Heritage Sites & Trails

Town History
Lobethal had its beginnings in 1842, just 3 years after settlement and celebrated its sesqui-centenary in 1992. The village was settled by German immigrants. Pastor Gotthard Fritzsche arrived aboard the sailing ship Skjold in October 1841 with 220 or so passengers who joined their countrymen in Hahndorf or Klemzig settlements. The Lutherans, like their countrymen were escaping religious persecution by the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IIl who was ruthless to anyone not conforming to religious reforms. Eighteen families later left Hahndorf and followed Paster Fritzsche to the valley where on May 4th 1842 the village was named Lobethal (Village of Praise) after the Old Testament passage.

Lobethal Village was laid out in the German style Hufendorf settlement pattern, whereby houses along the road were built on a strip of land stretching back behind them so each family could grow fruit and vegetables, have pigs and hens and be self sufficient.

The district prospered and many townsfolk worked around the area. A brewery was built. Hops, grown for breweries in Oakbank and Lobethal, was one of the main local crops.  Lobethal area became productive with apple and pear orchards, potato farms and dairies. At one time cricket bats were manufactured here and a large brick kiln did brisk business. The kiln ruins can be seen a few kilometres out of town on the Lobethal to Gumeracha road.

The German settlers were resourceful and industrious:  “I tell you,’ said Mr Kleinschmidt, (actually what he said was ‘Ich sage Ihnen’, for most of his listeners were not very familiar with English). ‘I tell you, Lobethal needs an industry, a factory.  Our daughters leave us to work in other people’s houses and fields. Sometimes they are a long way from home. There is no work here already for our sons; no work that someone will pay them to do, you know.  Carpenter Kumnick, here, and his brother Brandy have been on a business trip to Hahndorf, and they met two Kramm brothers there.  And the Kramm brothers are good at making cloth, good woollen cloth.  But they need more machines and a proper building. 

'They are working in a little dark hut, made of mud, and their machines are at Port Adelaide at the Customs already.  And the Customs want £80 before they can have their new machines.  And they haven’t got £80 – they haven’t even got £8, I think.’

‘Yes, we saw them,’ said Carpenter Kumnick.  ‘They come from Schwiebus. That’s in Prussia, and there have been weavers in Schwiebus for three hundred years.’

Mr Kleinschmidt ignored the interruption.  ‘We think we can persuade them to come to Lobethal.  There is my brewery, and I have given up making beer.  I have my family working growing hops already now, and there is my brewery building where we could have a factory.  We can buy wool from the farmers, and scour it and dye it and spin it and weave it into cloth, and blankets, to sell all over the colony.  If we can just find £80 to pay the Customs, then the Kramms will come here and it will be good for our valley.  There will be work for everyone, and there will be wages.’

Mr Kleinschmidt was a persuasive man and the residents of the little village respected him.

And so they paid the £80, and that was the beginning of the Onkaparinga Woollen Mills, we have been told.  The story is not far wrong.

Extract from Onkaparinga, Carol Brockhoff, 1992, Chapter 1

One of the fascinating events of Lobethal was the Grand Prix staged in the 1930's / 40's. Drivers  with their 'state of the art' cars came from all over the world.

The course was mapped out through the centre of Lobethal and lined with hay bales or bags of wheat. The course looped around the surrounding countryside. People came from far and wide, lining the course and thrilling at this exciting spectacle.

Many of these wonderful vintage race cars that were ahead of their time, have been preserved.

Historic racing returns to the Adelaide Hills, 2009 marked the 70th Anniversary of the 1939 last and fastest Australian Grand Prix before the War. The exciting Lobethal Grand Carnival on the October long weekend, brought historic racing cars from the era, mostly of the 1938-1948 vintage as well as classic cars and motorcycles. A number of cars that had been in the 1939 race featured in the exciting closed road demonstrations on the original 8.65 mile (14 kilometres) Lobethal Race Circuit. The 1939 winner Alan Thomlinson, now aged 93, waved off a field of more than 100 vehicles. Estimated to be worth more than $60 million, vehicles included Feraris, MGs and two Alfa Romeo Tipo Bs, brought from America. Car enthusiasts have spent hundreds of hours rebuilding priceless racing cars and the circuit is thought to be one of the best in Australia.