The South Australian Aborigines Act Amendment Act (1939) established a board ‘charged with the duty of controlling and promoting the welfare’ of Aboriginal people.
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.
Over more than 40 years the Adelaide City Mission provided English-language teaching for Chinese men in the hope of facilitating their conversion to Christianity. No other metropolitan mission in Australia ran such a school.
One of the three state political parties to form the Liberal Union in 1910, the FPPU began on 10 August 1904 at a general Show Week meeting in Adelaide of small farmer groups.
Could the problem of infant mortality be dealt with by giving expert advice to mothers? The Mothers’ and Babies’ Health Association certainly thought so.
The National Council of Women of South Australia argued for pensions for widows with children, raising the marriage age for girls from 12 and other reforms.
This Barossa Valley winery made vital contributions to the industry throughout the twentieth century becoming a leader in wine marketing by creating renowned wine brand, Jacobs Creek.
In July 1882 Rev. Joseph Coles Kirby of Port Adelaide Congregational Church delivered a series of lectures on what he termed the Social Evil – broadly interpreted as drinking, prostitution and other forms of sexual licentiousness. Those present, following a similar movement in England, agreed to form the Social Purity Society (SPS), to combat what they perceived to be an epidemic of vice.
Modelled on the gentlemen’s clubs that proliferated in London from the eighteenth century, the Adelaide Club resembles bodies established at about the same time in the capital cities of the other Australian colonies.
Originally a liberal religious faith without dogma or creeds, Unitarians now emphasise the importance of free inquiry, tolerance of religious differences and individual spiritual exploration.
Institutions transplanted to Australia were not always successful but the WEA, brought from England, survived an early period of adaptation before becoming a significant South Australian educational institution.