This cottage was on land that was part of Lot 11 originally granted to Edward Moore in 1840 as part of the township of Willunga located on Sections 258 and 268.
This later became part of the Irish Quarter of Willunga. On the basis of an application (Application 14640) in 1876, Irishman Michael Lahiff obtained a Certificate of Title in order to obtain a mortgage on Lots 11, 12 and 21 (CT 218/203 Lots 11, 12 and 21). The cottage at 26 St Peters Terrace was an example of Cob construction (an ancient construction method using subsoil or clay, straw and small stones common in parts of Ireland) with brick chimneys and a slate roof. This cottage at 26 St Peters Terrace was probably built before 1876 possibly as early as the 1850s.
From 1876 Matthew Mutagh paid rates on the cottage and in 1878 he purchased the property. Murtagh was a labourer who had been in the colony since 1866 and his wife Bridget and five daughters had arrived in South Australia in 1875. The cottage passed to Matthew’s widow when he died in 1892 and she lived there until her death in 1911. Then the O’Reilly family owned the cottage from 1915 until 1958.
There are no known photographs of this cottage but the Willunga National Trust is fortunate to have three drawings or paintings of the cottage all of which date to the 1990s and early 2000s when the cottage was deteriorating –
A pen and ink drawing by Roe Gartelmann dated about 1995
A watercolour by Linnell Aldridge dated 1999
An oil on board by Dawn Bernice Tapfield dated after 2000
The cottage was demolished some years ago and replaced with a modern house.
