Votes For Women
18 December 1894 Votes for Women Women gained the right to vote in South Australia, on the eighth attempt, when the Constitution Amendment Act was passed on the 18 December 1894. By changing the word ‘man’ to ‘person’ in relation to both Houses of Parliament the franchise and the ability to stand for election to parliament were extended to women. This came after some years of effort by many women and men who believed that ‘it is the foundation of all political liberty that those who obey the law should have a voice in choosing those who make the law’. The main advocate for this legislation was the Women’s Suffrage League, which was strongly backed by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Among the men who supported the movement were Dr Edward Stirling, a university lecturer and Dr John Cockburn, Minister for Education. In June 1893 Charles Kingston became Premier. He had previously opposed proposals for women’s suffrage but finally gave in to his colleagues’ arguments, probably because he also saw an advantage for Labor in having women voters in city electorates, and in July the Attorney-General John Gordon introduced an unencumbered Bill to the Legislative Council. There were lengthy debates in both houses and many members spoke on the Bill, but eventually the supporters of women’s suffrage won out and the bill was passed. South Australia was the first Australian colony to grant this right and one of the first in the world. Helen Jones, ‘South Australian women and politics’, in Dean Jaensch (Ed), The Flinders History of South Australia Political History , 1986, pp.414-48.
Andrew Tennant
19 December 1839 Andrew Tennant Andrew Tennant arrived in South Australia with his family, at the age of four years, on 19 December 1839. He was educated at Wickes School at North Adelaide and later inherited the family property at Port Lincoln. At the age of 18 he took cattle west to Lake Newland near Elliston and settled at Salt Creek, a holding that had been abandoned earlier because of hostile Aborigines. He later owned stations around the west coast at Coffin Bay and Streaky Bay and had a number of runs in other areas including the Princess Royal near Burra. He was a principal shareholder in the Tarcoola Blocks Gold Mine, which failed badly, and he lost heavily. He was also a director of the Adelaide Steamship Company from its inception. From 1881-87 he represented Flinders in the House of Assembly and 1898-1902 sat in the Legislative Council for Northern District. He died at his home ‘Essendene’ at Glenelg on 19 July 1913. Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 6, pp. 255-56.
Aurora Hotel
2 December 1983 Aurora Hotel The Aurora Hotel in Hindmarsh Square was demolished in December 1983 under controversial circumstances. The hotel began trading in 1859 as the Black Eagle and the licensee was Benjamin Da Costa. After his death in 1865 his sister Louisa held the license and on her death in 1898 the property became part the Da Costa estate. Income from the estate generated funds for the Da Costa Samaritan Trust, which was set up to aid charities. In its 124 year life the hotel had several names: Marquis of Lorne, Marquis of Queensbury, and in the late 1900s became the Aurora. The Lord Mayor’s Heritage Advisory Committee recommended preservation of the hotel but in early 1982 the Da Costa Trust quietly sold the property to developers. The battle to save the hotel was waged by many people during 1982/3 which culminated in a petition being presented in December in a last ditch effort to stave off the demolition crews. During the night of 1 December the bulldozers moved in and by early morning of the 2 nd the historic pub was a heap of worthless rubble. Aurora Heritage Action, Time Gentlemen Please!!, 1984
New Swimming Centre North Adelaid
20 December 1969 New Swimming Centre The new swimming centre in the parklands in North Adelaide was opened by the Premier, Steele Hall, on 20 December 1969. The centre was financed by the State Government, City Council, the municipalities of Prospect and Walkerville and the SA Amateur Swimming Association and cost $469,500. It was designed to replace the old City Baths which were situated on King William Road, behind Parliament House and the old Government Printing Office, and which were originally built in 1860. In 1882 Charles Farr built new baths to the design of the city surveyor although earlier Rowland Rees had won £100 for his design in a competition. The building was of unusual proportions with extraordinary decorations, all of which was left intact, including a fine cedar staircase, when the baths were re-modelled in 1940. At this time a swimming pool of Olympic size was constructed and a high diving tower added and the pool was heated in cold weather. Bathers had to pass under showers and through a footbath before entering the pool area. The building also contained Turkish baths and slipper baths with hot water as well as showers. The whole complex was demolished in 1974. City of Adelaide Municipal Year Book , 1949/50, pp.161-63 & 1971/74, pp.164-66. Michael Burden, Lost Adelaide , Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1983, p.191.
Captain Charles Sturt
21 December 1916 Captain Charles Sturt A statue of Captain Charles Sturt was unveiled in Victoria Square on 21 December 1916, forty-seven years after his death in England. He is best remembered for his epic trip down the Murray River in 1829-30 but came to South Australia again in 1838 when he joined an overland venture from NSW. While in Adelaide he was offered the position of Surveyor-General, which he accepted. However, in September 1839 Lieutenant Frome arrived from London with an official commission for the job, so Governor Gawler made Sturt the Assistant Commissioner of Lands at a reduced salary. In 1841 he was offered the resident management of the South Australian Company but refused. On learning that Captain Grey was to replace Gawler, Sturt wrote to the Colonial Office complaining of Grey’s youth and offering himself instead. Grey never forgave the affront and Sturt was reduced to the post of Registrar-General on an even lower salary. He felt the only course left was to prove himself again by an exploration of the interior and he was finally given sufficient funds to permit a small-scale operation. He left on 10 August 1844 on his last expedition during which second-in-command, Poole, died and all the party suffered badly. He returned to Adelaide on 19 January 1846 but his health was not good and in 1851 his sight began to fail and he retired to England. Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 2 1788-1850, Melb Uni Press, 1967, pp. 495-99.
City Street Names
22 December 1836 City Street Names On 22 December 1836, six days before the proclamation of the colony, the barque Tam O’Shanter sailed up between the mangroves to anchor in what is now Port Adelaide. Tam O’Shanter Place off Grenfell Street was named after this ship. When the streets and squares of Adelaide were first delineated the duty of naming them was entrusted to a committee of a number of prominent settlers and apparently there was some dissension among them on the choice of names. The squares were easy: Victoria after the heir to the throne, Hindmarsh and Hurtle after two of the committee, Light for Colonel William Light, the surveyor of the city and Whitmore for one of the Colonial Commissioners in London. The main city streets are named for the following: Rundle – John Rundle MP, Director of the South Australian Co. Hindley – Charles Hindley MP, Director of SA Co. Grenfell – Pascoe St Leger Grenfell MP, presented town acre for Holy Trinity Church and other country lands Currie – Raikes Currie MP, Director of SA Co. Pirie – Sir John Pirie, Lord Mayor London, Director of SA Co. Waymouth – Henry Waymouth, Director SA Co. Flinders – Matthew Flinders the explorer Franklin – Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, midshipman under Flinders Wakefield – Edward Gibbon and his brother Daniel member SA Association Grote – George Grote MP, treasurer of the SA Association Angas – George Fife Angas, one of the founders of SA Gouger – Robert Gouger, Colonial Secretary Pulteney – Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, friend of Hindmarsh Most of these people did not come to South Australia. The naming of the streets was completed on 23 May 1837 and gazetted on 3 June. City of Adelaide Municipal Year Book , 1971/74, pp.57,70.
Gilberton
23 December 1881 Gilberton The suburb of Gilberton is named in memory of Joseph Gilbert who died on 23 December 1881. He arrived in the colony in March 1839 and took up land on the Para River but by July, together with Edward Rowland, he claimed a Special Survey of 15,000 acres in the Barossa Valley. Gilbert named his portion of the land Pewsey Vale after his home in Wiltshire. He planted vines and also ran sheep but soon found that he needed more land for his sheep so leased and later purchased 32,000 acres at Mount Bryan and Cappeedee. Gilbert was very successful in all his ventures and like many other pioneer settlers he wished to create a little piece of England in this new land. In the pleasant green valley of the Barossa he made his estate resemble something of his homeland. He imported deer to roam in the park-like grounds and was a keen breeder of racehorses. In 1860 he built a small Gothic style church with a walled graveyard for the family burials. The church is still there and the name Pewsey Vale is well commemorated as a Rhine Riesling produced by winemakers Smith of Yalumba. Advertiser , 12 June 1984, p.6.
Councils
24 December 1838 Councils On 24 December 1838 James Hurtle Fisher wrote to John Rundle, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, requesting that elective municipal institutions should be given to towns as they reached a population of 2000. Following this the first common council of Adelaide was elected on 31 October 1840 and was the first Local Government body in Australia. There were nineteen members who chose four Aldermen with one of these to be Mayor. Fisher was elected to this position. Revenue was limited and rates difficult to collect as the colony was entering a depression period. Governor Grey considered the creation of a council premature and wound it up with the council becoming legally defunct in September 1843. Its most significant contribution to Adelaide was the purchase, for 12 shillings, of Town Acre 203, on the corner of King William and Pirie Streets, although it was many years before the Town Hall was built. The government ran the city affairs until 1849 when Governor Sir Henry Fox Young set up a City Commission to administer the city government. With improvements in the economy the City Corporation was revived and began its administration on 1 June 1852. The office of Mayor was raised to the stature of Lord Mayor in 1919. South Australia : The Civic Record 1836-1986 , Wakefield Press, 1986, p.32.
Farmers Co Operative Society
26 December 1895 Farmer’s Co-operative Society On 26 December 1895 at Eudunda a meeting of about 100 local farmers and residents was held to discuss the formation of a Farmer’s Co-operative Society. This was the culmination of an arrangement made by Thomas Roberts who, in 1893, suggested that settlers in the area should undertake the direct supply of firewood to Adelaide. The cartnotes for wood were redeemed by the local storekeepers who supplied goods in exchange and thus the idea of a co-operative organization was born. By July 1896 it was decided to establish a store for the sale of household goods and farm requisites and the first store was opened at Sutherlands on 1 February 1897. The first Eudunda store opened in 1902 and in the next sixty years forty-four stores were established in country towns all over the state In 1908 the Society bought SS Pyap , to cater for the River Murray trade and this continued until 1932. A head office in King William Street was opened on 4 March 1896, later moved to Blyth Street and then to North Terrace from where the business continued to be conducted. Advertiser , 21 October 1981, pp. 59, 64, ‘Eudunda: 85 th Birthday 1981’.
Pioneer Memorial
27 December 1936 Pioneer Memorial The Pioneer Memorial on the west of Moseley Square, Glenelg was unveiled by the Governor, Major-General Sir Winston Dugan on Sunday 27 December 1936 as part of the centenary celebrations. It was designed by G. Beaumont Smith to commemorate the foundation of South Australia and to honour the early settlers. On the western side facing the sea the panel depicts the proclamation ceremony and the inscription reads: ‘Here, at Holdfast Bay, landed the Pioneer Settlers and Governor Hindmarsh Announced the Establishment of the Government on December 28 th 1836’. The eastern face inscription reads: ‘Erected to Commemorate the Hundredth Anniversary of the Province of South Australia 1836-1936’. On the south and north faces are bronze tablets listing the names of the first explorers: Nuyts, Flinders, Baudin, Sturt, Barker, Light and the first settlers, and the north tablet lists the founders: Wakefield, Gouger, Torrens, G.F. Angas and others. At the top of the four panels are portraits of Wakefield, Hindmarsh, Gouger and Angas and crowning the tip of the 12.9 metre high monument of Kapunda marble with its base of Murray Bridge granite is a bronze replica of the Buffalo . The Latin phrase on the southern face is perhaps the most eloquent: Si Momumentum Requiris Cicumspice: If you seek a memorial, look around you. Historic Glenelg , Glenelg City Council , 1979, pp. 105-06.