Satisfying cultural curiosity in Barossa
By Dewi Anggraeni
ADELAIDE, Australia (JP): There is something contradictory about the Barossa, the magnificently beautiful valley north of Adelaide. It is the wine-making trough of South Australia, where wine seems to flow unendingly, and the good food and sense of well-being induced by the lush rolling hills tend to lull you to a life of extreme indulgence. Yet the continuous prevalence of Lutheran cultural ambience jolts you to wonder whether all those wonderful things are only there to tempt you.
Having the company of Pam O'Donnell, tour operator of Fruits of Inheritance, and local historian and retired Lutheran clergymen, Pastor Proeve, however, helped place everything into its proper perspective. Pastor Proeve was undoubtedly a bottomless well of information about the place, and a delightful personification of a model Lutheran modified, modulated rather, by the antipodean easy-going cultural landscape. He confessed for instance, to resorting occasionally to the Biblical filling system -- "seek and ye shall find". I knew then that I was among friends.
The German settlements are mostly concentrated in the center of the valley, while the English settlers set up their villages around the outer region, on the ranges. Barossa Valley grew out of a fateful meeting by an English businessman, George Fife Angas, and a Prussian pastor, August Kavel. They met in London in 1836, each having his own motivation.
King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia made a proclamation in 1830, commanding all Lutheran and Reformed Church members throughout his kingdom to unite and use a new State Church Liturgy, commissioned by himself. Persecution fell on those who refused to obey the king's command. A Pastor August Kavel, leading his flock of Lutherans from Posen, Brandenburg and Silesia, was on the point of emigrating to Russia. Fate, however, brought him to meet George Fife Angas, who was at the time well into a project of forming the South Australian Company.
Angas needed people, Kavel and his parishioners needed a new place, where they would find religious freedom. The two drives fused and an agreement was struck. In 1838 Kavel arrived at Port Adelaide with 200 of his followers, and by 1842, the first settlement was set up in the rich and fertile Bethany, in the Barossa Valley. The 28 Lutheran families, under Pastor Fritzshe, were able to worship without fear of persecution.
Not only did Angas' entrepreneurship and Kavel's foresightedness bring mutual satisfaction to the parties involved, they also provided South Australia with a wide spectrum of tourist attractions.
In the cradle of the Barossa ranges, driving through towns like Bethany, Krondorf, Tanunda and Seppeltsfield, is like becoming voluntarily lost in a time capsule in Germany. While the orderliness and the neatness of the towns are undoubtedly Teutonic, this is not today's modern Germany. With the peaceful air, a feeling of nostalgia and unreality often mingles in.
"So, while they maintained the purity of their Lutheran denomination, they also kept their cultural heritage alive?" I asked Pastor Proeve.
The first streams of Lutherans were not fully responsible for consciously maintaining their German heritage. "They were more concerned with guarding the purity of their religion. They were happy to become Australians, as this was their adopted country, where they were given the religious freedom they were after," Pastor Proeve explained. These people then wrote to their folks back home how good life was in the new country. The news quickly spread and new streams of German families arrived, some fifteen years later, forming a different type of immigrant. These were not escaping religious persecution, but seeking a better life. They were in fact more conscious of their cultural heritage and sought to maintain it.
Apart from the food and wine, the arts, music and food festivals are full of German flavors and colors. The opening of the Seppelts family homestead in Seppeltsfield to visitors provides a window to events in some early settlers's lives. While various arts and crafts shops are a delight to visit, one small museum is a must for those who want to see and touch the historical relics of the place. The Luhr's Cottage is filled with real life history, where, with a little imagination, you can picture the daily lives of the early settler women. Thanks to the arduous and loving attention of Bertha Hahn and her two friends, rare items, like a shoulder yoke to carry buckets of water, are on display.
Driving out onto the ranges, the landscape changes, geographically and culturally. It is still beautifully lush, but the word "splendid" comes to mind. The English homesteads are grander, and visibly richer. The old Angas family residence in Angaston for instance, has been carefully renovated, to provide accommodation for tourists who want to sample the grand lifestyle of yesteryear.
The Barossa certainly caters for visitors who want to satisfy their historical and cultural curiosity, but it is also an ideal place for those who just want a disgustingly slovenly and indulgent holiday, or a break with a difference.