1. Image: A small group of people stand within the smouldering remains of a building. Charred wooden uprights and collapsed corrugated metal sheeting are all that remains of the structure

    'Great Fires' of Port Adelaide

    Port Adelaide has been ravaged by fire several times in its history, but three blazes in particular, in 1847, 1857 and 1885, were particularly devastating and are known as the Port's 'Great Fires'

    Historical Subject | By James Hunter, History Trust of South Australia | 1840s, 1850s, 1880s

  2. Taking Caudle, (baby, midwifery), Richard Dagley caricature, 1821.

    19th Century Childbirth

    When men and women married in the 1830s they generally assumed that children would follow promptly and regularly. 

    Historical Subject | By Margaret Anderson, History Trust of South Australia | early nineteenth century, late nineteenth century, mid nineteenth century

  3. Image: group of stone buildings in outback

    Aboriginal Land Rights

    The 1834 British statute authorising the establishment of the colony of South Australia described the region as ‘waste and unoccupied’, making no mention of the Indigenous owners of the land.

    Historical Subject | By Robert Foster | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  4. Aboriginal Missions

    Christianity was first introduced to the Kaurna of the Adelaide plains by two German Lutheran missionaries, Clamor Schürmann and Christian Teichelmann, who arrived in South Australia in 1838.

    Historical Subject | By Peggy Brock | 1970s, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  5. Aboriginal Policy and Administration

    South Australia’s Foundation Act, passed by the British parliament in 1834, made no reference to the Aboriginal peoples who owned and occupied the land that was being annexed from the other side of the world.

    Historical Subject | By Robert Foster | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  6. Image: Group of men standing in front of corrugated iron building

    Aboriginal Ration Depots

    The distribution of government rations to Aboriginal people, begun in the earliest days of European settlement, continued well into the twentieth century. 

    Historical Subject | By Robert Foster | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  7. Aborigines Protection Board

    The South Australian Aborigines Act Amendment Act (1939) established a board ‘charged with the duty of controlling and promoting the welfare’ of Aboriginal people. 

    Historical Organisation | By Margaret Macilwain | late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century

  8. Image: A group of men in Edwardian attire pose for a photograph. One of the men is wearing a large mayoral collar

    Adelaide City Council

    The Adelaide City Council has a history spanning over 170 years of service to its citizens.

    Historical Organisation | By Corinne Ball, Migration Museum | 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  9. Image: paper tag printed with red background and steamship funnel

    Adelaide Steamship Company

    The Adelaide Steamship Company was Australia’s largest shipping company and one of South Australia’s most successful business ventures.

    Historical Organisation | By Lindl Lawton, South Australian Maritime Museum | 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, early twentieth century, late twentieth century, mid twentieth century

  10. Adelaide Theosophical Society

    Aimed at reviving ‘ancient wisdom’ as an antidote to modern materialism and promoting universal brotherhood, the Theosophical Society (TS) was founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott in New York in 1875. It gained a foothold in South Australia on 26 May 1891 when, during a lecture tour, Olcott and seven ‘truth-seekers’ from the professional classes established Adelaide lodge. 

    Historical Organisation | By Jill Roe | early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid twentieth century

  11. Image: woman in academic dress

    Advanced School for Girls

    The pioneering Advanced School for Girls of 1879 evolved to be a central part of Adelaide High School from 1908.

    Historical Organisation | By Alison Mackinnon AM | early twentieth century, late nineteenth century

  12. Image: Young boy standing outside among collection of farm machinery

    Agriculture

    South Australian agriculture began in 1837 with activity in Adelaide Plains, the Fleurieu Peninsula, Barossa Valley and Clare.

    Historical Subject | By John C Radcliffe | 1830s, 1840s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

  13. Image: head and shoulders portrait of a man with sideburns

    Angas Family

    George Fife Angas (1789–1879), described by his biographer Edwin Hodder, who was attracted to Angas’s nonconformist piety, as ‘one of the Fathers and Founders of South Australia’, helped shape South Australia’s institutions

    Historical Subject | By Carol Fort | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, mid nineteenth century

  14. Image: cathedral

    Anglican Church

    An important shaper of South Australian society, particularly in religious circles, education, welfare, the professions and politics.

    Historical Organisation | By David Hilliard | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  15. Image: Building front view from across street

    Architecture

    The distinctive architectural character of Adelaide and its suburbs has disappeared since 1980 - city high-rise offices and derivative styles in suburban housing are all-pervading

    Historical Subject | By Peter Bell | early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  16. Conversion of police ordnance building to Archives Department

    Archives

    Archives in South Australia have grown and changed in the years since Professor Henderson's 1915 report to the South Australian government.

    Historical Subject | By Peter J Crush | North Terrace | early twentieth century, late twentieth century, mid twentieth century

  17. Image: Black and white photograph of the front of a building. Palm trees stand on either side of the front of the building. The building reads "ART GALLERY"

    Art Galleries

    Adelaide’s art galleries contribute to its reputation as a city of the arts. The South Australian Society of Arts, established in 1856 and the oldest Australian fine art society still in existence, had as one of its earliest objectives the setting up of a permanent gallery.

    Historical Subject | By Christine Finnimore | early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  18. 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

  19. Image: James S. Pearce

    Australian Rules Football

    The structure of local Aussie Rules football competitions has changed over time, just as the game itself has continued to evolve

    Historical Subject | By Bernard Whimpress | early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

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

    Austrians in South Australia

    The first Austrians to arrive in South Australia were two Jesuit priests, Fathers Aloysius Kranewitter and Maximilian Klinkowstroem on December 8, 1848. 

    Historical Subject | By Migration Museum | mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  21. Image: Two men working in large shed space with wine barrels

    B Seppelt & Sons

    At the height of its activity in the 1890s, the wine company of B Seppelt & Sons was the largest in Australia. In 2007 an Australian consortium called The Seppeltsfield Estate Trust bought the Seppeltsfield winery with a view to maintaining its winemaking traditions and reputation for hospitality. 

    Historical Organisation | By Angela Heuzenroeder | 1820s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1930s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

  22. Image: George Fife Angas

    Baptist Church

    Baptists are a much higher proportion of regular churchgoers than the rest of the state’s population

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

  23. Image: A photographic head-and-shoulders portrait of a middle-aged man wearing a suit and wire-rimmed spectacles

    Barr Smith Family

    Robert Barr Smith (1824–1915), the son of a Scottish clergyman and his wife Marjory, née Barr, migrated to Melbourne in 1854. Moving to Adelaide just as Thomas Elder’s brothers were leaving South Australia, he threw in his lot with Elder.

    Historical Subject | By Carol Fort | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  24. Image: man in a top hat and suit riding a velocipede with wooden wheels

    Bicycles

    From 'boneshakers' to penny-farthings to mountain bikes, bicycles have certainly changed since the 1860s.

    Historical Subject | By Dieuwke Jessop | early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  25. Sir Langdon Bonython c.1900

    Bonython Family

    Bonython Family is distinguished by a capacity for hard work, a leaning towards public service and significant benefaction to the institutions and people of Adelaide.

    Historical Subject | By Carol Fort & Wilfred Prest | early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  26. West End Brewery fronting the south side of Hindley Street, Adelaide, 1925

    Breweries and beer

    How did Lion and Coopers come to be South Australia’s only major brewers of beer today?

    Historical Subject | By Alison Painter | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

  27. Image: railway tracks approaching slag heap with chimneys and large steel structures visible

    Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd

    South Australia has very close historic and daily links to the mining and processing activities of BHP Billiton.

    Historical Organisation | By Bernie O'Neil | early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid twentieth century

  28. Image: Whaling Station

    Bushrangers

    No bushrangers to threaten the utopian dream, but criminal activity led to Australia’s first police force

    Historical Subject | By Robert Clyne | 1830s

  29. Childhood

    The history of childhood in South Australia has been characterised by the assimilation policies practised by the state and the Christian churches throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and also changes in infant mortality, and the introduction of compulsory schooling. 

    Historical Subject | By Ian Davey | early nineteenth century, early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century

  30. Image: Chinese man Aleck King

    Chinese

    A small presence for much of the time, but growing in number and contribution to the community

    Historical Subject | By Yen Ching-hwang | early twentieth century, late nineteenth century, late twentieth century, mid nineteenth century, mid twentieth century

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