1. Image: sculpture of black stone with water

    14 Pieces

    Recalling the ancient Ichthyosaur, this sculpture invites interaction

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  2. 14 Pieces Fountain- South Australian Museum

    14 Pieces is a sculpture fountain based on the opalised fossilised vertebrae of the Ichthyosaur in the South Australian Museum.

    Historical Thing | By South Australian School for Vision Impaired (SASVI) | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  3. Image: flag with black top, red bottom and large yellow circle in the middle

    Aboriginal flag

    The Aboriginal flag flies high over its birthplace, Tarntanyangga/Victoria Square, a symbol of Aboriginal pride, rights and identity.

    Historical Thing | By Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  4. August Wilhelm Pelzer plaque on North Terrace

    August Wilhelm Pelzer Plaque

    A plaque to the 'City Gardener' is now obscured in a city garden

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  5. Water

    Bill's Fountain- State Library of South Australia

    This fountain is a memorial to William Faulding Scammell, AO, CBE who was Chancellor of Adelaide University from 1991 to 1998.

    Historical Thing | North Terrace | 2000-2010

  6. Image: stone statue of man with hand up to shade his eyes while gazing out

    Captain Charles Sturt Memorial

    Leaning forward and shielding his eyes from the sun, this bronze figure of Sturt looks over Victoria Square, not the land he explored

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1910s

  7. Bronze sculpture, Catherine Helen Spence by Ieva Porcius, 1986

    Catherine Helen Spence statue

    The powerful sculpture of Catherine Helen Spence in Light Square, Adelaide celebrates the life and work of a formidable South Australian.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Northwest corner | 1850s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1980s

  8. The Kingston Ministry, c1896

    Charles Cameron Kingston Memorial

    A remarkable and feisty South Australian attorney-general and premier, a father of federation and the first Australian Minster for Trade and Customs is commemorated by this statue

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1850s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s

  9. Colonel Light statue

    Colonel William Light’s statue on Montefiore Hill pointing towards the centre of Adelaide has come to symbolise the city that Light laid out.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1930s, early twenty–first century

  10. Image: stone cross in park land

    Dardanelles Memorial

    The first Anzac memorial was once an obelisk in a grove of wattles

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Parklands | 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1960s, 2000-2010, 2010s, First World War

  11. Elder Park rotunda, 2008

    Elder Park Rotunda

    Celebrated at its opening in 1882, and again a century later, the rotunda remains a focus point for events in Elder Park.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | Parklands | 1880s, 1980s

  12. Statue of John McDouall Stuart, unveiled 4 June 1904

    John McDouall Stuart statue

    The statue of inland explorer John McDouall Stuart at the corner of Victoria Square and Flinders Street, Adelaide, commemorates his place in Australian history

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton and Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1960s

  13. Statue of King Edward VII on North Terrace, showing original placement on roadway, 1920

    King Edward VII Memorial

    Creating and installing King Edward VII’s statute took eight months longer than the period of his reign

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1920s

  14. Knot sculpture

    Knot

    The shining steel and simple form of Knot typifies the work of sculptor Herbert (Bert) Flugelman.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  15. Mary Lee, 2013

    Mary Lee bust

    ‘My aim is to leave the world better for women’ – Mary Lee was an activist, suffragist and unionist

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1990s

  16. Black and white image of old museum display showing large wooden plinth with staircase on top.

    Miniature Staircase- Newmarket Hotel

    This scale model of the spiral staircase in the Newmarket Hotel is just 600 millimetres high, but represents months of careful craftwork. It was made by a young man named Walton Banks and exhibited at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition in 1887.

    Historical Thing | By Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910

  17. Image: steel quadrangle-shaped sculpture with rounded edges and a geometric hole in the middle

    Owen Broughton Sculpture

    This Owen Broughton work won the 1976 Rundle Mall sculpture contest alongside Bert Flugelman's Mall's Balls and John Dowie's Girl on a Slide. 

    Historical Thing | By Hannah Stewart, History Trust of South Australia | 1970s, 1980s, 2000-2010

  18. Image: a long, narrow tourist boat with a canvas roof is moored at a concrete dock with a metal railing.

    Popeye

    'Popeye the Sailor' was a popular cartoon at the cinema in the 1930s when Gordon Watts introduced a tourist pleasure craft on the River Torrens

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | River Torrens | 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010

  19. Image: statue of standing queen in royal robes and crown

    Queen Victoria Monument

    Since 1894 Queen Victoria has looked imperiously over the bustle of Victoria Square

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1950s, 1960s

  20. Image: close-up of inside surfaces of the touchstone.

    Reconciliation Touchstone

    The red granite sculpture captures the plaster imprints of 64 handshakes made at a Reconciliation Week ceremony in 2006. 

    Historical Thing | By Catherine Barron, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010, Aboriginal Country pre-contact, early twenty–first century

  21. Statue of Robert Burns

    Robert Burns Memorial

    One of many around the world, this statue of Scottish poet Robert Burns was unveiled in 1894

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1930s, 1940s, 1990s

  22. Image: The multimedia screen emits a rainbow of colors over nighttime pedestrians

    Rundle Lantern

    The Rundle Lantern is 100% green-powered and the light show is carbon neutral.

    Historical Thing | By Hannah Stewart, History Trust of South Australia | Rundle Street east | 2000-2010

  23. Bronze bust of Douglas Mawson by Adelaide sculptor John Dowie, 1981

    Sir Douglas Mawson bust

    The spirit of Antarctic explorer and professor of geology, Sir Douglas Mawson, is captured in the bust by John Dowie

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1980s

  24. Image: Bust of Sir Lawrence Bragg

    Sir Lawrence Bragg bust

    The bust of Sir Lawrence Bragg commemorates a South Australian Nobel Laureate

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1970s, 2000-2010, 2010s

  25. Sir Mellis Napier bust, 2013

    Sir Mellis Napier bust

    The bronze bust of Sir Mellis Napier, sculpted by eminent South Australian artist John Dowie, commemorates his distinguished community service, including to the law and legal profession in South Australia

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

  26. Sir Samuel Way statue

    Sir Samuel Way Memorial Statue

    A statue of Sir Samuel Way reflects his towering presence in legal, political and cultural circles in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s

  27. Bronze statue of Sir Thomas Elder by Alfred Drury, 1903 outside Elder Hall, University of Adelaide

    Sir Thomas Elder statue

    The sculpture of Elder is at the University of Adelaide, a major beneficiary of his philanthropy

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1890s, 1900-1910

  28. Image: crowd of people around large bronze statue of seated man

    Sir Walter Watson Hughes statue

    The bronze figure of Sir Walter Watson Hughes by Francis Williamson stands on a massive block of red granite.

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton and James Hunter, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1900-1910, 2000-2010

  29. Image: The statue of a horse and rider mounting the crest of a hill

    South African War Memorial

    The mounted trooper reining in his horse commemorates South Australians who served in the South African War (1899-1902).

    Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1930s, 2000-2010

  30. Bronze plaque set in pavement inscribed with name and City of Adelaide logo

    Susan Grace Benny Plaque

    The first female local government councillor in Australia, Benny was a Justice of the Peace, a businesswoman and a lobbyist for women’s equality.

    Historical Thing | By Laura Sherwood, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 2000-2010

Pages