Elder Family of Scots merchants and ship owners saw the infant South Australia as an opportunity to expand their business interests. Alexander Lang Elder (1815–1885), the pioneer, arrived in 1839 and established a trading business.
Labour settlements were created during the 1890s to trial collective ownership, new farming technology and the high unemployment created by the Depression.
Radicalism has been inherent in South Australian history from its founding as a free settlement. Based upon the English radical liberal thought of its founders, the State's reputation grew as a progressive colony and the first to entirely separate church from state.
The Torrens title system for land ownership was inaugurated in South Australia has led the world in the computerisation of real property title information.