User:Mariojaspers/George North (Tramountanas)

George Tramountanas was born in Lemnos, Greece in 1822. He came from a family of shipbuilders and seamen and had travelled to Australia as a teenager before finally arriving at Port Adelaide in South Australia in 1842. He worked for some time in Port Adelaide before gaining employment at Edward John Peake's Winery after 1846 in the newly gazzetted township of Clarendon. There he helped cultivate the earyl vines and made brandy & wines. In 1857 he was recorded as a crew member on the steamship SS Admella, for about 12 months. The Admella was shipwrecked at Cape Northumberland near Nelson in Victoria on 6th August 1859, only 11 months after hosting George's wedding reception on it's decks. George Tramountanas anglicised his name to George North before his marriage to Lydia Vosper on 26th September 1858, she arrived from Devon, England aboard the Caucasian in 1855. Soon after they moved to Port Lincoln where George found work building and repairing stone fences. In 1861 they are recorded living at GreenPatch, just north of Port Lincoln where their 2 sons George Henry (b:1861) and Hero Clare (b:1862)were born at their homestead. They moved again in 1869, purchasing an 80 acre block on Wine Shanty Road Little Swamp where George grazed sheep. In the mid 1870's George & Lydia purchase Lot: 24 in the new township of Bramfield, where they live with their 2 young sons while George tends to his sheep on his nearby proprties. On the 8th April 1878 George North is naturalised as a British Subject as recorded on his certificate held in the Australian National Archives. George & Lydia host a wedding reception at their North Park property on 4th November 1884 for their first son George Henry and his new wife Eliza Valkema. The Colton Hotel is opened in the same year by neighbours the Kenny family. In 1885 George & Lydia's second son Hero married Rose Ann Boylan, they moved into George & Lydia's old house at Lot: 24 Bramfield. George North was included in a photo in The Chronicle commemorating the occassion of West Coast Pastoralists at Elliston in 1888, to meet with the South Australian Government, to air their grievances about the paltry amounts of money being offered for improvements on their leasehold properties. The 21year leases issued in 1867 were due to expire and the Pastoral Board undertook a review of the rents. The leases were cancelled and resumed by the Crown, subdivided and offered at public auction. Bidding was intense and the Surveyor General noted that valuations were exceeded by up to 8 times. According to A Greek Pioneer in Australia by the late Mrs. Ellen Purcell - George, Lydia, Hero & Rosina bought 3000 acres of the Mt. Wedge sheep station to add to their Bald Hills property (The Block) now totaling 8000 acres. Early in 1886 George & Lydia purchase a property which fronts onto the Old Coach Road, just south-east of Bramfield, they named this property North Park. The mail coach would stop here to change over the horses and get refreshments en-route to Streaky Bay. The Old Coach Rd stretched from Pt. Lincoln to Streaky Bay and passed through places like GreenPatch, Mt Hope, Sheringa & Bramfield. George & Lydia retired and lived their final years with their son Hero & his wife Rosina at their Newland Grange homestead at Colton, South Australia. George North died on 29th January 1911 and his wife Lydia on 20th November 1913, they are both buried in the Old Colton Catholic Cemetery. They were survived by their 2 sons and 22 grandchildren. The Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia looks up to George North (Tramountanas)as their Pioneering Grandfather and they placed a Memorial stone at his gravesite in 1994 and held a Panagiri festival in his honour at Elliston South Australia in 1998, he is mentioned in many publications from the Greek community including: ; ; &