Babbage’s Castle (c.1875-1878)

Location

Near the intersection of South Rd and Daws Rd, St Marys, South Australia

Construction Type

Unreinforced mass lime concrete

Background

“The Rosary”, afterwards known as Babbage’s Castle, was begun in 1875 and was still unfinished at the time of Babbage’s death in 1878. It was completed. by his relatives. In early life Mr. Babbage had erected lime-concrete bridges in the Alps and he tried the experiment of building the “Castle” with the same material. Unfortunately he obtained the gravel from creeks and tt contained clay and other objectionable matter. Worse still, magnesia water was used and this killed the qualities of the lime. The structure consequently began to crumble soon after its completion, and was, many years later, shaken badly by an earthquake. The tower, fell in 1906. Mr. Babbage ‘s daughter, Mrs. Clare, left the “Castle” to live at Glenelg in 1896. The property was subsequently acquired by the Adelaide Development Company. By 1936 the building had completely disappeared..

Facts supplied to Mr. J. Ferries by Mrs. F. H. Clare. https://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au:443/record=b2492226~S1
Babbage’s Castle c.1903. Babbage’s Castle, when newly built, was described in the papers as ‘part Arabian nights, part Grimm’s fairytales’. It will soon start falling down due to rampant salt damp caused by its flawed concrete construction. In this view it already shows signs of deterioration. By 1930 it will be a romantic ruin to be demolished by developers. SLSA PRG 631/2/618
The ruins of Babbage’s Castle c. 1920 SLSA B23403

Map

Heritage Listings

None

Current Use

Demolished c.1936

Further Sources

https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/39131348?q=babbage+castle&c=article&versionId=51967737
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-745858705/view?sectionId=nla.obj-746486799&searchTerm=babbage+castle&partId=nla.obj-745912246#page/n12/mode/1up