Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
many. The SA breeders survived by developing a strain of merino sheep suited to semiar-
id conditions.
By the 1870s SA had replaced Cornwall as the British Empire's leading copper produ-
cer, making many South Australians wealthy and leaving a legacy of fine public build-
ings in mining towns such as Burra.
The NT was opened up with the discovery of gold at Yam Creek, 160km south of Dar-
win. The find fired up local prospectors, and it wasn't long before other discoveries at
Pine Creek, south of Darwin, sparked a minor rush. The SA government built a railway
line in 1883 from Darwin to Pine Creek, but the gold rush was soon over. Subsequent
government-backed NT projects such as sugar, tobacco and coffee plantations, peanut
farming, pearling and crocodile- and snakeskin trading either failed completely or
provided only minimal returns.
In 1865 Surveyor-General George Goyder drew an imaginary line across SA: drought-
prone land to the north, viable wheat-growing land to the south. Over time, the famed
Goyder's Line has proved reliable. But Goyder was pre-climate change: where would he
draw the line today?
Finding Federation
When parliament sprang up in 1856, SA began with the most democratic constitution of
any colony. Before that it was governed by representatives from the SA Board of Com-
missioners and the British government.
Fighting off recession, transport and communications systems grew rigorously in SA.
By 1890 railways connected Adelaide with Melbourne, Oodnadatta in the outback, and
Cockburn on SA's border with NSW. There were also 3200km of sealed roads and
100-plus steamboats trading on the Murray River. The SA parliament established Aus-
tralia's first juvenile court in 1890, and granted free education in 1891. In 1894 SA be-
came the first Australian colony to recognise women's right to vote in parliamentary
elections, and the first place in the world to allow women to stand for parliament.
With federation in 1901 - the amalgamation of disparate colonies into the states of the
Commonwealth of Australia - SA experienced slow but steady growth, but South Aus-
tralian speculators and investors in the NT were getting cold feet. Soon after federation
the South Australian government threw in the towel, offering control of the ugly NT
duckling back to the federal government.
