Kandahar, 327 Marion Road, North Plympton

Kandahar, 327 Marion Road, North Plympton and some of the people who lived there: a brief history by Rob Goldsmith

In June 1888 William Henry Morish, mining manager of Broken Hill, bought the Bucklands house and estate from Albion E. Tolley, wine and spirit merchant of Adelaide.

Bucklands covered 18.75 acres (7.5 hectares) of the northern portion of section 88, Hundred of Adelaide, including a 494 feet (c. 150 metre) frontage along what is now Marion (then a 'Government') Road. Bucklands had been built for Tolley in 1882. Morish paid ￡5300 for the property.

Morish (1844-1905) was born in Truro, Cornwall and came to Australia at the age of about eighteen. He spent most of the next twenty-five years in the mining industry, first in the gold fields of Ballarat and Bendigo, then the Cobar copper and Broken Hill silver mines. He was manager of the Broken Hill South and Central Mines in the mid-1880s; in this capacity he acquired the honorific title 'Captain' by which he was often later known. Morish retired to Bucklands in 1888 with his wife Mary (1851-1936) and their four children.

In June 1897 Morish bought ten acres (4 hectares) immediately to the north of Bucklands. The land, including a 347 feet (c. 106 metre) Government Road frontage, was in section 2033, Hundred of Adelaide; Morish paid Thomas Pope of Adelaide, solicitor, ￡500 for the property. 

Section 2033, of 20.6 hectares (51.5 acres), had first been granted in October 1840 to Charles Fenn of Adelaide, gentleman.

John Woodhead leased the land from February 1841 and In July 1849 bought it from Michael Featherstone of Adelaide, shopkeeper and merchant, for ￡200. Woodhead farmed the land until his death in August 1876. He had been a member of the West Torrens council in 1856-57. The land remained in the hands of the Woodhead family until bought by Pope for ￡1500 in November 1895.

On 23 September 1897 Morish's eldest child Mary (1873-1927) - known to friends as 'Minnie' and born in Clunes, Victoria - married Arthur Hill (1871-1936), accountant, at the Wesleyan

Methodist Church, Adelaide. Arthur, nicknamed 'Farmer' Hill, was the second of sixteen children, eight boys and eight girls.

Five of the brothers played first-class cricket for South Australia, including Arthur, who played five first-class games in 1890-94. Clem Hill (1877-1945) was the most celebrated of the cricketing Hill brothers, playing forty-nine Test matches for Australia as a left-handed batsman including a period as captain in 1910-12, Clem was the best man at Arthur's wedding to Mary Morish. Arthur Hill was also a league footballer for Norwood.

At the time of his marriage Arthur worked as an accountant for A. Pengelley and Company, a furniture making business based at Edwardstown. William Morish began leasing the firm from June 1898 and bought it in April 1901.

Morish's youngest son John Henry Morish (1882-1954) and his son-in-law Arthur became partners in the business. Under them the company expanded and diversified, including into the production of elaborate office fittings and tramcars, such that by 1922 it employed around 650. Arthur Hill eventually worked for the firm for forty years. Messrs Morish and Hill were also well known to the children of Plympton Primary School: once a year they would bring a huge bag of oranges to the school and invite the children to line up and take one orange each from the bag.

In June 1900 Morish gifted 0.2 hectares (0.51 acres) of his section 2033 land to his daughter Mary. The property began about seventy feet (c. 21 metres) north of the northern boundary of the Bucklands estate and had a 110 feet (c. 34 metres) Government Road frontage, from where it extended eastwards 203 feet (approximately 62 metres). It was on this site that Kandahar was —built in the second half of 1900. Several sources maintain that Morish gave the land to his daughter 'on the occasion of her marriage' to Arthur Hill. This is not strictly accurate. Another source suggests that William Morish also paid for the construction of the house, though this is difficult to verify.

Kandahar was designed by Edward Davies (1852-1927), one of Adelaide's foremost architects, and named for the first Earl Roberts of Kandahar (Field Marshall Sir Frederick Sleigh Roberts VC, 1832-1914), a hero of the second Afghan-Anglo war of 1876-1880 and the Second Boer War 1899-1902. In 1892 Davies had also designed substantial additions and alterations to Nesfield, immediately to the south of Bucklands; Davies lived in Nesfield for almost twenty years from 1892.

The soil upon which Kandahar was built was a somewhat unstable mixture of clay and sand and construction of the home, supervised by clerk of works Arthur Harrison of Plympton, (also a close friend of Davies) presented difficulties.

In their Heritage Survey of West Torrens (1998) McDougall and Vines note that when eventually completed Kandahar was constructed of:

picked random coursed sandstone on a fine capped bluestone base with smooth rendered quoins and window and door dressings The design of the house is characterised by asymmetric form and detailing with square elements such as the tower and bay windows. It contains all of its original cast Iron verandah posts and trim.

The Hill family - Arthur, Mary and their two daughters Alma Eddy (b.l898) and Mary, known as 'Mollie' (b.1906) - lived in the home until 1920. Mrs Hill was noted for her charitable work during these years, in particular her tireless efforts with the Cheer-Up Society during the First World War.

The Hill's daughters eventually became Mrs Alma Kernot of Harvey, Western Australia and Mrs Mary Cavanaugh of Melbourne, Victoria. In May 1920, Mary Hill sold Kandahar to Harry Watson, civil servant of Plympton, for ￡1600. (Her by then widowed husband Arthur became a councillor for Edwardstown ward on the Marion council in 1934-36; in his final years he lived at Robert Street, Glenelg South).

The house was described in real estate advertisements of the time as including 'eight rooms, all beautifully fitted and furnished throughout, large bathroom ... servery, cellar, tiled kitchen ... splendid laundry [and] septic tank. This fine home is situated within a few minutes' walk of Plympton Railway Station'.

At the same time as buying Kandahar Watson also bought a 0.2 hectare (0.51 acre) L-shaped piece of land abutting the eastern boundary of the property. The land had been owned by the executors of William Morish's estate, his son John and Arthur Hill's father, Henry John Hill, manager, of Edwardstown. Watson paid ￡50 for the land. The Kandahar estate was now a little over 0.4 hectares (one acre) in size.

Harry Watson (1862-1950), who worked as a revenue recovery officer in the state government's Hydraulic Engineers (later Engineering and Water Supply) department until his retirement in 1930, was a long-time local resident. He served on the West Torrens council. In 1911-23 and was chair in 1918-19 and 1920-22. 

As council chair Watson had a particular interest in the issue of town planning. Indeed in November 1920 Watson developed his own 37-allotment subdivision, Speirsville, on section 87 to the west of Marion Road and immediately to the south of the Bay Road (in November 1924 renamed Anzac Highway).

He sold off the allotments over the next thirty years. Watson became a strong ally of South Australia town planning pioneer Charles-Reade. Three of the West Torrens developments that emerged during this time - parts of Kurralta Park (1918), Galway Gardens, later Marleston (1919) and Novar Gardens (1919) - were designed by Reade. As chairman Watson also oversaw council's April 1920 decision to purchase the eight-acre site (3 hectare) site that became the Weigall Oval. The oval was named in honour of the incumbent state governor; in 1938 its gates were named after Watson. Among other positions he held Watson was also chair of the West Torrens Repatriation Committee, which aimed to assist returned world war one service personnel, while as a Justice of the Peace he was for a time chair of the Justice's Association of South Australia.

Harry Watson had married 21-year-old Adelaide Elizabeth nee Menz in Adelaide in March 1886; they went on to have eight children (four girls, four boys). Elizabeth, as she was known, was a member of the well-known Menz family of biscuit manufacturers. The Watson's eldest child, Stanley Holm Watson (1887-1985), in 1915 supervised the building of 'Watson's pier', a vital supply point to the Gallipoli peninsula in the First World War. Captain S.H. Watson was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order for his wartime service. He later became Deputy Commissioner with the South Australian Railways and was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1959. Watson named Stanley Street in his Speirsville subdivision in honour of his son.

In the 1920s Mrs Elizabeth Watson's occasional charity fundraising afternoons at Kandahar were a local social highlight and attracted some of the district's more prominent women. Harry Watson continued to live at Kandahar after his wife's death in April 1936 (Mrs Watson died sixteen days after the couple's golden wedding anniversary).

Mr Watson was greatly assisted in his later years by Miss Eunice Stein, later Mrs Eunice Rosewall, his maid. One of Watson's favourite pastimes during these years was the making of apple cider in Kandahar's cellar. In his final years Watson eventually became blind, local people reading to him and assisting him in his walks along Marion Road. Watson died in August 1950 and bequeathed Kandahar to his second daughter, Phoebe Madeline Shannon of Bridgewater.

Phoebe (1893-1973), who was known within the family as 'Madge', had in May 1915 married Howard Huntley Shannon C.M.G. (1892-1976), a Liberal and Country League member of the House of Assembly seats of Murray then Onkaparinga in 1933-68. Their only child David (1922-1993) later had an outstanding career as a pilot with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. One of the original 'Dambusters', 'Dave' Shannon received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar and the Distinguished Service Order and Bar for his role in that and other campaigns. As a grandson of Harry Watson, Shannon probably spent considerable time at Kandahar as a child.

Phoebe Shannon formally took ownership of Kandahar from the executors of her late father's estate on 24 April 1951. The same day she sold the property to Harold John Watson of Torrensville, teacher, and his wife Doris Elizabeth Watson, for ￡7900. (This Harold Watson was no relation to the West Torrens council chair Harry Watson)

When put up for auction in March 1951 Kandahar was described in advertisements as comprising inter alia 'a tiled entrance porch, spacious return front verandah, large entrance hall... smokeroom, dining room, four bedrooms... enclosed back verandah [and] laundry and conveniences'. The grounds were 'well-laid out with lawns, shrubs, ornamental trees, paths, &c'.

On 15 June 1951 Watson sold the house and land to Douglas Buxton Hendrickson, a medical practitioner, for ￡7,987. Born at Balaklava in February 1911, Hendrickson was a brother of South Australian child prodigy violinist and later noted violin teacher Lyndall Hendrickson (b.1917). At the age of seven years Hendrickson won a scholarship to St Peter's College, after school going on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide (MBBS 1941). While at university Hendrickson developed into a skilled amateur bantamweight boxer and was secretary of the university's boxing and wrestling club. He was also for a time a member of the Liberal Union political party. Early in his medical career Dr Hendrickson - known to friends as Buxton - lived at Norwood and worked as a surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In the early 1940s he practised briefly at the Fremantle and Lenora District Hospitals in Western Australia. After moving back to Adelaide Dr Hendrickson lived in Pier Street Glenelg and in 1944-46 was a councillor for St Leonards ward in the Glenelg council. 

Dr Hendrickson battled polio in 1950 and a treatment he created involving injections of adrenal hormones and Vitamin C gained considerable attention; in the end the treatment was not embraced by medical authorities. Shortly after the death of his eldest daughter Susan at age six in January 1951 Dr Hendrickson moved from Pier Street to Kandahar with his second wife Doris (1914-1990) - his first marriage had ended in 1941. There they raised their four children, John, Rosemary, James (Jim) and David.

In the 1950s Dr Hendrickson ran medical practices at Moseley Street and Pier Street, Glenelg and at Kandahar. For three-and-a- half years from late 1959 Dr Hendrickson and his family lived in the United Kingdom while he undertook post-graduate studies at several hospitals. He took a particular research interest in women's cancers. After his return to Adelaide - the local press now described him as 'one of Adelaide's leading surgeons' - Dr Hendrickson's medical practice was based at Kandahar alone. Dr Hendrickson quickly became a colourful local identity, known for his dapper appearance, bowler hat and spats. One local resident recalls the bright light that shone from the front porch of the home each night during these years. In the 1960s Dr Hendrickson was also a staff member at Minda Home for intellectually disabled children. He found himself in the news in 1966 in the wake of the abduction of the Beaumont children on Australia Day. Dr Hendrickson believed that the children's bodies may have been buried in sand dunes near the oval owned by Minda Home. He and his fourteen-year-old son Jim spent months digging through the sand in search of dues. They found nothing of significance.

In September 1972 Dr Hendrickson moved to a new home, 'Oak Lodge', on Ayers Hill Road, Stirling. He continued to operate a medical practice at Diagonal Road, Glenelg East. (Hendrickson's daughter Rosemary, a university student, lived at Kandahar for the remainder of 1972). Dr. Hendrickson ran his Glenelg East practice until shortly before his death in September 1979, He is buried with his wife in the North Road Cemetery, Nailsworth. Throughout his adult life Dr Hendrickson was a keen gardener and his properties at North Plympton and Stirling contained many varieties of Australian native trees and plants. From 1945 Dr Hendrickson was also a devoted Mason. He was deeply interested in Masonic history and his 'off the cuff ten minute lecturettes' were appreciated by fellow members.

On 23 May 1973 Hendrickson sold Kandahar to Antonino Mittiga and Francesco (Frank) Mittiga, both of Mile End, shop fitters, and Antonio Callipari of Findon, tailor for $51,300. The house remained empty for the most of the next six years, Francesco and his wife Marielle Mittiga occupying it briefly in 1978-79. In January 1970 Antonino and Francesco Mittiga had bought 1.24 acres (0,5 acres) adjoining the northern boundary of the Kandahar property; with their purchase of the Hendrickson land, from 1973 Messrs Mittiga and Callipari owned the house and 2.25 acres (0.91 hectares) of surrounding land. In May 1979 ownership of the property was transferred to the Mittigas alone. They sold the property, now in a state of some disrepair, to the Corporation of West Torrens in June 1979 for $248,000.

In July 1982 the West Torrens council entered into a pioneering joint venture with the SA Housing Trust to establish a retirement village based around Kandahar. West Torrens's dynamic mayor, Steve Hamra, played a pivotal role in initiating the scheme.

The Steve Hamra Retirement Village, comprising five two-bedroom units and twenty-eight single units built by the Housing Trust for $545,000, was officially opened by the governor of South Australia, Sir Donald Dunstan, on 20 March 1983.

The West Torrens council owns the Kandahar home and is responsible for the administration of the village. A bust of Mr Hamra by famed Adelaide sculptor John Dowie is a feature of the front yard.

Since the early 1980s a number of community groups including the West Torrens Historical Society, the West Torrens Camera Club and the West Torrens Chess Club have based themselves at Kandahar. A range of other groups have used the house for shorter periods. Kandahar has had a rich and varied history, one that continues to be built upon each year.

Further information and images available from the library catalogue.