Colonel William Light's 'Plan of Adelaide', 1838

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Maps, Offset prints
Place: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Materials: Adhesive - non specific, Ink, Paper
Collection: Colonel William Light collection no. 2
Accession number: 2013.0086.0001

Description

A single colour lithograph depicting a town plan. In the top right hand corner the title reads 'Plan of / THE CITY OF ADELAIDE. / IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. /.../ SURVEYED AND DRAWN BY COLONEL LIGHT'. The document is yellowed but for a line of paler paper near the centre and either corner at the bottom of the page. There is another small piece of paper adhered to the top left edge. There is a horizontal crease across the centre and two vertical creases suggesting it was once folded in thirds.

About the collection

This collection comprises one lithograph of Colonel William Light's 'Plan of the City of Adelaide'. The plan is a single colour reproduction based on an original watercolour created in 1837. Colonel Light arrived in South Australia in 1836 with instructions to explore and survey the coast of South Australia and identify a suitable location for the first settlement. He chose a site where the Torrens River flowed across a flat plain and created a design with a series of street grids arranged around central public squares, boulevards and parklands. Light orientated the streets of North Adelaide to accommodate the contours of the site. The print is in good condition, with a half-circular piece cut out on the left hand margin, with folds as issued. The systematic colonisation of South Australia was a project of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Settlement was funded through the sale of land in the colony, with profits used to finance administration, build infrastructure and provide free passage to respectable men and women wishing to emigrate. The new colony would generate wealth for the empire and create an outpost of British civilisation, with no convict associations. The first settlers arrived at Kangaroo Island in 1836 on ships chartered by the South Australian Company. Colonel Light arrived the following month and proceeded to select the site for Adelaide. Light's design for the city of Adelaide realised the idealistic vision of the new colony that Wakefield had envisaged.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:16:04 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-09-30. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.