John Carruthers (surveyor)


John Carruthers was a surveyor in South Australia, who fixed the boundary between the Northern Territory and Queensland.

History

John Carruthers, Sr., originally from Dumfries, was a clothier with a business in Snow Hill, London. Deciding on the life of a farmer in the newly declared colony of South Australia, he emigrated aboard Cleveland with a supply of farming equipment, household furniture and two farm labourers, arriving in December 1839. He selected a property near the Torrens Gorge, where he established a makeshift dwelling in a cave, then built a comfortable cottage and shortly afterwards married Harriet Fill, a fellow passenger on the Cleveland.
In this idyllic setting their eldest daughter was born, but around 1842 he abandoned rural life for that of a publican, and moved into the city, taking over the "Royal Oak" hotel, then the "Globe Inn", on the Stephens Place corner of Rundle Street. In 1852 the licence was transferred to James Waterman, who died shortly after. In October 1852 he and his brother Robert, who had arrived aboard British Empire in August 1850, opened a wine and spirits shop at 51 Rundle Street as "J & R Carruthers", which business prospered, and for a time was the largest liquor outlet in Adelaide. Carruthers Creek was named for him by John McDouall Stuart on 30 April 1861. Then came the depression brought about by Governor Grey's financial stringency, and in 1864 with a crowd of creditors unable to pay their debts, Carruthers was forced to declare himself insolvent. His last decade was spent as a virtual recluse in his Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide home, an invalid in his last years but clear-minded and lucid to the last, survived a widowed daughter, one single and two married daughters, two married and three single sons.
John Carruthers, Jr. was born in Mitcham, and as a 10-year-old boy attended Mrs. Hillier's school at Brighton, and his cousin Robert Carruthers, Jr., were prize-winning students at Mr. Webster's Adelaide Commercial School, Grenfell Street in 1860. He also attended Adelaide Educational Institution, and Whinham College in North Adelaide. Leaving school, his first employment was with shipping agents Stilling & Co., then with landbroker W. M. Letchford, after which he served as clerk of works and timekeeper at the Government railway carriage and locomotive works, but was retrenched during the financial stringencies of the 1864–1866 drought. He decided to try his luck in New Zealand, but found things little better. He found work on a flax farm near Dunedin, and a potato farm near Lake Waikareiti, as a shipping foreman with Boyle & Co. in Dunedin, then at a flax mill. His last job in New Zealand was in charge of a horse working a whim over a coal mine.
At the age of 25 he returned to South Australia, and in 1873 after an interview with the Surveyor-General, George Goyder, he entered the service under Charles Wells.
His first work was at Wirrabara.
He was then appointed assistant to David Lindsay, working as surveyor in the south-east, surveying for "educational blocks" at Wirrega.
From there to Kangaroo Island he cut up the Hundreds of Haines and Cassina for farms.
Then he went up the Murray to the Hundred of Pyap, and Lyrup where there the Irrigation Settlements would be founded in 1894.
In 1885 he and Larry Wells completed the boundary line between the Northern Territory and Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
He undertook further surveying work in the Musgrave and Tomkinson Ranges, and Deering Hills to the western boundary.
He retired at the age of 49 to his property in Narracan, Gippsland.

Family

John Carruthers married Harriet Fill, a daughter of William Fill at Trinity Church on 12 December 1840. Their children were: