On Monday, Year 4 became Year 5s for the day and joined current Year 5 s in Upper School. They enjoyed a themed day learning about Explorers. Two of the explorers they found out about were John Ainsworth Horrocks, from Preston, and Alfred Wainwright from Blackburn.

 John Ainsworth Horrocks was an English farmer and explorer who was one of the first European settlers in the Clare Valley of South Australia. In 1840, he created the village of Penwortham in Australia, named after Penwortham Lodge in Preston, where he was born.

John travelled to Australia with his family because his father’s work involved setting up towns in South Australia. John and his brother Eustace began to farm some land in the Clare Valley. They were some of the first Europeans to do this in this area.

John planted the first vineyard in Australia’s Clare Valley and he built up a flock of 9000 sheep. He went on expeditions into the outback of Australia. He realised that if he used camels to explore the outback, he could travel further since they were used to desert conditions and could carry lots of equipment. John had a camel called Harry, who was the first camel in Australia. 

John was on an expedition to the north western part of Southern Australia trying to find good farming land when tragedy happened. Sadly, Harry jolted John as he loaded his gun and it fired. The explorer lost two fingers and a row of teeth, dying of infection 23 days later. John was killed by his camel!
 

The children made board games based on his travels in Australia which were great fun to play!