Mr. John S. PLUSH

Biography - John Saddinton Plush was a sketcher, Artist (Draughtsman), farmer and orchardist, son of Thomas Plush and Frances, née Taylor, and brother of Thomas Hall Plush, was born in England. He came to South Australia in the Somersetshire in 1839 and spent much of his working life at Angaston, at the home of George Fife Angas and his family. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds a water-colour by Plush titled Mount Alexander Gold Diggings from Adelaide Hill (Victoria). This is identical to an extra, seventh, lithograph by George French Angas , George French’s son, in Six Views of the Gold Fields at Ophir (New South Wales). McCulloch suggests that both could have been copied from a photograph by William Friend Bentley , who also painted a similar picture from it. Plush married Emma Radford on 7 June 1844 in the Congregational Chapel, German Pass (now Angaston); they had several daughters and two surviving sons. The happy couple were conveyed from the Church in a cart drawn by the first horse foaled in the new Colony. They made their home in the orchard property John had purchased at Siegersdorf on the Gawler River between Tanunda and Nuriootpa, where he planted an extensive garden of 77 acres, the bulk of which was under fruit trees. He was one of the first in the colony to make wine. John and Emma reared their family of eight daughters and two sons. The sons were named Seaward (7th Child born 1862) and Saddington (10th Child born 1865). The English custom was for the older son to inherit the family property, so Seaward took over the orchard of 75 acres at Siegersdorf and Saddington came to Light Pass when he was aged 24 years and established the first commercial orchard in the Light Pass district. John Saddington Plush died on 24 June 1892 at Light Pass and was buried at Angaston.