Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
patent issued in the name of King William IV to establish the Province of South Australia.
Several ships of colonists set sail that same year, and the formal settlement of the colony was
proclaimed at Holdfast Bay (near point H on this map) by its governor, John Hindmarsh, on
28 December.
Unlike some earlier British settlements on the Australian continent, South Australia was
not founded as a penal colony for punishing criminals but as a community of free settlers. It
was hoped that it would become a model of systematic colonisation, offering political and re-
ligious freedom to young men and women who were willing to work hard and establish new
lives ten thousand miles from the country of their birth. Unusually, this emphasis on freedom
was extended at least nominally to the region's Aboriginal people, whose pre-existence and
rights were recognised in the founding documents.
William Light, a former officer in the British army, was appointed as the colony's surveyor
general and tasked with planning its new capital. He chose a pleasant site (points B and C
on this map) about six miles from Holdfast Bay. Light and his deputy, George Strickland
Kingston, designed the town with a grid pattern of wide streets and squares, surrounded by
parkland. Although Governor Hindmarsh was dissatisfied with Light's choice of site, which
he believed was too far inland, his attempts to move the town to another location failed. The
new capital was given the name Adelaide after King William's wife. This name is written
rather faintly in pencil near the top right-hand corner of the map.
This sketch map of the area is drawn neatly to scale. It is covered with handwritten notes -
many of which are quite difficult to read - outlining the nature of the terrain, and discussing
the arrangements for landing ships and how they might be improved. The line between the
points marked E and F marks the position of a proposed canal (which was never constructed),
intended to link Adelaide with what later became Port Adelaide. The map is not signed and
we cannot be certain whether Light drew it himself but it evidently reflects his opinions and
intentions. It was probably drawn in February 1837 during the initial phase of surveying the
town site.
In its early years, Adelaide suffered from economic difficulties and inadequate leadership
but it soon began to thrive. With more than one million inhabitants, it is now the fifth most
populous city in Australia and its metropolitan area stretches beyond the coverage of this
map. Its historic centre still remains true to Light's original vision of a neatly planned town
surrounded by a ring of green space.
