South Australian Weekly Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1881 - 1889)117362

DEATH OF CAPTAIN KILLICOAT.
Burra, January 18.
Captain Isaac Killicoat, of Alberton Park,
Burra, died this evening at his residence from
the effects of diarrhoea accelerated by the hot
weather and old age. His age was seventy
seven years. He arrived in the colony in
1849, and has thus been a colonist of thirty
seven years. During the whole of this time he
has been connected with the English and
Australian Copper Company, and he was a valued
officer. He was also a prominent member of
the Midland Road Board, and took a prominent
part in all that appertained to the welfare
of the district. The deceased was highly
respected.

Burra Record (SA : 1878 - 1954) Fri 22 Jan 1886117361

Captain Killicoat.
Isaac Killicoat, Esq., J.P., of Abberton
Park, whose death has been already notified in
this paper and whose funeral (one of the largest
on record), took place at the Kooringa Cemetery
on the 21st inst, was born at Perranwell, a
village in Cornwall about five miles south of
Truro, on December the 3rd, 1809 ; he will,
therefore have just passed his 76th birthday.
Up to within a short period of his decease he had
been in robust health, and was a fine specimen
of the race produced in that most westerly
district of the mother country. From his
youth he was engaged in mining pursuits, and
as in his young days the free, secular and
compulsory education of the present day was not
in existence, the attendance at a night school,
after a hard day's labor, furnished the only
means by which an ambitious boy of that stamp
could obtain an insight into the three R's. He
adopted this means of rising in the social scale
with an unwearied persistence, and thus early
in life shadowed forth the untiring energy
which was always a strong point in his character.
At the early age of 19 he was selected to
superintend operations where nearly 500 hands
were employed, and for a period of 19 years
previous to his emigrating to South Australia,
he was Surface Captain to the Tresavean
Copper Mine, Gwennap, Cornwall, one of the
most ancient and largest copper mines in
England, and the second mine in the world to
introduce what is technically termed the "man
engine" or lift, to enable miners to descend to
great depths without the old cumbrous way of
walking up and down. During the whole of
this period he walked five miles back and forth
(as a Cornishman would say), or 10 miles a
day. He was engaged in 1848 by John
Schneider & Co., (afterwards the Patent
Copper Company), to come to Burra and
superintend the purchase of ore from the
South Australian Mining Association and
others, on behalf of the Smelting Co. This
he continued to do until the cessation of working
the Burra Mine, about eight years since.
He also made purchases of land on his own
account from time to time, in the neighbourhood
of Burra, and cultivated wheat and hay
to some extent for a considerable period,
but having leased Government land at a
distance eastward, he has latterly confined his
operations to sheepfarming, making the
purchased land a depot and shearing-place. He
named his house and home property "Abberton
Park," after the name of the vessel in which
he arrived here.
At this place, by means of irrigation with
water raised by a windmill and pipes carried to
a cemented tank above the level of the garden,
fruit trees of various descriptions, but more
particularly oranges and lemons, are grown to
great perfection, and this so far inland as
Burra, although it is generally supposed that
proximity to the sea is a necessity for their
successful cultivation.
The subject of this sketch has always taken
an active part in public matters, more
particularly in anything tending to the
development of what may be termed the lower North
country. He took great interest in the formation
of the Burra railway, and was present
at its inauguration. It is a mistake to say that
he, on several occasions, unsuccessfully
contested the Burra District as a candidate for the
House of Assembly ; he never came forward
in that capacity, although earnestly solicited on
many occasions to do so. He was, on one
occasion, induced to try for the Legislative
Council, when the whole of the colony was
one constituency, and in this he was
unsuccessful.
He was appointed a member of the first
Burra District Council, and was elected
Chairman thereof, which position he continued
to fill for a number of years. He also was
elected (at the head of the poll) for the first
Midland Road Board, and has continued to
occupy the same post until his decease. It
will be admitted by every one cognisant with
the facts that no one man has done more for
the establishment of good roads, bridges, and
other means of internal communication for the
Burra District than the deceased, and the void
in that respect will not be easily filled.
The deceased was considered an expert in
mining matters, and his opinion and judgement
was constantly brought into requisition. He
has made two trips to New Caledonia to
confer with the owners of the far-famed Ballade
copper mine and the Monte D'Or (nickel).
He has also visited the Cobar copper mines in
New South Wales, and mines in New Zealand.
The last set of furnaces at Newcastle, N.S.W.,
belonging to the E. and A. C. Company, were
also designed and started under his
superintendence. In addition to this he has been
frequently consulted by owners of mines on the
Peninsula and other parts of the colony as to
their prospects.
Some inconsistent paragraphs have gone the
round of the papers as to his religious tenets.
Although not a bigot, he was a consistent
member of the Church of England, and one of
the trustees of S. Mary's, Burra. He has
on several occasion's aided by his influence
and purse the various churches of other
denominations in Burra. He has been
thrice married, his last wife still surviving.
His eldest son has been dead for some years,
but there are two sons and three daughters
still living; also twenty-two grandchildren.
He was taken ill only about eight days before
his death, but the extreme heat of the weather
prevented him from overcoming the combined
effects of age and illness.