William Light's 1836 letter to George Jones shows excited choice of Adelaide site for South Australia capital city
William Light's November 1836 letter from the Rapid on St Vincent Gulf, to artist and friend George Jones in England, reflects his excitement and optimism about the potential of the harbour and the Adelaide plain to “make this one of the finest settlements in the whole world”.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
Colonel William Light’s letter to friend and artist George Jones in England, dated November 22, 1836, and written aboard the brig Rapid in “Gulf St Vincent, Lat.34.43 Long.138.3”, gave key insights to excitement and optimism in selecting the site for South Australia’s capital city.
Light had been appointed surveyor general in January that year by South Australia’s colonisation commissioners and instructed to examine 1,500 miles of coastline, select the best site for settlement, and survey the town site and country sections – all with limited staff and resources.
Light's letter to Jones, an eminent British artist who painted Light’s portrait in 1823 (later in the National Portrait Gallery, London), described the site Light had chosen for the new settlement and included a sketch of the locality and an enthusiastic description of the Adelaide plain. It was written the day after Light had finished exploring the southern reaches of the Port River (Gulf St Vincent) and predated the official decision on the location of the capital by five weeks.
At that stage, Light was still obliged to consider other places, including Encounter Bay and Port Lincoln. Writing to Jones as a friend, Light gave a different emphasis than in his letter to the South Australian Commissioners written the same day, when he indicated his preference for the site of Adelaide in less definite terms and adds his obligation to “look at other places first, before I fix on the capital, yet I feel assured...that I shall only be losing time”'.
The Jones letter showed that Light was excited and full of optimism about the potential of the harbour and the Adelaide plain to “make this one of the finest settlements in the whole world”. A rough sketch showed that he intended the site of the capital to be south of the Port River and several miles inland from Holdfast Bay. The sketch included notes on the terrain and possible uses of the land. A proposed canal connecting the city with Port Adelaide was also shown.
Light's optimism was tempered with exasperation at the response of some settlers to the choice of site. Light anticipated that there will be opposition to the choice of the site, but is confident that history will prove him correct:
“I have no doubts all will go on well, it will I am sure after I am dead and then, perhaps not till then,
the world will give me credit for being resolute now”.
Vocal opponents to the choice of the site for Adelaide included first governor John Hindmarsh who was keen to have the “first colony” near the mouth of the River Murray, and officials of the South Australian Company who preferred a harbour side location.
Others, like his friend and colleague Boyle Travers Finniss, saw Light's refusal to submit to this opposition as critical to the success of the colony: “If Colonel Light had not stood firm ... the first colonists would have been ruined, the capital of the Company would have perished, and public feeling would have ruined the Commissioners”.
The letter to Jones was part of important evidence in the controversy over whether Light or George Strickland Kingston was the originator of the plan of Adelaide.
