| 1627 |
West coast from present day western border to Smoky
Bay encountered by F Thijessen on Gulden Zeepaerdt |
| 1800 |
James Grant sailed along SE coast and named Mount
Gambier |
| 1802 |
Matthew Flinders charted the whole coastline from
west to east in the Investigator and meets
Nicolas Baudin at Encounter Bay travelling east to west
in Le Geographe |
| 1825 |
1st recorded long term European occupation by American
sealers from vessel Union on Kangaroo Island
|
| 1829 |
Edward Gibbon Wakefield's, A letter from Sydney
published in London |
| 1830 |
Charles Sturt's expedition reaches Murray mouth |
| 1831 |
Collet Barker climbs Mt Lofty and sees Port River
inlet |
| 1833 |
South Australian Association formed |
| 1834 |
South Australian Foundation Act assented [15 Aug] |
| 1835 |
Board of Colonisation Commissioners appointed [5 May]:
South Australian Company established [Oct] |
| 1836 |
South Australia Foundation Act financial conditions
met and thus province formally established by Letters
Patent issued
by
King William IV [19 Feb]
Assisted passage of immigrants commences: permanent
European settlement established: SA Gazette & Colonial
Register founded; location of Adelaide determined
by Colonel William Light [31 Dec] |
| 1837 |
1st female professional artist, Martha Berkeley,
arrives on the John Renwick [14 Feb]; Survey
of Adelaide completed [10 Mar]; Adelaide's streets
named by a committee [23 May]; Supreme Court established; |
| 1839 |
Colonel William Light, Founder
of Adelaide dies [6 Oct]: Infirmary opens
at Emigration Square (north of West/North Tces intersection)
[Dec] |
| 1840 |
Victoria Park Racecourse opened [1 Jan]; Police Force
established; Adelaide Municipal Corporation elected
[31 Oct]; Miller & Gale (forerunner
of Miller
Anderson Dept Store)
opens in Hindley Street |
| 1841 |
1st Census conducted: Edward
John Eyre crossed from Fowlers Bay to Albany:
assisted passage of immigrants stops: Adelaide
Hospital opened & Infirmary closed [Jan]:
Glen Osmond mine opened |
| 1842 |
Legislative Council established: copper discovered
at Kapunda: civil registration commenced [Jul] |
| 1843 |
South Australian Legislative Council meets [10 Sep]
John Ridley invented a
stripper havester [14 Nov] |
| 1844 |
Morphett Vale - 1st Catholic Church dedicated
[8 Dec] |
| 1845 |
Copper discovered at Burra |
| 1847 |
Assisted passage of immigrants resumes: Saving Bank
of South Australia established |
| 1850 |
GP Harris & JC Lanyon (forerunner of Harris Scarfe) Dept Store opens ironmongery in Hindley Street |
| 1851 |
Election of some members of Legislative Council |
| 1852 |
The Adelaide Sovereign (a gold £1 coin),
minted from gold brought to Adelaide by the Tolmer
Gold Escorts, released [26 Nov] as part of the effort
to maintain the failing
economy due to the loss of men to the Victorian Goldfields. |
| 1853 |
District Councils Act: Central Board of Education
established: steam navigation of River Murray begins |
| 1854 |
Goolwa–Port Elliot railway opened (1st in Australia);
Catherine
Helen Spence publishes her 1st novel |
| 1855 |
Appointment of Charles Todd as Superintendent of
Telegraphs and Government Astronomer (15 Feb) |
| 1856 |
Adelaide to the Port telegraph line: population passes
100,000; JA Holden & Co
(forerunner of General Motors Holden) opens saddlery
business in Adelaide; South Australian Electoral Commissioner,
William Robinson Boothby introduced the concept of the
secret ballot to the world [VIC took up the idea also
and managed to bring the concept into law on 19 Mar
and South Australia followed on 2 Apr]; Universal male
suffrage introduced [2 Apr]; establishment
of responsible government [24 Oct] |
| 1857 |
Adelaide to Gawler railway completed [5 Oct] |
| 1858 |
Torrens Title System introduced
(subsequently widely adopted throughout the world) |
| 1859 |
Admella lost (6 Aug). Remains the greatest tragedy
in terms of loss of life in European history |
| 1860 |
Copper discovered at Wallaroo: Gawler railway extended
to Kapunda: Thordon Park reservoir: Marine Board established
|
| 1861 |
Copper discovered at Moonta: South Australian Gas
Company Act |
| 1862 |
John Mcdouall Stuart returned from south-north crossing
of continent: South Australian Museum opened; Elder
and Company import camels |
| 1863 |
Northern Territory annexed: Brompton gasworks opened
|
| 1872 |
Adelaide to London telegraph opened |
| 1874 |
University of Adelaide Act; Adelaide Steamship Co
founded [9 Oct] |
| 1875 |
Education Act |
| 1876 |
Kingston to Naracoorte railway opened: Adelaide Childrens
Hospital established: Trade Unions recognised |
| 1877 |
Adelaide to Perth telegraph completed [8 Dec]. |
| 1878 |
Kapunda railway extended to Morgan |
| 1879 |
George Fife Angas died [15
May] |
| 1881 |
Railway reaches Port Pirie |
| 1883 |
Adelaide telephone exchange opened |
| 1884 |
Land & income tax introduced: United Trades & Labour
Council formed: HMCS Protector arrived from
England [30 Sep]: married women allowed to own property |
| 1885 |
Broken Hill ore discovered |
| 1887 |
SE railways connected to newly opened Adelaide to
Melbourne Adelaide railway: Renmark Irrigation settlement
|
| 1888 |
Star of Greece wrecked off Pt Willunga [13 Jul] with loss of 11 lives |
| 1889 |
Lead smelter established at Port Pirie |
| 1891 |
United Labor Party formed: Belair National Park opened
|
| 1892 |
Free education introduced |
| 1893 |
BT Finniss, first Premier
died [24 Dec] |
| 1895 |
Women granted the vote |
| 1896 |
Moving pictures shown in Adelaide |
| 1897 |
David Shearer of Mannum invented the differential gear which he incorporated
into his steam car; Sir Thomas Elder died [6 Mar] |
| 1898 |
George Woodroffe Goyder dies [2 Nov] |
| 1899 |
BHP iron ore mine at Iron Knob opened: Federation
Referendum 65990 for and 17053 against |
| 1901 |
Grenfell Street Power station on line (now Tandanya
Heritage Centre) |
| 1903 |
Crematorium established at West Terrace Cemetery |
| 1905 |
Kindergarten (pre-schools) established |
| 1906 |
1st drivers' licences and car registration plates
issued in Austraia [10 Sep] - #1
to Dr William A Hargreaves
Metropolitan Tramways Trust Act |
| 1907 |
Port Lincoln to Cummins railway opened; Subterranean
Clover seed commercially available [Jan] |
| 1908 |
First country High Schools opened |
| 1909 |
Electric trams introduced; Mary
Lee died [18 Sep]; Robert
Helpman born [9 Apr] |
| 1910 |
British coins discontinued; first
powered flight in Australia by Frederic Custance
[17 Mar]; Catherine Helen Spence died [3 Apr] |
| 1911 |
Northern Territory ceeded to Commonwealth |
| 1915 |
South Australian born William Lawrence Bragg awarded
the Nobel Physics Prize cojointly with his father for
work on X-ray crystallography; Women
police force established [1 Dec]. |
| 1917 |
East-west railway opened: Holden's Body shop mass producing |
| 1920 |
Achives established |
| 1921 |
Population passed 500,000 |
| 1922 |
Blanchetown lock opened on Murray River |
| 1923 |
Adelaide University first to produce insulin cheaply
in commercial quantities |
| 1924 |
Regular AM radio broadcasts commenced |
| 1925 |
Metropolitan Tramways Trust (MTT) Bus services introduced |
| 1928 |
First aviation fatality in South Australia [13 Mar]
F/Lt IE McIntyre at Parafield during a stunt display;
8 killed in railway embankment collapse [31 Jan] during
tunnel demolition on Hills Railway |
| 1929 |
Port Augusta to Alice Springs railway opened. First
transmission by Alf Traeger's pedal radio [19 Jun] |
| 1930 |
Professor T Brailsford Robertson producer
of commercial insulin dies [18 Jan]; Amos
Howard dies
[2 Mar] |
| 1931 |
General Motors takes over Holdens to form GMH |
| 1933 |
First Christmas Parade by John Martin Department Store |
| 1935 |
Sir Sidney Kidman dies [2 Sep] |
| 1936 |
Chrysler-Dodge [car manufacturer] takes over TJ Richards
& Sons |
| 1937 |
Housing Trust [public housing] established |
| 1940 |
Murray barrages completed: ship building commences
at Whyalla |
| 1941 |
Whyalla blast furnace opened |
| 1942 |
Coal mining starts at Leigh Creek |
| 1945 |
Lord Florey cojointly awarded the Nobel
Prize for Medicine; Lance Hill developed the design of
a rotary clothesline—the Hills Hoist |
| 1946 |
Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) takes
over Adelaide Electric Supply |
| 1947 |
Philips Electrical established at Hendon: Weapons
Research Establishment (WRE) established at Salisbury
|
| 1951 |
Daisy Bates died [18 Apr];
1st boom gates introduced at Ovingham rail crossing |
| 1952 |
JP McGowan died [26 Mar] |
| 1954 |
Drive-in theatres start: Adelaide earthquake [1 Mar] |
| 1955 |
Black Sunday bushfires [2 Jan] |
| 1956 |
Major flooding of River Murray: Atom bomb exploded
at Maralinga |
| 1956 |
Roadway trams ceased operations |
| 1958 |
8 firefighters killed [5 Apr] nr Wandillo; street electric tramway
system closed |
| 1959 |
Regular television broadcasts commenced |
| 1960 |
First Adelaide Festival of Arts |
| 1963 |
Population passes 1,000,000 |
| 1964 |
Largest crowd in Australian history (est 350,000)
greeted the arrival of the Beatles [12 Jun] |
| 1965 |
Thomas Angove develops the Wine Cask—a flexible bag
of wine inside a box |
| 1966 |
Flinders University established |
| 1967 |
Lotteries Commission established |
| 1968 |
Lord Florey died [21 Feb] |
| 1970 |
Bus collided with a passenger train at Wasleys [12 Apr] killing 17 people |
| 1971 |
First South Australian-born governor: Mark
Oliphant appointed: age of majority lowered from
21 to 18 years |
| 1973 |
Festival Theatre opened |
| 1975 |
State Transport Authority (STA) established |
| 1976 |
Roxby Downs copper discovered: capital punishment
abolished: Rundle Mall opened |
| 1977 |
Late night shopping introduced; remains of 7 murdered
women found nr Truro |
| 1978 |
Country railways ceeded to Commonwealth |
| 1980 |
Tarcoola to Alice Springs railway opened [9 Oct] |
| 1981 |
Mitsubishi purchases Chrysler: Ash Wednesday Bushfires
|
| 1983 |
Ash Wednesday bushfires [16 Feb] kill 28 people |
| 1984 |
State Bank formed from Savings Bank of South Australia
& State Bank of South Australia |
| 1985 |
Mortlock Library of South Australiana established:
Adelaide Casino opened; 1st Australian F1 Grand Prix held in
Adelaide |
| 1987 |
Adelaide Convention Centre opened |
| 1990 |
Lowitja O'Donoghue appointed 1st Chair of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Commission [ATSIC]; Janine
Haines becomes the first woman to lead a political party
in Australia |
| 1991 |
University of South Australia established |
| 1992 |
Adelaide's only afternoon paper, The News
closes |
| 1996 |
Natasha Stott Despoja elected to the
Senate [the youngest
woman to date] |
| 1998 |
John Martins Department store closed |
| 1999 |
Don Dunston, reformist premier of the 1970s died;
remains of 10 murdered people found including 8
in barrels in a disused bankvault at Snowtown |
2000 |
Mark Oliphant, world renown scientist and former
governor died |
| 2001 |
Lleyton Hewitt ranked as world number 1 in tennis
[the youngest player to
achieve this status] |
| 2005 |
Eyre Penninsula bushfires around Pt Linclon [11 Jan] kill 9 people |
| 2006 |
Glenelg tramline upgrade and new rolling stock purchased to replace
original H class trams |
