Australian heritage listing for William Light's internationally recognised Adelaide city layout and park lands
Hindmarsh Square, named after his nemesis, first South Australian governor John Hindmarsh, was part of William Light's Adelaide city layout legacy.
Colonel William Light’s Adelaide city layout and parklands received Australia's highest heritage honour when part of it was included in the national heritage list in 2008. Light's plan also was inscribed on the UNESCO (United Nations Economic Social Cultural Organistion) Australian Memory of the World Register.
Light's Adelaide Park and city layout site was defined by the 1837 layout of streets including parks in the city centre that became significant areas such as Victoria Square, Hindmarsh Square, the Botanic Gardens, Palmer Gardens and Brougham Gardens in North Adelaide. Significant parts of Light's Adelaide Park were not national heritage listed. These included the Adelaide park lands along Adelaide city's North Terrace from the former first Royal Adelaide Hospital to the police barracks and the four public offices reserves fronting Victoria Square. The railway lines from North Terrace to the north, west and south were also excluded.
The Adelaide park lands and city layout became widely regarded as a masterwork of urban design and signified a turning point in the settlement of Australia. The park lands and city layout model was used widely by other towns in Australia and overseas.
Light's plan was recognised by town planners and historians as a major influence on the garden city planning movement, one of the most important western urban planning initiatives in history.
As South Australia's first surveyor general, William Light planned and founded the city of Adelaide in only eight weeks. His vision was for a metropolitan city surrounded by parklands, with wide streets, several town squares, and the flowing Torrens River separating two major city areas. These lasting elements of his 1837 plan were maintained.
