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Image: Archaeological excavation, Queen’s Theatre

Archaeology

Although originating with scientists and untrained laymen, archaeology has a distinguished record in South Australia.

Historical Subject | By DJ Mulvaney | 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

Auditor-General

Independent auditing of Government is established in the position of the colonies first auditor general

Historical Subject | By Brendan Moran | 1830s, 1840s, 1930s

Beaches

With their carnivals and regattas, bathing-beauty competitions, amusements, sea and sand, beaches were one of the key gathering places for South Australians from the 1870s to the 1950s.

Historical Subject | By Marie Boland | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

Image: stone statue of man with hand up to shade his eyes while gazing out

Captain Charles Sturt Memorial

Leaning forward and shielding his eyes from the sun, this bronze figure of Sturt looks over Victoria Square, not the land he explored

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1910s

Image: View of Victoria Square showing motorcars, a motorbike rider and the electric trams navigating the flooded streets through Victoria Square in 1925

Climate

Climate was and still is an important factor in how and where South Australia first settled.

Historical Subject | By Peter Schwerdtfeger | 1800-1810, 1830s

Colonel Light statue

Colonel William Light’s statue on Montefiore Hill pointing towards the centre of Adelaide has come to symbolise the city that Light laid out.

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1930s, early twenty–first century

Colonel Light Survey Marker

Colonel William Light’s survey marker from 1837 is to be incorporated in the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1830s, 1920s

Image: The memorial to Colonel Light without its spire

Colonel William Light Grave and Monument

Colonel William Light’s grave remains in Light Square, while Light's Monument there has been replaced and embellished over time

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Northwest corner | 1830s, 1840s, 1870s, 1890s, 1900-1910

Colonial Laws Validity Act

The powers of colonial legislatures to create courts, alter local constitutions and authenticate laws were confirmed by the British statute.

Historical Subject | By Peter Moore | 1860s, 1930s

Dardanelles Memorial

The first Anzac memorial was once an obelisk in a grove of wattles

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Parklands | 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1960s, 2000-2010, 2010s, First World War

Film

In October 1896, within one year of the Lumière brothers’ first public screening of film in Paris, the first public film screening in South Australia occurred at the Theatre Royal in Hindley Street

Historical Subject | By Dylan Walker | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

Image: A tall gum tree stands near the bank of a river, which is visible in the distant background. The trunk of the tree is adorned with several small signs showing the year in which a major flood occurred and its water level height

Floods

Paradoxically, the only parts of South Australia to experience occasional serious disruption of by flooding are the far distant sparsely populated deserts around Lake Eyre

Historical Subject | By CR Twidale, University of Adelaide | River Torrens | 1840s, 1860s, 1870s, 1890s, 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, 2010s

Freemasonry

The first South Australian Freemasons lodge formed in England, before the colony of South Australia was settled.

Historical Subject | By David Hilliard | North Terrace | 1830s, 1840s, early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

Hawker Vans

There is evidence that hawkers were active in Australia as early as the 1820s.

Historical Subject | By Michelle Toft, National Motor Museum | 1820s, 1830s, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

John Jefferson Bray Memorial Fountain

The John Jefferson Bray Memorial Fountain commemorates the life of a senior judge, scholar and poet

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Southeast corner | 1910s, 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1990s

Statue of John McDouall Stuart, unveiled 4 June 1904

John McDouall Stuart statue

The statue of inland explorer John McDouall Stuart at the corner of Victoria Square and Flinders Street, Adelaide, commemorates his place in Australian history

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton and Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1960s

Image: bronze plaque with logos and text

Jubilee 150 Plaques

An eclectic selection of significant contributors to South Australia to 1986

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton & Bernard O'Neil, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1830s, 1980s

Knot

The shining steel and simple form of Knot typifies the work of sculptor Herbert (Bert) Flugelman.

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

Image: stone fountain shaped like bathtub in front of stone buildings

Lavington Bonython fountain

Affectionately known as the ‘Bonython bath’, this fountain stood outside the South Australian Museum from 1965 to 2005

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1870s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1930s, 1960s

Image: Seven bewigged and robed supreme court judges, seated and posing for photograph, 1915

Legal Profession

The evolving profession in South Australia retained some centuries-old practices.

Historical Subject | By Peter Moore | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1980s

Blue background with yellow green and blue blow and dashed lines spiraling across the blue.

Lithuanians in South Australia

Lithuanian migrants came to South Australia as early as the 1840s, numbers expanded significantly following the Second World War.

Historical Subject | By Migration Museum | 1840s, 1930s, mid twentieth century

Image: sculpture of standing man in nineteenth century costume

Matthew Flinders Memorial

A statue to honour Matthew Flinders, the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia, was a long time coming in Adelaide

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1790s, 1800-1810, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1930s

Image: a long, narrow tourist boat with a canvas roof is moored at a concrete dock with a metal railing.

Popeye

'Popeye the Sailor' was a popular cartoon at the cinema in the 1930s when Gordon Watts introduced a tourist pleasure craft on the River Torrens

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | River Torrens | 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010

Image: protesters on King William Street

Radicalism has been inherent in South Australian history from its founding as a free settlement. Based upon the English radical liberal thought of its founders, the State's reputation grew as a progressive colony and the first to entirely separate church from state.

Historical Subject | By Brendan Moran | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s