Goyder Region

Distinguished and Famous people from Goyder Region

📷 Sir Hubert Wilkins

Hubert Wilkins was born on his family’s farm at Mount Bryan East in 1888. Drought and difficult conditions formed part of his childhood before the family moved to Adelaide, where he began an electrical engineering apprenticeship. Photography and moving pictures then opened another path, leading into a remarkable career involving war photography, aviation and polar exploration. The preserved family homestead anchors that wider story in the Goyder district. His beginnings were rural and practical, well before the cameras, aircraft and expeditions that brought international recognition.

⚙️ Essington Lewis

Essington Lewis was born at Burra in 1881 and trained as a mining engineer before beginning his career with BHP. He became the company’s general manager in 1921 and looked overseas for ways to improve mining and steel production. Carrying notebooks on his travels, he collected ideas as methodically as other travellers might collect souvenirs. During the Second World War he directed munitions production, coordinating resources and factories making weapons, vehicles and equipment. He later returned to BHP and became its chairman. The scale of those national responsibilities grew from a working life grounded in engineering, organisation and close attention to how things were made.

🌾 Sir Condor Laucke

Sir Condor Laucke became general manager of the family milling business as it expanded to include a mill at Eudunda. He remained a director during his later parliamentary career, serving first in South Australia’s House of Assembly and then in the Senate. As Senate president he was regarded as firm and balanced despite some initial doubts about his appointment. He later became South Australia’s lieutenant governor. The Eudunda connection is an industrial and managerial one, through a grain-processing business that continued alongside his public duties, rather than a claim that he made his home in the town.