Portal:South Australia

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South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 984,321 square kilometres (380,048 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and second smallest state by population. It has a total of 1.8 million people. Its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second-largest centre, has a population of 26,878.

South Australia shares borders with all the other mainland states. It is bordered to the west by Western Australia, to the north by the Northern Territory, to the north-east by Queensland, to the east by New South Wales, to the south-east by Victoria, and to the south by the Great Australian Bight. The state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray. The state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province, rather than as a convict settlement. Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when the members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree.

As with the rest of the continent, the region has a long history of human occupation by numerous tribes and languages. The South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was later employed by the New Zealand Company. The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history has been marked by periods of economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its fine wine and numerous cultural festivals. The state's economy is dominated by the agricultural, manufacturing and mining industries. (Full article...)

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Dunstan in 1968

Donald Allan Dunstan AC QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the division of Norwood from 1953 to 1979, and leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from 1967 to 1979. Before becoming premier, Dunstan served as the 38th attorney-general of South Australia and the treasurer of South Australia. He is the fourth longest serving premier in South Australian history.

In the late 1950s, Dunstan became well known for his campaign against the death penalty being imposed on Max Stuart, who was convicted of rape and murder of a small girl, opposing then-Premier Thomas Playford over the matter. During Labor's time in opposition, Dunstan was prominent in securing some reforms in Aboriginal rights and in Labor abandoning the White Australia policy. Dunstan became Attorney-General after the 1965 election, and replaced the older Frank Walsh as premier in 1967. Despite maintaining a much larger vote over the Liberal and Country League (LCL), Labor lost two seats at the 1968 election, with the LCL forming government with support of an independent. Dunstan responded by increasing his attacks on the Playmander, convincing the LCL into watering down the malapportionment. With little change in Labor's vote but with the Playmander removed, Labor won 27 of 47 seats at the 1970 election, and again in 1973, 1975, and 1977. (Full article...)

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Credit: Aaron Allen

Blue Lake is a large lake located in an extinct volcanic caldera in Mount Gambier. It is known as Waawor in the local Aboriginal language. During summer and the surrounding months, the lake takes on a vibrant blue colour, returning to a colder steely-grey colour for winter. The exact cause of this phenomenon is still a matter of conjecture but it is generally considered likely that it revolves around the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 25 degrees celsius, causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in a scatter of the blue wavelength of sunlight. The movement of planktonic life-forms within the lake during the seasons and during the day may also play a part in the visibility changes.

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General images

The following are images from various South Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Wallaroo jetty in 1909, showing shipping, launches, and grain waiting for loading. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 2"Night attack of the natives on Lake Hope" (1866 wood engraving) (from History of South Australia)
Image 3Loading grain from horse drawn wagons to the ketch 'Free Selector' on Kangaroo Island (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 4Camel train, with wool from Nappamerry being unloaded at the Railway Station, 1928. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 5Road transport in South Australia (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 6An aerial view of Murray Bridge in 1953 showing rail and road bridges, and also paddle steamers. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 7500 class engine No.502 hauling a freight train in at Eden Hills, August 1953. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 8Charles Sturt (from History of South Australia)
Image 9Satellite image of eastern South Australia. Note the dry lakes (white patches) in the north (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 10Saint Mary Mackillop (1842–1909) co-founded an order of nuns in rural South Australia in 1866 and became the first Australian saint of the Catholic Church in 2010. (from History of South Australia)
Image 11Encounter Bay, 1847 (from History of South Australia)
Image 12Ships docked at Port Adelaide in 1910. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 13An 1835 advertisement for the sale of land in South Australia (from History of South Australia)
Image 14The Proclamation of South Australia 1836, Charles Hill. (from History of South Australia)
Image 15South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). In 1895 women in South Australia were among the first in the world to attain the vote and were the first to be able to stand for parliament. (from History of South Australia)
Image 16George French Angas, Port Adelaide in 1846, 10 years after settlement. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 17The Paddle Steamer P. S. Sapphire on the Murray River with a barge. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 18Colonel William Light. (from History of South Australia)
Image 19Old Parliament House in 1872 (from History of South Australia)
Image 20The barque Admiral Karpfanger at Port Germein jetty in South Australia. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 21Köppen climate types in South Australia (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 22The punitive expedition to the Coorong after 25 survivors of the shipwreck Maria were massacred by Aboriginal people in 1840. (from History of South Australia)
Image 23Rapid Bay, South Australia in 1950 with its limestone quarry and jetty for loading limestone onto ships (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 24The clipper 'Yatala', 1127 tons, at Port Adelaide circa 1870. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 25The 1925 Murray Bridge rail bridge over the Murray River, linking Adelaide to Melbourne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 26Goolwa to Port Elliot tramway circa 1860. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 27Aboriginal Family Travelling by W.A. Cawthorne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 28A camel train in the desert, with each of the camels loaded with two bales of wool from Arrabura Station, 1931. (from Transport in South Australia)

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Did You Know... - show different entries

...that construction of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral (pictured) in Adelaide did not finish until 1996, 130 years after it began?
...that Sir Samuel Davenport, a South Australian parliamentarian, had an electoral district named after him?
...that Adelaide was the first city in Australia to introduce horse trams and the last to discard them for more modern public transport?
...that Smoky Bay in South Australia was named so after the discoverer noticed large plumes of smoke from fires lit by the area's Aboriginal people?