863 age 1
The area around the old cemetery slipped into disuse, and it was officially closed in 1885.
The District Council wanted the area cleared but Bertha Doughty’s family was very much against her headstone being moved, so in 1891 the Council agreed for it to remain and the area was placed under its control and became a tree planting reserve. Trees were planted there by school children on Arbor Day for many years but few survived because of rabbits and lack of water. There had originally been memorials of both stone and wood, but by 1930 the only headstone to survive was that of Bertha Doughty.
In 1948 the area was renamed Pioneer Park, with the Council proposing the construction of terraced steps to a central pool, and the erection of a memorial listing the names of the people buried there. The memorial of Bertha Doughty still survived, and was moved to the current cemetery at this time. In 1965 the Lions Club undertook to work with the Council on the ongoing care of the area.
Other people possibly buried in Pioneer Park include:
Oct 1853 adult male Hall
June 1856 Elizabeth Ward age 18
Aug 1856 adult male Thomson
Nov 1859 Thomas Jenkins age 37
April 1861 Alfred Beauchamp age 2
May 1862 William Sharpley age 1
July 1862 Richard Hitchen age 50
June 1862 Bill Ormerod
Nov 1862 John Bowden age 58
Oct 1863 James McIntosh age 32
March 1864 male infant Goddard age 2 days