Angas Recreation Park, Angaston    History of Angaston   Before the coming of European settlers the area was inhabited by the Peramangk  people who were part of the Ngadjuri language group. With the coming of the European settlers from the late 1830s aborigines became dispossed and ravaged by infectious diseases.  The colony of South Australia was assisted in being established by the South Australian Company which had  its beginnings in England. It's chairman at the time was George Fife Angas. Angas sent his agent Chalrles Flaxman to identify opportunites in the colony and he bought 28,000 acres of land in the region on Angas's behalf, this land became known as the Seven Special Surveys.  The area of Angaston & Penrice was first known as German Pass after two German families residing in the area.  Angaston started to grow after GFA's son John Howard Angas came to the area in 1843 to manage his father's interests. One of the first things John, aged 19, did was to arrange the building of the Old Union Chapel. The chapel was opened for all protestant religious denominations on February 28th 1844.  The town grew and was called Angaston after the founder of the colony.                   Penrice in the 1950s   History of Penrice Penrice was established in 1850 and named after an estate near St Austell, Cornwall, England. The founder of the town, Captain Richard Rodda,  was a mining captain for George Fife Angas and helped establish the Church in the town in 1855, it was originally Methodist and still stands as the Salem Lutheran Church,  Once a thriving town in the 1850s when there were many  businesses servicing the trade to the  Victorian goldfields, Rodda established a steam flour mill. There was also Young's Hotel, a butcher shop, bakery and store. The village slowly diminshed in size as Angaston grew. The village still retains a link to  mining with the Penrice Soda Products quarry sending limestone daily to Osborne in Adelaide by the way of a goods train named "Old Stony". This regular train run keeps the prospects open for a commuter and tourist train to return the Barossa Valley.

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