St. Petri Lutheran Church

Today was our last Open Garden day before Xmas - this time a quite long drive to Tanunda in the Barossa Valley. Unless you are a teetotaler, you would have heard of our famous Barossa Valley. As far as I know it is still the largest wine producing region in Australia and as Paladian mentioned, is the home of JACOBS CREEK, our most exported wine.

The garden was small and basic and soon we were on our way homewards via Angaston, deciding to tour through the peaceful Eden Valley scenic loop on our way back to the southern freeway. After a short period of time we entered the picturesque Eden Valley, named this way by the early English and German immigrants who settled this area in the 1850s, and felt they had found their Garden of Eden.

I immediately noticed the beautiful old St. Petri Lutheran Church on the road that leads towards the famous Henschke Winery at Keyneton. The Lutheran congregation in Eden Valley was formed in 1858 and consisted of five families. A dual purpose building for school and church was constructed and in 1892, the old original church was rebuilt.

In 1900, the school required "a teacher (who) must be able to teach children in German and English, and play the harmonium".

By 1910, the building was inadequate to contain the congregation and the foundation stone was laid on 17 January 1912 for the new church you see in my blip today The builders used only local stone, seen even more colourful in LARGE.

Additional info:
In the 1850s, as mentioned, it was a group of Prussian Lutherans of German and Polish heritage who had left their homeland to avoid religious persecution who settled in the Eden Valley. They had arrived in Adelaide in 1838, having received monetary assistance for the voyage from George Fife Angas, an English businessman who later bought large tracts of land in the Barossa Valley.

Then in the 1850s, some of these Prussians moved to the Barossa and started the wine industry. The rest of them took up land and moved to the Hahndorf area close to Adelaide, and became market gardeners.

My great grandfather was in that 1838 group of Prussian immigrants that took up land in the Hahndorf/Verdun area. The original family farm in Verdun is still in a descendant's hands today. Called The Pines, the property is like a museum, full of old farm machinery and rusted tools and implements. We have family reunions there on special occasions.

On a sad note, the Lutheran School at this church was forced to close in 1916 due to World War I. Life became very difficult for the folk with a German background. They were regarded with suspicion and even hostility although most of them had been born in Australia.