User:A G Fraser

My name is Adam Fraser, I live in Queensland. My roots however are Gawler river South Australia where I was raised in the Judd residence on Gawler River Road. You may be wondering at this stage what links this has to the Para Para residence. There were in the mid to late 1800's three privately owned Ballrooms in the Gawler district, Barrossa, Gawler and Gawler River, of course Para Para being the Gawler example, the Judd residence in Gawler River, specifically the converted stable complex to the front right of the property ( knocked down with a dozer in 1973 by my ill informed and frankly naive step father James Fraser ) being another. Still to this day remember the sadness and dismay I felt when John Dawkins ( of Poll Dorset sheep farm, and Dawkins road fame ) dropped by one day to inform my parents of what they had done, I was 8. My interest and compassion for history and architecture has only grown from there, I am now a builder and specialise in heritage restoration and re-creation. In 1989 I had the privilege of meeting the owner of Para Para, who befriended me in the Bunyip newsagency. A frail old man with a chain smoking habit the likes of which I have never encountered before or since. He invited me back to the house after I expressed my fascination of that grand mansion from a time gone by. For the first couple of visits we sat at a table at the rear of the building in the kitchen, and only ever entered by the back door. We would sit drinking cup after cup of tea while he being the last surviving relative of the original owner, telling me a comprehensive history of the house. On the third visit he gave me the tour, from cellar to top, wow, I was amazed at the opulence, it was spellbound at what a truly grand manor this was. I will now give a few examples of what I was told. ( its been a while so forgive me if I can't remember all ) The man I spoke to inherited not only Para Para, but also a printing firm in Adelaide, he was half owner in the Yamaha dealership at parafield, but somehow had major tax issues, which was to be apparently a reason for the disposal of Para Para. On the original property, now considerably reduced in size, the government of the time wanted a railway line to pass through the property, so the owner agreed on two conditions, compensation for land and the construction of a bridge, so he could access his land without going over rails, it still exists. Most of the building materials came from England on ships to construct the house as ballast, as Port Adelaide was a long journey for bullock teams, he helped establish the Port of Gawler, now known as port Gawler, the remnants of which have long disappeared. The original owner made his vast fortune believe it or not from firewood, cutting trees from the Adelaide hills and not only supplying households, but also the locomotive industry. In 1990 the old man offered to sell the property to me for $ 380.000, to solve his tax issues, I declined, for two reasons. One being it was in total disarray and needed extensive works, the other, what was the government of the day thinking when they built trust houses directly across the road from this majestic, historical, wonderful example of opulence from the 1800's, a rare treasure. I am a native of Gawler and districts, and, as a result of my interests and ethics, am full of information, not only on Para Para, but on surrounding area's as well, for more information, please feel free to email.