In the beginning - the boot!
Aug 03 '02
The Bottom Line A short true story - with a twist!
Is it not incredible how often a seemingly innocuous discovery leads to all manner of understanding?
And so it was to be here in South Australia in 2001. To adequately explain this chance event we first need to have a brief look at how this State came into being. Unlike many Australian States, South Australia was not a convict settlement. In some respects it was almost an experiment and I don't know if it's "drawing a long straw" but South Australians have often been first at major inventions and creations ever since.
For a start Adelaide was the first planned City in the world, the most recent being Canberra. Adelaide and South Australia were first with women’s suffrage, Aboriginal voting and many other social changes. Penicillin was invented here, the World's foremost Cranio-Facial unit is here and we have more than our fair share of hi technology. Technology embraces everything from building the best conventional submarines to AWAC's and other military equipment through to the most self sufficient housing estate.
Against all that while Colonel Light was running around designing what would become Adelaide ships came in regularly. Mostly they were loaded with people escaping religious persecution in Europe. One of the first of these ships was in the hands of Captain Hahn. He had a few hundred people from Prussia and nearby (since taken over by Germany) and "headed for the hills" rather than stay on the plains with the ever increasing mob.
Within a few years Captain Hahn and his pale-faced tribe split into two groups and each set up what became the towns of Hahndorf, named after the Captain and in another valley about ten miles north Lobethal, meaning "valley of praise". They lived in tents while they built houses mostly of timber.
However one family that was in the Lobethal group were extremely wealthy. They not only built the first house, but the house was constructed of stone and brick. Their children even had shoes, incredibly rare in those days since a pair of shoes cost three weeks pay. Being a footwear retailer this proves I was born a bit late!
All that was just over a hundred and forty years ago and even then one of the first problems was pollution. People died like flies in those days since nothing was known of germs, far less a cure for them. The early inhabitants of Lobethal set aside an area for a cemetery and wondered why about a year later everyone had stomach trouble! They soon realised that the decaying bodies in the cemetery were polluting the underground water supply, thereby proving they were able to stay in contact with the deceased! If you prefer this also put new meaning in the saying "let's have a drink on Harry!"
Needless to say a lot of digging went on, I would think most unpleasant digging and most of the bodies were relocated to a new cemetery well out of town.
A mere eighteen months ago came the chance discovery that was to prove more illuminating than imagined. That first stone and brick house built by the wealthy family was starting to deteriorate very badly mainly due to the old lime foundation breaking up. Foundations were of course very poor before the invention of concrete but old houses like this are "Heritage Listed" meaning they cannot be altered, especially on the outside. They are also painted in "Heritage" colours retaining what little history this young country has.
In the case of this house the entire foundation had to be replaced or it would not be long before it simply collapsed. Forty odd thousand dollars, of Heritage Trust money, and a year later the job was done. But while work was in progress these expert building restorers noted that the timber floor was original, in good condition and had never been lifted. They also noted that it was impossible for anyone or anything to get under the house in all those years. Therefore we can be certain that what they discovered in the under-floor cavity had been there since the foundation was originally put in place.
The discovery was purely by chance. Lumps of "foundation" were under the floor and as they moved one of these out of the way it appeared to be concealing something. Very carefully breaking off piece after piece a child’s boot was slowly revealed. Just the one boot in what was thought to be extremely poor condition was given to us by the current owners of the house in the hope we would restore and display it.
Well our staff spent every spare moment on that boot for several months, cleaning and polishing it very carefully. Now it is literally as good as new and with the exception of the laces absolutely original. So the boot the little girl lost nearly a hundred and fifty years earlier was back to it's original condition - except that just can't be right can it!
It took a few months to dawn on me that there was no way that boot was simply lost. For that to have happened the owners would have to be blind! Remember they were all living in a tent close to what that day must have been just the foundation of the new house. Would they not look for something worth three weeks average salary and how would they miss seeing it when it was right next to them? I put this to many local people, especially the elderly ones and before I knew it theories came thick and fast.
But better than that over a hundred old photographs of those early days came to light and a great deal of early history, both photographic and written, was saved from being lost forever just in time. All of this material is now safely stored and displayed in the Lobethal museum.
And what of the boot that had given back so much information? Well, its "partner" was found in the same location thanks to the builders carefully breaking up every bit of old foundation large enough to conceal an object of this size. Were the boots lost or was there some other explanation. We believe we finally had the answer.
In the 1800's and prior disease of any type was life threatening and feared. When someone became sick they would be isolated and essentially left to "pull through" or die. If they died no one had any real idea why so as a precaution every possession of that person was burnt and the body buried. At least here, in those days, it was common we learnt for the loved ones to retain some item that person had used in their lives. This was of course part of the grieving process and usually the item would be buried in the garden and a small cross often marked the spot.
But, since a new house was under construction we now believe that in this case the pair of boots was wrapped in the foundation compound. This was then considered safe disease wise so daughter had a "presence" in the family forever.
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