Coat of arms for South Australia chosen in 1984 to replace the 1936 centenary pioneering and agriculture version

The South Australian coat of arms (left) from 1984, replacing the 1936 version (top right) with another proposed in 1984 (bottom right)

South Australia’s state coat of arms, conferred in a proclamation gazetted in 1984, replaced an earlier coat of arms from 1936 – the centenary of colonisation.

The arms’ shield has a piping shrike (white backed magpie) on a golden disc, representing the the rising sun, on a blue background. The grassy mound and symbols on it –  two vines, wheat and barley stalks, citrus fruits and two cog wheels between a miner's pick – represents agriculture, industry and mining in the state. The crest shows four of the state’s floral emblem: Sturt’s desert pea.

Another proposed design for the coat of arms in 1984 design also showed a helmet and koala and wombat supporting the shield.

The 1936 coat of arms had a more pioneering and agricultural emphasis. Topped with an azure banner with the five stars of the Southern Cross and a golden lion guard, it had a female figure holding a conucpia and a sheaf of barley and a farmer with shears and a fleece of wool. They supported a blue shield with the three clumps of cereal and the Sun. The motto was: “Faith and courage”. That coat of arms was granted to the state from Britian by King Edward VIII and the 1984 version by Queen Elizabeth II.

The piping shrike image, first suggested by the Australian governor general General Hallam Tennyson, came from an original drawing of a white-backed magpie in 1904 by Robert Craig of the South Australian School of Arts. A later drawing was made in 1910 by Harry P. Gill, principal of the School of Arts. The design originally included a pomegranate flower above the shrike (in heraldry the pomegranate is the king of fruit and it was possibly meant to represent the bounty of fruit produced in South Australia), but this was later removed.