SOUTH AUSTRALIA

South Australia proper begins about 26° S. latitude, and is traversed southwards by the Finke River as far as Eyre Lake (3706 sq. m.), by the Flinders Range, and the lower Murray River in the E., and diversified here and there by low ranges and Lake Amadeus (NW.), Torrens and Gairdner (S.); the S. coast is penetrated by the great gulfs of Spencer and St. Vincent, round and to the N. and E. of which the bulk of the population is gathered in a region not much larger than Scotland.

It is the chief wheat-growing region, and other important industries are mining (chiefly copper), sheep-rearing, and wine-making; chief exports, wool, wheat, and copper; well connected with the means of communication systems including railways and roads. State education is free.

History

South Australia was the second largest of the five colonies of Australia, stretched N. and S. in a broad band, 1850 in. long, through the heart of the continent from the Southern Ocean to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea, having Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria on the E., and Western Australia on the W.; ten times the size of Great Britain, but the greater portion comprised the Northern Territory, which consisted, save a low alluvial coastal strip, of parched and uninhabited tableland.

Adelaide was the capital. Began to be settled in 1836, and five years later became a Crown colony.