X-Nico

99 unusual facts about South Australia


1836 in Australia

27 July - Reeves Point (later Kingscote), South Australia's first official European settlement is founded on Kangaroo Island.

1843 in Australia

September – John Ridley builds his invention, a corn stripper-harvester, in Hindmarsh.

1939 Australian Grand Prix

The track utilised was three country roads which in a triangle formation took in the nearby village of Charleston.

2006–07 Australian bushfire season

An arsonist lit at least thirteen fires in the eastern hills near Harrogate, but most were contained with minimal damage to property.

2007 FFSA Super League

The 2007 South Australian Super League was the second season of the South Australian Super League, the top level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

2011 FFSA Premier League

The 2011 FFSA Premier League is the sixth edition of the FFSA Premier League as the second level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

Alfred Rutter Clarke

He was a dog judge for the RAHS and lived at Aldgate.

Alick J Murray

Around 1919 Mount Crawford Estate was compulsorily acquired by the Government for the creation of the Warren Reservoir, and Murray retired from pastoral pursuits to his home "The Avenues" at Medindie.

Archibald Peake

He resigned his position as district clerk when he entered politics, and afterward was in business at Mount Barker as a member of the firm of auctioneers, Monks and Peake.

Australia at the 1968 Summer Paralympics

In June 2013, four South Australian members of the 1968 Australian Paralympics Team relived memories as part of the Australian Paralympic Committee history project.

Australian Girls Choir

Chapters of the Australian Girls Choir were opened in South Australia in June 1984 and in New South Wales in February 1986.

Australian Ultralight Industries Bunyip

The Australian Ultralight Industries Bunyip was an ultralight aircraft produced in South Australia.

Australian water dragon

There are anecdotal reports of a small colony living on the Sixth Creek in the Forest Range area of South Australia, which were probably introduced there during the 1980s by a local reptile enthusiast.

Bill McCann

McCann was born at Glanville in Adelaide to engine driver John Francis McCann and Eliza, née Francis.

In 1956 he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and died of coronary disease at Tusmore the following year.

Bordertown, South Australia

In 2012, the crossing loop at Bordertown Railway Station was lengthened to 1500m.

Brachinite

Brachinites are named after the Brachina meteorite, the type specimen of this group which in turn is named after Brachina, South Australia.

Carey Gully, South Australia

The road was an ideal location for the township in the past as it was situated on a largely dry, flat area (compared to the steep hills surrounding) and was also a main thoroughfare to the towns of Forest Range and Lenswood via Boundary Drive.

Carlton Draught

Carlton Draught is a pale lager which is sold on tap in its home state of Victoria as well as in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, and is one of Australia's most popular selling tap beers.

Charles James Melrose

Melrose Park in New South Wales and Melrose Park in South Australia are both suburbs named after him, as well as James Melrose Road, which travels along the southern boundary of Adelaide Airport.

Charles Thomas McGlew

McGlew was a pioneer in the salt industry in South Australia, having established in 1903 the Standard Salt Company which from 1912 operated a busy refinery at Edithburgh, exporting to Russia among other places.

Cheltenham Park Racecourse

On Saturday 21 February 2009 the last race meeting was held at the course before its official closure following the sale, with the area now being developed as part of the new suburb of St Clair.

Chrysler Hemi-6 Engine

In a major coup for the company, Chrysler Australia's ad agency, the Young & Rubicam Advertising Agency in Adelaide, South Australia, secured the services of British racing driver Sterling Moss to promote the new Hemi-6 (245 cui) in 1969.

Cigar Lake Mine

Other deposits, such as Olympic Dam in Australia, contain more uranium, but not at the significant grades of the Saskatchewan deposits.

Cowell Area School

Cowell Area School is an R-12 Government Public school in Cowell, a small costal town 494 km away from Adelaide, South Australia in the District Council of Franklin Harbour district.

Cyril Chambers

Chambers was born in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton and educated at St John the Baptist's School, Thebarton, and Hayward's Academy, Adelaide.

Damian Squire

Squire was a Port Adelaide Magpies supporter when he was growing up in the inner-northern Adelaide suburb of Broadview but due to where he lived and played his junior football with the Broadview Tigers and Greenacres Dragons in the heart of North Adelaide's metropolitan zone (only 10 minutes from North's home Prospect Oval), he ended up playing for the Roosters in the SANFL.

David Fawcett

He was posted to Royal Australian Air Force Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) at Edinburgh, South Australia as an Army helicopter test pilot.

Dene Davies

Born in Hindmarsh, Adelaide, Davies competed in sidecar racing with his brother in Australia, and then in scrambling, in which became a close friend of John Boulger, who later encouraged him to travel to England to try to establish himself as a speedway rider.

Dervish Bejah

Bejah is commemorated by a plaque on the Jubilee 150 Walkway in Adelaide as someone who made a major contribution to the development of South Australia.

Edward William Andrews

He had a close personal and business relationship with James Frew (for whom Frewville is named) of Frew & Co.

Elaterite

A substance of similar physical character is found in the Coorong district of South Australia, and is hence termed coorongite.

Ellen Chaplin

She was taken ill in Murrundi, New South Wales, but was able to proceed to New Zealand, and acted at Auckland, where she died from acute inflammation on 19 October 1880, aged 58 (Era, 26 December 1880, p. 4; Theatrical Times, 18 November 1848, p. 439, with portrait).

Fred Stacey

Stacey worked as a gold miner, farm labourer, timber miller and contractor prior to his election as Mayor of St Peters in 1928, serving in that position until 1932.

Frederick George Waterhouse

In 1897 he moved to Jamestown to live with his son, Edward George Waterhouse (ca.1860 – 25 January 1947).

George Crennan

Crennan was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia in 1900, one of the large family of children born to Frederick William Crennan, and Elizabeth Sutton.

Georgina McGuinness

An Adelaide native, born 29 August 1966, Georgina studied at Seymour College and at the Magill campus of the South Australian College of Advanced Education (now a part of the University of South Australia).

Glenelg Oval

Glenelg Oval (currently Gliderol Stadium @ Glenelg and formerly Challenge Recruitment Oval) is located on Brighton Road, Glenelg East, South Australia.

Go Records

Bands awarded contracts included The Cherokees, The Deakins, MPD Ltd, Tony & The Shantels (from Shepparton, Victoria), The Chosen Few (South Australia), and The Clique (Perth).

GTS/BKN

Based in Port Pirie with studio and playout facilities based in Canberra, the station's name originates from the original Port Pirie & Broken Hill stations callsigns, GTS-4 Port Pirie and BKN-7 Broken Hill.

Halfbeak

Halfbeaks are not a major target for commercial fisheries, though small fisheries for them exist in some places, for example in South Australia where fisheries target the southern sea garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir).

Haslam

Haslam, South Australia, a village in the District Council of Streaky Bay in Australia

Hazelwood Park, South Australia

Prior to European settlement, the area that is now Hazelwood Park was part of the traditional lands of the Kaurna people, that stretched from Port Broughton to Cape Jervis.

Hemsley Fraser

Hemsley Fraser is a learning and development company, with offices in the UK (London and Plymouth), the USA (Washington DC) and Australia (Brighton).

Hendrick Waye

Taffy Waye was known to ride 25 miles on horseback from Willunga to Unley to train and play for Sturt in 1903, regularly filling in for Willunga between league games at Sturt.

Herbert Yelland

The son of a farmer, he was educated at Roseworthy Agricultural College, and in 1899 started working for the South Australian education department.

Hilra railway station

Hilra railway station is a former railway station on the defunct Penfield railway line which is located in the northern Adelaide suburb of Salisbury North.

History of the Lutheran Church of Australia

In 1842 Pastor August Kavel in an attempt to consolidate the settlers into one localized community, strongly urged the settlers in the early settlements at Klemzig and Hahndorf to relocate to the newly settled Langmeil.

On 23 and 24 May 1839, Kavel convened a meeting of the elders of the three Prussian settlements at Klemzig, Hahndorf, and Glen Osmond.

History of X-ray astronomy

The first launched in 1957 from Woomera, Australia and its 441st and final launch took place from Esrange, Sweden on 2 May 2005.

Holden Astra

The Pulsar for Australia was assembled in Clayton, Victoria; however, for the Astra the body panels were pressed at Holden's Elizabeth, South Australia facility.

Horwood Bagshaw Ltd.

He returned to Adelaide in 1867 to supply the Montacute goldmine with a ten head stamp battery, which he bought back the following year and installed at the Echunga goldmine.

I-bot

The Microbric I-Bot is a small robot that was distributed as a build-it-yourself kit by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper in South Australia, in November-December 2005.

Indulkana

Without in any way approving such a policy, Lois acknowledges that she had a happy childhood there, and later at the Colebrook home at Eden Hills.

Jake Andrewartha

Jake Andrewartha (born 24 December 1989 in Clare, Australia) is an Australian judoka.

James Henry Aldridge

J. H. Aldridge, as he was generally known, or "Jim" to his friends, was born at Kensington, South Australia, the son of George Aldridge (ca.1817 – 12 December 1879), who emigrated to South Australia in 1847.

James Milner Phillips

In early 1962 Phillips made a reconnaissance trip to Lake Eyre, South Australia and had been warned by a local sheep station owner that heavy rains were expected the following year following the twenty years of drought that had made the playa so suitable as a driving surface.

James Robin

In the London office of Robert Torrens in 1851, with fellow Guernsey citizens James Thoume and N. P. Le Bair, Charles took a lease on the Kent Town section of Adelaide, then known as "Dr. Kent's Section", with an option to convert to freehold.

Jedd Hughes

Hughes grew up in Quorn, where he grew up listening to his father's country records.

John Spalvins

For many years, Spalvins and his second wife Gale divided their time between "Kintyre", their home in Springfield, South Australia, their villa on Hamilton Island, and their units in the United States.

Linda Agostini

Tony Agostini had recently returned to Sydney after being held in internment camps at Orange, Hay and Loveday from 1940 to 1944.

Lindsay Booth

In 1935 at the age of 17 Lindsay met his sweetheart Gwen, who was 15, at Brighton jetty.

Lower Light protest statues

The statues were made by local resident and farmer, Stephen Jones, as a protest against the establishment of a dump in the late 1990's by the Olsen government, as part of a plan to replace the Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre.

Luke Prokopec

Kenneth Luke Prokopec (born February 23, 1978 in Blackwood, South Australia) is an Australian-born, right-handed pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Malcolm Barclay-Harvey

The Vice-Regal couple spent as much time as they could at the Vice Regal Summer Residence at Marble Hill, where they restored the gardens.

Mark Coleridge

The third of five siblings born to Bernard and Marjorie (née Harvey) Coleridge, Mark Coleridge was educated at Saint Joseph's School, Tranmere, South Australia, Rostrevor College, Adelaide, and at St Kevin's College, Toorak.

Martyn Wyndham-Read

In 1960 he moved from Sussex to Australia where he worked on Emu Springs sheep station in South Australia.

Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1901–1903

At the time of the 1901 election, the states of Tasmania and South Australia had not yet been divided into electoral divisions.

Mount Davies Road

As a result of British atomic tests at Emu Field in 1953, a weather station was needed to the far north-west of the test sites, to determine when suitable weather conditions existed for future tests.

Murray River Flag

The Murray River Flag is flown from paddle steamers and other vessels in the Australian States of Victoria and South Australia that ply the waters of the Murray-Darling river system.

Muttaburra

Henry Radford stole cattle from Bowen Downs Station and drove them 1300 km through the mostly unexplored Central Australia region to the Blanche Water station in northern South Australia.

Nothomyrmecia

A further colony was found at Penong, 180 km (110 mi) to the west of Poochera, but the fate of the colony discovered in 1931 is not known.

O'Sullivan Beach, South Australia

O'Sullivan Beach has a unique postcode of 5166, and is adjacent to the suburbs of Christies Beach and Noarlunga Centre to the south east, Christies Beach to the south, and Port Stanvac to the north.

Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

When the branch to Mount Pleasant opened in 1918, a special platform was constructed adjacent to the course, permitting special race trains to run direct to the course the following Easter.

Patrons travelled by train from Adelaide to nearby Balhannah station 2 miles from the course from 1884.

Paringa

Paringa, South Australia, small town with a bridge across the Murray River in Australia

Peake

Peake, South Australia, a small rural town in the Murray Mallee of South Australia

Penfield railway line

This was necessary because Salisbury was still a semi-rural community at the time and most of the workforce had to be brought in from other districts.

Princeland

Edward Henty led The West Victorian Separation League, which aimed to establish the new colony, whose proposed capital was to be Mount Gambier and its main port Portland.

Rain follows the plow

Today, however, grain crops still do not grow further north than Quorn, as advised by Goyder's original report.

Ralph Tate

Tate gave special attention to the Recent and Tertiary mollusca of Australia, and discovered evidence of Permian glaciation of southern Australia at Hallett Cove.

Riverton Bridge

The suburb of Riverton was in 1937 informally called Riverton Bridge to avoid confusion with the South Australian town of Riverton.

Robert Zadow

After retirement from state cricket he went on to play for many years for his Adelaide grade club, Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club, where he became the highest run-scorer in South Australian grade cricket history with 9318, second only now to Wayne Bradbrook - Northern Districts CC with 9619 runs.

Rory Schlein

Schlein, who when home in Australia lives in the southern Adelaide suburb of Hallett Cove and calls the Gillman Speedway his home track, won the Australian Under-21 Speedway Championship in 2003 and 2004 and finished 2nd to Chris Holder in 2005.

Ryan Sullivan

His parents bought him a junior speedway bike and he had his first ride at the Olympic Park Speedway in Mildura in 1985, although his home track was the Sidewinders Speedway in the Adelaide suburb of Wingfield, a 112m long track run by the Sidewinders Junior Speedway Club solely aimed at junior Motorcycle speedway development.

Scared Weird Little Guys

The duo released a final CD entitled "Enough Already" which includes recordings from their Mount Gambier, Horsham and Warrnambool shows.

Schweppes Australia

The Passiona trademark has also been used by Cottees in their jelly crystal range, and originally by long defunct softdrink manufacturer, Geo. Hall & Sons in Norwood, South Australia.

Semaphore railway line

In 1917 when the Semaphore to Rosewater and Albert Park tram line was opened there was an unresolved dispute over the tramline crossing the railway line near Exeter station.

Silverton Rail 48s class locomotive

All were delivered for use on Silverton Tramway's 56 kilometre narrow gauge line from Broken Hill to Cockburn.

Snowtown, South Australia

Pupils are also able to study via distance education through the Open Access College at Marden (Adelaide) or via local delivery with neighbouring schools to increase their range of subject choices, particularly in Years 11 and 12.

Solanum centrale

The fruit are grown by Amata and Mimili communities in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, by the Dinahline community near Ceduna, by the Nepabunna community in the northern Flinders Ranges, and on the Tangglun Piltengi Yunti farm in Murray Bridge, and are marketed by Outback Pride.

South Australian Railways 350 class

Both were withdrawn in 1979 with 350 sold to SteamRanger and 351 to a preservation group at Moonta for a proposed heritage railway operation but the venture did not continue and the Australian Railway Historical Society purchased the unit and restored the locomotive to operating condition at Dry Creek depot.

South Gawler Football Club

The South Gawler Football Club is a country Australian rules football club, founded by James Fitzgerald in the Gawler South area of the Barossa Valley town of Gawler, South Australia, in 1889.

Tama Canning

Tamahau Karangatukituki Canning (born 7 April 1977 in Rose Park) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played four One Day Internationals but no Tests.

Tanunda, South Australia

Langmeil was the next settlement in 1843, which was settled by Prussian immigrants who relocated from Klemzig where they had originally settled in 1838, when they had arrived with Pastor August Kavel, Tanunda village was settled sometime later.

Tigerfish Aviation

Tigerfish Aviation is an aerospace research and development company based in Norwood, South Australia.

Vincent Grey Flash

The Australian National Motor Museum of road transport history in Birdwood, South Australia has a 1950 Grey Flash.

William Jethro Brown

Brown was educated at Stanley Grammar School, Watervale, South Australia, and taught for a while at Moonta Mines State School.

Brown was the son of James Brown, a farmer, and his wife Sophia Jane, née Torr, and was born at Mintaro, South Australia.


Australian heritage law

Australian heritage laws exist at the national (Commonwealth) level, and at each of Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia state levels.

Australian Plague Locust Commission

With 19 staff members at its headquarters in Canberra and field offices in Narromine, Broken Hill and Longreach, the Commission is funded half by the Commonwealth government and half by the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Australian Protective Service

Protection of sensitive defence establishments, including Defence Headquarters at Russell Offices in Canberra; the joint Australian/US communications facility at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory; the former atomic testing site at Maralinga in South Australia; the Australian Defence Signals facility at Geraldton and the naval communications station at Exmouth, both in Western Australia

Banksia archaeocarpa

A fossil banksia cone comparable to B. archaeocarpa, named Banksia longicarpa has also been described from Miocene age specimens collected near Marree in northern South Australia, also well outside the current distribution of Banksia.

Barcoo River

The waters of the river flow towards Lake Eyre in central Australia while those of rivers further east join the Murray-Darling basin and reach the sea in South Australia.

Bungandidj people

The Buandig people (Boandik, Booandik, Bunganditj) are Indigenous Australians from the Mount Gambier region in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.

Cape Horner

Port Victoria Maritime Museum: A Maritime Museum commemorating the journeys of the Cape Horners made to Port Victoria in South Australia

Collet Barker

Mount Barker was named for him by Captain Sturt who erroneously thought it was Mount Lofty, and the eponymous town is named for the mountain.

Earl of Carysfort

Hugh Proby, third son of the third Earl, was the founder of Kanyaka Station in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.

Eremophila alternifolia

alternifolia occurs in arid areas of Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and the Barrier Range in New South Wales, in many different habitats with stony or red soil.

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.

GTS/BKN

GTS/BKN, known on-air as Southern Cross Television, is an Australian regional television station serving the Spencer Gulf of South Australia and the Broken Hill area of New South Wales.

Henry Jickling

Henry Jickling was appointed as a caretaker judge in 1837 to the Supreme Court of South Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of South Australia.

Holden Torana

During this period it toured motor museums around the country, including the National Motor Museum at Birdwood in South Australia.

HyShot

The team continue to work as part of the Australian Hypersonics Initiative, a joint program of The University of Queensland, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales' Australian Defence Force Academy campus, the governments of Queensland and South Australia and the Australian Defence Department.

International Value Wine Awards

The highest scoring red in 2007 was Nugan Estate 2005 McLaren Parish Shiraz from McLaren Vale, South Australia; and the highest scoring white was Cathedral Cellar 2005 Chardonnay from Paarl, South Africa.

Inverbrackie, South Australia

It includes the Woodside Barracks (16th Air Land Regiment), South Australia, although there are also some other residents and businesses in Inverbrackie.

Kangarilla Football Club

Kangarilla left the Hills Football League and joined the Southern Football League Division 2 competition in 1981, gaining promotion to Division 1 in 1984.

Kapunda Football Club

Kapunda Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club, based in Kapunda, South Australia, that competes in the Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association.

Kartan industry

Kartan industry is the archaeological production, probably more than 10,000 years ago, of a large quantity of exceptionally large stone tools that were found on Ramindjeri Karta also known since 1802 as Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Kylie Halliday

Kylie's home town of Adelaide, South Australia hosted the FISAF World Championships in 2004 where Kylie placed 2nd to Finland's Tiia Piili.

Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster

Many former Australian New South Wales Public Transport Commission and State Transport Authority Worldmasters upon withdrawal, were rebodied by private operators including Brisbane Bus Lines, Fearne's of Wagga Wagga, Menai Bus Service and Toongabbie Transport up until the mid-1980s.

Limestone Coast Railway

The Limestone Coast Railway was a tourist railway that operated from Mount Gambier in South Australia's Limestone Coast region, running Redhen railcars to Kalangadoo and Tantanoola.

Lucasium damaeum

It is nocturnal, insectivorous, and is indigenous to the area around the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia - most particularly in arid climates such as found in Gawler Ranges National Park.

Martin J. Fettman

Fettman spent one year (1989–1990) on sabbatical leave as a Visiting Professor of Medicine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University of Adelaide, South Australia, where he worked with the Gastroenterology Unit studying the biochemical epidemiology of human colorectal cancer.

Netherby, South Australia

At the state level it is in the electorate of Waite, and has been represented since 1997 by Martin Hamilton-Smith, also of the Liberal party, and from 2007 to 2009, the State Leader of the Opposition.

Ommatoiulus moreleti

Since being introduced to Port Lincoln, South Australia in 1953, the millipede has spread to other parts of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory, southern New South Wales and Western Australia around Perth

Plymouth Belvedere

The first model, based on the 1953 US Plymouth, featured a high level of Australian content, with body panels pressed in Chrysler Australia's Keswick facility in South Australia and matched with a 217.8 cubic inch (4107cc) side-valve six-cylinder engine, imported from Chrysler UK.

Premiers of the Australian states

Currently South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory are the three states and territories that are run by Labor governments.

Princeland

The new colony was named after Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert and was to comprise the area west of Longitude 143°, part of the Wimmera and parts of South Australia near the Victorian border.

PS Murray Princess

The paddlewheeler, PS Murray Princess, is a tourist vessel operating from its homeport of Mannum, South Australia, on the Murray River.

Randolph Roy Bruce

Bruce was born in Adelaide, South Australia to CJP and Anna Bruce and attended Norwood High School before becoming a clerk in the South Australian Railways.

Rex Townley

His claim to fame as a cricketer was dismissing Donald Bradman, caught and bowled for 369, in a first-class match against South Australia, the legendary batsman's second highest ever score at that level.

Shire of Bulloo

Cameron Corner, the point where New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, is located at the south west corner of the shire.

South Australia–Victoria border dispute

In November 1846 the Colonial Secretary's Office directed surveyor Henry Wade to proceed from Sydney to the disputed territory to define a "Boundary for Police Purposes".

The earliest relevant reference to the eastern boundary of South Australia is contained in a despatch dated 30 September 1844 from Governor Grey of that Colony to Lord Stanley.

South Australian Railways

The Adelaide urban lines were transferred to the State Transport Authority, which was incorporated into TransAdelaide in 1994.

Thomas Boutflower Bennett

Thomas Boutflower Bennett (1808- 14 September 1894) was an early colonist of South Australia, remembered as a schoolmaster at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and at Saint Peter's College.

Thura-Yura languages

The Yura or Thura-Yura languages are a group of Australian Aboriginal languages surrounding Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent in South Australia, that comprise a genetic language family of the Pama–Nyungan family.

West Park Oval

The ground is scheduled to hold another List A match in November 2011 between Tasmania and South Australia in the 2011–12 Ryobi One-Day Cup.

Woodside Barracks

Woodside Barracks is an Australian Army base located in South Australia near Inverbrackie and Woodside in South Australia.

Yookamurra Sanctuary

Yookamurra Sanctuary is a 50 km2 nature reserve in the Murraylands region of South Australia, between the eastern slopes of the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Murray River, 24 km north-east of the town of Sedan.