Governors get all power from 1842 as South Australia becomes a crown colony with founding hybrid axed
South Australian governors George Grey (1841-45), at left, and Frederick Robe (1845-48) took charge with the change of South Australia as a province to becoming a British crown colony from 1842.
Images by Townend Duryea, courtesy State Library of South Australia
South Australia's status as a province change to becoming a British crown colony in 1842 as the constitutional hybrid responsibility with the colonisation commissioners under the 1834 South Australia Act was dumped.
With the South Australia Act 1842, “to provide better government of South Australia”, the British government assumed full control of what became an ordinary crown colony.
The dismantling of the original South Australia province project had already started when its colonisation commission was abolished between 1840 and 1842 to be replaced by the colonial land and emigration commission, run by British colonial office staff. This was with the result of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s original land-sales-to-fund-emigration plan (or its adaption by commission chairman Robert Torrens) failing to provide effective governance and second governor George Gawler having brought the colony to near bankruptcy by spending on works and administration without funds to draw on.
With the South Australia Act 1842, repealing the previous 1834 foundation act of 1834, the British government assumed full control of South Australia as a crown colony. Under the 1842 changes, an appointed Legislative Council of seven members (three official, four non-official), all nominated by the British crown, could pass laws but governors from George Grey (1841-45) had the final autocratic say and were given extra powers.
The Waste Land 1842, also passed by the British parliament, included South Australia in uniform land regulation across Australian colonies. Land would be up for auction at a minimum £1 per acre with half the proceeds supporting emigration and the rest for local purposes.
Governor Grey aimed to reduce governor Gawler’s debt. He halved the police force, abolished minor government department and cut spending on land surveys. Work on the Port Adelaide customs house and Adelaide Gaol was stopped.
Grey secured a loan from governor George Gipps in New South Wales but also introduced customs duties on certain imported goods and fees for depasturing stock on crown lands. These unpopular taxes without representation were regarded as another affront to the province’s founding democratic principles.
In 1841, Grey, threatened with personal violence, reduced the number of 555 men (or 2,427 with dependents) on poor relief. During his term, Grey also increased the acres under cultivation from 3,000 acres to nearly 20,000 with colony able to feed itself and export grain. The next governor Frederick Robe arrived in 1845 to find colony on a sound financial footing and development starting. The population in 1846 was about 25,000 with a high 43% being women.
