Mount Breckan

In late nineteenth century South Australia, several prosperous pastoralists built stately summer residences around the state. One of these was the mansion on a hill overlooking Victor Harbor built for Alexander Hay and his family. It was designed by the architect William McMinn. Many of the elite of Adelaide summered with the Hay family, including governors, the Chief Justice (Samuel Way) and visiting dignitaries. Thirty years later in 1909, the house was accidentally set alight by a workman, and a few months later Mrs Hay and her youngest daughter disappeared at sea aboard the steamer Waratah. Mount Breckan was rebuilt as an exclusive guest house, with visitors including Lady Astor.

The water colour is a late work by William Anderson Cawthorne, painted during a holiday on the south coast. Cawthorne was a multi-talented individual. A piano teacher, he opened a school in Victoria Square in 1862, and gained an intimate knowledge of the Aboriginal people and their customs. He also produced South Australia's first children's book, Who killed cockatoo?

Cawthorne held an exhibition of his early paintings in 1855. The Library holds a handful of Cawthorne's later works, including views of the south coast and Port Lincoln.

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