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History. The region presently known as Adelaide was once inhabited by a peaceful group of Australian Aborigines known as the Kaurna. This group was not very large to begin with, and was decimated with European settlement, as were most Aboriginal groups in Australia after Australia was landed on by Europeans in 1788. In the 1830's, the National Colonisation Society was formed in the United Kingdom, and in 1834 the Act for the Colonisation of South Australia was passed. South Australia was originally intended to be unlike the previously settled Australian colonies, which were characterized by their penal colony status. South Australia was to have no convicts; instead, it was meant to be a haven of religious and civil liberties. This is a bit ironic because the founders conceived of this convict-free colony while in prison. The double standard of the civil liberties has a sadder irony: while Prussian Lutherans were welcome to seek asylum in South Australia, even the best-intentioned South Australians did very little in the way of recognizing the humanity of the Aborigines, let alone protecting their civil liberties. The following chart elucidates the various criteria used in choosing Australia's capital cities; note that Adelaide fulfilled all but one of the most important criteria; that is, a lack of building materials. Most of Adelaide's buildings are built of stone. In 1836, before the land around Adelaide had even been surveyed, 15 ships arrived carrying settlers to the new colony. This is what Adelaide looked like according to Barton in 1853. Note that the "convict-free colony," which has been nicknamed even in recent years "The City of Churches," is dotted with inns or taverns, and already has a jail infringing on the space set aside for parklands. Note also that there are already, not even 20 years post-settlement, suburbs springing up on the outskirts of the city; interesting because it reinforces the fact that the suburbs in Adelaide are not a new, modern phenomenon. Finally, note the very particular way in which Adelaide is set up (barring some anomalies like the jail in the middle of the parklands); this plan was created by Colonel William Light (click on the map to enlarge).

Another characteristic of Australian cities that has been reinforced throughout history is the fact of metropolitan primacy. The capital cities are all the primate cities in their respective states, often by a huge margin. Historically, this is because the British established several coastal outposts whose purpose was not to populate the countryside (the vast, often unwelcoming and unproductive "countryside"), but to exploit the hinterland to the benefit of the empire. Therefore, there was little incentive to establish cities other than those officially incorporated by the British during colonization; further, these were the seats of commerce and culture. For example, the wool trade actually created more job opportunities in the city than in the hinterland; it takes fewer employees to herd and shear sheep than it does to oversee the trade of wool. By the time the Australian Federation was created, in 1901, Adelaide already had over 100,000 inhabitants (while Sydney and Melbourne both had about .5 million). All three cities were already characterized by low-density suburbs and also were segregated into sectors by income and social class (as opposed to concentric ring patterns). With the encouragement of the South Australian government, Adelaide underwent a period of rapid industrialization in the 1930's. By 1947, Adelaide had 80% of the factory jobs in South Australia and 50% of the state's total population resided in this capital city. While this is already an impressive proportion of the state population, the degree of primacy only rose further throughout the latter half of the 20th century, as mining and ranching operations became more efficient and less labor-intensive.