The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council, is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia. It is legally defined as the capital city of South Australia by the City of Adelaide Act 1998. It includes the Adelaide city centre, the suburb of North Adelaide, and the Adelaide Park Lands, which surround North Adelaide and the city centre.
Established in 1840, the City of Adelaide Municipal Corporation was the first municipal authority in Australia. At its time of establishment, Adelaide's (and Australia's) first mayor, James Hurtle Fisher, was elected. From 1919 onwards, the municipality has had a Lord Mayor, being Jane Lomax-Smith.
History
Initially the new Province of South Australia was managed by Colonisation Commissioners. Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836. The first municipality was established in 1840 as The City of Adelaide Municipal Corporation, the first municipality in the country. However, due to a combination of constitutional difficulties arising from the mayor's resignation, hostility of the incoming Governor George Grey, and falling revenues due to the onset of the colony's first economic crisis, the corporation became moribund in 1843, after the Province had become a Crown colony established by the South Australia Act 1842. From 1843 to 1849, control and management reverted to the colonial government, and from 1849 to 1852 the municipality was managed by a Commission with five members. With the positive economic effects of the Victorian gold rush, a formal municipality was re-established in 1852, and "has operated continuously ever since".Lord Mayors & Mayors , City of AdelaideBooks mentioned on the City of Adelaide history webpages: Those Turbulent Years. A History of the City of Adelaide 1929–1979, Pubs, pews and powerbrokers, The City of Adelaide - A Thematic History A Thematic History, pp81-82. However, The city's relationship with the state and federal government has been described as being 'a continually abrasive relationship'.Morton, After Light p. 10 The city's relationship with the state and federal government has been described as being 'a continually abrasive relationship'. Until 1877 the relationship with the colonial government was described as 'a grudging tolerance, breaking out occasionally into active resentment whenever the council felt its rights were being infringed'. Moreover, matters such as alienation of the Park Lands by the state government, and threats to do so by the federal government, together with the fact that the federal and state government were exempt from rates for the many city buildings they owned, did nothing to enhance the relationship between them and the city corporation.
The Council started in 1840 with nineteen members, who chose four of their number to be Aldermen, and then one of these (James Hurtle Fisher) to be Mayor. In 1852 the municipality was divided into four wards. Three Councillors and one Alderman were chosen, who in turn selected the Mayor. In 1861 the Mayor was chosen by all the electors and the position of Alderman was temporarily abolished. In 1873 the municipality was divided into six Wards, each represented by two Councillors. In 1880 the office of Alderman was recreated; they were chosen by electors of all Wards. The office of Mayor was raised to the stature of Lord Mayor by Royal Letters Patent in 1919. The Lord Mayor received the right to be styled ‘The Right Honourable’ in 1927.
The Arms of the City of Adelaide were granted by the Heralds College in 1929. In 1982 the Council approved the design of the Armorial Flag.
In 2015, the Council became the first government of any kind in Australia to offer a financial incentive for installing battery systems.
Governance The City of Adelaide is legally defined as the capital city of South Australia by the City of Adelaide Act 1998, which also provides for a Capital City Committee, setting out its structure, function and responsibilities. The Act defines the Constitution of the council, including the role, allowances and benefits of the Lord Mayor and members. It defines the role of the CEO and their role with regard to Council employees. It continues the name of the council as "The Corporation of the City of Adelaide", and says that the land known as "The Corporation Acre" within the City of Adelaide is vested in the Adelaide City Council. It says that the name "Adelaide City Council" means the Corporation of the City of Adelaide.
the City of Adelaide Council consists of 12 elected members, including the Lord Mayor and 11 Area and Ward Councillors, elected for a 4-year term.Your current Council City of Adelaide, 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2019. Area Councillors are elected by the voters of the whole council area as one electorate, while Ward Councillors are only elected by the voters of their respective wards.
Council Current composition The council, , is:
Ward Party Councillor TenureRefLord Mayor Labor Jane Lomax-Smith1997–2000, 2022–presentArea Councillors Team Adelaide Arman Abrahimzadeh OAM2018– Independent Janet Giles2022–North Independent Phil Martin2014– Team Adelaide Mary Couros2018–Central Independent Carmel Noon2022–2025, 2025– Independent Patrick Maher2025– Independent Eleanor Freeman2025– Liberal Alfredo Cabada 2025–South Independent Keiran Snape2021– Labor Mark Siebentritt2022– In April 2025, the District Court declared the Central Ward portion of the 2022 South Australian local government elections. The decision saw the removal of Deputy Lord Mayor David Elliott, Councillor Simon Hou, Councillor Jing Li, and Councillor Carmel Noon. Carmel Noon was the only one of the four to regain her position on the council at a by-election later in the year.
In July 2026, South Ward elected member Henry Davis resigned. It was reported the following week that he was facing a three-month suspension from the South Australian Behavioural Standards Panel. The report said Davis “committed serious misbehaviour on three occasions" and reprimanded him “for failing to take reasonable care that his acts did not adversely affect the health and safety of other members of the Council.”
2022 election results
Population At the end of the 20th century, the city had little more than thirty per cent of the population it had in 1915 (when the population reached more than 43,000), and about 5,000 less than the 1855 population of 18,259. In proposing reforms and his advocacy for town planning legislation, Charles Reade illustrated the Adelaide slums associated with the city's high population levels with lantern-slides accompanying his lecture "Garden cities v. Adelaide slums and suburbs" in the Adelaide Town Hall on 8 Oct 1914.Where are the Slums? Mr. Reade on Garden Cities. The Journal, 9 October 1914, p 1. Reade was attacked by the Adelaide City Council who fought against the Town Planning and Housing Bill reformsLeonie Sandercock. 'Adelaide: Property, Privilege and Power' in Property, Politics, and Urban Planning: A History of Australian City Planning 1890-1990. p 81. and the press pointed out the wickedness of families being forced to 'herd together more and more in overcrowded conditions of living' and the 'sheer nonsense on the part of the City Council to pretend' that there were no slums in the city:City Council, Slums, and Town Planning.Daily Herald, 11 September 1916, p 4B.
In seeking a return to higher density population levels, Adelaide City Council launched its 'New Directions' with its three themes of Capacity, Vivacity and Audacity on 3 July 2001.Annual Report 2001/2002 , Adelaide City Council, p 2. The "Capacity" theme proposed doubling the city's population by 2010 and increasing the number of City visitors and workers.
According to the Annual Reports, the population has increased rapidly, due to the targets stated in the strategic plans developed at about that time.
Notes The population figures have been extracted from Adelaide City Council Annual reports. The data is summarised on pages 149-150 of A Thematic History.A Thematic History, pp149-150. Additional data not in that summary can be found in the reports on the council's "Annual Reports" page. 1840 The initial Annual Report noted a population of 8,480, with 1,615 buildings in the city. 1844 The second available figure (6,107) is also the minimum recorded in council reports. 1880s There are no figures available for the period between 1881 and 1912. South Australia suffered a severe depression in the 1880s when the State population, (and probably the city's population too), declined. 1915 The peak population was 43,133. 1921 The State population passes 500,000. The city population was 39,458. 1963 The State population passes 1,000,000. The city population was 23,000. 1993 There is only one figure available between 1976 and 1999 – 11,405 in 1993. It was in the late 1990s that the council developed and started implementing its plans to increase the city's population, and not until 2004 when it started regularly updating the population estimates based on figures supplied by the Bureau of Census and Statistics. 2001 In 2001, the council set targets for population numbers for 2006 and 2010. These targets were raised considerably in 2003. In 2009, targets were set for 2012.
The following table sets out the figures of various types of city population in the 21st century:Annual Reports, City of Adelaide2016-17 2015-16 2014-15 2013-14 2012-13 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03 2001-02 2000-01 1999-00 1998-99 1997-98
Year2016–172015–162014–152013–142012–132011–122010–112009–102008–092007–082006–072005–062004–052003–042002–032001–022000–01 2006 goal2010 goal2012 goalPermanentresidents 23,396 23,169 22,690 22,200 21,600 22,000 21,800 21,200 19,800 19,700 18,400 15,000 14,361 13,734 13,289 16,00025,00025,00034,00025,500Dwellings 11,546 10,860 11,467 10,860 10,860 13,100 12,500 11,388 10,600 9,900 9,900 9,600 7,335 7,335 5,510Overnightpopulation 28,000 29,800 29,200 27,400 27,100 23,800 22,000 21,090 19,610 17,861 17,861 19,900 34,500Overnightvisitors 6,000 8,000 8,000 7,600 7,400 5,400 7,000 6,729 5,866 Dailyvisitors(*)311,414262,000228,673228,670228,670 86,500 79,000 74,000 60,000 75,000 75,000 75,000103,500103,500 125,000 150,000Workers115,250122,700122,700118,200118,200118,000126,500126,500118,500108,000108,000 99,000 95,682 93,000 93,000 89,000 98,000 111,000 125,000Students 67,100 64,000 64,000 86,700 90,000 88,000 86,700 81,100 75,000 63,000 59,240 51,900 50,597 50,000 58,000 66,000Dailypopulation 220,000205,000208,200190,000200,000200,000216,000215,000 Officespace(**) 1.503 1.443 1.200 1.184 1.038 1.100 1.109 * Visitors to the city from the Adelaide Metropolitan area, for all purposes ** Square kilometres (millions of square metres) of office space. i.e. 1.503 km2 = 1,503,000 sq. metres.
Adelaide Park Lands
The city's 2010–11 Annual Report noted that the total area of the City of Adelaide is 15.6 km2, of which 7.6 km2 is Park Lands.Annual Report 2010-11 , City of Adelaide, p. 1. Other sources put the Park Lands area closer to 7.0 km2.Fiction and Facts about the Adelaide Park Lands, Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association. The original area was 2,300 acres (9.3 km2), a number the Council still regularly quotes.Our Parks, adelaideparklands.com.au
Services and amenities The City of Adelaide's administrative offices are located in the Colonel William Light Centre building at 25 Pirie Street, adjacent to the Adelaide Town Hall in King William Street.
Apart from providing the usual services like rubbish collection and controlling local development, the City of Adelaide owns and operates a number of city services and amenities, including: A network of 10 car parking stations (Andrew, Central Market, Flinders, Frome, Gawler, Grote, Light Square, Pirie, Rundle, Topham and Wyatt) branded as UPark.