The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the

South Australian Colonization Commission British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

set up to oversee implementation of the Act. The South Australian Company was a commercial enterprise, and not officially connected to the British Government or the Colonization Commission, but turned out to be indispensable in allowing emigration to the new colony to begin. The founding board of the company, headed by

George Fife Angas George Fife Angas (1 May 1789 – 15 May 1879) was an English businessman and banker who, while residing in England, played a significant part in the formation and establishment of the Province of South Australia. He established the South Aus ...

, consisted of wealthy British merchants, with the purpose of developing a new settlement in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, building a new

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

by meeting an essential financial obligations of the ''South Australia Act 1834''. It bought up unsold land to the level required by the Act for emigration to be allowed to begin. During the first years of settlement, the company built a great deal of infrastructure and contributed to the creation of industries such as fishing and mining, and it continued to play an important part in the business affairs of the colony (and later state) of

for over a hundred years. It ended business in its own right on 17 March 1949, when it was liquidated by Elders Trustee & Executor Company Ltd. Many streets in Adelaide were named after men associated with the company.

Background

The South Australian Association (1833–1834) had lobbied the British Government for years to set up a new colony in southern Australia. The members of the Association were men of varied backgrounds, from philanthropists to merchants, including

Edward Gibbon Wakefield Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 179616 May 1862) is considered a key figure in the establishment of the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand (where he later served as a member of parliament). He also had significant interests in Brit ...

, Robert Gouger, Robert Torrens Sr and George Fife Angas. The Association underwent numerous negotiations and submitted and resubmitted many plans, until the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

finally gave approval and passed the ''South Australia Act 1834'' on 15 August 1834. The Association's original plan was for the colony to be more or less independent, but the government thought otherwise; a Governor would represent the Crown (British Government), and would share administration of the new colony with the London-based South Australian Colonization Commission, which would be represented in the colony by a

Resident Commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such ...

, Surveyor-General, and various other officers. The new Act also required that a certain amount of land had to be sold in the colony before anybody was allowed to emigrate.

History of the company

Foundation

George Fife Angas, after resigning from the Association, offered to set up a company to buy up the remaining unsold land, which was agreed by the Colonisation Commissioners, so long as this new company, the South Australian Company, did not attempt to set up monopolies in the colony. The founding Board of Directors of the South Australian Company, established on 9 October 1835, were Angas as Chairman;

Raikes Currie Raikes Currie (15 April 1801 – 16 October 1881) was Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton from 1837 to 1857. He was a partner of the bank Curries & Co, along with his father, Isaac Currie, in Cornhill, City of London, and had several in ...

; Charles Hindley MP; James Hyde; Henry Kingscote; John Pirie, Alderman; Christopher Rawson;

John Rundle John Rundle (1791 – January 1864) was a British Whig politician and businessman. From 1835 to 1843, he was a Member of Parliament, representing Tavistock in the House of Commons. He was one of the original directors and financiers of the ...

MP; Thomas Smith; James Ruddell Todd; and Henry Waymouth; with Edmund John Wheeler (Manager); Samuel Stephens, (Colonial Manager); and Edward Hill (Secretary ''

pro tem ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...

''). The original purpose of the company was to help prospective colonists meet the obligations set out in the ''South Australia Act 1834''. The United Kingdom did not want the "province" to be a financial burden, like other colonies, and imposed certain conditions through the Act. One of these conditions was the sale of real property (land) to the value of £35,000. Each director was required to buy at least £2,500 in shares in the company. The biggest sales in land carried out by the company were done in the names of Angas, who purchased 102 lots of land of on behalf of the company, which included prime real estate in both town and country, totalling , and with the right to rent an additional of

pasturage Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

(worth £40,000), and the Currie family, who purchased £9,000. Research published in 2018 and 2019 concluded that these sales and the creation of company, which secured the establishment of South Australia, link the colony's creation with slavery in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

. It was this purchase of land that enabled emigration to commence. It was purely a commercial venture, but without it, the colonisation plan would not have come to fruition.

First Fleet of South Australia (1836)

After a historic meeting at

Exeter Hall Exeter Hall was a large public meeting place on the north side of the Strand in central London, opposite where the Savoy Hotel now stands. From 1831 until 1907 Exeter Hall was the venue for many great gatherings by promoters of human bettermen ...

on 30 June 1834, where the principles, objects, plan and prospects of the new

Colony of South Australia In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

were explained to the public, hundreds of enquiries from prospective emigrants arrived at the South Australian Association's headquarters in London. In January 1836 four ships sailed from England on behalf of the Company, ahead of the Colonisation Commission's planned expedition. They developed a settlement at Kingscote on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

, in July 1836, but when farming proved unviable, both the settlement and the Company's operations were moved to the mainland. The Company provided basic infrastructure for the new colony and sold or leased land to immigrants who came to settle. Over the course of six months, nine ships, which may be termed the

First Fleet of South Australia In 1836, at least nine ships in 1836 carried the first European settlers from England to the south coast of Australia for the establishment of the City of Adelaide and the province of South Australia. Although not all of the ships sailed toge ...

, arrived in the new colony:

Post-settlement

During the first years of settlement, the company undertook the construction of a great deal of infrastructure: roads, bridges, mills,

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

s and warehouses. It contributed to the creation of the whaling, fishing and shipbuilding industries and encouraged

mineral exploration Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...

. There was, however, a financial slump, or Depression, in the 1840s, and company dividends were unable to be paid out until 1848, after

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

was discovered at Burra. The company continued to be an important part of the business affairs of Adelaide and the colony (later state) for over a hundred years. From 1872, the South Australian Company occupied offices on North Terrace on the corner of Gawler Place. The new building, "Gawler Chambers", was completed in 1914. It was wound up on 17 March 1949, with the management of its remaining business transferred to Elders Trustee & Executor Company Ltd. File:SACo_1870_B7764.jpg, First office, erected 1836 at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island. (c. 1870) File:SACo 1872 B2501.jpg, Office on North Terrace east, corner of Gawler Place. (c. 1872) File:SACo 1900 B9504.jpg, Company office c. 1900 File:SACo 1909 B21007_2.jpg, Company office c. 1909 File:SACo 1914 B21007_1.jpg, "Gawler Chambers" c. 1914 File:SACo 1914 B9505.jpg, Company office c. 1914

Lists of people

Colonial Managers

The Colonial Managers of the South Australian Company were: File:David McLaren B7333c.jpg ,

David McLaren David McLaren may refer to: * David McLaren (colonial manager) (1785–1850), colonial manager (CEO) of the colony of South Australia (1837–1841) * David McLaren (politician) (1872–1939), mayor of Wellington and member of the New Zealand Parlia ...

1837-1841 File:William Giles B7334 15.jpg , William Giles 1841-1860 File:William John Brind B7334 16.jpg , William Brind 1861-1894 File:Henry Yorke Sparks B7334 17.jpg , Henry Sparks 1894-1900 File:Henry Percival Moore B7334 18.jpg, Henry Moore 1901-1929 File:Arthur Muller BRG42 122 23.jpg , Arthur Muller 1930-1936

Officers of the company

Most of the major streets in the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ad ...

were named after the founding directors of the company ;Chairmen *1836–1848

(1789–1879) Angas, George Fife (1789–1879)
Australian Dictionary of Biography online (

Angas Street Angas Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map
of the

(

Currie Street Currie Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map
of the

Charles Hindley (

Hindley Street Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the Adelaide city centre, centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street, Adelaide, King William Street and West Terrace, Adelaide, West Terrace. Th ...

) *1836–18?? James Hyde *1836–18?? Henry Kingscote *1836–18?? John Pirie (

Pirie Street Pirie Street is a road on the east side of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It runs east–west, between East Terrace and King William Street. After crossing King William Street, it continues as Waymouth Street. It forms the souther ...

) *1836–18?? Christopher Rawson *1836–18??

(

Rundle Street Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becom ...

) *1836–18?? Thomas Smith *1836–18?? James Ruddell Todd *1836–1848 Henry Waymouth ( Waymouth Street; died 23 January 1848) *1880–1911 Major General Sir Stanley De A.C. Clarke, G.C.V.O., C.M.G. *1889–1919 Sir John H. Kennaway, Bart. C.B., M.P. *1891–1922 Andrew Johnston *1895–1931 John Henry Grant *1899–1931 Sir R.H. Hermon Hodge (later Lord Wyfold) * Joseph Fisher *

Robert Barr Smith Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited). Early life and education Smi ...

* Tom Elder Barr Smith ;Company Secretaries *1878–1911 James Hutchison *1911–1930+ Henry Brandreth Gibbs F.C.I.S. ;Attorneys in South Australia *William Bartley *1850–1906 Sir

Samuel Davenport Sir Samuel Davenport (5 March 1818 – 3 September 1906) was one of the early settlers of Australia and became a landowner and parliamentarian in South Australia. Davenport was fourth son of George Davenport, a wealthy English banker, an ...

, K.C.M.G. *1876–1923 John Warren Bakewell ;Local Board of Advice, Adelaide *1841–1885 William Bartley *1841–18?? Edward Stephens *1856–1870 William Bakewell, M.P., Crown Solicitor *1876–1923 John Warren Bakewell *1886-1930+ Joseph Fisher *1894–1932 Sir John Lancelot Stirling K.C.M.G., M.L.C. ;Accountants * Edward Stephens *Edward Robert Simpson (died 11 July 1900)

Others associated with the company

Most of the major streets in the

were named after the founding directors of the company. Naming of the settlements streets was completed on 23 May 1837 and gazetted on 3 June by the

Street Naming Committee (Adelaide) The Street Naming Committee was a committee established to decide on names for the streets of the new city of Adelaide in the colony of South Australia in 1837. Description The Street Naming Committee was set up to decide the names of the streets ...