State Library of South Australia

John Henry Reid [B 37771] • Photograph

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Summary

Portrait of John Henry Reid, nephew of Rev. Richardson Reid.

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Physical description

Photograph

Dates / Publication details

Approximately 1910

Photographer

Hammer & Co

Collection

Part of Portrait Collection

Subject

Reid, John Henry, 1860-1923

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

Historical information

John Henry Reid, born in Adelaide 5 October 1860. His father was John Reid, brother of Rev Richardson Reid from Holy Trinity Church. John Henry married Mary Anne Bralla and had nine children. Reid was the surveyor on the railway line being built to Alice Springs. North of Leigh Creek, near Copley, and while excavating the site for a dam for water for the trains, he was the first white man to find coal in South Australia. The Aboriginal people had known of the coal for thousands of years. The Government of the day had offered a reward of ten thousand pounds for the discovery of coal in South Australia but the reward was never paid to Reid - the family history says this because it was not black coal - the coal that was being brought from New South Wales to South Australia but supplies were unreliable because of strikes in NSW. The Railway Museum at Port Adelaide has a silver Railway spike presented to Reid on completion of the railway line at Government Gums - later Farina. In 1959 the then Premier Tom Playford presented an aerial coloured photo of Leigh Creek to Mary Anne Reid just before he died. John Henry and Mary Anne are buried in West Terrace Cemetery but there is no indication on the grave site to indicate Reid's importance in the early economic history of South Australia. [Information supplied by great grandson M. Cowan.].

Digitisation information

Date

15/10/2014

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

3,965 x 5,987 pixels (23.7 MP)

Size

71.24 MB

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