A new start...

The Parndana Soldier Settlement Museum collection is a tangible representation of the working and community life of a band of returned servicemen, and their families, whose hard work, dedication and neighbourly co-operation created viable farms and vibrant communities out of virgin scrub on an island off mainland South Australia in the years following the Second World War. The collection provides an amazing insight into the complexities, difficulties and challenges involved in establishing a new rural community in post-Second World War Australia. It’s a great story, still unfolding, and still being gathered together.

The first steps...

The Kangaroo Island War Service Settlement Scheme was a government-led farming development on a large and highly organised scale. From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, around 200,000 acres of virgin Crown Land in the central and western sections of Kangaroo Island, approximately two-thirds of the island, were cleared for sheep and pasture production. The Scheme doubled the island’s population within a few short years and significantly boosted the island’s economy and infrastructure development.

The stories...

The collection focuses on the personal and social history of the returned servicemen who signed up for the War Service Settlement Scheme, with an emphasis on the farming, community and domestic objects, or cultural material, that gave structure, capacity and meaning to their lives. In addition, the Museum’s documentary records reveal how the soldier settlers managed the demanding legislative and bureaucratic requirements and benchmarks imposed on them by the Land Development Executive (Department of Lands), the South Australian government agency which scrutinised their every move as they worked towards gaining war service perpetual leases for their allocated properties.

Extract for the Parndana Soldier Settlement Museum Significance Assessment written by Kate Walsh July 2014

Caterpillar D7 Dozer

Originally brought to the island in 1951, this 1948 Caterpillar D7 Dozer (No. 71) is one of the machines heavily used in the War Service Land Settlement Scheme on Kangaroo Island. It was used for major scrub clearing work by the Lands Department Executive. One of its drivers, D.K. Johnston, operated it for three years, and acting overseer Ken McWhinnie witnessed its arrival at Kingscote wharf.
When the land clearing program ended in 1962, all LDE machinery was auctioned and Ken McWhinnie purchased the dozer. After about 40 years of use, it eventually became non operational and sat on the side of a hill on the McWhinnie farm.
In 2017, Ken and Dianna McWhinnie donated the dozer to the Parndana Museum. After Ken’s passing, the machine was transported to the museum, restored enough to run again, and placed in a purpose built shed funded by the History Trust of SA, KI Council, KI Lions, local business and volunteer support. The shed was officially opened in 2018 by Dianna McWhinnie.