In October 1860 John Bury and Thomas Tolley Jones purchased part of Section 241 from Duncan Stewart and built a small building on the Aldinga Road between Willunga and Aldinga (which was the main road through at that time) and it was used as a general store.
In 1864 the brothers Henry Able Goode and William Goode, Storekeepers, purchased the business and continued to run a drapers and general store for more than 20 years. They built the grand two-storey building – (that we see in the photograph – similar to the 2 storey store they built in Willunga – now the “Dining Room of the Middle Pub”) The Goode brothers had several stores– one in Yankalilla, Willunga and Port Pirie. All were very successful stores. They leased the business to several different people but the building remained in the Goode family until 1914.
Frank Aldam purchased the property in 1914 and sold to Amy Agnes Pethick (Walter Pethick’s widow) in 1921. She set up and ran a hospital for nursing mothers called “Lowaldie”. She ran it until 1940 and the number of babies delivered ranged from 4 in a year up to 20 one year (1923) but averaged between 6-10 babies per year. Women would come from as far away as Reynella and were confined to bed for 10 days after the birth. They stayed for about 2 weeks. Nearly a whole generation of local people were born here.
The property was sold in 1945 to Frederick Stanfield, a farmer, and he was responsible for removing the second storey of the building – most probably because it was structurally unsound. The building has been privately owned since and has included the families of the Greenhams (1961), Bristows (1975), Topleys (1986) and Livseys (2009).
The building is on the City of Onkaparinga’s local heritage list (#5556).
