Lightfoot and Burne Families - U.K. to Australia

Notes From the" Gregor History 1816-1975"
page 16: The family moved to Wallaroo to work in the mines atMoonta. William with his brothers John and Francis, worked at themines for some time, carting copper from the Moonta Mines to theWallaroo Smelting Works, but then they ventured further afield andtravelled to the Corny Point area where they cleared the mallee scruband supplied the miners with pick-axe handles, which they made fromthe cut timber.

In the early 1870s, William, John and Francis, having earnt enoughmoney by clearing land and contract fencing, bought land at WeanersFlat, Yorktown.

In September 1876 William, John and Francis took up their ownselections in the Hundred of Curramulka, but they worked theseproperties for many years from Yorktown.

page 17: William bought land at Yorktown from Anstey and Giles andfarmed in the Yorktown district for a number of years. Mr. Gregor'sfarm lands extended to the centre of Yorktown. The boundary fence isnow the frontage of the shops now occupied by Mr OH Jaehne and the"Pioneer Office", Burley's shop and the Murdock's garage on theStansbury Road. His brother owned the adjoining farm now occupied byMr FW Kirsch.

1885 Land Tax Records
John - Section 87 - 244 acres
John - Section 287 - 214 acres
William - Section 288 - 293 acres
William - Section 289N - 152 acres
Francis - Section 289S - 88 acres
Francis - Section 290 - 239 acres

From "The Striding Years"
page 47; 21st April 1883, F Gregor JP committee member to buildCurramulka Institute.

From "Curramulka 1876-1975"
page 58; Francis one of the trustee for Curramulka recreationalground
page 257; one of the first two Justices of the Peace appointed inSeptember 1878

From "The Ill-Shaped Leg"
page 98; Three of his neighbours were the Gregor brothers, John, Willand Frank, who had been among the earliest settlers at Weaners Flat.
page 107; The first dozen years of farming on southern York Peninsula,were on the whole, good and prosperous. Yields were fair and priceswere high and reasonably stable, averaging about five shillings abushel, dropping to four shillings when the harvest was a bumper andrising to eight shillings when the millers were caught with depletedstocks after a dry season.
The average yields, however, were gradually falling, as more andmore of the land was cropped for the second and third time. The soilbecame infested with wild oats, drake and cockspur thistles. Thefarmers who recognised the signs of waning fertility and hadsufficient water to run a small flock of sheep found that after threeyears' grazing, fertility was restored to a reasonable level.