Windback Wednesday - Burnside Inn

The Burnside Inn was the centre of life in original Burnside village – approximately 27 and 29 High Street. The area developed around the Hallett Rivulet (now Second Creek), and in 1863 Caroline Clark and her children opened the Burnside Inn. Caroline’s husband, Francis, had died in 1853, and the family would go on to become significantly involved in South Australian institutions such as the State Children’s Council and The Register newspaper. Henry Warland, landlord of the inn, took over in 1865. Warland ran several other businesses in the area, including a blacksmith shop and passenger coach.

The Inn was an important meeting place for the community, playing host to election meetings and community gatherings. Sporting clubs, councils and coroners held court at the Inn. Travellers on their way to the hills would also stop here. At some point in the 1870s, Warland renamed the Inn to Burnside Hotel. It was owned for a time by the Edmeades and Co. Brewing Company, who constructed a hotel at 33 High Street in 1883 and also called it the Burnside Hotel.

Burnside Inn remained as a small single storied building marking the centre of the original Burnside Village, until about 1909 when it was closed as part of a large wave of restructuring of liquor licences, reflecting public opinion on public consumption of alcohol.

Burnside Inn circa 1873. State Library of SA B4723