Walkerville Brewery
Walkerville Brewery was a brewer of beer in Adelaide, South Australia, originally founded in the 1840s. The company became a co-operative, and grew by admitting hotel owners as shareholders, and absorbed smaller breweries. After several amalgamations it moved its operations to Southwark (now part of Thebarton) and by 1920 it was South Australia's largest brewing company. It was bought out by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1939 and its facilities became known as the company's Southwark brewery. The brewery produced Nathan beer (Nathan Bitter), named after a new type of beer making equipment introduced  in 1927 (later renamed Southwark Bitter by the SA Brewing Co.). History. First phase. The first brewery in Walkerville was founded in 1847 by William Colyer and William Williams, reported by one source to be South Australia's first licensed publican, although later research suggests that he was the second to be licensed and the third brewer in the colony. The partnership was dissolved late the same year, and Colyer returned to England. Williams commissioned architect Thomas Price in 1846 to erect buildings in Fuller Street, including malthouse, store and other buildings, identified as Lots 66 and 67, although Lots  64 and 65 on the other side of Walkerville Terrace (also known as Richmond Road) closer to the Torrens would seem more likely. A series of tunnels running down to the Torrens from Fuller Street and Warwick Street served as cellars (filled in c. 1970 preparatory to erecting the Highways Department building). The "tunnel" story has elsewhere been debunked, and identified as nothing but drains. Williams was found insolvent 1851, but had his certificate annulled in 1853. At some stage there was another brewery on Lot 41, Walkerville, on land purchased by N. P. Levi in October 1842, but whether  part of this history is as yet not determined. Edmund Levi, brother of Philip, the property's owner, took over management of Walkerville Brewery in 1853, leasing it to one James Thomson. In January 1860 fire destroyed the malthouse, which had been leased to Richard Goss (died 1869), who sold malt to Simms as well as to Thomson. In 1854 Thomson relinquished his share of the business and in October left the partnership to White & Phillips who shortly went bankrupt. Thomson was found insolvent in 1864 and jailed for two months. He was not clearly related to James Turnbull Thomson , brewer and founder of Balhannnah, who had more than his share of financial failures. Second phase. Around 1862 Ball & Huntley took over Thomson's defunct brewery, named it the "Black Horse Brewery". and began brewing there again, purchasing the property in 1870. Their malthouse was destroyed by fire on 5 June 1871. Ball died in 1882 and Huntley continued operating the brewery until 1890 when he retired. Third phase. In 1889 the brewery was taken over and run as a co-operative by a consortium of four "free" hotel owners: Robert Hyman, John Selby Cocker, Samuel Harris, and Vincent Henry  Simpson. The Walkerville Brewing Company was founded with 19 other shareholders, all publicans or hotel owners, whose share of the profits depended on the amount of trade they did with the company. The company merged with Clark and Ware's company and its operations moved to Southwark, but the Walkerville Brewery had one last spasm when it was resurrected by Charles Williams in 1901 and operated for five more years before closing for the last time; see below for more information. Amalgamations. Torrenside Brewery. Frequently spelled "Torrensside", the brewery was founded by the Port Road Southwark, now Thebarton, on the  banks of the River Torrens in 1886 by A. W. & T. L. Ware, and produced Southwark brand beer. Their first customer was the Exchange Hotel, operated by their brothers George and Boxer. The Ware brothers were sons of Charles James Ware (c. 1824 – 19 December 1891) who arrived in SA aboard "Augustus" in November 1846 and married Fanny Crawford (1829 – 7 April 1898) on 22 August 1859. Fanny arrived with her parents aboard "D'Auvergne" in March 1839. Fanny was the daughter of William Crawford, Builder. Charles ran the Burra Hotel, then in 1868 took over the Exchange Hotel, owned by  Sir Henry Ayers. East Adelaide Brewery. Edward Clark, son of W. H. Clark, was brewer for the Murray Brewery in Goolwa in the 1880s, formed E. Clark & Co. in Adelaide with one A. Wheelwright, was found insolvent in 1889 through lack of capital, then served as brewer for the Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company. He left the Co-operative in 1895 to manage the East Adelaide Brewery, a two-storey establishment which the newly revived E. Clark & Co. built on the south side of the River Torrens, on Walkerville Road (now Stephen Terrace). The probable location is about 1km  south of the Walkerville Brewery. E. Clark & Co. was founded with twelve shareholders inc. William Warren, James Wells, and Eliza Dreyer as Clark & Co., became Clark, Ware & Co. before absorbing the old Walkerville Brewing Company. The product proved so popular the factory's capacity had to be doubled a year later. In 1897 a bottling plant was installed and production capacity doubled again. By 1898 the East Adelaide Brewery was contracted to supply fifty "free houses", and once again a doubling of capacity was deemed necessary to keep up with demand. It was decided instead to amalgamate with the Wares ' Torrenside Brewery, which took place in April 1898, their owners combining as Clark, Ware & Co. The East Adelaide premises were closed and the Torrenside brewery at Southwark expanded. Walkerville Co-operative. In 1899 the activities of the Walkerville Brewing Company and Clark, Ware & Co. combined as Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company at Southwark. Additional buildings were erected at the site. The old Walkerville Brewery was taken over by its erstwhile head brewer Charles Williams in 1901 and operated successfully as "Williams' Walkerville Brewery", with outlets at the Tea Tree Gully Hotel and perhaps a few others not tied to either  of the two combines, no doubt to the chagrin of the Co-operative, which bought out the company in 1906. A popular drink produced by the Walkerville Co-op was König Lager, whose name was changed to Adelaide Lager in 1914 amid the anti-German sentiment that swept Australia and resulted in wholesale changing of German-sounding place names. The Walkerville Co-Operative Brewing Co. continued its growth and by the end of World War I was the largest brewery in South Australia. In September 1925 Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company, Limited, was first listed on the Adelaide Stock Exchange . Directors were Charles Boxer Ware, Frederick James Blades, Vincent Henry Simpson, and William Walter Warren. The company absorbed Haussen's Brewery in 1926; Haussen & Co. retained ownership of its string of hotels. Nathan beer. Leopold Nathan (born 30 July 1864 in Württemberg, Germany) invented a closed brewing system in cylindro-conical vessels, in which the beer was exposed to fewer contaminants during its production, and the brewing time was much reduced. Patented first in the United States in 1908, the system was refined over the following two decades. In November 1925 the Walkerville Co-op signed an agreement with the  Nathan Institute of Zǔrich for the installation of a "Nathan patent" plant at the company's brewery at Southwark, and has been claimed as the first Australian adopter of the system. The installation of the new equipment required the construction of additional buildings to accommodate it, with beer production using the new system beginning in late 1927. A formal opening ceremony took place in January 1928. (However Nathan's process was in operation at Peter Grant Hay's Richmond N.S. Brewery in 1927, so although they signed the contract earlier, Southwark brewery was the second in Australia to implement the  system.) Nathan Bitter, thee first beer brewed using the new process, was immediately popular, and was marketed around the whole country. However, the Walkerville company made substantial losses in the year 1928–29, and the South Australian Brewing Company was dominating the market at that time. South Australian Brewing Company. The Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company Ltd. was bought out by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1938 and its facilities became the company's main brewery. Because Nathan Bitter was so popular, they renamed the brewery the Nathan Brewery, later (1949) being renamed to Southwark Brewery. Nathan beer (Bitter) was  renamed Southwark beer (Bitter) in November 1951. Heritage listing. The Walkerville Brewhouse Tower at 107 Port Road was provisionally added to the South Australian Heritage Register on 20 May 2021. Its significance is described thus: Other breweries. Other breweries operating in the late 1860s included: