History of South Australia

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The history of South Australia includes the history of the Australian state of South Australia since Federation in 1901, and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians of various nations or tribes have lived in South Australia for at least thirty thousand years, while British colonists arrived in the 19th century to establish a free colony. The South Australia Act, 1834 created the Province of South Australia, built according to the principles of systematic colonisation, with no convict settlers.

After the colony nearly went bankrupt, the South Australia Act 1842 gave the British Government full control of South Australia as a Crown Colony. After some amendments to the form of government in the intervening years, South Australia became a self-governing colony in 1857 with the ratification of the Constitution Act 1856, and the Parliament of South Australia was formed.

Meanwhile, European explorers went deep into the interior, discovering some pastoral land, but mainly large tracts of desert terrain. Sheep and other livestock were imported, wheat and other crops were grown where possible, and a thriving viticulture industry was established. German Lutheran refugees set up mission stations and developed the wine industry in the Barossa Valley. Copper was discovered at Kapunda in 1842.^[1]

The colony became a cradle of democratic and land reform in Australia. In 1858, it was the first place in the world to institute the system of land registration and transfer named Torrens title after its designer and promoter, South Australian parliamentarian Robert Torrens. Women were granted the vote in the 1890s. South Australia became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 following a vote to federate with the other British colonies of Australia. While it has a smaller population than the eastern States, South Australia has often been at the vanguard of political and social change in Australia.

Since World War II refugees and other migrants have boosted both the size and the multicultural nature of the population.