ADELAIDE TOWN HALL

When you step into the Town Hall on one of Glen Woodwards' regular tours you take a journey through the city's history, with tales of excess, political intrigue and personal scandal, a bit like Adelaide I suppose. The Town Hall and the city itself take their name from Queen Adelaide who was born in Germany the eldest child of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Adelaide Louisa Theresa was shipped off to England to marry the future king, William The Fourth, a man with a rather interesting past.

"King William at that time was about 53 and not married, but I can tell you privately that he did have ten children. He had a girlfriend, Mrs Jordan. She was well known. She was an actress at Drury Lane and she had other children too. The public knew quite well, but they weren't married legit, so he had to get married".

The English satirists had a field day with King William seen here with Mrs Jordan, learning her lines while he takes some of their illegitimate children for a walk through the streets of London. William was pressured to abandon Dorothea Jordan and the marriage to Adelaide was described as a happy one. The fact that the South Australian colonists petitioned King William for the right to name their city, Adelaide, in honour of his Queen in 1836, shows how popular she became in her reign.

It was at this time that the city's founder, Colonel William Light was out tramping across the South Australian countryside with his surveying equipment, racked by illness and dogged by political intrigue.

"Very difficult, because he had inadequately trained assistants. They'd be OK for carrying. Hindmarsh didn't provide him with enough food and he was eating cockatoos and galahs and that sort of thing. And of-course he had TB. Some days he was in his tent and he was coughing and spluttering so much he couldn't work".

"So it was remarkable he did such a fantastic job?"

"He surveyed Port Adelaide, Barossa Valley, Glenelg, the city of Adelaide, Victor Harbor and all in conflict".

Because of his Malaysian background, Light suffered his share of prejudice. The citing of our city on the banks of the Torrens stands as a real achievement, given the battles he had with Governor Hindmarsh who wanted the city to be established at present day Port Adelaide. Within a few years of the location being settled, the civic fathers got to work albeit with a few hiccups along the way.

"The first council meetings weren't held in such grand surroundings. In fact, the first councillors met in a pub in Hindley Street. Now the council has seen its fair share of controversy. The ambitious start made by Adelaide's local government in 1840 ended prematurely when, in 1843, the Adelaide City Council was put into receivership by Governor Grey".

The elegant Council Chamber was its gold leaf and portraits of various Lord Mayors, is a monument to the architectural genius of Edmund Wright. All of this is a spectacular 1883 addition to the original Town Hall completed in 1866. At the time it was hailed as "the largest municipal building south of the Equator". Again there was a great deal of controversy over the cost of its construction, but despite the wrangling it appears they didn't have enough for a Town Hall clock. That came seventy years later, and according to some, we can thank powerful Adelaide newspaper proprietor Sir Lavington Bonython.

"He used to ask his workers what the time was, so they'd take out the watch, tell him the time and they looked at him and thought he's got enough money why doesn't he buy his own? So one day they all ganged up and didn't wear their watches. He asked them the time - "sorry, don't have it". Aha, I know your trick, so his window looked out at the Town Hall. So he had clocks put in the Town Hall so that he could see the time free and get away with it. So actually, when he died in 1960 and was being buried, the clock stopped and no-one knows why".

True or not, it makes for a great yarn and one of the many on the Adelaide Town Hall Tours - conducted each Monday. To book contact 8203-7203. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au