Adelaide Chamber of Commerce from 1839 claimed nation's first; later South Australian Business Chamber
Elders Smith and Co.Ltd, was one of the few South Australian business when the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1839, but it survived into the 21st Century as Elders Ltd.
Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, formed three years after the colony of South Australia was founded in 1836, claimed to be the first in Australia. (The same claims also were made for Sydney's, from 1826, and Launceston's, from 1849.)
The Adelaide Chamber of Commerce’s first two presidents were Jack Barton Hack and John Morphett. When the Adelaide chamber was formed, only a few businesses were operating in South Australia but two of them, Elder Smith & Co (later Elders) and Bickford and Sons (later Bickford’s), survived changes through to the 21st Century.
The chamber also survived with businesses through South Australia’s cycle of boom and bust, overcoming the tyranny of distance, an arid environment and low population. The chamber was prominent in fighting government taxes, from the levy on auctions in the 1840s to the proposed bank tax in 2017.
By 1907, the chamber had 133 members and its management was entrusted to a general committee of 18 members. But it was only one of the groups representing employers in South Australia. After many attempts, the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce merged in 1972 with the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures to form South Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The chamber of manufacturers, another South Australian first, had been formed in 1869.
In November 1993, the unifying of employer voice was completed with the merger of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the South Australian Employers' Federation to form the South Australian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This culminated in the launch in 2000 of Business SA, as a new name and image for the state's leading business and employer group. The branding was changed to South Australian Business Chamber in 2024.
South Australian Business Chamber was a member of Australian Chamber of Commerce and continued to support employers in industrial relations matters. It also became an influential lobby group for the state’s business community. It was pivotal in shaping South Australia’s shop trading regime, after its landmark deal with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association in 2011 that allowed city centre stores to open on seven additional public holidays.
