From Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to the steam engine, scientific enquiry and exploration of the natural world was an important aspect of the Victorian era, and like many worldly men of his time Henry kept a close eye on new developments. The early…

The first government in South Australia was quite different to what we have today. Governing power over the new British colony was divided between a board of four men and the Governor. This council met regularly in the Sitting Room of Government…

Stella’s mother was well-connected. Among her friends were the bishop’s wife, the governor’s wife, and the wives of university professors and the higher clergy. Stella wrote that at the turn of the century, in this quasi-British society, "There…

14 Pieces is a collaboration between two artists, husband and wife Hossein and Angela Valamanesh. It was commissioned by the Adelaide City Council and stands where the former fountain honouring Sir John Lavington Bonython once was. The work’s…

This Parliament House, on the corner of North Terrace and King William Road, is the second one built for South Australia. It replaced its neighbour Old Parliament House. By the early 1870s the colony’s population and prosperity was growing. There…

In 1886 there were moves to create a school in South Australia for technical and practical instruction in engineering, mining, agriculture and other industries. The school was set up two years later. Sir John Langdon Bonython, the namesake of the…

Bonython Hall is a prominent feature on North Terrace. It is also right in the centre of the vista as you make your way north along Pulteney Street from the South Terrace parklands. Bonython Hall is the reason Pulteney Street never ventured further…

Ten years after the first lectures began at the University of Adelaide, the School of Music was established. Many South Australians, including composer and former Governor Sir William Robinson, had agitated for such a school. Its founding in 1884…

The University of Adelaide was South Australia’s first university. It was established in 1874 by an Act of Parliament and the South Australian government set aside land on North Terrace for the new university. While work on the buildings took place,…

The official residence of South Australia’s Governor has always been on North Terrace. However, the first one was quite different to the building we see today. Shortly after establishing the colony, the crew of the HMS Buffalo built a small and…

The Art Gallery of South Australia, along with the library and museum, had several temporary homes. The Gallery occupied the Institute Building, the Jervois Wing of the State Library, and the former Jubilee Exhibition Building. It was the last of…

In January 1895, Adelaide celebrated the opening of the South Australian Museum’s North Wing. The museum, which had housed both in the Institute Building and the Jervois Wing, had moved to the new building due to a lack of space. Just 18 months…

The oddly plain northern wing of the South Australian Museum stands out beside the grand architecture of the East Wing and the Jervois Wing of the State Library. The wing was meant to be temporary, hence its more modest brick façade. It was built…

This was the first of three new buildings planned to ease the pressure on space in the nearby Institute Building. By 1874, it was decided that the public library, museum and art gallery would move to a new building nearby on North Terrace. However,…