Carrick Hill is a cultural and heritage icon, known for its historical significance. The heritage value of the site as a whole is a complex fabric of social history, family lore, land stewardship, a passion for horticulture, and a gift for doing business, all woven together. Find out more about the unique couple at the heart of it all...
At the centre of the story are Ursula and Bill Hayward, the glamour of their extraordinarily wealthy lifestyle, their patronage of artists, and their love of exuberant public and private events. ‘Heiress Marries Shopkeeper’ was the way an Adelaide newspaper at the time reported their marriage in February 1935. The couple had a powerful and enduring impact on life in Adelaide.
This set the tone for their marriage and was first expressed in the plans they had for creating their home in the foothills at Springfield. They took no notice of the conventions of behaviour and taste in conservative Adelaide. Both had travelled extensively before their marriage and brought sophistication to the style of their home and the hospitality they provided for their house guests and visitors.
Ursula was a patron to many local, national and international young artists and Bill, more entrepreneurial in temperament, was a businessman and champion of popular culture. His department store John Martin’s was highly successful. The store ran a Contemporary Art Gallery where objects chosen by the Haywards on their travels abroad were displayed as part of the shopping experience.
Bill was responsible for bringing the Beatles and Coca Cola to Adelaide, and he introduced such popular Adelaide institutions as the Christmas Pageant, inspired by New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The couple was reputedly well loved for their generosity and their ability to bring people together, to create a strong community spirit and to build the identity of Adelaide through their various activities.
Books, art, travel and motoring were the great pastimes that Bill and Ursula enjoyed together. Bill also played polo, bred Poll Hereford cattle and was a practical philanthropist running the St John’s Ambulance service from his office at John Martin's. Ursula was the first female trustee of a public art gallery when she joined the Board of the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1953. Bill was also a founding Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1960 - the first festival of this kind in Australia.
The Haywards used their home to entertain a circle of friends comprising artists, musicians, actors, writers and eccentrics of all kinds either at cocktail or dinner parties or as house guests for the weekend. The cavalcade of visitors reads like a who’s who including: Sir Kenneth Clark, Robert Helpmann, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Quail, Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Judith Anderson, Googie Withers and Barry Humphries.
