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| A brief HISTORY of South Australia |
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| Scroll down for information about History of Aboriginal Peoples in South Australia, European Settlement in South Australia |
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It is thought that around the year 1800, prior to European settlement, there
were about 12,000 – 15,000 Aboriginal people living in what is now South
Australia. Many of these were ‘Nungas’ (South Australian Aboriginal
people). During the 1800s many of these aborigines were forcibly
dispossessed of their traditional lands and were either killed by the
settlers or died from introduced diseases and starvation. The northwest of
the state was considered by the early settlers to be unsuitable for farming
and aborigines in that area were somewhat insulated against these horrors.
About 21,000 people of Aboriginal descent currently live in South Australia,
most of them in urban centres. In 1966 South Australia became the first
state to grant Aboriginal people title to some of their traditional land.
Today the state has encouraged the development of a niche social tourism
sector where Aborigines explain their culture and beliefs.
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It is likely that the coast of South Australia
was explored by the Dutch in 1627, and then by the French in 1792. In 1802
the English explorer Matthew Flinders charted the coast in detail. In 1830
Captain Charles Sturt navigated the Murray River from its alpine source in
NSW to its mouth in SA and this expedition led to the foundation of a
colony. While New South Wales and Queensland grappled with the problems of
penal settlements and a convict society, South Australia’s first European
settlers were free persons. SA was declared a province at the end of 1836
and a site was chosen to be the capital. The first governor of the province,
Captain John Hindmarsh, named the proposed capital Adelaide after the wife
of the reigning British king, William IV. |
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| Truly Australia have attempted to give an honest and objective description of the topics covered on this page and have deliberately avoided regurgitating tourist office media releases. The information shown has been compiled from a variety of reputable sources and our own experiences. We check and review this information from time to time, but we assume no responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the details given. |
South Australia was first planned as an idealistic colony, whereby free
settlers would be sold units of land at prices set by the British
Government. The ideal was that the settlers would mainly be skilled young
men and women in equal numbers, free from political and religious
discrimination – by 1839 persecuted Lutheran communities from eastern
Prussia were being assisted and encouraged to settle in the new province.
South Australia was self supporting and self governing by 1856 and has a
progressive social history. In 1876 legistration was introduced to allow
trade unions, women were allowed to stand for parliament in 1894. The state
was the first to issue driving licences and in the 1970s, under the
visionary leadership of State Premier Don Dunstan, homosexuality was
decriminalised, abortion legalised, racial and gender discrimination
outlawed and capital punishment abolished.