Adelaide: Backwards & Boring.: Adelaide: A Thematic history

Did you know that SA once went bankrupt building a large (extremely expensive) prison to house criminals that its founders thought, at first, would not be required. The original sentiment was that a city whose inhabitants were comprised mostly of wealthy land owning free settlers should not actually need a large prison as they should be civilized - generally moral and well disposed, the opposite to the convict origins of Australia's other capital cities...

In its early days Adelaide was known to have had bigger opium den flophouses than Melbourne and was known as a place where bizarre beliefs were free to exist in a "Paradise of Dissent".

Adelaide was originally conceived in a jail cell by a man named Edward Wakefield.

Whilst serving time in a British prison for abduction and forced marriage (and alleged rape) of a fifteen year old heiress in order to claim an inheritance expected from her wealthy father, Wakefield devised a venture in which a migrants transportation (an epic sea journey) to the new colony would be covered by the sale of land in the colony, thereby ensuring that inhabitants would be comprised of those wealthy enough to actually become landowners. A fellow founding father of Adelaide, Robert Gouger, whose name is now associated with terrible dining establishments in the CBD was also serving time when he learnt of Wakefields vision…

The most interesting thing that can be gleaned from these historical pieces is that although Adelaide is considered to be settled by free settlers and this gives some people a sense of pride, there exists records from the 1800's specifically mentioning convicts albeit they were not imperial convicts that settled the majority of Australia. Convicts none the less, however.