Williamstown is a small South Australian town on the southern fringe of the Barossa Valley wine-growing region. It is 51 km north east of Adelaide and 16 km south-east of Gawler. Williamstown was originally known as Victoria Creek. The township was laid out in 1858 by Lewis Johnston, or Johnstone, on land he purchased in 1857, and named for his son. Williamstown has an elevation of 310 m and an average rainfall of 680 mm. It has a summer average temperature of 31 °C with temperatures often reaching the mid 40s, and a winter average temperature of 15 °C, with nights dropping below freezing, which makes the region excellent for the cultivation of fruits, especially grapes in the lower riverine alluvial deposits. History Williamstown was essentially a farming area with sheep and cattle in the early days with fruit orchards, mixed farms and vines. Williamstown also sustained a forestry and lumber industry from the earliest days with three sawmills. Today only a small family-owned timber sawmill and Cooperage remains with the closure of the two larger mills by 1990. Many local residents work in the wine / viticulture industry throughout the Barossa Valley. In the Australian Federation Year (1901) a local hay barn found along Yettie Road (formerly Yatta Creek Road) inhabited only by ducks and pigeons was discovered to be the remains of the alleged oldest slab and stone homestead in South Australia (circa 1841) which has been carefully restored to its former glory. Springfield Homestead, along Springton Road, was originally the home of local land baron pastoralist, BJ MacLachlan, who was a contemporary of the more famous Australian pastoral entrepreneurs and cattle barons such as Kidman. His great-great-grandchildren still live at the historic Homestead. They operate one of the largest stations in Australia at Commonwealth Hill. The nearby South Para Reservoir was built in the early 1950s to help supply Adelaide with its demanding domestic water supplies, supplementing the earlier Warren Reservoir and Barossa Reservoir. The curved dam retaining wall at the Barossa Reservoir, known as the Whispering Wall because of its acoustic properties, is a tourist attraction. The Barossa Goldfields, scene of a gold rush in 1868 (as well as some smaller rushes later), lie to the west of the Barossa Reservoir. A handful of 'boutique' tourist gold mining operation were started around 1985 near Sandy Creek and the Barossa Goldfields. Williamstown is considered to be a