Adelaide: Supplement to the Australasian Sketcher. Courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B1452

The ‘bird’s eye’ view of Adelaide reproduced in a supplement to the Australasian Sketcher on 10 July 1875 was created by South Australian artist Thomas Peirce. Peirce used an oblique pictorial drawing technique to give a three dimensional impression to his detailed portrayal of the city. 

The Australasian Sketcher (1873-1889) was an early illustrated Victorian newspaper, based in Melbourne. It was published by Hugh George for Wilson and McKinnon of the Melbourne Argus. From 26 December 1874, the Illustrated Adelaide Post, founded by Adelaide artist and educator William Anderson Cawthorne, was incorporated into the Sketcher. 

The inclusion of the view of Adelaide and other material relating to South Australia in the Sketcher reflects Cawthorne’s keen interest in colonial life and the local Kaurna people. William Cawthorne went on to found the monthly Illustrated Adelaide Post, South Australia’s first fully illustrated newspaper, in 1867.