Adelaide City Council Archives

The Adelaide City Council Archives located in the Topham Mall (off 55 Currie and 56 Waymouth Streets) Adelaide preserves the records of the Adelaide City Council and organisations closely associated with it. The records date from 1840. The collection holds material of special interest to family historians including:

• Assessment Books produced annually from 1847 can help you find out the age and use of properties and the names of the occupants and owners.
• Citizens’ Rolls which are annual lists of persons entitled to vote in municipal elections from 1852/3. To qualify citizens had to either own or occupy property within the City, and this included women.
• City Engineer’s Records consists of correspondence and other records from 1852. These relate to planning, construction, and maintenance of streets, squares, drains, and bridges. There’s also the Smith Survey which shows details of City buildings in 1880.
• Licensing Records from 1854 deal with the inspection and licensing of a range of business and other activities carried on within the City, including lodging houses, private hospitals, places of public entertainment, taxi-cab owners, street hawkers, milk vendors, street musicians, newspaper vendors, motor car drivers, boot blacks, and cow keepers.
• Health Records include such records as visits by the Medical Officer of Health and Trained Nurse to premises occupied by sufferers of infectious diseases.
• Parks and Gardens Records from 1856 include applications for permits to depasture sheep and cattle on the Park Lands.
• Building Plans from 1924 relate to copies of plans of all building work in the City, including alterations and additions, submitted to the Council for approval. Plans of many non-government properties are available.
• Historic photographs from 1860.