Portal:South Australia

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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 984,321 square kilometres (380,048 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and second smallest state by population. It has a total of 1.8 million people. Its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second-largest centre, has a population of 26,878.

South Australia shares borders with all the other mainland states. It is bordered to the west by Western Australia, to the north by the Northern Territory, to the north-east by Queensland, to the east by New South Wales, to the south-east by Victoria, and to the south by the Great Australian Bight. The state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray. The state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province, rather than as a convict settlement. Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when the members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree.

As with the rest of the continent, the region has a long history of human occupation by numerous tribes and languages. The South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was later employed by the New Zealand Company. The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history has been marked by periods of economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its fine wine and numerous cultural festivals. The state's economy is dominated by the agricultural, manufacturing and mining industries. (Full article...)

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Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebello Islands a year previously. The main purpose of the trial was to determine the acceptable limit on the amount of plutonium-240 which could be present in a bomb.

In addition to the two main tests, there was a series of five subcritical tests called "Kittens". These did not produce nuclear explosions, but used conventional explosives, polonium-210, beryllium and natural uranium to investigate the performance of neutron initiators. (Full article...)

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Credit: Karora

A skeleton of a marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) in the Victoria Fossil Cave, Naracoorte Caves National Park, part of the Australian fossil mammal sites World Heritage Site.

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General images

The following are images from various South Australia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Proclamation of South Australia 1836, Charles Hill. (from History of South Australia)
Image 2500 class engine No.502 hauling a freight train in at Eden Hills, August 1953. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 3The punitive expedition to the Coorong after 25 survivors of the shipwreck Maria were massacred by Aboriginal people in 1840. (from History of South Australia)
Image 4George French Angas, Port Adelaide in 1846, 10 years after settlement. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 5Rapid Bay, South Australia in 1950 with its limestone quarry and jetty for loading limestone onto ships (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 6Charles Sturt (from History of South Australia)
Image 7Road transport in South Australia (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 8Satellite image of eastern South Australia. Note the dry lakes (white patches) in the north (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 9Goolwa to Port Elliot tramway circa 1860. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 10The 1925 Murray Bridge rail bridge over the Murray River, linking Adelaide to Melbourne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 11The clipper 'Yatala', 1127 tons, at Port Adelaide circa 1870. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 12Ships docked at Port Adelaide in 1910. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 13Saint Mary Mackillop (1842–1909) co-founded an order of nuns in rural South Australia in 1866 and became the first Australian saint of the Catholic Church in 2010. (from History of South Australia)
Image 14South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910). In 1895 women in South Australia were among the first in the world to attain the vote and were the first to be able to stand for parliament. (from History of South Australia)
Image 15An aerial view of Murray Bridge in 1953 showing rail and road bridges, and also paddle steamers. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 16"Night attack of the natives on Lake Hope" (1866 wood engraving) (from History of South Australia)
Image 17Wallaroo jetty in 1909, showing shipping, launches, and grain waiting for loading. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 18A camel train in the desert, with each of the camels loaded with two bales of wool from Arrabura Station, 1931. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 19Köppen climate types in South Australia (from Geography of South Australia)
Image 20The Paddle Steamer P. S. Sapphire on the Murray River with a barge. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 21Loading grain from horse drawn wagons to the ketch 'Free Selector' on Kangaroo Island (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 22An 1835 advertisement for the sale of land in South Australia (from History of South Australia)
Image 23The barque Admiral Karpfanger at Port Germein jetty in South Australia. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 24Old Parliament House in 1872 (from History of South Australia)
Image 25Encounter Bay, 1847 (from History of South Australia)
Image 26Aboriginal Family Travelling by W.A. Cawthorne. (from History of South Australia)
Image 27Camel train, with wool from Nappamerry being unloaded at the Railway Station, 1928. (from Transport in South Australia)
Image 28Colonel William Light. (from History of South Australia)

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Did You Know... - show different entries

...that construction of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral (pictured) in Adelaide did not finish until 1996, 130 years after it began?
...that Sir Samuel Davenport, a South Australian parliamentarian, had an electoral district named after him?
...that Adelaide was the first city in Australia to introduce horse trams and the last to discard them for more modern public transport?
...that Smoky Bay in South Australia was named so after the discoverer noticed large plumes of smoke from fires lit by the area's Aboriginal people?