1. Image: sculpture of black stone with water

    14 Pieces

    Recalling the ancient Ichthyosaur, this sculpture invites interaction

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  2. 14 Pieces Fountain- South Australian Museum

    14 Pieces is a sculpture fountain based on the opalised fossilised vertebrae of the Ichthyosaur in the South Australian Museum.

    Historical Thing | By South Australian School for Vision Impaired (SASVI) | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  3. Image: flag with black top, red bottom and large yellow circle in the middle

    Aboriginal flag

    The Aboriginal flag flies high over its birthplace, Tarntanyangga/Victoria Square, a symbol of Aboriginal pride, rights and identity.

    Historical Thing | By Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  4. Image: Inside Adelaide Hospital in 1890

    Adelaide Hospital Row

    A long-running dispute over a senior nursing appointment culminated with a medical officers’ strike and the temporary loss of medical teaching at the Adelaide Hospital

    Historical Subject | By Donald Simpson | 1890s, 1900-1910

  5. August Wilhelm Pelzer plaque on North Terrace

    August Wilhelm Pelzer Plaque

    A plaque to the 'City Gardener' is now obscured in a city garden

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  6. Image: crowds on jetty

    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

  7. Water

    Bill's Fountain- State Library of South Australia

    This fountain is a memorial to William Faulding Scammell, AO, CBE who was Chancellor of Adelaide University from 1991 to 1998.

    Historical Thing | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  8. 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

  9. Bronze sculpture, Catherine Helen Spence by Ieva Porcius, 1986

    Catherine Helen Spence statue

    The powerful sculpture of Catherine Helen Spence in Light Square, Adelaide celebrates the life and work of a formidable South Australian.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Northwest corner | 1850s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1980s

  10. The Kingston Ministry, c1896

    Charles Cameron Kingston Memorial

    A remarkable and feisty South Australian attorney-general and premier, a father of federation and the first Australian Minster for Trade and Customs is commemorated by this statue

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1850s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. Image: stone cross in park land

    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

  15. Image: a man sits cross legged on a chair, holding a newspaper

    Elder Family

    Elder Family of Scots merchants and ship owners saw the infant South Australia as an opportunity to expand their business interests. Alexander Lang Elder (1815–1885), the pioneer, arrived in 1839 and established a trading business. 

    Historical Subject | By Carol Fort | North Terrace | 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s

  16. Image: A group of Caucasian men with film equipment observe a conversation between two other men, one of whom is elderly and dressed in Afghan attire

    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

  17. 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

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

    Germans in South Australia

    Germans have been arriving in South Australia since the beginnings of the new colony in 1836

    Historical Subject | By Migration Museum | 1860s, late nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

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

    Indians in South Australia

    The first known Indian immigrants arrived in South Australia in the late 1830s

    Historical Subject | By Migration Museum | 2000-2010, late twentieth century

  20. Image: John Jefferson Bray Memorial Fountain

    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

  21. 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

  22. Statue of King Edward VII on North Terrace, showing original placement on roadway, 1920

    King Edward VII Memorial

    Creating and installing King Edward VII’s statute took eight months longer than the period of his reign

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s

  23. Knot sculpture

    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

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. Australian Light Horse Memorial, 2010

    Light Horse Memorial

    Remembering South Australian Light Horsemen who served in Egypt and Palestine and at Gallipoli

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton & Bernard O'Neil, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, Boer War, early twenty–first century

  27. Mary Lee, 2013

    Mary Lee bust

    ‘My aim is to leave the world better for women’ – Mary Lee was an activist, suffragist and unionist

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1990s

  28. 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

  29. Black and white image of old museum display showing large wooden plinth with staircase on top.

    Miniature Staircase- Newmarket Hotel

    This scale model of the spiral staircase in the Newmarket Hotel is just 600 millimetres high, but represents months of careful craftwork. It was made by a young man named Walton Banks and exhibited at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition in 1887.

    Historical Thing | By Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910

  30. Image: steel quadrangle-shaped sculpture with rounded edges and a geometric hole in the middle

    Owen Broughton Sculpture

    This Owen Broughton work won the 1976 Rundle Mall sculpture contest alongside Bert Flugelman's Mall's Balls and John Dowie's Girl on a Slide. 

    Historical Thing | By Hannah Stewart, History Trust of South Australia | 1970s, 1980s, 2000-2010

Pages