The Street Naming Committee was a committee established to decide on names for the streets of the new city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

in the

colony of South Australia A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

in 1837.

Description

The Street Naming Committee was set up to decide the names of the streets, the squares and the river of the new settlement of Adelaide, as it had been laid out by Colonel

William Light William Light (27 April 1786 – 6 October 1839) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He was the first Surveyor General of South Australia, Surveyor-General of the History of South Australia#British preparation for est ...

in 1837. Light's map corresponds to the modern

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre () is the inner city locality of Adelaide, 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 Adelaide l ...

and

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

. The committee met on 23 May 1837 and chose the names, which were gazetted on 3 June. The committee was not harmonious, with Governor

John Hindmarsh Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh KH (baptised 22 May 1785 – 29 July 1860) was a naval officer and the first Governor of South Australia, from 28 December 1836 to 16 July 1838. Family His grandfather William Hindmarsh was a gardener in Coni ...

in particular taking exception to some of the names. Some of his alterations were included in the final gazetted version. The names are of prominent pioneers or people who otherwise made some notable contribution to the founding of South Australia, many of whom never actually visited or lived in the colony. Some exceptions are due to Governor Hindmarsh and Judge Jeffcott wishing to name streets after their friends.

Strangways Terrace Strangways Terrace is a street in North Adelaide, South Australia. It is the southwestern boundary between the built environment and the Adelaide parklands including the Adelaide Golf Links. Strangways Terrace is named after Thomas Bewes Str ...

was named after Thomas Bewes Strangways, a committee member who was also a prospective son-in-law to the Governor.

Pulteney Street Pulteney Street is a main road which runs north-south through the middle of the eastern half of the Adelaide city centre, in Adelaide, South Australia. It runs north-south from North Terrace, through Hindmarsh and Hurtle Squares, to South ...

was named after Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm who had recommended that Hindmarsh be appointed first Governor of the colony. More controversially, Archer Street was to have been named Willoughby Street, after Sir Henry Willoughby, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

MP who had initially opposed the South Australia Bill, but was later won over and convinced others also to change their votes. Through the Governor's interference, the name was changed to Archer, after a landowner who had given him some sheep. O'Connell Street and Kermode Street were named after Jeffcott's friends

Daniel O'Connell Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...

, who had defended him over a duel, and Robert Kermode, the brother of his fiancée. With a very few exceptions, the original names have been retained, although a large number of streets have since been added, particularly in the city centre. Brown Street and Hanson Street have been subsumed into Morphett Street and

respectively. Roberts Place has been renamed Sir Edwin Smith Avenue.

Committee members

The Street Naming Committee comprised:

References

External links

Streets by name
by

Geoff Manning Geoffrey Haydon Manning (1926–2018) was an Australian author and historian. He is known particularly for his books on South Australian placenames; ''Manning's Place Names of South Australia'' (1990) is particularly well-known and available onli ...

. Includes many further references to newspaper articles. History of Adelaide

Description

Committee members

See also

References

Further reading

External links