South Australia

The only mainland state that shares a border with all other Australian states, South Australia is located in the south-central area of the continent. It borders Victoria and New South Wales on its east, Western Australia on its west, the Northern Territory on its north and Queensland on its north-east. It includes Kangaroo Island and adjacent islands in the south. Its land area is 983,482 square kilometres, and its coastline is 5,067 kilometres long. It borders the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean.

South Australia has the distinction of being the first Australian colony founded for free settlers rather than convicts. It also was the first place in the world to allow women to become parliamentarians. More recently, the state has promoted itself as the Festival State, and its capital, Adelaide, as Australia's food and wine capital. South Australia is home to several wine regions and hosts numerous festivals every year, including art, dance, music, market and holiday festivals.

Historical Perspective

The first inhabitants of South Australia were Aboriginal peoples more than forty thousand years ago. British navigator Matthew Flinders and French navigator Nicolas Baudin charted its coast in 1802. The first European inhabitants were British whalers who set up whaling stations along the coast in the 1820s. In 1834, the British government established the South Australian Colonisation Commission to raise funds for a self-supporting colony for free settlers in South Australia. With the passage of the South Australian Colonisation Act 1834, it became the first separate colony to form out of New South Wales.

In an effort to promote immigration, British merchant George Fife Angas created the South Australian Company and purchased a large tract of land with the intent of selling parcels to settlers. He and the British government then jointly founded the colony of South Australia in 1836 as the first non-convict colony on the continent. The new colony grew slowly. In 1841, the British government took full control of the colony. Immigration increased following the invention of a wheat-reaping machine and the discovery of copper at Burra and Kapunda. Britain granted the colony self-government in 1856. In 1863, South Australia annexed land (now the Northern Territory) from New South Wales. It retained control over this territory until 1911, when the Australian Government took over its administration. In 1901, South Australia joined the other colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

In 1984, South Australia passed the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act, which granted title of an area of about 81,373 square kilometres in western South Australia to its original owners, the Maralinga Tjarutja people.

Geography and Climate

South Australia has one of the drier climates in the country. Much of the state has a Mediterranean-type climate, with warm, dry summers and mild winters. The northern parts of the state have higher temperatures in the summer and are more arid. Some areas, such as the Roxby Downs area, have a desert climate and receive no rainfall. The south-central area receives the highest rainfall, averaging between 40 and 80 millimetres a month during the wettest months of May through September. Much of the remainder of the state receives less than 20 millimetres a month.

Plains cover much of the south-central area of the state. The Mount Lofty Range is a series of low hills that extend from the Gulf Saint Vincent to the Flinders Ranges in the north. The Great Victoria Desert covers much of the western part of the state, with the smaller Simpson Desert in the north. The Everard, Mann and Musgrave Ranges are located in the north. The River Murray runs through the state. Lake Eyre, the continent's largest salt-water lake, is an inland lake that is dry most of the year and fills only when flooded.

Economy

Agriculture, fishing, mining, manufacturing and service industries are the major contributors to South Australia's economy. South Australia exported over $17 billion of agriculture products, food, wine and forestry in 2023. The state is a major wine producer, with grapes grown in many regions including the Barossa, Clare Valley and Coonawarra regions. Agricultural crops include wheat, apples, pears, oranges, stone fruit, vegetables and almonds. Other foodstuffs include beef, lamb, pork, dairy products and olive oil. Sheep are raised for their wool as well as meat. Commercial fisheries and fish-processing centres are found along the coastline. The major wild-catch fish are southern rock lobster, abalone and western king prawn. Major species raised in the aquaculture industry include southern bluefin tuna, oysters, mussels, abalone, yellow kingfish, cod and trout.

South Australia has numerous mines. According to South Australia's Department of State Development, the top metallic minerals produced in 2023 were copper, uranium, and gold. Key industrial minerals included salt, gypsum, limestone, marble, silica sand and heavy mineral concentrate. The state also extracted natural gas and petroleum.

Automobile manufacturing, once the dominant manufacturing business in the state, declined by the early twenty-first century. Aerospace, technical and appliance manufacturing became the top manufacturers, with the government supporting efforts to diversify and expand its manufacturing base.

Professionals, such as those in the fields of media, business, and engineering, employed over 21 per cent of South Australia's workforce in the 2020s. Other important industries in South Australia in 2021 were technical and tradee workers; community and personal service workers; and managers.

Demographics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated South Australia's population as 26,966,789 in 2023. This reflected a growth rate of 2.5 per cent. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples made up slightly less than 2.4 per cent of the state's population in the 2021 census.

In the 2021 census, 11 per cent of the population reported being born overseas. The top countries of birth other than Australia were England, Italy, India, China and Vietnam. English was the only language spoken at home in about 77 per cent of homes, while the most common other languages were Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Punjabi. The most commonly reported religions were Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Church, and more than 45 per cent of the population reported no religious affiliation.

About 77 per cent of the state's population lives in Greater Adelaide, which has a population density of four hundred people per square kilometre. The rest of the state is sparsely populated with a population density of less than one person per square kilometre.

Bibliography

Bourman, Robert P., Colin V. Murray-Wallace, and Nick Harvey. Coastal Landscapes of South Australia. U of Adelaide P, 2016.

"Climate Change Impacts in South Australia." Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Government, 21 July 2022, www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/climate-science/impacts/sa. Accessed 18 June 2024.

"Living in South Australia." Government of South Australia, 13 June 2024, www.sa.gov.au/topics/about-sa/about-sa. Accessed on 18 June 2024.

Prest, Wilfrid R., editor. The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. Wakefield Press, 2001.

Wawryk, Alex. "Mining and the Protection of Aboriginal Heritage in South Australia." William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, vol. 47, no. 6, 20 Apr. 2023, scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1854&context=wmelpr. Accessed 18 June 2024.