Bright, South Australia

Bright is a rural locality in the Mid North region of South Australia, situated in the Regional Council of Goyder.^[1] It was established in August 2000, when boundaries were formalised for the "long established local name".^[3] It incorporates most of the cadastral Hundred of Bright, which was proclaimed on 17 June 1875 and named for politician Henry Edward Bright.^[4]

The area was originally the territory of the Ngadjuri people.^[5] It was settled "well before 1900". The area faced challenges in its use for farming, with mallee cutting needed for preparing land for cropping into the 1930s, and erosion becoming a problem in the 1930s and 1940s. The eastern parts of the hundred received reticulated water in 1959, electricity in 1963, and telephone service in 1964.^[6]

Bright Post Office opened on 1 September 1891, was downgraded to a receiving office on 19 May 1917, and closed altogether on 31 October 1917.^[7] Bright School opened in 1899 in a rented house, moved to a permanent building soon after, and moved again to a new building, described as "a galvanised iron-clad building, lined inside with ceiling board [and] insulated with sea weed" in 1911. It was closed due to low attendance on 31 December 1955.^[8]

The Upper Bright Zion Lutheran Church opened in 1887 on what is now the Worlds End Highway, and closed in 1960. A Lutheran school operated at the church from 1887 until its closure for lack of students in 1913. The church has been demolished, but the associated cemetery still survives.^[9]