'The Advertiser's' John Langdon Bonython gives £100,000 to South Australian parliament completion in 1939
John Langdon Bonython's gift allowed the South Australian parliament's east wing to be completed in 1939.
John Langdon Bonython’s £100,000 in 1934 allowed the South Australian parliament house in Adelaide to be completed, after it had remained half built as a west wing since 1889.
Bonython amassed one of Australia’s largest fortunes, after buying into The Advertiser newspaper with mining shares success, becoming its editor at 36, and sole owner in 1893. In 1929, he sold it for £1,250,000 as a public company.
The Advertiser under Bonython reflected a democratic change from the dominance of conservative pastoral interests to a growing middle class of small businessman and landholders. Bonython became a federal parliamentarian in 1901, elected second to Charles Cameron Kington in the South Australian state-wide poll for the House of Representatives. He was re-elected unopposed in 1903 for the Barker division.
In parliament, Bonython favoured protection, retrenchment and the White Australia policy. He advanced the interests of South Australian local industry and urged the commonwealth to take over the Northern Territory. Bonython didn’t contest the 1906 election although the Labor party wanted to grant him, and other protectionists, immunity from opposition.
Among his other philanthropy, Bonython helped the South Australian government pay the salaries of the civil service during a financial crisis in the 1920s/30s Depression. The resumed parliament house project he backed also generated jobs to alleviate the mass unemployment of the Depression.
Work began on the east wing and central section in 1936, South Australia’s centenary year, and were completed in Victorian academic classical style in 1939 at a cost of £241,887. Plans for this stage included a central dome but money ran out before it could be built.
Ten Corinthian columns were built in the portico instead of six and, with two curved sets of steps, formed part of the North Terrace façade. The British houses of parliament were so delighted that the building was completed after so long that they organised to have the lion, forming part of a royal coat of arms at Westminster, removed from the stonework and shipped to Adelaide to be placed at the front of the building.
