The Hindu Society of South Australia held its first meeting in August 1985, with the specific aim of establishing a temple in Adelaide. Consequently, in 1986 the second Hindu Temple in Australia was opened in a former Christian church at Oaklands Park. In 1988 the first fulltime temple priest, Adchayamoorthy Kurukkal, was appointed. Fifteen years later the building was extensively reconstructed, using drawings by the Indian architect Shri S. Nagarajan, under engineer Mr Rajalingam, the designer of the Sydney Murugan Temple. The temple was dedicated to the elephant-headed god, Shri Ganesha, and opened by Premier John Olsen on 10 March 2001.