Gawler Chambers last link to South Australian Company and its prime place in settlement of the colony in 1836
Gawler Chambers, former offices of the South Australian Company on North Terrace, Adelaide, and (inset) its previous office building on the same site from 1872.
Inset image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Gawler Chambers on North Terrace, Adelaide city, are a heritage-listed link back to the South Australian Company that became the driving force in setting up the colony after it was formed in London in 1835 by George Fife Angas and other wealthy British merchants.
Gawler Chambers, heritage listed in 1991, were built in 1913-14 but the company had offices on the same North Terrace site from 1872 when it took the place of Madam Marval’s school.
The South Australian Company was wound up in 1949, with Elders Trustee and Executor Company taking over managing its remaining business.
Whaling, banking and pastoral enterprises were all part of South Australian Company’s enterprises through the 19th Century. George Fife Angas, who had been a member of the South Australian colonisation commission, seized on the opportunity for the company to be dominant in the colony. The South (Foundation) Australia Act, passed by the British parliament in 1834, had required sales of land to the value of £35,000 before the new South Australian province could be developed.
But a lot of land remained unsold because of the fixed price of 20 shillings an acre that had been written into the South Australia (Foundation) Act.
George Fife Angas, Thomas Smith and Henry Kingscote formed the South Australian Company that was able to buy more than 13,000 acres of the unsold land at 12 shillings an acre, including prime town and country sections. The founding board of directors were George Fife Angas (chairman), Raikes Currie, Charles Hindley MP, James Hyde, Henry Kingscote, John Pirie, alderman; Christopher Rawson, John Rundle MP, Thomas Smith; James Ruddell Todd; and Henry Waymouth, with Edmund John Wheeler as manager, Samuel Stephens as colonial manager and Edward Hill as secretary pro tem.
On June 17, 1836, the deed of settlement of the purchase of the land was signed by Angas, Smith, Kingscote and about 300 shareholders.
