William Richard Randell "Captain Randell" (2? 27? May 1824 – 4 March 1911), was an Australian politician and pioneer born in Devon, England, who emigrated to the newly-founded colony of South Australia in 1837 with his family. He was a pioneer of the riverboat industry on the River Murray and represented the Electoral district of Gumeracha in the South Australian House of Assembly between 1893-1899.
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Born the eldest son of William Beavis Randell (1799 – 1876), a miller of Sidbury, Devon, and Mary Ann Elliott Randell (née Beare) (1799 – 22 December 1872), William was educated in Exeter. The family emigrated to Adelaide in 1837 on the "Hartley", probably on the recommendation of family friend George Fife Angas,[1] arriving at Holdfast Bay on 20 October 1837. His father was appointed as Stock Manager for the South Australian Company, and was to have overseen erection and operation of its steam-driven flour mill, but though the mill machinery and building materials arrived shortly after the "Hartley", it was stranded on Kangaroo Island and did not arrive on the mainland for some time. The family first lived in a large tent rented from Robert Gouger then in 1839 moved into "Park Cottage"[2] of 11 rooms on the banks of the Torrens, (demolished ca. 1970) on section 256, the site of the present Adelaide Caravan Park.[3] The mill (1842 – 1872) was built where Hackney Hotel is now. In 1840 W. B. Randell purchased 566 acres as a "Special Survey", then another tranche, totalling 966 acres which he called "Kenton Park" (probably named for Kenton, Devon). He completed a home in 1844, and "Kenton Mill" which commenced operation in 1848,[4] with William Richard Randell its first manager. In 1852 he laid out the town of Gumeracha above the flood level of Kenton Creek.[3]
William Beavis Randell (originally "Randle"[3]) m. Mary Ann Elliott Beare (or Bear[3]) (1799 – 1872). They had 9 children:
William Beavis Randell m. Phebe Robbins (1838 – 1922)
As well as his mill management duties, William Randell assisted his father and brothers with their vast property which stretched from present-day Gumeracha to the River Murray. His duties often involved droving cattle to the banks of the lower Murray, and dreamt of steam-boats being able to transport produce between South Australia and the neighbouring colony of Victoria. At the time South Australia was struggling to retain its population due to emigration to the Victorian goldfields.
In 1852, with no experience in the steamboat construction, Randell commissioned local carpenters to build the frame of a 55-foot-long (17 m), 9-foot beam (2.7 m) paddlewheel boat of shallow draught, capacity 20 ton in Gumeracha. It was dismantled, taken by bullock cart across the plains to Reedy Creek Station and the Noa No landing about 2 miles north of the present Mannum. There it was rebuilt, clad in local redgum. Named the Mary Ann, after his mother, the steamer featured a 10-inch bore (250 mm) cylinder beam-engine delivering 8 horsepower, made by a German engineer from Adelaide, Carl Gehlkin. The boiler was an unsatisfactory rectangular affair built by the Randells' blacksmith.[5] Its first trip, of 24 miles, was made on 19 February 1853.[6] On 4 March she arrived at Goolwa for her first official voyage and received in grand style by the lieutenant-governor Sir Henry Young and hundreds of others. He set off on the return trip that afternoon.[7] On 25 March 1853 he had navigated to Penn's Reach, a few miles north of Morgan, when low water levels forced him to return. The following year he reached Swan Hill, 1000 miles (1600 km) from the sea at Goolwa. Later that year Captain Cadell won the Government's £2000 prize for the first practicable cargo boat Lady Augusta[8] (The £2000 was soon raised to £4000 on Cadell's agreement to build another boat. By the terms of the contest, the "Mary Ann" was never a contender for the prize.[1])
The Mary Ann was later rebuilt as one half of a two-hulled vessel named Gemini.[9]
Randell abandoned Noa No as too subject to flooding and built a small "pug and pine" cottage, the start of the town of Mannum, and a dry-dock.
His second boat, the twin-hulled single paddle-wheel "Gemini", despite its small size and ungainly appearance, managed some feats of navigation into New South Wales. She reached Lang's Crossing (where Hay stands now), then Brewarrina in 1859, and on another occasion as far as Walgett.[1][10]
Randell built many more steamers: "Bogan", "Bunyip" (destroyed by fire in 1863, along with its barges), "Ariel", "Nil Desperandum", "Corowa", "Waragery", "Tyro", and "Ruby".[1] Wentworth, New South Wales was Randell's base for two decades until the 1870s, as he supervised the expansion of his fleet and the burgeoning of trade on the Murray-Darling.
He built a residence "Bleak House", a floating dock, wharf and warehouse at Mannum. At its peak around 1860, there would be 20,000 bales of wool unloaded at Mannum and driven by horse teams to Port Adelaide.[1]
He served as a Justice of the Peace from 1861 in New South Wales, and from 1873 in South Australia. With the death of his father in 1876, Randell returned to Gumeracha and had little more to do with the river trade.[1]
Randell represented Gumeracha in the House of Assembly from 1893 to 1899; while the oldest member of the house he regularly made the trip between his constituency and Parliament House in Adelaide.
Randell moved to North Adelaide in 1910 and died on 4 March 1911. He was survived by five sons and four daughters.
William Randell married Elizabeth Ann "Annie" Nickels (1835 – 16?17? October 1924) on 24 December 1853.[11]