94 Australian Country HOMES
B
y her own reckoning,
Rosemary Howe is on her
third incarnation. Born
and raised in the farming
service centre of Cummins on South
Australia’s Eyre Peninsula her family
moved to Adelaide to better the
children’s educational opportunities.
“I went into hairdressing straight
out of school and worked at that
for 20 years,” she explains. “During
that time I also lived and worked
in England where I met my former
husband and had two sons. Then I
returned to Australia and moved into
interior design, which I have practised
for the past 25 years. But now I am in
transition again.”
More recently, Rosemary reinvented
herself into yet another creative and
people-based career as the proprietor of
a B&B and cafe in the historic gateway
village to the Clare Valley. “I fi rst came
to Auburn through a decorating client,”
she recalls. “I bought my house four
years ago and since then have divided
my time between Adelaide, where my
mother still lives, and here. Then 18
months ago, the opportunity came up
to take over a commercial premises
in an old stone cottage and I was up
for the challenge. So I took over a cafe
what was once in Auburn’s general
store and also a B&B in an adjacent
building and its stables out the back.”
Auburn was established in themid-1800s as a service town for
people travelling to the copper mines
at Burra to the north. In 1849, the
mine superintendent Thomas Henry
Williams received a land grant on the
site of present-day village, which he
subdivided and sold in lots to create
a stopover for bullock teams on their
way from the mine to Port Wakefi eld
at the apex of St Vincent Gulf. Among
the earliest buildings in the fl edgling
town was the Rising Sun hotel, which
dispenses hospitality today. Many of
Auburn’s buildings are constructed from
stone from a quarry just out of town.
A number of them are listed by the
National Trust and visitors to Auburn
today can learn about their history by
visiting the museum in the former
Auburn Police Station. Another famous
local is poet C. J. Dennis, who was born
These pages: Rosemary’s move to Auburn ushered in a career change to hospitality with a cafe and B&B. in Auburn in 1876 and earned popular ›