Goyder, George Woodroffe

Because his wife’s health was not strong, George Goyder sent his wife and nine children on a holiday trip back to England abord the City of Adelaide. Six weeks before the family was due to leave on the return trip, Goyder’s wife died in Bristol.

George Woodroffe Goyder; Source: State Library of South Australia B3198

George Woodroffe Goyder (1826-1898) was born in Liverpool, England, studied surveying in Glasgow and migrated to Sydney in 1848. After three years there he visited Adelaide, where he decided to settle. In 1851 he joined the fledgling South Australian colonial civil service as a draftsman, and he married Frances Mary Smith in North Adelaide. Eleven children were born to them over the next fifteen years, but two died young.

He was Chief Clerk in the Department of Lands in 1853, and this small energetic man rose very quickly through the ranks. By 1857 he was Assistant Surveyor-General, and he became Surveyor-General in 1861.

He is best remembered for establishing Goyder's Line of rainfall in South Australia to distinguish land suitable for agriculture from that useful only for light grazing.

Because his wife’s health was not strong, George sent Frances, their nine children - aged from 1 to 14 - and Frances’ younger sister, Ellen Priscilla Smith, on a holiday trip back to their family in England. (Ellen lived near the Goyders in the Adelaide suburb of Medindie and spent much time helping with the children.)

The Goyders sailed on the City of Adelaide when it left Port Adelaide in December 1867 and they reached London in April 1868.

At that time the South Australian government decided to send Goyder to found a settlement in the Northern Territory (which was then part of SA). Several others had failed in attempting the seemingly impossible task of selecting a site and surveying the land, but George led an efficient hand-picked expedition into this untamed tropical country, and accomplished the task successfully in 1869.

In April 1870, six weeks before the family was due to leave on the return trip, Goyder’s wife died in Bristol. She had been prescribed a solution of opium and had accidentally taken an overdose.

It was his sister-in-law Ellen who had to bring the nine Goyder children - Florence 16, George 15, Gertrude 14, Mary 12, Isabella 11, David 8, Alex 6, Frank 5, and Norman 3 - back to their father. Again they were passengers in the first-class saloon of the City of Adelaide, and they were landed safely at Port Adelaide in August 1870.

Ellen Smith moved into the Goyder household and managed it. Goyder, who consistently overworked himself, had returned from Darwin with 'nervous and muscular debility', and he was ordered complete rest. In 1871 he took nine months leave and visited Britain and America leaving his children in the care of Ellen. On his return in November of that year, George Goyder 45 and Ellen Smith 36 were married, and together they had three more children. (Marriage to the sister of a deceased wife had been unlawful, and required a change to the law of South Australia.)

With his health declining, Goyder retired in 1893. He died at his home near Mylor in the Adelaide Hills five years later.