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South Australian chronology under European influence


1627 West coast from present day western border to Smoky Bay encountered by F Thijessen on Gulden Zeepaerdt
1800 James Grant sailed along SE coast and named Mount Gambier
1802 Matthew Flinders charted the whole coastline from west to east in the Investigator and meets Nicolas Baudin at Encounter Bay travelling east to west in Le Geographe
1825 1st recorded long term European occupation by American sealers from vessel Union on Kangaroo Island
1829 Edward Gibbon Wakefield's, A letter from Sydney published in London
1830 Charles Sturt's expedition reaches Murray mouth
1831 Collet Barker climbs Mt Lofty and sees Port River inlet
1833 South Australian Association formed
1834 South Australian Foundation Act assented [15 Aug]
1835 Board of Colonisation Commissioners appointed [5 May]: South Australian Company established [Oct]
1836 South Australia Foundation Act financial conditions met and thus province formally established by Letters Patent issued by
King William IV [19 Feb]
Assisted passage of immigrants commences: permanent European settlement established: SA Gazette & Colonial Register founded; location of Adelaide determined by Colonel William Light [31 Dec]
1837 1st female professional artist, Martha Berkeley, arrives on the John Renwick [14 Feb]; Survey of Adelaide completed [10 Mar]; Adelaide's streets named by a committee [23 May]; Supreme Court established;
1839 Colonel William Light, Founder of Adelaide dies [6 Oct]: Infirmary opens at Emigration Square (north of West/North Tces intersection) [Dec]
1840 Victoria Park Racecourse opened [1 Jan]; Police Force established; Adelaide Municipal Corporation elected [31 Oct]; Miller & Gale (forerunner of Miller Anderson Dept Store) opens in Hindley Street
1841 1st Census conducted: Edward John Eyre crossed from Fowlers Bay to Albany: assisted passage of immigrants stops: Adelaide Hospital opened & Infirmary closed [Jan]: Glen Osmond mine opened
1842 Legislative Council established: copper discovered at Kapunda: civil registration commenced [Jul]
1843 South Australian Legislative Council meets [10 Sep]
John Ridley invented a stripper havester [14 Nov]
1844 Morphett Vale - 1st Catholic Church dedicated [8 Dec]
1845 Copper discovered at Burra
1847 Assisted passage of immigrants resumes: Saving Bank of South Australia established
1850 GP Harris & JC Lanyon (forerunner of Harris Scarfe) Dept Store opens ironmongery in Hindley Street
1851 Election of some members of Legislative Council
1852 The Adelaide Sovereign (a gold £1 coin), minted from gold brought to Adelaide by the Tolmer Gold Escorts, released [26 Nov] as part of the effort to maintain the failing economy due to the loss of men to the Victorian Goldfields.
1853 District Councils Act: Central Board of Education established: steam navigation of River Murray begins
1854 Goolwa–Port Elliot railway opened (1st in Australia); Catherine Helen Spence publishes her 1st novel
1855 Appointment of Charles Todd as Superintendent of Telegraphs and Government Astronomer (15 Feb)
1856 Adelaide to the Port telegraph line: population passes 100,000; JA Holden & Co (forerunner of General Motors Holden) opens saddlery business in Adelaide; South Australian Electoral Commissioner, William Robinson Boothby introduced the concept of the secret ballot to the world [VIC took up the idea also and managed to bring the concept into law on 19 Mar and South Australia followed on 2 Apr]; Universal male suffrage introduced [2 Apr]; establishment of responsible government [24 Oct]
1857 Adelaide to Gawler railway completed [5 Oct]
1858 Torrens Title System introduced (subsequently widely adopted throughout the world)
1859 Admella lost (6 Aug). Remains the greatest tragedy in terms of loss of life in European history
1860 Copper discovered at Wallaroo: Gawler railway extended to Kapunda: Thordon Park reservoir: Marine Board established
1861 Copper discovered at Moonta: South Australian Gas Company Act
1862 John Mcdouall Stuart returned from south-north crossing of continent: South Australian Museum opened; Elder and Company import camels
1863 Northern Territory annexed: Brompton gasworks opened
1872 Adelaide to London telegraph opened
1874 University of Adelaide Act; Adelaide Steamship Co founded [9 Oct]
1875 Education Act
1876 Kingston to Naracoorte railway opened: Adelaide Childrens Hospital established: Trade Unions recognised
1877 Adelaide to Perth telegraph completed [8 Dec].
1878 Kapunda railway extended to Morgan
1879 George Fife Angas died [15 May]
1881 Railway reaches Port Pirie
1883 Adelaide telephone exchange opened
1884 Land & income tax introduced: United Trades & Labour Council formed: HMCS Protector arrived from England [30 Sep]: married women allowed to own property
1885 Broken Hill ore discovered
1887 SE railways connected to newly opened Adelaide to Melbourne Adelaide railway: Renmark Irrigation settlement
1888 Star of Greece wrecked off Pt Willunga [13 Jul] with loss of 11 lives
1889 Lead smelter established at Port Pirie
1891 United Labor Party formed: Belair National Park opened
1892 Free education introduced
1893 BT Finniss, first Premier died [24 Dec]
1895 Women granted the vote
1896 Moving pictures shown in Adelaide
1897 David Shearer of Mannum invented the differential gear which he incorporated into his steam car; Sir Thomas Elder died [6 Mar]
1898 George Woodroffe Goyder dies [2 Nov]
1899 BHP iron ore mine at Iron Knob opened: Federation Referendum 65990 for and 17053 against
1901 Grenfell Street Power station on line (now Tandanya Heritage Centre)
1903 Crematorium established at West Terrace Cemetery
1905 Kindergarten (pre-schools) established
1906 1st drivers' licences and car registration plates issued in Austraia [10 Sep] - #1 to Dr William A Hargreaves
Metropolitan Tramways Trust Act
1907 Port Lincoln to Cummins railway opened; Subterranean Clover seed commercially available [Jan]
1908 First country High Schools opened
1909 Electric trams introduced; Mary Lee died [18 Sep]; Robert Helpman born [9 Apr]
1910 British coins discontinued; first powered flight in Australia by Frederic Custance [17 Mar]; Catherine Helen Spence died [3 Apr]
1911 Northern Territory ceeded to Commonwealth
1915 South Australian born William Lawrence Bragg awarded the Nobel Physics Prize cojointly with his father for work on X-ray crystallography; Women police force established [1 Dec].
1917 East-west railway opened: Holden's Body shop mass producing
1920 Achives established
1921 Population passed 500,000
1922 Blanchetown lock opened on Murray River
1923 Adelaide University first to produce insulin cheaply in commercial quantities
1924 Regular AM radio broadcasts commenced
1925 Metropolitan Tramways Trust (MTT) Bus services introduced
1928 First aviation fatality in South Australia [13 Mar] F/Lt IE McIntyre at Parafield during a stunt display; 8 killed in railway embankment collapse [31 Jan] during tunnel demolition on Hills Railway
1929 Port Augusta to Alice Springs railway opened. First transmission by Alf Traeger's pedal radio [19 Jun]
1930 Professor T Brailsford Robertson producer of commercial insulin dies [18 Jan]; Amos Howard dies [2 Mar]
1931 General Motors takes over Holdens to form GMH
1933 First Christmas Parade by John Martin Department Store
1935 Sir Sidney Kidman dies [2 Sep]
1936 Chrysler-Dodge [car manufacturer] takes over TJ Richards & Sons
1937 Housing Trust [public housing] established
1940 Murray barrages completed: ship building commences at Whyalla
1941 Whyalla blast furnace opened
1942 Coal mining starts at Leigh Creek
1945 Lord Florey cojointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine; Lance Hill developed the design of a rotary clothesline—the Hills Hoist
1946 Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) takes over Adelaide Electric Supply
1947 Philips Electrical established at Hendon: Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) established at Salisbury
1951 Daisy Bates died [18 Apr]; 1st boom gates introduced at Ovingham rail crossing
1952 JP McGowan died [26 Mar]
1954 Drive-in theatres start: Adelaide earthquake [1 Mar]
1955 Black Sunday bushfires [2 Jan]
1956 Major flooding of River Murray: Atom bomb exploded at Maralinga
1956 Roadway trams ceased operations
1958 8 firefighters killed [5 Apr] nr Wandillo; street electric tramway system closed
1959 Regular television broadcasts commenced
1960 First Adelaide Festival of Arts
1963 Population passes 1,000,000
1964 Largest crowd in Australian history (est 350,000) greeted the arrival of the Beatles [12 Jun]
1965 Thomas Angove develops the Wine Cask—a flexible bag of wine inside a box
1966 Flinders University established
1967 Lotteries Commission established
1968 Lord Florey died [21 Feb]
1970 Bus collided with a passenger train at Wasleys [12 Apr] killing 17 people
1971 First South Australian-born governor: Mark Oliphant appointed: age of majority lowered from 21 to 18 years
1973 Festival Theatre opened
1975 State Transport Authority (STA) established
1976 Roxby Downs copper discovered: capital punishment abolished: Rundle Mall opened
1977 Late night shopping introduced; remains of 7 murdered women found nr Truro
1978 Country railways ceeded to Commonwealth
1980 Tarcoola to Alice Springs railway opened [9 Oct]
1981 Mitsubishi purchases Chrysler: Ash Wednesday Bushfires
1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires [16 Feb] kill 28 people
1984 State Bank formed from Savings Bank of South Australia & State Bank of South Australia
1985 Mortlock Library of South Australiana established: Adelaide Casino opened; 1st Australian F1 Grand Prix held in Adelaide
1987 Adelaide Convention Centre opened
1990 Lowitja O'Donoghue appointed 1st Chair of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission [ATSIC]; Janine Haines becomes the first woman to lead a political party in Australia
1991 University of South Australia established
1992 Adelaide's only afternoon paper, The News closes
1996 Natasha Stott Despoja elected to the Senate [the youngest woman to date]
1998 John Martins Department store closed
1999 Don Dunston, reformist premier of the 1970s died; remains of 10 murdered people found including 8 in barrels in a disused bankvault at Snowtown
2000 Mark Oliphant, world renown scientist and former governor died
2001 Lleyton Hewitt ranked as world number 1 in tennis [the youngest player to achieve this status]
2005 Eyre Penninsula bushfires around Pt Linclon [11 Jan] kill 9 people
2006 Glenelg tramline upgrade and new rolling stock purchased to replace original H class trams

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