Where royalty once dropped in
Downstream from the pretend McLeod's Daughters TV show set at Gawler; a real sheep and cattle station once thrived. Jenny Hullick reports:
IN THE not too distant past, the northern suburbs was home to a property that combined a taste of the outback with the traditions of British landed gentry. Buckland Park, now a nondescript suburb on Adelaide's rural fringe, next to Port Gawler, was once a thriving 8000ha sheep and cattle station visited by governors and the future king of England.
Hector Brooks, 69, remembers life at Buckland Park during that bygone era.
"My grandfather bought the property in 1910. In 1939 my father was managing a property in WA, but my grandfather said, 'You must return (to Buckland Park), I think war is coming and I want the family gathered around'.
"I was seven when we came to live there. The owners of such properties had a wonderful life, with large numbers of staff - it was very privileged - a squire's situation." Mr. Brooks attended a small school set up on the station along with the children of Buckland Park workers. He would also help drove sheep and cattle to the Gepps Cross markets.
"Buckland Park was a holding property for livestock coming down from (his grandfather's property in) the interior. One of my earliest memories is bringing the cattle down through the back roads past St Kilda to the markets." Mr. Brooks would roam the property fishing or shooting the abundant game on the land. "It was a marvellous property from the point of view of wild game. There was duck, deer, rabbit, foxes, quails and the gulf waters were teeming with fish." The game drew Adelaide's top social set to the property. "We quite often had important people come out because of the proximity to Adelaide. We had regular fox hunting and big shooting parties would be invited up. "I was trained with guns from a very early age, but sometimes a townie might do something stupid. There were no bad accidents though."

The best remembered guest at the station was the Duke of Cornwall - later to become King George V - who visited Buckland Park in July 1901 during Australia's Federation celebrations.
"That was before my time of course, but the incident was still talked about when I was up there, particularly in relation to duck shooting."
For the Duke's visit, a special hide was built in the middle of a shallow lake near the Gawler River. "The story goes that the Duke and his gun loader were put in the hide, with the rest of the party stirring up the ducks. He was banging away and the ducks were raining down. "I guess the story has been exaggerated many times, but they reckon he got 200 ducks that day. Apparently the old hide remains in the
Middle of the lake to this day."