Poet Adam Lindsay Gordon's Dingley Dell cottage awaits glamping decision
South Australia's National Parks and Wildlife Service is set to reveal its plans next month for the Dingley Dell Conservation Park, in which Adam Lindsay Gordon's house sits.
Gordon was born in England in 1833, moved to Australia in 1853 and bought Dingley Dell, near Port MacDonnell, in the state's far south-east, in 1862.
His poems that romanticised the Australian bush and particularly horse racing were first published locally in 1864.
His most well-known work, Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, was published in 1870, just a day before he died in Melbourne.
He is the only Australian poet to have a bust at Poets' Corner in London's Westminster Abbey.
Apart from a few open days, the Dingley Dell cottage has mostly been closed to the public since the operators gave up their lease in 2020.
In 2021, amid a push to find more innovative uses for parks during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephen Moignard was given $233,000 by the previous state government to set up 20 glamping tents within the 6-hectare Dingley Dell park.
Mr Moignard's company Davnet brought high-speed internet to Australia before failing in 2001.
He has also run several other internet-based businesses and now owns the Coonawarra Bush Holiday Park, which also offers glamping in the South East.
Work on Mr Moignard's project was delayed while a new park management plan was being developed.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service said last year it would be completed by the end of 2024, but has since said it should be released in June.
The Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee held an open day at Dingley Dell on Saturday.
Treasurer Lorraine Day said she wanted the cottage to be open more often.
"We hope so but we need to attract the right person with the right interest to … carry the cottage forward with what it should be," she said.
She was sceptical of Mr Moignard's plan.
Asked if she approved of the proposal, she said, "Not particularly, no".
Mr Moignard told the ABC he was frustrated by the time the National Parks and Wildlife Service had taken to develop the plan and allow his operation to start.
"But we're inching forward with it now," he said.
The service's manager on the Limestone Coast, Nick McIntyre, said he was still trying to make everyone happy after last year's consultation.
"There were some community interests which were made known to us through that process and then of course it becomes a matter of trying to join and relate and work through those various issues that are raised to work out what best sits within the plan and what doesn't fit within the plan and just trying to get a good match of some of the aspirations for the site," he said.
The previous plan for the park was approved in 1994.
It noted that attendance was low.
Mr McIntyre said open days worked better than regular opening hours to entice visitors interested in Gordon's life and poetry.
"Not only does it build an awareness of the history and the heritage associated with Dingley Dell, it keeps the memory and the spirit of Adam Lindsay Gordon alive," he said.
"It also is probably a pretty good use of time, as well, because you're getting quite a number of people making the most of the opportunity to attend due to the advertising."
About 70 people attended Saturday's open day.
Peter O'Rourke visited from Mount Lonarch, near Ararat, in Victoria.
He said the cottage and the garden gave a real feel of what it would have been like when Gordon lived at the cottage.
"I think that something like glamping or similar development would really spoil it," Mr O'Rourke said.
Angela Goode, from Mount Gambier, has written a film script about Gordon.
She said his poetry was popular at the time but now was "past its used-by date" .
She said his life as an "eccentric toff" who became a police officer in South Australia and then later a politician and horseman was more interesting.
"He was a very strange muddled mix of many different qualities and I think an enigmatic character that perhaps we could learn something from or admire or feel sorry for," she said.
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