‘South Australia’, wrote the early twentieth-century author of The Cyclopedia of South Australia, ‘owes its existence to a movement which had its origins in philanthropy’.
JM Freeland characterises Australian pubs as among ‘the most socially significant, historically valuable, architecturally interesting and colourful features of Australian society’ (Freeland 1977, p. 1). South Australia’s pubs are no exception.
In the early years of European settlement the distinction between retail trade, wholesale trade and importing in South Australia was unclear, with many businesses combining all three functions.
Before and after the arrival of Europeans, Aboriginal peoples had a well-developed cultural understanding and practical knowledge of plants, animal behaviour, local geology and meteorological conditions. Information they provided was frequently vital to the success – and even survival – of early European navigators and explorers.
Singaporean migration to South Australia has occured from the early nineteenth century, however, when the Restriction Act 1901 was relaxed in 1967 there has been a significant increase of people coming to South Australia.
The first known Slovak to arrive in Australia was Brother Jakub Longa, a Jesuit, who was sent to Australia in 1888 to help found an Aboriginal mission at Daly Waters in the Northern Territory
The first Slovenians arrived in South Australia in 1946. They emigrated as Displaced Persons from camps in Italy, Austria and Germany after Marshal Tito established a communist government in Yugoslavia in 1945.
Unique to and ubiquitous throughout South Australia, the ugliness of stobie poles is periodically denounced, as also the mortal damage which they can and do inflict on the occupants of any vehicle unlucky enough to strike one at speed.
In South Australia, the prime key to wealth has been land. From its inception as a European colony, ownership (or control) of land meant access to agricultural and mineral resources. For the Aboriginal peoples, dispossession meant devastation.