Auburn, South Australia

Auburn is a small town in the southern edge of the Clare Valley, in the Mid North of South Australia.It lies in the northern Mount Lofty Ranges just east of the Skilly Hills. Auburn is bisected by the Wakefield River as it makes its way to the sea at Port Wakefield.It has strong poetical themes, being named from a poem and the birthplace of a famed poet.HistoryThe first European to explore through the Auburn district, in April 1839, was John Hill, who was followed one month later by Edward John Eyre. On 10 March 1840 John Morphett selected a special survey of 4,000 acres on the Wakefield River as land agent for three English investors, Admiral George Lambert, Edward Rice M.P., and Robert Slaney M.P..Very soon after, just outside the southwest corner of this survey, a pioneering character named William Tateham squatted on the Wakefield River, living in a riverbank dugout from where he provided hospitality to travellers. The spot, which later became the site of Auburn, was for a time named Tateham's Waterhole or Billy Tatum's because of this.In October 1849, Thomas Henry Williams, a copper-smelting superintendent at the Burra mines, received a land grant for what was to become the Auburn area. During the next few years Williams sold off allotments to bullock teamsters and others. The first building – a well-appointed hotel named the Rising Sun Inn – was built in 1850 and so the town of Auburn was begun.