Francis Fenden

Francis Fenden started the first citrus farm in Salisbury

Francis Fenden was born in England in about 1810 and arrived in South Australia in approximately 1837. He owned the Glenelg Hotel. He was also in a partnership with Francis Hemming building barges. Francis owned land near Adelaide and at Port Lincoln. From 1849 he bought land around Salisbury and Munno Para West. In the 1860s he built his home named Fenden Grove and started to farm the land on both sides of the Little Para River. Fenden Grove was located near where Jenkins Reserve and Fenden Road in Salisbury is located today. Francis is credited with starting the commercial growing of citrus in Salisbury. He experimented with several varieties of oranges as well as other citrus fruits. He also grew grapevines in between the rows of oranges and made his own wine. In 1856 Francis married Sarah Jenkins the widow of William Jenkins. They had no children but she had a son named William Richard, from her previous marriage. When he died his nine step-grandsons, the sons of William Jenkins, inherited his property in equal Shares. Several of them purchased land along the river and became citrus growers themselves, so the name Jenkins then became associated with Salisbury’s citrus industry.