Wedge Island
From Waler Data Base @ Facebook. Image: Horse being broken in, Wedge Island. 1940. State Library S.A.
Wedge Island covers about 10 square kilometres, it’s between York and Eyre Peninsulas – at the mouth of Spencer Gulf, South Australia.
Once, good Waler types were bred there and gained top prices. In 1914, 1915 and 1916 Wedge Island horses got high prices at Barker Bros. sales, many going to the Australian army for service overseas. Known as Golly horses.
Part of the island is privately owned – several titles – the rest now owned by government. Once, there was a grazing lease, horses and sheep taken over by boat. The whole island then privately owned.
The horse in the feature photo for this post is a good working type, probably a Golly horse. There was a jetty in those times although horses and sheep had to be loaded by rowing sheep out and lifting on board, horses swum out. Wool bales also taken out in a rowboat to trading ketch.
Hubert Winckel and Les Rau moved there in 1937, working for the island’s owner, Don Cooper.
In 1936 Don established mammoth bronzewing turkeys there. He also took kangaroos over, and encouraged wild birds too, keeping a count of the island’s quail and other species. He believed a mixture of wildlife and farming was possible and that the island must never be stocked to maximum carrying capacity, to keep good diversity of all there. He ran a few sheep, knowing to use copper and cobalt to prevent “island disease” that caused many to think sheep couldn’t be run on islands.
Don was a character who once held a skipper and his deckhand at gunpoint before they left the island, after a delivery, as they refused to return and collect rams for delivery. He was charged. He, wife Ida and daughters Dora, Laurel and Marjorie all loved riding, and they broke in the island horses for use and for sale.
Images of Don and Les and Ida taken on Wedge Island, State Library S.A. 1940
There’s an almost continuous swell and it’s usually windy, so only experienced boat owners would take things there and often had to beat a retreat if weather too bad for landing or picking up.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Mr and Mrs Andrew Golly and their children lived on the island. Mr Golly bred admired light draught horses, strong ponies and hacks, some by the sire Emulation; these provided an income for him through sales, despite the difficulty getting them off the island. William Haig owned the island then, and the Gollys leased it from him. Haig owned Emulation. The Wedge Island horses were almost all sold for army remounts to India. Renown for quality.
A ketch usually took the horses off, holding up to 26 per trip, it being a tough job, horses swum out one at a time, a sling pased under them, and hoisted aboard. Now and then rough weather after leaving meant a dangerous journey to Port Lincoln on one occasion a horse being killed en route.
The Golly children – two sons and a daughter – grew up there. Mrs Golly made good warm clothes by spinning wool on her spinning wheel. Their pigs liked sunbathing on the beach and swimming. All their goats were white, and a family food source.
Their daughter was an excellent wood carver, using driftwood. The Gollys of Wedge Island as they were known, were friendly, resourceful people known to many maritime travellers around the islands.
In 1929, aging, Andrew and Mrs Golly left the island to live on the mainland – they’d been on Wedge over 40 years and had curated it well.
In 1929 Mr and Mrs Littley, their son, daughter, and son in law Hartley Mould and their children went there, and lived on the island for a time. They took chickens and ducks over. There was a Captain Littley who commanded a fine vessel out of Port Lincoln that took stock to and from Wedge among other places, probably a relation. Many ships were lost near the island over the years.
After the two men working for Cooper got things sorted, they landed a spring cart and horse named Dolan and Mrs Hubert Winckel and the children. Goats had gone feral on the island and Cooper paid the men to shoot them and collect the skins. They took sheepdogs over, which proved invaluable. The aim was to get 25 goats a week.
In 1939 the islanders were very happy to have a two way radio set installed, to communicate with Port Lincoln. Don liked horses and bred them, so had probably taken over the Golly horses. When Mrs Winkel went there, she enjoyed riding on the island and very much liked the horses.
When did the horses from Wedge Island end? For there haven’t been any there for decades. I can’t find out. Anyway, for a time, a jolly good lot!
These days only one man lives there, Ron O’Brien. He must take all supplies to the island himself, and land them on the beach.
