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2 unusual facts about Governor of South Australia


John Shaw-Lefevre

Lefevre Peninsula, South Australia, was named by Governor John Hindmarsh on 3 June 1837 after Shaw-Lefevre, who was one of South Australia's Colonisation Commissioners.

John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer

From 1947 to 1950, Lord Spencer served as Aide-de-Camp to then-Governor of South Australia, Willoughby Norrie.


Adelaide leak

Alexander Hore-Ruthven, the Governor of South Australia, who was in England at the time, expressed his concern to J. H. Thomas, the British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs that this would cause a significant impact on trade between the nations.

Capital punishment in Australia

Two Ngarrindjeri men were controversially executed by hanging along the Coorong on 22 August 1840, after a drumhead court-martial conducted by Police Commissioner O'Halloran on the orders of Governor George Gawler.

District Court of South Australia

Judges of the District Court are appointed by the Governor of South Australia on the advice of the Executive Council.

Gawler, South Australia

Gawler is the first country town in the state of South Australia, and is named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler.

Happy Valley Reservoir

On 7 August 1896 the tunnel's inlet valve was opened by the Governor of South Australia, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and the reservoir began filling.

Jamestown, South Australia

Jamestown (originally James Town) was named after Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of South Australia when the town was surveyed in 1871.

Machinery of government

According to KPMG, in South Australia the Governor may establish, alter and abolish government departments under powers provided in section 26 of the Public Service Act 2009.

Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden

The garden was designed by landscape designer Elsie Cornish, and the statue created by Ola Cohn was unveiled by Lady Muriel Barclay-Harvey (the wife of the Governor of South Australia, Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey) on 19 April 1941.

Port Elliot, South Australia

Horseshoe Bay was proclaimed a port in 1851, and the settlement above the bay was named Port Elliot in 1852 after Charles Elliot, the Governor of Bermuda who was a friend of the then Governor of South Australia, Sir Henry Young.


see also

Battle of Barrosa

A young officer in the 4th Dragoons at the battle, subsequently Colonel William Light and the governor of South Australia in the 1830s, decided to name one of the valleys in his area Barossa Valley in memory, albeit subject to a clerical error.

Desert rat-kangaroo

It was discovered in the early 1840s and described by John Gould in London in 1843, on the basis of three specimens sent to him by George Grey, the governor of South Australia at the time.

Gerry Weigall

A younger brother was Lieutenant Colonel Sir William Ernest George Archibald Weigall, 1st Baronet KCMG, a Conservative MP who was Governor of South Australia.

James Fergusson

Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet (1832–1907), former Governor of South Australia, New Zealand and Bombay

John McDouall Stuart

Nevertheless, they found a major watercourse in early April which Stuart named the Finke River, and followed it north-west over the South Australian border to the MacDonnell Ranges, which he named after Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Governor of South Australia, on 12 April 1860.

Thomas Bridges

Tom Bridges (1871–1939), British military officer and Governor of South Australia

Thomas Buxton

Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet (1837–1915), Governor of South Australia (1895–1899)