Also known as the Crimson Parrot, Pennant's Parakeet, Red Lowry and Mountain Lowry. In South Australia the Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans) is found in the south-east, Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island. It is quite common on the eastern seaboard of Australia. It eats seeds, fruit and berries and nests in tree holes. See also Adelaide Rosella.

Distinguished British zoologist and ornithologist John Gould and his wife Elizabeth (nee Coxon), also an accomplished naturalist and illustrator voyaged with their children to Australia in 1838 on the Parsee (ship), landing in Tasmania. Gould visited New South Wales, spent several weeks exploring the Murray scrubs in South Australia, mainly in the company of Charles Sturt, and also visited Kangaroo Island. Adelaide did not impress him: it was then (1839) merely 'a chaotic jumble of sheds and mud huts'. Returning to Hobart, he went to New South Wales with his wife and two children, another son having been born in the meantime. The Gould party left Sydney on 9 April 1840, and publication of The Birds of Australia began in London on 1 December 1840. The final parts, making a total of thirty-six, appeared in 1848. They were bound in seven volumes and the cost to subscribers was 115 (A. H. Chisholm, 'Gould, John (1804 - 1881)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp 465-467).

Rosellas were often mentioned by South Australian settlers in documents from the The Foundation of South Australia, 1800-1851.

See catalogue record of a letter to H. Tomlin from George P. Ingram, 1842, which refers to bird behaviour in the area of Adelaide.

Diary kept by pioneer Mary Thomas during a voyage aboard the Africaine to South Australia, 1836. The Thomas family brought the first printing press to South Australia from which the first South Australian newspaper was printed. In time, she settled her family in Hindley Street. There, Mary attempted to preserve English traditions, including plum pudding, but had also become accustomed to such delicacies as parrot pie.

Gould, John, 1804-1881

Gould, John. The Birds of Australia. London: Published by the author, 1848 (London: Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor)

Andre, Roger. 'Friends-funded artworks', Bibliofile vol. 10, no. 4, August 2002

'Gould commemorative issue', Emu , October 1938