This is a Timeline of South Australian history.
Pre 1836 18,000 BC: Evidence of flint mining activity and rock art in the Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain. 1627: First recorded European sighting of the South Australian coast. 1802: South Australian coastline mapped by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin. 1802 (Circa): Unofficial settlement of Kangaroo Island by sealers. 1830: Captain Charles Sturt travels to the mouth of the Murray River in a whale boat. 1831: Captain Collet Barker explores the Adelaide Plains and climbs to the summit of Mount Lofty.
1800s
1830s
1836: South Australia proclaimed by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December at the Old Gum Tree, Glenelg. 1836: Site for Adelaide chosen by Colonel William Light beside the River Torrens. 1837: Colonel Light completes survey of Adelaide city centre and designs the city's grid layout. Allotments of are made. 1837: First regional settlement, later named Gawler, is founded north of Adelaide. 1837: Adelaide's first hospital opens on North Terrace. 1838: South Australia Company institutes Special Survey scheme to encourage wealthy pastoralists. 1838: The first Australian police force is formed in Adelaide, the South Australia Police. 1838: Overlanders Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney arrive in Adelaide from New South Wales with 300 head of cattle. 1838: First German immigrants arrive and settle in Adelaide and surrounds. 1838: Governor George Gawler arrives. 1839: Colonel Light dies at Thebarton and is interred in Light Square beneath a memorial. He is the only person buried within "the square mile". 1839: The first road in South Australia, Port Road, is opened. 1839: Edward John Eyre begins his explorations of the Flinders Ranges and beyond. 1839: Gawler township is established.
1840s 1840: The first portion of Government House is completed, becoming the first in Australia. 1840: Royal Adelaide Show held for the first time. 1840: The Corporation of Adelaide is founded, the first municipal authority in Australia. 1840: Maria wrecked on Coorong and survivors massacred. Gawler orders punitive expedition. 1841: Construction of Adelaide Gaol begins. 1841: Adelaide Hospital (later Royal) opened. 1841: Governor George Grey arrives to replace Gawler. 1842: Copper is discovered at Kapunda. 1843: The first Legislative Council building opens on North Terrace. 1844: The colonial Government takes control of the Corporation of Adelaide. 1845: Copper is discovered at Burra. 1845: Port Pirie founded on the upper Spencer Gulf. 1846: John Ainsworth Horrocks dies while exploring land to the northwest of Lake Torrens. 1847: St Peter's College established. 1848: Pulteney Grammar School established.
1850s 1850: The forerunner to Harris Scarfe, G. P. Harris and J. C. Lanyon, opened on Hindley Street. 1852: The Corporation of Adelaide is reconstituted. First transport of gold overland arrived in Adelaide. 1852: Adelaide Educational Institution opens in Ebenezer Place. 1854: The township of Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf is surveyed. 1854: The township of Gambierton, later Mount Gambier is founded in the South East. 1855: James Macgeorge lays telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. 1855: Charles Todd, Astronomical and Meteorological Observer, arrives. 1856: The South Australian Institute, from which the State Library, State Museum and Art Gallery derived, is founded. 1856: Government telegraph line and steam railway between Adelaide and Port Adelaide opened. 1856: South Australia becomes one of the first places in the world to enact the Secret Ballot. 1857: Adelaide Botanic Garden opened at today's site in the Parklands at the corner of North and East Terraces. 1858: Melbourne–Adelaide telegraph line opened. 1858: The first edition of The Advertiser newspaper is published. 1859: A jetty of more than 350 metres in length is constructed at Glenelg. 1859: Shipwreck of SS Admella off Carpenter Rocks in the South East. 89 dead. Worst maritime disaster to this day.
1860s 1860: Thorndon Park Reservoir supplied water through new reticulation system. 1861: East Terrace markets opened. 1861: Copper discovered at Moonta, on the Yorke Peninsula. 1862: John McDouall Stuart successfully crosses the continent from north to south on his sixth attempt. 1863: First gas supplied to city. 1864–1867: Great drought 1865: Bank of Adelaide founded. 1866: Sisters of St Joseph founded by Saint Mary MacKillop in Penola to teach poor rural children. 1866: The Italianate Adelaide Town Hall opened. 1866: First oil exploration in Australia at Alfred Flat near Salt Creek, along the Coorong. 1867: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, made first royal visit to Adelaide. 1869: The City Market (later Central) opened on Grote Street. 1869: Prince Alfred College established.
1870s 1870: Port Adelaide Football Club established. 1871: South Australian Cricket Association is formed. 1872: General Post Office opened. Adelaide became first Australian capital linked to Imperial London with completion of the Overland Telegraph. 1873: First cricket match played at Adelaide Oval. 1874: Adelaide Oval is officially opened. 1874: University of Adelaide founded. 1874: Iron ore mined and smelted at Mount Jagged, then abandoned. 1875: Adelaide Steamship Company founded. 1876: Adelaide Children's Hospital founded. 1877: The Adelaide Bridge across the River Torrens completed. 1877: Copper mines at Burra and Kapunda close. 1878: First horse-drawn trams in Australia commence operations in the city. 1879: Foundation stone of the University of Adelaide laid. 1879: Advanced School for Girls founded; moves to Grote Street in 1881.
1880s 1880–1886 "seven years' drought" 1880: Telephone introduced in South Australia. 1880: Fort Glanville opens. 1880: Reformatory Hulk Fitzjames commissioned and moored off Largs Bay. 1881: The Art Gallery of South Australia opened by Prince Albert Victor. 1881: Torrens Lake created following the construction of weir. 1881: Coopers Brewery is established. 1881: Drought ruins thousands of farmers on marginal land in the Mid North and Goyder's Line is recognised as the limit to agricultural settlement. 1882: First water-borne sewerage service in Australia commenced. 1882: The City Baths opened on King William Road. 1883: Adelaide Zoological Gardens opened. 1884: Adelaide Trades and Labor Council inaugurated. 1884: Fort Largs opens. 1885: The Adelaide Arcade opens. 1886: Commercial Bank of South Australia fails in February. 1885: Flinders Column erected at the Mount Lofty Summit. 1887: The Overland train service between Adelaide and Melbourne commences. 1887: Stock Exchange of Adelaide forms. 1889: School of Mines and Industries opens on North Terrace. 1889: Lead smelters built at Port Pirie.
1890s
1891: The Central Australia Railway reaches Oodnadatta in the far north. 1892: First public statue, Venus (Venere Di Canova), unveiled on North Terrace. 1892: Following drop in share values, Bank of South Australia taken over by the Union Bank of Australia. 1894: Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894, the world's second Act granting women suffrage and the first granting women the right to stand for parliament passed in Parliament House on North Terrace. 1896: Moving pictures shown for first time in South Australia at Theatre Royal on Hindley Street. 1896: Happy Valley Reservoir opened. 1896: Adelaide Hospital Board of Management sacked by the Government. The dysfunctional nature of the workplace came to a head when Edward Willis Way, no friend of Premier Kingston, was accused of nepotism. 1897: Constitutional Convention on Federation held in Adelaide. 1899: South Australian contingent leaves Adelaide for the Second Boer War. 1899: State Referendum on Federation: South Australia votes Yes (70.2%).
1900s 1900s 1900: First electricity station opened in South Australia at Grenfell Street. 1901: Adelaide became a state capital upon the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January. The Duke and Duchess of York visit. 1901: Whyalla founded on the upper Spencer Gulf as a port for iron ore from the Middleback Ranges. 1904: Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange opens in the East End. 1904: State Flag of South Australia is officially adopted. 1906: Federal Referendum on Senate Elections: South Australia votes Yes (86.99%). 1908: Outer Harbor opens. 1908: Adelaide High School established. 1909: Electric tram services begin.
1910s 1910: Federal Referendum on Surplus Revenue: South Australia votes No (50.94%). 1911: Federal Referendum on Trade and Commerce: South Australia votes No (61.93%). 1912: The Verco Building, an early 'skyscraper', is built on North Terrace. 1913: Metropolitan abattoirs open. 1913: Federal Referendum on Trade and Commerce: South Australia votes Yes (51.32%). 1914: South Australian troops join their Australian comrades in Europe to fight in World War I. 1914: Torrens Island Internment Camp opens. 1915: Liquor bars close at 6 pm following referendum, creating the six o'clock swill. 1915: Torrens Island Internment Camp closes. 1915: Four women Justices of the Peace appointed, the first in Australia. 1915: Cheer-up Hut opens 4 November, first anniversary of Cheer-Up Society. 1917: German private schools close because of the World War I. 1917: First trains to Perth following completion of the Trans-Australian Railway. 1918: Railway line from Hallett Cove to Willunga opens. 1918: Mount Pleasant railway line between Balhannah and Mount Pleasant opens. 1919: Adelaide awarded official city status and Mayor became Lord Mayor. 1919: Sedan railway line between Monarto South and Sedan opens.
1920s 1921: Percy Brookfield, a NSW Politician, is shot at the Riverton railway station and later dies. 1924: 5CL, Adelaide's first AM broadcaster commences broadcasting 1924: James Stobie invents the Stobie pole, now a South Australian icon. 1924: Township of Murray Bridge is founded. 1925: Wayville Showgrounds open. 1927: Duke and Duchess of York visit. 1928: Federal Referendum - South Australia votes: Yes (62.68%) on State Debt 1929: Electric service to Glenelg commences. 1929: Central Australia Railway extended to Alice Springs.
1930s 1932: Local government overhauled when Government redefined boundaries and names and abolished others. 1933: First John Martin's Christmas Pageant 1935: Many German place names, which had been changed during World War I, are restored. 1936: South Australia celebrates its centenary. 1936: South Australian Housing Trust is founded. 1937: First trolley bus services commence. 1937: First permanent traffic lights installed. 1937: Federal Referendum - South Australia Votes: No (59.87%) on Aviation No (79.17%) on Marketing 1937: Outbreak of poliomyelitis. 1938: South Australian Housing Trust completes first dwelling. 1939: Worst heat wave recorded with disastrous bushfires and highest Adelaide temperature of 47.6 °C. 1939: New Parliament House opened on North Terrace by the Governor-General Lord Gowrie.
1940s 1940: Birkenhead Bridge opens. 1940: Ship building begins at Whyalla. 1940: Pinguin enters South Australian waters, laying sea mines along vital shipping lanes. 1940: Loveday POW camp opens 1942: Rationing of tea and clothing introduced. 1943: Rationing of butter introduced. 1944: Federal Referendum - South Australia Votes: Yes (50.64%) on Post War Reconstruction and Democratic Rights 1944: Rationing of meat introduced. 1944: attacks the Greek freighter Ilissos off the Limestone Coast. 1945: Gas and electricity restrictions imposed. 1945: Hills Industries founded. 1946: Federal Referendum - South Australia votes: Yes (51.73%) on Social Services No (51.26%) on Marketing No (51.80%) on Industrial Employment 1947: Woomera Rocket Range established. 1947: Orchards ripped up following discovery of fruit fly in the metropolitan area. 1948: Federal Referendum -[South Australia votes: No (57.85%) on Rents and Prices 1948: Glenelg jetty destroyed and widespread damage caused by severe storms.