Portal:South Australia

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South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 984,321 square kilometres (380,048 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and second smallest state by population. It has a total of 1.8 million people. Its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second-largest centre, has a population of 26,878.

South Australia shares borders with all the other mainland states. It is bordered to the west by Western Australia, to the north by the Northern Territory, to the north-east by Queensland, to the east by New South Wales, to the south-east by Victoria, and to the south by the Great Australian Bight. The state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray. The state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province, rather than as a convict settlement. Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when the members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree.

As with the rest of the continent, the region has a long history of human occupation by numerous tribes and languages. The South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was later employed by the New Zealand Company. The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history has been marked by periods of economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its fine wine and numerous cultural festivals. The state's economy is dominated by the agricultural, manufacturing and mining industries. (Full article...)

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The 2018 South Australian state election to elect members to the 54th Parliament of South Australia was held on 17 March 2018. All 47 seats in the House of Assembly or lower house, whose members were elected at the 2014 election, and 11 of 22 seats in the Legislative Council or upper house, last filled at the 2010 election, were contested. The record-16-year-incumbent Australian Labor Party (SA) government led by Premier Jay Weatherill was seeking a fifth four-year term, but was defeated by the opposition Liberal Party of Australia (SA), led by Opposition Leader Steven Marshall. Nick Xenophon's new SA Best party unsuccessfully sought to obtain the balance of power.

Like federal elections, South Australia has compulsory voting, uses full-preference instant-runoff voting for single-member electorates in the lower house and optional preference single transferable voting in the proportionally represented upper house. The election was conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA), an independent body answerable to Parliament. (Full article...)

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Credit: Alex Sims

Skyshow was an annual fireworks event held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide since 1985. The half-hour fireworks display is synchronised to pop music and presented by local commercial radio station SAFM. Originating as an Australia Day celebration, the event was subsequently moved to late summer, usually February.

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General images

The following are images from various South Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1An 1835 advertisement for the sale of land in South Australia (from History of South Australia)
Image 2The 1925 Murray Bridge rail bridge over the Murray River, linking Adelaide to Melbourne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 3Colonel William Light. (from History of South Australia)
Image 4500 class engine No.502 hauling a freight train in at Eden Hills, August 1953. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 5"Night attack of the natives on Lake Hope" (1866 wood engraving) (from History of South Australia)
Image 6A camel train in the desert, with each of the camels loaded with two bales of wool from Arrabura Station, 1931. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 7South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). In 1895 women in South Australia were among the first in the world to attain the vote and were the first to be able to stand for parliament. (from History of South Australia)
Image 8Camel train, with wool from Nappamerry being unloaded at the Railway Station, 1928. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 9Satellite image of eastern South Australia. Note the dry lakes (white patches) in the north (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 10The Proclamation of South Australia 1836, Charles Hill. (from History of South Australia)
Image 11Encounter Bay, 1847 (from History of South Australia)
Image 12Old Parliament House in 1872 (from History of South Australia)
Image 13Köppen climate types in South Australia (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 14George French Angas, Port Adelaide in 1846, 10 years after settlement. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 15An aerial view of Murray Bridge in 1953 showing rail and road bridges, and also paddle steamers. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 16Wallaroo jetty in 1909, showing shipping, launches, and grain waiting for loading. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 17The Paddle Steamer P. S. Sapphire on the Murray River with a barge. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 18Saint Mary Mackillop (1842–1909) co-founded an order of nuns in rural South Australia in 1866 and became the first Australian saint of the Catholic Church in 2010. (from History of South Australia)
Image 19Ships docked at Port Adelaide in 1910. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 20The clipper 'Yatala', 1127 tons, at Port Adelaide circa 1870. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 21Road transport in South Australia (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 22The barque Admiral Karpfanger at Port Germein jetty in South Australia. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 23The punitive expedition to the Coorong after 25 survivors of the shipwreck Maria were massacred by Aboriginal people in 1840. (from History of South Australia)
Image 24Charles Sturt (from History of South Australia)
Image 25Goolwa to Port Elliot tramway circa 1860. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 26Aboriginal Family Travelling by W.A. Cawthorne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 27Rapid Bay, South Australia in 1950 with its limestone quarry and jetty for loading limestone onto ships (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 28Loading grain from horse drawn wagons to the ketch 'Free Selector' on Kangaroo Island (from Transport in South Australia)

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Did You Know... - show different entries

...that construction of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral (pictured) in Adelaide did not finish until 1996, 130 years after it began?
...that Sir Samuel Davenport, a South Australian parliamentarian, had an electoral district named after him?
...that Adelaide was the first city in Australia to introduce horse trams and the last to discard them for more modern public transport?
...that Smoky Bay in South Australia was named so after the discoverer noticed large plumes of smoke from fires lit by the area's Aboriginal people?