I have emailed off the forms needed to obtain the wills of my Great grandfather, my Grandfather and a Great aunt and Great uncle to try to sort out who owned what in 'Martin's Corner' at Balhannah.
The story is that my great grandfather bought the property with a view to breeding Shetland ponies (don't ask ... I can't imagine) and with that in mind he planted a great number of Scotch Thistles on the assumption that it was what the ponies liked to eat. Whenever I went out walking around the property with my father he carried a mattock and dug them up as we came across them.
My Great grandfather was only 48 when he died and the five children were all very young - the twins were only one year old and my great aunt, the eldest, was only six or seven.
Interestingly enough, the part which my Uncle C. inherited and which was run as a dairy farm by Cousin R. was used by his mother to breed Shetland ponies at one stage. With the musical houses which went on with that generation I suppose that it is possible that she planted the thistles - but they were all on the wrong part of the property so I can't really cast blame on her for that.
I have a feeling that Uncle D.'s share was incorporated in the dairy farm; I don't think that it was ever a part of the land which my grandfather inherited and farmed, along with the parts owned by the uncle and aunt whose wills I have ordered.
If I really want to wallow in masochism I can order the histories of the three properties (Plympton, Crafers and Balhannah) from the South Australian Lands Department ... but do I really want to know?
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