Timeline of South Australian history

This is a Timeline of South Australian history.

18,000 BC: Evidence of flint mining activity and rock art in the Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain.
1627: First recorded European sighting of the South Australian coast.
1802: South Australian coastline mapped by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin.
1802 (Circa): Unofficial settlement of Kangaroo Island by sealers.
1830: Captain Charles Sturt travels to the mouth of the Murray River in a whale boat.
1831: Captain Collet Barker explores the Adelaide Plains and climbs to the summit of Mount Lofty.

1800s

1836: South Australia proclaimed by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December at the Old Gum Tree, Glenelg.
1836: Site for Adelaide chosen by Colonel William Light beside the River Torrens.
1837: Colonel Light completes survey of Adelaide city centre and designs the city's grid layout. Allotments of 1 acre (0.40 ha) are made.
1837: First regional settlement, later named Gawler, is founded north of Adelaide.
1837: Adelaide's first hospital opens on North Terrace.
1838: South Australia Company institutes Special Survey scheme to encourage wealthy pastoralists.
1838: The first Australian police force is formed in Adelaide, the South Australia Police.
1838: Overlanders Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney arrive in Adelaide from New South Wales with 300 head of cattle.
1838: First German immigrants arrive and settle in Adelaide and surrounds.
1838: Governor George Gawler arrives.
1839: Colonel Light dies at Thebarton and is interred in Light Square beneath a memorial. He is the only person buried within "the square mile".
1839: The first road in South Australia, Port Road, is opened.
1839: Edward John Eyre begins his explorations of the Flinders Ranges and beyond.
1839: Gawler township is established.

1840: The first portion of Government House is completed, becoming the first in Australia.
1840: Royal Adelaide Show held for the first time.
1840: The Corporation of Adelaide is founded, the first municipal authority in Australia.
1840: Maria wrecked on Coorong and survivors massacred. Gawler orders punitive expedition.
1841: Construction of Adelaide Gaol begins.
1841: Adelaide Hospital (later Royal) opened.
1841: Governor George Grey arrives to replace Gawler.
1842: Copper is discovered at Kapunda.
1843: The first Legislative Council building opens on North Terrace.
1844: The colonial Government takes control of the Corporation of Adelaide.
1845: Copper is discovered at Burra.
1845: Port Pirie founded on the upper Spencer Gulf.
1846: John Ainsworth Horrocks dies while exploring land to the northwest of Lake Torrens.
1847: St Peter's College established.
1848: Pulteney Grammar School established.

1850: The forerunner to Harris Scarfe, G. P. Harris and J. C. Lanyon, opened on Hindley Street.
1852: The Corporation of Adelaide is reconstituted. First transport of gold overland arrived in Adelaide.
1852: Adelaide Educational Institution opens in Ebenezer Place.
1854: The township of Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf is surveyed.
1854: The township of Gambierton, later Mount Gambier is founded in the South East.
1855: James Macgeorge lays telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
1855: Charles Todd, Astronomical and Meteorological Observer, arrives.
1856: The South Australian Institute, from which the State Library, State Museum and Art Gallery derived, is founded.
1856: Government telegraph line and steam railway between Adelaide and Port Adelaide opened.
1856: South Australia becomes one of the first places in the world to enact the Secret Ballot.
1857: Adelaide Botanic Garden opened at today's site in the Parklands at the corner of North and East Terraces.
1858: Melbourne–Adelaide telegraph line opened.
1858: The first edition of The Advertiser newspaper is published.
1859: A jetty of more than 350 metres in length is constructed at Glenelg.
1859: Shipwreck of SS Admella off Carpenter Rocks in the South East. 89 dead. Worst maritime disaster to this day.

1860: Thorndon Park Reservoir supplied water through new reticulation system.
1861: East Terrace markets opened.
1861: Copper discovered at Moonta, on the Yorke Peninsula.
1862: John McDouall Stuart successfully crosses the continent from north to south on his sixth attempt.
1863: First gas supplied to city.
1864–1867: Great drought
1865: Bank of Adelaide founded.
1866: Sisters of St Joseph founded by Saint Mary MacKillop in Penola to teach poor rural children.
1866: The Italianate Adelaide Town Hall opened.
1866: First oil exploration in Australia at Alfred Flat near Salt Creek, along the Coorong.
1867: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, made first royal visit to Adelaide.
1869: The City Market (later Central) opened on Grote Street.
1869: Prince Alfred College established.

1870: Port Adelaide Football Club established.
1871: South Australian Cricket Association is formed.
1872: General Post Office opened. Adelaide became first Australian capital linked to Imperial London with completion of the Overland Telegraph.
1873: First cricket match played at Adelaide Oval.
1874: Adelaide Oval is officially opened.
1874: University of Adelaide founded.
1874: Iron ore mined and smelted at Mount Jagged, then abandoned.
1875: Adelaide Steamship Company founded.
1876: Adelaide Children's Hospital founded.
1877: The Adelaide Bridge across the River Torrens completed.
1877: Copper mines at Burra and Kapunda close.
1878: First horse-drawn trams in Australia commence operations in the city.
1879: Foundation stone of the University of Adelaide laid.
1879: Advanced School for Girls founded; moves to Grote Street in 1881.

1880–1886 "seven years' drought"
1880: Telephone introduced in South Australia.
1880: Fort Glanville opens.
1880: Reformatory Hulk Fitzjames commissioned and moored off Largs Bay.
1881: The Art Gallery of South Australia opened by Prince Albert Victor.
1881: Torrens Lake created following the construction of weir.
1881: Coopers Brewery is established.
1881: Drought ruins thousands of farmers on marginal land in the Mid North and Goyder's Line is recognised as the limit to agricultural settlement.
1882: First water-borne sewerage service in Australia commenced.
1882: The City Baths opened on King William Road.
1883: Adelaide Zoological Gardens opened.
1884: Adelaide Trades and Labor Council inaugurated.
1884: Fort Largs opens.
1885: The Adelaide Arcade opens.
1886: Commercial Bank of South Australia fails in February.
1885: Flinders Column erected at the Mount Lofty Summit.
1887: The Overland train service between Adelaide and Melbourne commences.
1887: Stock Exchange of Adelaide forms.
1889: School of Mines and Industries opens on North Terrace.
1889: Lead smelters built at Port Pirie.

1891: The Central Australia Railway reaches Oodnadatta in the far north.
1892: First public statue, Venus (Venere Di Canova), unveiled on North Terrace.
1892: Following drop in share values, Bank of South Australia taken over by the Union Bank of Australia.
1894: Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894, the world's second Act granting women suffrage and the first granting women the right to stand for parliament passed in Parliament House on North Terrace.
1896: Moving pictures shown for first time in South Australia at Theatre Royal on Hindley Street.
1896: Happy Valley Reservoir opened.
1896: Adelaide Hospital Board of Management sacked by the Government. The dysfunctional nature of the workplace came to a head when Edward Willis Way, no friend of Premier Kingston, was accused of nepotism.
1897: Constitutional Convention on Federation held in Adelaide.
1899: South Australian contingent leaves Adelaide for the Second Boer War.
1899: State Referendum on Federation: South Australia votes Yes (70.2%).