X-Nico

99 unusual facts about South Australia


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.

1954–55 Ashes series

Bill Edrich – the life and soul of any party – climbed the marble pillar in the lounge of Glenelg's Pier Hotel and sung Ginger.

1973 Australian Touring Car Championship

The night before Round 6 of the series at the Adelaide International Raceway, Moffat's GTHO Falcon was stolen from Stillwell Ford in the northern Adelaide suburb of Medindie.

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.

2010 FFSA Premier League

The 2010 FFSA Premier League was the fifth edition of the FFSA Premier League as the second level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

2012 FFSA Super League

The 2012 FFSA Super League was the seventh and final edition of the FFSA Super League, the top level domestic association football competition in South Australia.

Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988

As of 2007, the Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Division of the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet has the responsibility of managing this legislation, so ensuring South Australia's Aboriginal heritage is protected, preserved, and transmitted into the future.

Adelaide Plains

The dark dotted areas in the background are the northern suburbs of Adelaide, corresponding to the City of Playford centred around Elizabeth and the mid-area of the Adelaide Plains are further in the background.

Alan Finger

In 1949, after returning to Pennington in Adelaide, he married Jean Isobel Sams, née Marshall, a fellow divorcee, on 12 December.

Alfred Rutter Clarke

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

Allan McFarlane

Their home until around 1860 was "Glensloy", near Mount Barker Junction (midway between Balhannah and Littlehampton).

Amphibolis griffithii

Found along the western coast of Australia, south of Geraldton, and along the southern coastlines to Victor Harbor, South Australia.

Andrew Zesers

Andris Karlis Zesers (born 11 March 1967 in Medindie, South Australia) is a former Australian cricketer.

Annesley Junior School

Annesley Junior School is an independent day school for girls and boys aged from two years old to year 6, located in Wayville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia.

Arlo Bugeja

Arlo (Budgie) Bugeja (born 18 March 1986 in Humbug Scrub, Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian speedway rider.

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.

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.

Bevan Spencer von Einem

Police also searched his home in the northern Adelaide suburb of Paradise, and seized a bottle of Mandrax.

Blanchetown, South Australia

Until a new bridge could be built, these were diverted from near Monash via Morgan and Eudunda to rejoin the highway at Gawler, thus travelling further but avoiding the Kingston and Blanchetown bridges.

Brian Doe

He worked as a blacksmith and a railway porter at Port Broughton from 1888 until 1899.

Bungandidj people

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

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.

Coffin Bay Pony

In 1839, the settler and British Captain Hawson and his family arrived in Happy Valley in Australia to live and breed horses.

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.

Commonwealth Railways NC class

Whilst assisting with the recovery of W901, which had derailed in Eurelia Yard in early 1988, the "rear drive assembly" seized, and required major work.

Coonalpyn, South Australia

Coonalpyn also has a tennis club which belongs to the Border-Downs Tennis Association including towns such as Malinong, Culburra, Yumali, Coomandook, Tintinara & Ki Ki

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.

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.

David Ross Macdonald

Born into a musical household in Millicent, Australia, David Ross MacDonald says of his childhood, “There were always instruments to muck around with at home. I played piano as a kid and took some classical guitar lessons as a teenager.”

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.

Division of Mayo

The Division of Mayo is an Australian electoral division located in the hills east of Adelaide, South Australia and currently includes the towns of Victor Harbor, Lobethal, Mount Barker, Strathalbyn, Woodside and Kingscote.

Drawn from Bees

In October 2009, Drawn from Bees released their third record, The Sky is Falling, an EP containing a series of vignettes revolving around a central theme of the sky falling down, touring throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Easter

(St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Adelaide).

Edeowie glass

Edeowie glass is a slag-like, opaque rare natural glass found as vesicular or in sheet-like masses in a semi-continuous swath in baked sediment, about 55 km long and 10 km wide along the western side of the Flinders Ranges near Parachilna, South Australia and Lake Torrens.

Edward J. Pitts

Edward John Pitts (1 October 1832 – 30 December 1885) was an artist and pastoralist in the early days of South Australia, noted for founding The Levels as a sheep breeding establishment.

Edward William Andrews

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

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 Edward Fulton

Aided by a substantial subsidy, he won a State Government contract for £180,000 worth of cast-iron water and drainage pipes in 1884, enabling him to set up a factory in Kilkenny, for which purpose he travelled to Great Britain, ordering heavy machinery and engaging fifteen specialist workers.

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).

Gould Creek, South Australia

Gould Creek is located in the City of Tea Tree Gully and City of Playford local government areas, and is adjacent to Greenwith, Salisbury Heights and Hillbank, as well as the rural districts of Yatala Vale and Upper Hermitage and the town of One Tree Hill.

Greenwith, South Australia

It is adjacent to Golden Grove and Salisbury Heights.

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.

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.

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).

Hans Heysen

In 1912 Hans Heysen had earned enough from his art to purchase a property called "The Cedars" near Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, which remained as his home until his death in 1968 aged 90.

Hartley Jackson

Hartley made his official debut on October 4, 1999 against Bruce ‘Havok’ Mills at the Octagon Theatre in Elizabeth, South Australia.

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.

Henry Young

Due to the difficulty of navigating the Murray Mouth, Young supported building the railway from the river port of Goolwa to the new sea port at Port Elliot (named after his friend, Charles Elliot).

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 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 Torana

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

Hugh Sheridan

Born in Adelaide, the second youngest of seven children, Sheridan grew up in the suburb of Millswood and completed his early years of schooling at Loreto College Marryatville before changing to Saint Ignatius' College and then in his senior years to University Senior College.

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.

Jake Andrewartha

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

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.

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.

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.

Mosquito Fleet

The term "Mosquito Fleet" also refers the the fleet of small ketches and schooners operating in the shallow coastal and gulf waters of South Australia, from the colony's establishment in 1836 until 1982.

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.

Myk Aussie

Kym Andrew Harrison (born in Gawler, South Australia) known as "Myk Aussie" is an Australian Sports, Comedy, Media personality.

North Terrace – Glenelg railway line

From approximately where Henley Beach Road currently is, the railway then followed an almost direct route to the seaside suburb of Glenelg.

Northfield railway line

The line went east from the Gawler line and served three stations: Cavan, Pooraka, and Northfield.

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.

Nurlutta railway station

Nurlutta railway station is a railway station on the Gawler Central railway line which is located in the northern Adelaide suburbs of Salisbury and Salisbury North.

Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

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

Olympic Dam, South Australia

Among the project's new infrastructure requirements were: a desalination plant at Point Lowly (Port Bonython), a rail link to Pimba, a worker accommodation village between Olympic Dam and Andamooka and a barge landing facility near Port Augusta.

Parilla

Parilla, South Australia, a small town on the Mallee Highway in South Australia

Peake

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

Port Victor

Victor Harbor (sic) is the later named of the town originally laid out as Port Victor.

RAF Upwood

Additionally, Lincolns from No 214 Squadron and No 7 Squadron took part in a secret mission in connection with nuclear trials conducted near Woomera, Australia.

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.

Raymond Leane

Raymond Lionel Leane was born on 12 July 1878 in Prospect, South Australia, the son of a shoemaker, Thomas Leane, and his wife Alice.

Riverton Bridge

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

SA Ambulance Service

The SAAS Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), based in Eastwood, Adelaide, primarily answers emergency triple-zero (000) calls using the MPDS dispatch system.

Scared Weird Little Guys

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Southern Cross Television

Southern Cross Television, or SCTV, is an Australian television network available in Tasmania, Darwin, Regional South Australia, Remote Central and Eastern Australia and Norfolk Island.

Steamtown, Peterborough Railway Preservation Society Inc.

Track was left over Pekina Creek, Black Rock Yard, Black Rock Bridge, Walloway Yard to Walloway Creek and in the yard of Orroroo.

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.

Tom Brice

Thomas Robert (Tom) Brice (born August 24, 1981) in Woodville, South Australia is an Australian baseballer.

Topcon

Topcon has an office in Technology Park Adelaide at Mawson Lakes, South Australia, and representatives in Sydney.

Vili Milisits

He left school aged 14 to work at Kazzy's Cake Shop in Burnside, run by fellow countryman Kazzy Ujvari.

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.

Willunga railway line

There is some evidence of railway track remaining on this trail, notably near the South Road crossing at Hackham, the top of the Seaford Hill and a small section of track in a paddock adjacent to Victor Harbor Road, McLaren Vale.


Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn

Selwyn Rock (an exposed Permian glacial pavement) at Inman Valley in South Australia, Selwyn Range in the Canadian Rockies and Selwyn Street in Hackett, a suburb of the Australian Capital Territory are named after him.

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 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

Boinka, Victoria

Boinka is listed within the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 as being one of only two places where Pale Myoporum (Myoporum brevipes Benth.), a recumbent or erect shrub of up to 2 metres in height (widespread in South Australia), is known to grow indigenously outside of that location.

Brachinite

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

Brian Faehse

Faehse represented South Australia with distinction 19 times between 1948 and 1956 and played in the 1950 (Brisbane), 1953 (Adelaide) and 1956 (Perth) Australian National Football Carnival's.

Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area

Cape Gantheaume Wilderness Protection Area is located on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

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.

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.

Claret Ash

The original seedling was discovered near a group of assorted ash trees in Sewell's nursery in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia about 1910, and later grown at the nearby property Raywood (Former home of the Downer family).

Darren Pattinson

In January 2007, he made his first-class debut against South Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, capturing four wickets for 87 runs in the first innings.

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.

Harry Kneebone

In 1931 he was appointed to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator for South Australia, filling the casual vacancy caused by the death of Country Party Senator John Chapman, but lost it in the election of later that year.

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.

HM Land Registry

The system of registration adopted had some differences to that piloted in South Australia by that colony's then Premier Sir Robert Torrens, although both were founded on the 1857 report.

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.

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.

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.

Kevin Scarce

Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1952, Scarce spent his early childhood in Woomera and attended Elizabeth East Primary School and Elizabeth High School.

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.

Limnodynastes dumerilii

It is mostly associated with the slopes and ranges of New South Wales, northern Victoria and the Murray River into South Australia.

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.

Mark Ricciuto

Also representing South Australia in interstate football and Australia in the International Rules Series, Ricciuto was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2011, and the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Monarto Zoo

Monarto Zoological Park is an open-range animal sanctuary that is administered by the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia, along with the Adelaide Zoo.

Mtutuzeli Hlomela

Mtutu had played soccer at junior level and at age 17, won a "football" scholarship through the South Australian and Western Cape sports ministries.

Non Comprehendus

Non Comprehendus is the debut album from the South Australian rock band Testeagles.

Oakbank Racecourse

Located in South Australia's Adelaide Hills racing country, it's the home of steeplechasing and jumping in SA, which combines with flat racing over the festival, culminating in the famous Great Eastern Steeplechase.

Parliamentary records

South Australia introduced female suffrage in 1861 and the Territory of Wyoming allowed women the vote in 1869, with the Isle of Man following in 1881.

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.

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.

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.

South Australia–Victoria border dispute

South Australian pastoralists had worked their way east from the coast and there were disputes when they met pastoralists from the Wimmera country pushing their way westwards with flocks of sheep.

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".

South Australian Archaeology Society

The South Australian Archaeology Society is an avocational archaeology organisation operating in South Australia.

South Australian Railways

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

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.