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South Australian capital city

Encounter Bay, 1844 Photograph, State Library of South Australia Reproduction rights are owned by State Library of South Australia. This image may be printed or saved for personal research or study. Use for any other purpose requires permission from the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.

The path to selecting the site for Adelaide was not an easy one. In fact, South Australia’s first governor, John Hindmarsh, firmly disagreed with surveyor-general William Light’s choice. Hindmarsh preferred a site on Encounter Bay, close to the Murray Mouth. It was suggested that a canal could connect the seaport capital and the river port of Goolwa. Another suggestion for the location of the South Australian capital was the site of Port Lincoln. Light admitted that a site on the eastern coast of the Gulf of St Vincent was the likeliest rival to his chosen site, but a damning report of the suitability of Encounter Bay as a seaport was made and Light’s choice was maintained.

Further reading

Strangways, TB. ‘Encounter Bay and Lake Alexandrina’, South Australian gazette and colonial register, 20 January 1838, p. 4, col. b.

‘Victoria Harbour – Encounter Bay’, South Australian gazette and colonial register, 20 January 1838, p. 2, col. a-b.

Whitelock, Derek. Adelaide from colony to jubilee: a sense of difference, Adelaide: Savvas Publishing, c1985.

South Australian gazette and colonial register, 28 April 1838, p. 2, col. c, ‘The slanderers of the colony – Colonel Torrens’ opinion – Encounter Bay’	Southern Australian, 2 June 1838, p. 4, col. b, c, d, ‘Survey report on the capabilities of Encounter Bay’	Plan of Victor Harbour in Encounter Bay
Chart of the anchorages in Encounter Bay	Encounter Bay, 1844