Institute, from South Australian founders' ideal, gives birth to public library, museum, art gallery, university

The combined South Australian subscription library and mechanics institute, lacking a permanent home, used the Neales Exchange building, at right, on the King William Street corner with Hindley Street, Adelaide city, before th institure was established on North Terrace.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

The South Australian Institute – birthplace of the State Library of South Australia, South Australian Museum and Art Gallery of South Australia – descended from the South Australian Library and Scientific Association founded in London soon after the Act to start the province of South Australia was passed by the British parliament in 1834.

Formed for “the cultivation and diffusion of useful knowledge throughout the Colony”,  the South Australian Library and Scientific Association  chose 117 books and shipped them on the Tam O’Shanter, one of the province’s first fleet bringing out European settlers to South Australia, in 1836.

Once in Adelaide, the books became the library of the Mechanics Institute. Formed in 1838 as a library and scientific association, the mechanics institute hosted a wide range of educational and informative lectures for the public. Hit by the 1840s economic depression, the mechanics institute amalgamated with the South Australian Subscription Library in 1848, having a combined membership of about 475.

The subscription library and mechanics institute lacked resources and a permanent home, meeting first in the Peacock Building in Hindley Street and then in Neales Exchange building in King William Street, Adelaide city. With the Adelaide Philosophical Society (Royal Society of South Australia from 1880), they lobbied for government support for a cultural and educational institute.

The South Australian Institute, established and incorporated in law in 1855, was “to comprise a Public Library and Museum, and, by means of public lectures, classes, and otherwise, to promote the general study and cultivation of all or any of the various branches or departments of art, science, literature and philosophy” and to encourage and assist kindred societies.

The library was to provide free public access to a reading room on every day of the week except Sunday. Books could be borrowed for a membership fee of 2s 6d and annual subscription of between £1 and £2. The institute was controlled by a six-member board – three appointed by the governor and three elected by affiliated incorporated societies. The government allocated it a minimum £500 annually.