The Duryea Panorama: In the Adelaide City region of South Australia

The History Trust of South Australia has a new home inside the Torrens Parade Ground Building just off King William Road. The Parade Ground Drill Hall was built in 1936 about seventy one years after leading colonial photographer Townsend Duryea took his famous panorama of the city of Adelaide. His work now takes pride of place in the Trust's display area. It points to a time when Adelaide was changing from a frontier town to something a little more substantial.

“You'll notice that there are very few wooden buildings in Adelaide at this time,” explained Kate Walsh of the History Trust. “The Adelaide City Council banned external construction of houses with timber. That was to reduce the fire risk so people built in stone. A lot of stone was quarried locally and it is a real feature of Adelaide that it is largely a city of stone. A very solid presence on the plain.”

Townsend Duryea captured that presence in 1865. The photographer climbed onto the scaffold used to construct the Town Hall tower and took a series of photographs. Today, follow the labels and arrows on the photos to go on a guided tour of 1860's Adelaide. The lack of any real human presence might lead some to question whether this was in fact a "ghost town" rather than a bustling city in the Antipodes. But as Kate explained, there’s a good explanation for the lack of people.

“There are very few people in the panorama due to the long exposure time required in the photographic techniques of that time. It was actually a very busy bustling city. There were twenty three thousand people living in Adelaide at that time - almost double what it is now.”

“There were one hundred and thirteen hotels in Adelaide in the 1860s. I'm not sure how many churches there were but churches certainly dominated the landscape with their tall spires. In 1872 a visiting British novelist, Anthony Trollope came to Adelaide and he saw the spires that you can see - the churches on the skyline, and he coined that phrase that we all know 'Adelaide is a City of Churches'.

But it was also a city of wood-yards, shops, stables and animal tracks across empty paddocks. Some landmarks remain, like Saint Francis Xavier's Cathedral. While other parts of 1860s Adelaide along Pirie Street and Gawler Place are now gone - but the photos show what it used to be like including the rows of workers cottages lining the city street.

“A lot of people in Adelaide in the 1860s were workers and they lived very close to where they worked.”

Today some workers might wait for a cab or a bus on King William Street but back in 1865 the cabbies lined up with horse and carriage. Just one of the many fascinating images on show - as part of Townsend Duyea's Panorama of Adelaide. It’s in the History Trust Offices at the Parade Ground. It's open Monday to Friday and entry is free.

The Duryea Panorama
The History Trust of SA
Torrens Parade Ground Building
King William Road
Open Mon - Friday 9.30am - 3.30pm
Free Entry