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South Australian Memorials 1802-1935

[NOTE: This chronology of memorials was compiled by Brian Samuels for the History Trust of South Australia in 1992 and is published on this website with the author's permission. Minor changes have been made to the introduction.]

Memorials, so often taken for granted and all too easily overlooked in a society dominated by fast moving transportation, can offer many insights into the development of our State. This list is restricted to memorials of State significance - an inevitably subjective selection - and excludes indoor memorials and gravestones in cemeteries. Its main purpose is to be a ready reference guide, but its chronological arrangement also gives an indication of the growth of historical consciousness in South Australia.

The strong emphasis on explorers reflects the concerns of the times - the achievements of such individuals were easily recognisable and suitable for heroic status. When memorials to explorers are removed we are left with an interesting handful of benefactors, public figures and significant events.

The list stops in 1935 out of cowardice! The proliferation of memorials for and since the State's centenary in 1936 makes their listing a daunting task.

The stories of how these memorials came to be erected are often as interesting as the individuals or events they commemorate. What modern day State Premier would be commemorated by a statue erected by public subscription as was the case with Charles Kingston (1916)? How many memorials stand as monuments to the tenacity of a handful of activists? Which memorials had broad popular support and which did not? Why did some of them take years to come to fruition? And what of the many proposals for memorials that came to nothing?

Thanks to History Trust volunteer Jean Oughton for her assistance in locating contemporary newspaper accounts of unveilings.

Chronology of SA Memorials:

1802	Engraved sheet of copper erected 24 February on a 'stout post' at Memory Cove in memory of eight of Matthew Flinders' sailors who were drowned on 21 February. (Portion found on the beach 20 August 1866. Replacement plate mounted at the head of the bay 21 February 1897. Plate subsequently destroyed; replaced in August 1924.
1803	Frenchman's Rock, Hog Bay, Kangaroo Island inscribed, presumably in January, by members of Nicolas Baudin's expedition. (Protective brick structure built 1906; rock removed in 1917-18 and a cement cast substituted for the original, which is now displayed in the Mortlock Library.)
1844	Monument to Surveyor-General Col. William Light, Light Square, Adelaide, completed. (Foundation stone laid 18 February 1843; inscription added to monument 1876; monument replaced 1905. The original inscription is now displayed in the Mortlock Library.)
1844	Flinders Monument, Stamford Hill, out of Port Lincoln, completed (Commenced c.1842; obelisk refaced with marble 1866 and new tablet affixed. A bronze plaque reproducing the same inscription was placed on top of the marble one and unveiled 9 March 1934.)
1852	Sturt Light (Cape Willoughby Lighthouse) first exhibited 10 January.
1858	Board on Old Gum Tree, Glenelg, commemorating the Colony's 21st anniversary, affixed 26 February. (Rain prevented board being affixed on 28 December 1857)
1858	Flinders' Light (Cape Borda Lighthouse) first exhibited 13 July.
1875	Monument to explorer John McKinlay, Murray Street, Gawler completed. (Foundation stone laid 14 November 1874)
1887	Obelisk to poet Adam Lindsay Gordon erected near the place where in July 1864 he made his famous leap on horseback over the fence around the Blue Lake, Mt Gambier. (Foundation stone laid 8 July)
1894	Statue of Queen Victoria, Victoria Square, Adelaide, unveiled 11 August.
1894	Statue of Robert Burns, west corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, unveiled 5 May. (Subsequently moved to in front of Art Gallery in May 1930 and to in front of State Library in 1940.)
1902	Flinders Monument, Nepean Bay, commemorating his landing on and naming of Kangaroo Island, unveiled 22 March.
1902	Plaque on Rosetta Head, Encounter Bay, commemorating the meeting of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin, unveiled 8 April.
1902	Flinders Column, Mt Lofty, named 22 March to commemorate Flinders' sighting and naming of Mt Lofty on 23 March 1802 (Column originally erected as a trig station in 1885).
1903	Memorial to explorer Capt. Collet Barker, Mt Barker (town), unveiled 21 January.
1903	Statue of benefactor Sir Thomas Elder, University of Adelaide, unveiled 29 July.
1903	Statue of industrialist James Martin, Gawler, unveiled 15 August.
1904	Centenary Tower, Mt Gambier, commemorating naming and discovery of Mt Gambier by Lieut. James Grant on 3 December 1800, opened 27 April (Foundation stone laid 3 December 1900).
1904	South African War Memorial, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled 6 June.
1904	Statue of explorer John McDouall Stuart, Victoria Square, Adelaide unveiled 4 June.
1905	Replacement monument to Col. William Light, Light Square, unveiled 21 June.
1906	Statue of Col. William Light, Victoria Square, Adelaide, unveiled 27 November. (Shifted in 1938 to Montefiore Lookout, which was renamed Light's Vision at the suggestion of the Pioneers' Association, and a plaque added to the pedestal bearing an extract from Light's Brief Journal.)
1906	Statue of benefactor Sir Walter Watson Hughes, University of Adelaide, unveiled 28 November.
1906	Flinders Cairn, Kangaroo Head, Kangaroo Island, erected in the supposed locality of his first landing.
1911	Bandstand at Burra in memory of King Edward VII opened 1 February.
1915	Foundation stone for the first lock on the River Murray, named after pioneer navigator Capt. William R. Randell, laid at Blanchetown 5 June (Lock completed 1922).
1915	Anzac Memorial, Sir Lewis Cohen Ave, Adelaide, unveiled 7 September (Shifted to Lundie Gardens, South Terrace in October 1940).
1915	Memorial to philanthropists George Fife & John Howard Angas, Prince Henry Gardens, North Terrace, Adelaide erected (Moved to Angas Garden, King William Road in 1929) .
1916	Statue of former Premier the Right Hon. Charles C. Kingston, Victoria Square, Adelaide, unveiled 26 May.
1916	Statue of explorer Capt. Charles Sturt, Victoria Square, Adelaide unveiled 21 December.
1919	Wreath from the first Australian Town Planning Conference, Adelaide 1917, attached to the pedestal of Light's statue.
1920	Statue of King Edward VII, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled 15 July.
1922	Memorial to South Australian men who died in the Great War 1914-1920 (sic), Pennington Garden, King William Road, Adelaide, unveiled 25 April. Paid for by the women of South Australia. (Plaque replaced original inscription in 1965. Separate stone of remembrance unveiled 25 April 1923.)
1923	Memorial to the horses which took part in the Great War 1914-1918, Victoria Square West, Adelaide, unveiled 30 January. (Later shifted to corner of East Terrace and Botanic Road.)
1923 >	Obelisk in memory of Caroline Carleton, authoress of the Song of Australia, Wallaroo Cemetery, unveiled 25 November. (Her grave is elsewhere in the cemetery. She was buried 12 July 1874.)
1924	Statue of the Rt Hon. Sir Samuel Way, sometime Chief Justice, Lieutenant-Governor, and Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled 17 November (Australian Encyclopedia [2nd edition] wrongly states 1934).
1925	Memorial to officers and men of Australian Light Horse Regiments who fell in the Great War 1914-1918, corner of North and East Terraces, Adelaide, unveiled 5 April.
1927	Statue of Sir Ross Smith, commemorating the first aeroplane flight from England to Australia in 1919, Creswell Garden, King William Road, unveiled 10 December.
1927	Memorial obelisk commemorating the tercentenary of Dutchman Pieter Nuyts' exploration of the coast constructed in Streaky Bay. (Plaque added and unveiled 7 October 1938.)
1927	Plaque commemorating the site of Col. William Light's home in Cawthorne Street, Thebarton, unveiled 6 August.
1928	Memorial cairn to Col. William Light at Rapid Bay, commemorating his first mainland survey in September 1836 unveiled 4 February. The cairn included a replica of the stone inscribed'W L 1836'. (The original stone is on display in the Mortlock Library.)
1928	Plaque commemorating the starting point of John McDouall Stuart's 1861-62 south-north crossing of Australia mounted on the wall of the home Carclew, Montefiore Hill, Adelaide, 28 May.
1928	Plaque commemorating the first Government House mounted on guard room of present one, North Terrace, Adelaide (City of Adelaide Reference Book wrongly states 1927).
1929	Monument commemorating the starting point of the survey of Adelaide, the sites of the first public offices of land and survey and the homes of the first Surveyor-General and Resident Commissioner, North Terrace, Adelaide, opposite the Newmarket Hotel, unveiled 16 July.
1930	Plaque unveiled on Simpson Newland (No. 6) Murray Lock 'to commemorate the completion of the locking of the Murray within South Australia and to honour and perpetuate the name of a pioneer advocate of its utilisation' on 14 January.
1930	Memorials commemorating Capt. Charles Sturt's exploration of the River Murray unveiled in January at Renmark (15), Loxton (16), Kingston Punt (16), Morgan (17), Mannum (17), Milang (18) and Murray Bridge (25).
1930	Monument to explorers Capt. Charles Sturt and Capt. Collet Barker on Hindmarsh Island, near the site where Sturt first saw the waters of Encounter Bay, unveiled 19 January.
1931	National Soldiers' Memorial to South Australian sailors and soldiers who fell in the Great War 1914-1918, corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, unveiled 25 April. (A separate World War Two memorial was unveiled 11 November 1956 and one for the Malay Peninsula, Korean, Borneo and Vietnam campaigns was unveiled on 25 July 1987.)
1933	Monument to explorer Capt. Collet Barker on the cliffs at Port Noarlunga, in the approximate location of his landing on 17 April 1931, unveiled 31 January.
1934	Statue of explorer and navigator of Terra Australis, Capt. Matthew Flinders, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled 12 April.
1934	Small replica of a Bratten Plough, in memory of the Brattenising system of road-making originated by Robert Bratten, Overseer of Works for the District Council of Tumby Bay, unveiled at Tumby Bay 2 October.

Notes for Researchers:

The published secondary material on the memorials listed is generally very scanty, often not even including details of the inscriptions. Therefore lists of precise dates of opening ceremonies whenever possible, so that interested researchers can pursue material in contemporary newspapers. There is a considerable amount of material in my research files, which can be consulted in office hours. Interim versions of this list for 1802-1920 and 1921-1935 appeared in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

Principal sources were the City of Adelaide Reference Book (The Corporation 1983), H.M. Cooper The Unknown Coast (The author, 1953), E. Gunton Memories in Stone (The author, 1984), the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia: S A Branch and a typescript index to the memorials referred to in those Proceedings held by the Society's library.

The other most fruitful source for detailed research is the minutes, correspondence and other papers of the Historical Memorials Committee of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia: South Australian Branch. The Committee was formed in 1927 and was a very energetic body. Since 1982 it has been known as the Geographical Heritage Committee.

The monuments to Light and Flinders are notable for the earliness of their erection, although it must be remembered that the Light monument marked his tomb. The Guinness Book of Australian Firsts (Collins Australia 1987) records that the first [presumably memorial] statue in Australia was unveiled in the Sydney Domain on 11 April 1842. It was a representation in bronze of Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales 1831-7.

An interesting overview of memorials in Australia is contained in G. Davison 'The Use and Abuse of Australian History', Australian Historical Studies vol. 23 no. 91, October 1988, pp 55-76. Also of interest are the South Australian entries from the National Register of Unusual Monuments Project, held on open access in the Mortlock Library at Z/725.94/N277/b. The most comprehensive State listing available is for New South Wales - B. Henderson (ed.) Monuments and Memorials (RAHS 1988)

Addendum May 2001
There are three more recent publications which are especially useful: Simon Cameron’s Silent Witnesses: Adelaide’s Statues and Monuments (Adelaide 1997) and F Paul Bulbeck’s Some Plaques and Memorials of South Australia Volume 1 Adelaide (Adelaide 1998) and Some Plaques and Memorials of South Australia Volume 2 Part 1 of Greater Adelaide (Adelaide 2000), which seem remarkably comprehensive. BS