X-Nico

99 unusual facts about South Australia


1836 in Australia

27 July - Reeves Point (later Kingscote), South Australia's first official European settlement is founded on Kangaroo Island.

1843 in Australia

September – John Ridley builds his invention, a corn stripper-harvester, in Hindmarsh.

2007 FFSA Super League

The 2007 South Australian Super League was the second season of the South Australian Super League, the top level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

2010 FFSA Premier League

The 2010 FFSA Premier League was the fifth edition of the FFSA Premier League as the second level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

2011 FFSA Premier League

The 2011 FFSA Premier League is the sixth edition of the FFSA Premier League as the second level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

2012 FFSA Super League

The 2012 FFSA Super League was the seventh and final edition of the FFSA Super League, the top level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988

As of 2007, the Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Division of the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet has the responsibility of managing this legislation, so ensuring South Australia's Aboriginal heritage is protected, preserved, and transmitted into the future.

Adelaide Cricket Club

The club plays its Senior Home Games at Glandore Oval, Glandore, South Australia.

Annesley Junior School

Annesley Junior School is an independent day school for girls and boys aged from two years old to year 6, located in Wayville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia.

Anomalocaris

In 2011, six fossils of compound eyes dated to the Cambrian period (515 million years ago) were recovered from an archaeological dig at Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Arlo Bugeja

Arlo (Budgie) Bugeja (born 18 March 1986 in Humbug Scrub, Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian speedway rider.

Ash Wednesday bushfires

Of the 26 people who died in South Australia, 12 were in metropolitan areas, including four in the Adelaide suburb of Greenhill.

Australian water dragon

There are anecdotal reports of a small colony living on the Sixth Creek in the Forest Range area of South Australia, which were probably introduced there during the 1980s by a local reptile enthusiast.

Barcoo River

The waters of the river flow towards Lake Eyre in central Australia while those of rivers further east join the Murray-Darling basin and reach the sea in South Australia.

Baseball at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Australia did not strike back until the bottom of the 2nd inning, when Chalky White of South Australia hit a solo home run off Vane Sutton.

Bill McCann

McCann was born at Glanville in Adelaide to engine driver John Francis McCann and Eliza, née Francis.

Brachinite

Brachinites are named after the Brachina meteorite, the type specimen of this group which in turn is named after Brachina, South Australia.

Brian Doe

He worked as a blacksmith and a railway porter at Port Broughton from 1888 until 1899.

Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area

Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area is located on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Charles Thomas McGlew

McGlew was a pioneer in the salt industry in South Australia, having established in 1903 the Standard Salt Company which from 1912 operated a busy refinery at Edithburgh, exporting to Russia among other places.

Cigar Lake Mine

Other deposits, such as Olympic Dam in Australia, contain more uranium, but not at the significant grades of the Saskatchewan deposits.

Clarence Park

Clarence Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide, Australia and part of the electoral district of Ashford

Coffin Bay Pony

In 1839, the settler and British Captain Hawson and his family arrived in Happy Valley in Australia to live and breed horses.

Collet Barker

Mount Barker was named for him by Captain Sturt who erroneously thought it was Mount Lofty, and the eponymous town is named for the mountain.

Commonwealth Railways NC class

Australian National approached Steamtown to gauge availability of a number of tanker wagons that had been collected in Peterborough.

Commonwealth Railways NSU class

The NSU class remained intact until the replacement of the narrow gauge Central Australian Railway in 1980 with two transferred to Gladstone for use on the Wilmington line and one to Peterborough for use on the Quorn line.

Coonalpyn, South Australia

Coonalpyn also has a tennis club which belongs to the Border-Downs Tennis Association including towns such as Malinong, Culburra, Yumali, Coomandook, Tintinara & Ki Ki

Cyril Chambers

Chambers was born in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton and educated at St John the Baptist's School, Thebarton, and Hayward's Academy, Adelaide.

David Bews

Bews' father then engaged in farming operations near Port Elliot, and afterwards near Adelaide.

David Fawcett

He was posted to Royal Australian Air Force Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) at Edinburgh, South Australia as an Army helicopter test pilot.

Division of Mayo

The Division of Mayo is an Australian electoral division located in the hills east of Adelaide, South Australia and currently includes the towns of Victor Harbor, Lobethal, Mount Barker, Strathalbyn, Woodside and Kingscote.

Easter

(St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Adelaide).

Edeowie glass

Edeowie glass is a slag-like, opaque rare natural glass found as vesicular or in sheet-like masses in a semi-continuous swath in baked sediment, about 55 km long and 10 km wide along the western side of the Flinders Ranges near Parachilna, South Australia and Lake Torrens.

Edward J. Pitts

Edward John Pitts (1 October 1832 – 30 December 1885) was an artist and pastoralist in the early days of South Australia, noted for founding The Levels as a sheep breeding establishment.

Edward William Andrews

He had a close personal and business relationship with James Frew (for whom Frewville is named) of Frew & Co.

George Edward Fulton

Aided by a substantial subsidy, he won a State Government contract for £180,000 worth of cast-iron water and drainage pipes in 1884, enabling him to set up a factory in Kilkenny, for which purpose he travelled to Great Britain, ordering heavy machinery and engaging fifteen specialist workers.

Glenelg Oval

Glenelg Oval (currently Gliderol Stadium @ Glenelg and formerly Challenge Recruitment Oval) is located on Brighton Road, Glenelg East, South Australia.

Hans Heysen

In 1912 Hans Heysen had earned enough from his art to purchase a property called "The Cedars" near Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, which remained as his home until his death in 1968 aged 90.

Haslam

Haslam, South Australia, a village in the District Council of Streaky Bay in Australia

Hazelwood Park, South Australia

Prior to European settlement, the area that is now Hazelwood Park was part of the traditional lands of the Kaurna people, that stretched from Port Broughton to Cape Jervis.

Hemsley Fraser

Hemsley Fraser is a learning and development company, with offices in the UK (London and Plymouth), the USA (Washington DC) and Australia (Brighton).

Henry Young

Due to the difficulty of navigating the Murray Mouth, Young supported building the railway from the river port of Goolwa to the new sea port at Port Elliot (named after his friend, Charles Elliot).

Hilra railway station

Hilra railway station is a former railway station on the defunct Penfield railway line which is located in the northern Adelaide suburb of Salisbury North.

History of the Lutheran Church of Australia

On 23 and 24 May 1839, Kavel convened a meeting of the elders of the three Prussian settlements at Klemzig, Hahndorf, and Glen Osmond.

Indulkana

Without in any way approving such a policy, Lois acknowledges that she had a happy childhood there, and later at the Colebrook home at Eden Hills.

James George Russell

On 5 January 1918 Russell died of cancer at his Eastwood, South Australia home; he was survived by his wife, four daughters and three sons.

James Henry Aldridge

J. H. Aldridge, as he was generally known, or "Jim" to his friends, was born at Kensington, South Australia, the son of George Aldridge (ca.1817 – 12 December 1879), who emigrated to South Australia in 1847.

Joseph Cardijn

In Noarlunga Downs, South Australia, Cardijn College which is a Catholic Secondary School has been named in his honour.

Kevin Scarce

Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1952, Scarce spent his early childhood in Woomera and attended Elizabeth East Primary School and Elizabeth High School.

Linda Agostini

Tony Agostini had recently returned to Sydney after being held in internment camps at Orange, Hay and Loveday from 1940 to 1944.

Lower Light protest statues

The statues were made by local resident and farmer, Stephen Jones, as a protest against the establishment of a dump in the late 1990's by the Olsen government, as part of a plan to replace the Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre.

Luke Prokopec

Kenneth Luke Prokopec (born February 23, 1978 in Blackwood, South Australia) is an Australian-born, right-handed pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Martyn Wyndham-Read

In 1960 he moved from Sussex to Australia where he worked on Emu Springs sheep station in South Australia.

MGS/LRS

MGS and LRS are television stations in South Australia.

Mosquito Fleet

The term "Mosquito Fleet" also refers the the fleet of small ketches and schooners operating in the shallow coastal and gulf waters of South Australia, from the colony's establishment in 1836 until 1982.

MV True North

Each year, she does one circumnavigation of Australia offering exclusive, luxury expeditions in Papua New Guinea, Cape York, Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, South Australia and, from 2010, Solomon Islands.

Myk Aussie

Kym Andrew Harrison (born in Gawler, South Australia) known as "Myk Aussie" is an Australian Sports, Comedy, Media personality.

No Fixed Address

In 1979, the band played its first large concert at the National Aboriginal Day held at Taperoo, South Australia.

No. 21 Squadron RAAF

In September 1943 No. 21 Squadron was re-formed at Gawler, South Australia, and re-equipped with Vultee Vengeance dive bombers.

North Terrace – Glenelg railway line

From approximately where Henley Beach Road currently is, the railway then followed an almost direct route to the seaside suburb of Glenelg.

Northfield railway line

The line went east from the Gawler line and served three stations: Cavan, Pooraka, and Northfield.

Nothomyrmecia

A further colony was found at Penong, 180 km (110 mi) to the west of Poochera, but the fate of the colony discovered in 1931 is not known.

O'Sullivan Beach, South Australia

O'Sullivan Beach has a unique postcode of 5166, and is adjacent to the suburbs of Christies Beach and Noarlunga Centre to the south east, Christies Beach to the south, and Port Stanvac to the north.

Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

Patrons travelled by train from Adelaide to nearby Balhannah station 2 miles from the course from 1884.

Olympic Dam, South Australia

Among the project's new infrastructure requirements were: a desalination plant at Point Lowly (Port Bonython), a rail link to Pimba, a worker accommodation village between Olympic Dam and Andamooka and a barge landing facility near Port Augusta.

Onkaparinga Valley Road

Onkaparinga Valley Road is a South Australian secondary road, connecting the towns of Birdwood, Woodside, Balhannah and Hahndorf with Meadows and Willunga on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Osmond Gilles

He is remembered by Gilles Street in the Adelaide Central Business District, Glen Osmond Road, OG Road and the Adelaide suburbs of Glen Osmond and Gilles Plains.

Parilla

Parilla, South Australia, a small town on the Mallee Highway in South Australia

Port Adelaide Racing Club

The first meeting of the club was held in the same year on a course located on Grand Junction Road and in 1895 transferred to a leased site at Cheltenham Park.

Port Victor

Victor Harbor (sic) is the later named of the town originally laid out as Port Victor.

Princeland

Edward Henty led The West Victorian Separation League, which aimed to establish the new colony, whose proposed capital was to be Mount Gambier and its main port Portland.

Prospect Oval

Prospect Oval is a sports stadium located at Menzies Crescent, Prospect, South Australia.

Quentin Angus

Quentin Bryan Angus was born in Mount Pleasant, South Australia on 17 August 1987.

Rain follows the plow

Today, however, grain crops still do not grow further north than Quorn, as advised by Goyder's original report.

Ralph Tate

Tate gave special attention to the Recent and Tertiary mollusca of Australia, and discovered evidence of Permian glaciation of southern Australia at Hallett Cove.

Rico Tomaso

He was at his best illustrating tales of high adventure, including the Albert Richard Wetjen stories about the Mounted Police of South Australia, or mysteries, such as Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novel The League of Frightened Men.

Riverton Bridge

The suburb of Riverton was in 1937 informally called Riverton Bridge to avoid confusion with the South Australian town of Riverton.

Robert Zadow

After retirement from state cricket he went on to play for many years for his Adelaide grade club, Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club, where he became the highest run-scorer in South Australian grade cricket history with 9318, second only now to Wayne Bradbrook - Northern Districts CC with 9619 runs.

Rock Parrot

Rocky islands and coastal dune areas are the preferred habitats for this species, which is found from Robe, South Australia westwards across coastal South and Western Australia to Shark Bay.

Rose Park

Rose Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Russell Lea, New South Wales

As a young man he accompanied his family to the colony, settling a station in the then remote state of South Australia.

Ryan Sullivan

His parents bought him a junior speedway bike and he had his first ride at the Olympic Park Speedway in Mildura in 1985, although his home track was the Sidewinders Speedway in the Adelaide suburb of Wingfield, a 112m long track run by the Sidewinders Junior Speedway Club solely aimed at junior Motorcycle speedway development.

Semaphore railway line

Semaphore railway line was a railway in the north-west of Adelaide servicing the suburb of Semaphore and Exeter.

In 1917 when the Semaphore to Rosewater and Albert Park tram line was opened there was an unresolved dispute over the tramline crossing the railway line near Exeter station.

Shane Bowes

Shane Bowes, the son of 1962, 1964 and 1974 South Australian and 1968 Australian Sidecar champion Len Bowes, began speedway racing at the Under-16 Sidewinders Speedway in the Adelaide suburb of Wingfield.

Silverton Rail 48s class locomotive

All were delivered for use on Silverton Tramway's 56 kilometre narrow gauge line from Broken Hill to Cockburn.

Snowtown, South Australia

Pupils are also able to study via distance education through the Open Access College at Marden (Adelaide) or via local delivery with neighbouring schools to increase their range of subject choices, particularly in Years 11 and 12.

Solanum centrale

The fruit are grown by Amata and Mimili communities in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, by the Dinahline community near Ceduna, by the Nepabunna community in the northern Flinders Ranges, and on the Tangglun Piltengi Yunti farm in Murray Bridge, and are marketed by Outback Pride.

South Australian Archaeology Society

The South Australian Archaeology Society is an avocational archaeology organisation operating in South Australia.

South Australian Railways 350 class

Both were withdrawn in 1979 with 350 sold to SteamRanger and 351 to a preservation group at Moonta for a proposed heritage railway operation but the venture did not continue and the Australian Railway Historical Society purchased the unit and restored the locomotive to operating condition at Dry Creek depot.

South Gawler Football Club

The South Gawler Football Club is a country Australian rules football club, founded by James Fitzgerald in the Gawler South area of the Barossa Valley town of Gawler, South Australia, in 1889.

Steamtown, Peterborough Railway Preservation Society Inc.

Track was left over Pekina Creek, Black Rock Yard, Black Rock Bridge, Walloway Yard to Walloway Creek and in the yard of Orroroo.

Tama Canning

Tamahau Karangatukituki Canning (born 7 April 1977 in Rose Park) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played four One Day Internationals but no Tests.

Tanunda, South Australia

Langmeil was the next settlement in 1843, which was settled by Prussian immigrants who relocated from Klemzig where they had originally settled in 1838, when they had arrived with Pastor August Kavel, Tanunda village was settled sometime later.

Tom Brice

Thomas Robert (Tom) Brice (born August 24, 1981) in Woodville, South Australia is an Australian baseballer.

Tooheys Brewery

It can be found on tap at almost any bar in New South Wales, although it is growing in some other states South Australia and Western Australia.

Topcon

Topcon has an office in Technology Park Adelaide at Mawson Lakes, South Australia, and representatives in Sydney.

Willunga railway line

There is some evidence of railway track remaining on this trail, notably near the South Road crossing at Hackham, the top of the Seaford Hill and a small section of track in a paddock adjacent to Victor Harbor Road, McLaren Vale.

Woodside Barracks

Woodside Barracks is an Australian Army base located in South Australia near Inverbrackie and Woodside in South Australia.


Australia at the 1968 Summer Paralympics

In June 2013, four South Australian members of the 1968 Australian Paralympics Team relived memories as part of the Australian Paralympic Committee history project.

Australian Girls Choir

Chapters of the Australian Girls Choir were opened in South Australia in June 1984 and in New South Wales in February 1986.

Australian Plague Locust Commission

With 19 staff members at its headquarters in Canberra and field offices in Narromine, Broken Hill and Longreach, the Commission is funded half by the Commonwealth government and half by the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Australian Protective Service

Protection of sensitive defence establishments, including Defence Headquarters at Russell Offices in Canberra; the joint Australian/US communications facility at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory; the former atomic testing site at Maralinga in South Australia; the Australian Defence Signals facility at Geraldton and the naval communications station at Exmouth, both in Western Australia

Australian Super Sedan Championship

New South Wales driver Grenville Anderson (1951-2004), holds the record for most championship wins with four titles to his name - 1975/76 (Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide, South Australia), 1977/78 (Claremont Speedway in Perth, Western Australia), 1979/80 (Bagot Park in Darwin, Northern Territory), and 1992/93 (Latrobe Speedway in Latrobe, Tasmania).

Bungandidj people

The Buandig people (Boandik, Booandik, Bunganditj) are Indigenous Australians from the Mount Gambier region in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.

Cape Horner

Port Victoria Maritime Museum: A Maritime Museum commemorating the journeys of the Cape Horners made to Port Victoria in South Australia

Cardwell Bush Telegraph

A message can be sent by Morse code and an interactive display demonstrates Cardwell's role in the telegraph line race between Queensland and South Australia.

Carlton Draught

Carlton Draught is a pale lager which is sold on tap in its home state of Victoria as well as in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, and is one of Australia's most popular selling tap beers.

Charles James Melrose

Melrose Park in New South Wales and Melrose Park in South Australia are both suburbs named after him, as well as James Melrose Road, which travels along the southern boundary of Adelaide Airport.

David Hookes

A memorial service was held on Adelaide Oval on 27 January 2004, attended by all members of the Australian, South Australia and Victoria cricket teams, as well as the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks.

Earl of Carysfort

Hugh Proby, third son of the third Earl, was the founder of Kanyaka Station in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.

Eremophila alternifolia

alternifolia occurs in arid areas of Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and the Barrier Range in New South Wales, in many different habitats with stony or red soil.

Geoglyph

Other areas with geoglyphs include Megaliths in the Urals, South Australia (Marree Man, which is not ancient, rather a modern work of art, with mysterious origins), Western Australia and parts of the Great Basin Desert in the southwestern United States.

Halfbeak

Halfbeaks are not a major target for commercial fisheries, though small fisheries for them exist in some places, for example in South Australia where fisheries target the southern sea garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir).

HM Land Registry

The system of registration adopted had some differences to that piloted in South Australia by that colony's then Premier Sir Robert Torrens, although both were founded on the 1857 report.

Holden Torana

During this period it toured motor museums around the country, including the National Motor Museum at Birdwood in South Australia.

Humpy

In South Australia, such a shelter is known as a "wurley" (also spelled "wurlie"), possibly from the Kaurna language.

Inverbrackie, South Australia

It includes the Woodside Barracks (16th Air Land Regiment), South Australia, although there are also some other residents and businesses in Inverbrackie.

Jefferson Stow

Jefferson Pickman Stow (4 September 1830 – 4 May 1908), was a newspaper editor and magistrate in South Australia.

Kapunda Football Club

Kapunda Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club, based in Kapunda, South Australia, that competes in the Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association.

Kartan industry

Kartan industry is the archaeological production, probably more than 10,000 years ago, of a large quantity of exceptionally large stone tools that were found on Ramindjeri Karta also known since 1802 as Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Lace monitor

These common terrestrial and often arboreal monitors are found in eastern Australia and range from Cape Bedford on Cape York Peninsula to south-eastern South Australia.

Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster

Many former Australian New South Wales Public Transport Commission and State Transport Authority Worldmasters upon withdrawal, were rebodied by private operators including Brisbane Bus Lines, Fearne's of Wagga Wagga, Menai Bus Service and Toongabbie Transport up until the mid-1980s.

Lucasium damaeum

It is nocturnal, insectivorous, and is indigenous to the area around the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia - most particularly in arid climates such as found in Gawler Ranges National Park.

Martin J. Fettman

Fettman spent one year (1989–1990) on sabbatical leave as a Visiting Professor of Medicine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University of Adelaide, South Australia, where he worked with the Gastroenterology Unit studying the biochemical epidemiology of human colorectal cancer.

Meg Mundy

Mundy is the daughter of the Australian opera singer Clytie Hine (1887–1983) who studied at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, South Australia.

Mitcham, South Australia

At the state level it is in the electorate of Waite, and has been represented since 1997 by Martin Hamilton-Smith, also of the Liberal party, and from 2007 to 2009, the State Leader of the Opposition.

Mount Barker Waldorf School

Mount Barker Waldorf School is a private school located in the Adelaide Hills, roughly 40 km East of Adelaide, South Australia.

Mount Davies Road

The Mount Davies Road is a remote unsealed outback track which runs from Mount Davies (Pipalyatjara) in the far north-west corner of South Australia to Anne's Corner on the Anne Beadell Highway 397 kilometres to the south-east.

Municipal Tramways Trust

The MTT ceased to exist in 1975 upon the establishment of the State Transport Authority (STA) Bus and Tram Division.

Murray River Flag

The Murray River Flag is flown from paddle steamers and other vessels in the Australian States of Victoria and South Australia that ply the waters of the Murray-Darling river system.

Parliamentary records

South Australia introduced female suffrage in 1861 and the Territory of Wyoming allowed women the vote in 1869, with the Isle of Man following in 1881.

Princeland

The new colony was named after Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert and was to comprise the area west of Longitude 143°, part of the Wimmera and parts of South Australia near the Victorian border.

PS Murray Princess

The paddlewheeler, PS Murray Princess, is a tourist vessel operating from its homeport of Mannum, South Australia, on the Murray River.

Rex Townley

His claim to fame as a cricketer was dismissing Donald Bradman, caught and bowled for 369, in a first-class match against South Australia, the legendary batsman's second highest ever score at that level.

Shire of Bulloo

Cameron Corner, the point where New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, is located at the south west corner of the shire.

South Australian state election, 2010

The centre-left Labor Party, led by Premier Mike Rann, and the centre-right Liberal Party, led by Leader of the Opposition Isobel Redmond, are the two main parties in South Australia.

Sturtian glaciation

The Sturtian glaciation is named after the Sturt River Gorge (Near Bellevue Heights, South Australia).

The Breakaways Reserve

The Breakaways Reserve or just simply The Breakaways, is a large national reserve found in northern South Australia, just off the Stuart Highway near Coober Pedy.

Thomas Boutflower Bennett

Thomas Boutflower Bennett (1808- 14 September 1894) was an early colonist of South Australia, remembered as a schoolmaster at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and at Saint Peter's College.

Thomas Playford II

Born in Bethnal Green, London in 1837, Playford moved to Adelaide in 1844 with his family and initially worked as a farmer prior to entering politics in April 1868 as the Member for Onkaparinga in the South Australian colonial parliament.

Thura-Yura languages

The Yura or Thura-Yura languages are a group of Australian Aboriginal languages surrounding Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent in South Australia, that comprise a genetic language family of the Pama–Nyungan family.