Kersbrook, South Australia

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Kersbrook
state = sa


caption =
lga = Adelaide Hills Council
postcode = 5231
pop =
propval = $345,000 (Q1 2006) [ [http://www.reisa.com.au Real Estate Institute of South Australia] ]
est = 1850s
stategov = Schubert
fedgov = Mayo
dist1 = 36
location1= Adelaide
near-nw = One Tree Hill
near-n =
near-ne =
near-w =
near-e = Forreston
near-sw = Chain of Ponds
near-s =
near-se = Gumeracha

Kersbrook is a town near Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area.

History

.The first settlers established farms in the Kersbrook area in the early 1830s due to its relatively gentle slopes. John Bowden, manager of the South Australian Company's dairy farm at Hackney, bought a convert|32|ha|acre|0|lk=on|sing=on section and named it Kersbrook after the Cornish farm where he was born. By 1844, Bowden was recorded as having "800 sheep, 62 cattle, one horse, 13 pigs, 16 acres of wheat, eight acres of barley, plots of oats, maize and potatoes and a fruit garden".

The settlement itself was created by William Carman, a blacksmith working at a copper mine near Williamstown, who took advantage of the area's location on the busy road to the Barossa Valley to build a blacksmith shop and wheelwright in 1851. By 1858, some settlers had arrived and Carman gave some of his land to build a town. His preferred choice of name was Maidstone after his home town in Kent, but in 1917 the town was renamed to the locals' preferred choice of Kersbrook. It became a notable agricultural area, especially for fruit.

Kersbrook is today a fairly quiet rural town, where most of the old buildings still stand. [ [http://www.ahc.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=208 Adelaide Hills Council - Historical Town Information] ]

Geography

Kersbrook is located between Chain of Ponds and Williamstown along the Little Para Road, and southeast of One Tree Hill along a separate road.

At the ABS 2001 census, Kersbrook had a population of 314 people living in 120 dwellings.

Facilities

There is a primary school (opened 1961), general store, medical clinic and other small stores in the town of Kersbrook. Nearby Humbug Scrub and Mount Gawler are used for orienteering [ [http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Campground/4044/gawler.htm Orienteering map of Mount Gawler] accessed 16 June 2005] and mountain biking in quite steep terrain.

About 10 km north of Kersbrook is the 353-hectare Warren Conservation Park, a rugged nature reserve with views over the Warren Gorge which was dedicated in 1966 and protects a range of rare fauna. [ [http://www.parks.sa.gov.au/publish/groups/public/@parks/@northernlofty/documents/rawfile/yurre_pdfs_warren_cp.pdf Department of Environment and Heritage - Warren] ]

There is also a pine plantation nearby, which is now part of the Mount Crawford Forest. [ [http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/pno/other.phtml?recno=SA0077433#Other_Details Placenames SA] last accessed 16 June 2006]

References

External links