Sexual moral outrage of Social Purity Society in 19th Century South Australia flows to 1970s start of Festival of Light
Venere di Canova or Venus was the first public artwork in Adelaide city. Donated by wealthy pastoralist and philanthropist William Horn (at right), the nude body caused an outcry after its unveiling on North Terrace, Adelaide city, in 1892.
The prostitution rife in Adelaide city streets since South Australia's 19th Century start promoted ongoing outrage and groups such as the Social Purity Society that would feed into the campaign for women’s voting rights.
The naming of member of parliament Charles Kingston in an 1886 divorce case fed into the outage.
Wealthy draper Matthew Goode, involved with the Adelaide City Mission, called a public meeting at the YMCA that led to a petition being sent to parliament.
The petition asked that “any member of the House of Assembly who shall at any time be proven guilty of adultery or any scandalous offence against morality shall vacate his seat”.
Goode’s committee also arranged a “day of humiliation” on account of “the low standard that religion exercises in our midst”. The day of prayer was attended by “50 ladies and gentlemen”. A Vigilance Association formed shortly afterward did not last long. Charles Kingston went on to be the premier that presided over the women’s suffrage laws in the mid 1890s.
South Australian poet, C.J. Dennis, with Archie Martin, launched the illustrated literary magazine Gadfly in 1906, commenting on Australian social life of the time. Dennis wrote The Parson and the play, a sendup of wowserism associated with those who saw the theatre as sinful. Dennis posed for photos as a parson, alternately shocked and excited by the girls on stage.
The Festival of Light, a Christian lobby group formed in the 1970s by Malcolm Muggeridge and Mary Whitehouse, to promote certain standards and strengthen the family unit, had its first Australian branch founded in Adelaide in 1973 by Helen Caterer and evangelical Anglican minister Lance Shilton. Whitehouse came to Adelaide to launch the inaugural Australian Festival of Light at a gathering of 12,000 at Montefiore Hill.
