Radical Dream

 

'What a set of radicals you must be...'

Letter to Richard Symonds, 12 November 1837

Foundation of the province
Religious Freedom
Aboriginal Rights
1967 Referendum: Citizenship
Union Movement
Women's Movement
The 1970s
Gay Rights
Sex Industry Law Reforms
SA Housing Trust
Timeline

South Australia was born of the ideas of a prisoner serving three years in Newgate Gaol on a conspiracy charge relating to marriage with a 15 year old heiress at Gretna Green.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield's experience of the English penal system convinced him of the need to alleviate the social problems of over population by emigration to the colonies.

Thus began a continuing social experiment in South Australia with high ideals being proclaimed if not always achieved in practice. When taken up they have placed South Australia at the forefront of reforms such as Women's Suffrage, Aboriginal Land Rights and Equal Opportunity.

South Australia in the 21st century is a society that Wakefield could hardly have imagined, but the tradition continues.