The Adelaide Club is an exclusive gentlemen's club situated on North Terrace in the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n capital city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. Founded in 1863, the club comprises members of the

Adelaide Establishment The Adelaide Establishment is the name given to the group of wealthy landowners and industrialists who have played a considerable role in the history of South Australia since its foundation in 1836. Based primarily in South Australia's capital Ad ...

South Australian Club (1838–1843)

An earlier club with similar aims and membership was the South Australian Club, founded in 1838, which purchased the Victoria Hotel from William Williams on

Hindley Street Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street and West Terrace. The street was named after Charles Hindley, a British parliamentarian and soc ...

for their premises. Members included Sturt, Morphett and

Fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

. Membership was by ballot; joining fee 10 gns., membership 2 gns. ''per annum''. It folded in 1843 after failing financially.

History and description

The club's headquarters are at the club house at 165 North Terrace in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

. The club house was built in the same year as the club's establishment in 1864, after 14 prominent colonists, including John Baker,

John Morphett Sir John Morphett (4 May 1809 – 7 November 1892) was a South Australian pioneer, landowner and politician. His younger brother George Morphett was also an early settler in South Australia. Early life Morphett was born in London, th ...

and

Arthur Blyth Sir Arthur Blyth (19 March 1823 – 7 December 1891) was Premier of South Australia three times; 1864–65, 1871–72 and 1873–75. Early life The son of William Blyth and his wife, Sarah Wilkins, he was born at Birmingham, England on 21 ...

, raised £4000 for the building. The building was designed by one of the founding members,

Edward Angus Hamilton Edward Angus Hamilton (born 27 February 1831) was an architect and politician in colonial South Australia. Hamilton was the son of George Ernest Hamilton, a civil engineer, and arrived in South Australia on 5 December 1849. In April 1852 he bega ...

, and the club adopted the grass tree as their crest. The majority of the founding members were

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...

, with a large number of businessmen, and there were many lawyers and government officials among them. Most were

Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

. In 1891 extensive additions were made to the rear. In 1980, the club house was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

. Facilities include a library, mixed accommodation for members and reciprocal club members, dining rooms,

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

room, function rooms and office facilities.Day, Chris. For whom the bell tolls. ''

City Messenger ''City Messenger'' is a weekly suburban newspaper in Adelaide, part of the Messenger Newspapers group. The ''City'' covers the Adelaide CBD and surrounding suburbs and has recently experimented with targeting public transport commuters, similar ...

'', 21 February 2008.

Equivalent women's club

The equivalent elite club for women, the

Queen Adelaide Club The Queen Adelaide Club is an exclusive women's club, similar to a gentlemen's club, in the South Australian capital city of Adelaide. It is named for Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, after whom the city of Adelaide was named. Founded in 1909, the c ...

, is located a short distance to the east along North Terrace.

Notable members

Members of the Adelaide Club have included: *

George Fife Angas George Fife Angas (1 May 1789 – 15 May 1879) was an English businessman and banker who, while residing in England, played a significant part in the formation and establishment of the Province of South Australia. He established the South Aus ...

John Howard Angas John Howard Angas (5 October 1823 – 17 May 1904) was an Australian pioneer, politician and philanthropist. Early life and education John Howard Angas was the second son of George Fife Angas and his wife Rosetta née French. He was born in New ...

Henry Ayers Sir Henry Ayers (now pron. "airs") (1 May 1821 – 11 June 1897) was the eighth Premier of South Australia, serving a record five times between 1863 and 1873. His lasting memorial is in the name Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru, which was en ...

* John Baker *

Robert Barr Smith Robert Barr Smith (4 February 1824 – 20 November 1915) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a partner in Elder Smith and Company from 1863 (now now Elders Limited). Early life and education Smi ...

* David Brookman * Roy Burston *

George W. Cotton George Witherage Cotton (1821–1892) was a South Australian land dealer and Member of the South Australian Legislative Council. He was especially notable for being a champion of a scheme in South Australia to put working men onto small blocks ...

Darcy Rivers Warren Cowan Sir Darcy Rivers Warren Cowan (8 August 1885 – 9 June 1958) was an Australian medical practitioner and advocate of effective treatment of tuberculosis. Family The sixth of seven sons of James Cowan and Sarah Ann (née Warren) and brother of ...

Alexander Downer Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United King ...

John Huxley and Maryann Stenberg, (26 May 1994), Meanwhile, The Adelaide Club Snores On, ''Sydney Morning Herald''
Retrieved 23 February 2016] *

Lloyd Dumas Sir Frederick Lloyd Dumas (15 July 1891 – 24 June 1973), generally known as "Lloyd Dumas" or "F. Lloyd Dumas", was a journalist and politically influential newspaperman in Victoria and South Australia. Early history Dumas was born in Mount Ba ...

Thomas Elder Sir Thomas Elder, (5 August 1818 – 6 March 1897), was a Scottish-Australian pastoralist, highly successful businessman, philanthropist, politician, race-horse owner and breeder, and public figure. Amongst many other things, he is notable fo ...

William Everard William Everard may refer to: *Wiliam Everard (14th century MP) for Norwich (UK Parliament constituency) *William Everard (Digger) (c. 1602 – d. in or after 1651), early leader of the Diggers *William Everard (Victorian politician) (1869–1950), ...

James Hurtle Fisher Sir James Hurtle Fisher (1 May 1790 – 28 January 1875) was a lawyer and prominent South Australian pioneer. He was the first Resident Commissioner of the colony of South Australia, the first Mayor of Adelaide and the first resident Sout ...

Michael Harbison Michael John Henry Harbison was the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, South Australia from 2003 to 2010. He was succeeded by Stephen Yarwood in 2010. He is also Adelaide's longest serving mayor. Before becoming Lord Mayor, he was a successful businessm ...

* Edward Hamilton *

* George Hamilton * Walter Hughes *

Walter Watson Hughes Sir Walter Watson Hughes (22 August 1803 – 1 January 1887),Dirk Van Dissel,Hughes, Sir Walter Watson (1803 - 1887), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 4, MUP, 1972, pp 440-441. Retrieved 11 August 2009 who before his knighthood wa ...

* Roland Ellis Jacobs *

Philip Levi Philip Levi (1 February 1822 – 13 May 1898) was an early settler and pastoralist of South Australia. Born at Brixton Hill, Surrey, England, Levi arrived in South Australia at the age of sixteen, aboard the '' Eden'' in 1838 with his parent ...

G. C. Ligertwood Sir George Coutts Ligertwood (1888–1967), commonly referred to as G. C. Ligertwood, was a Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia (12 July 1945–14 October 1958). Early life and education Ligertwood was born on 15 October 1888, ...

* Charles Mann *

George Mayo George Mayo (8 January 1807 – 16 December 1894) was a medical practitioner in the colony of South Australia. Dr. Mayo was born in England the fourth son of Rev. Joseph Mayo, M.A., of Ozleworth Church, Gloucestershire. He studied medicine at ...

Ian McLachlan Ian Murray McLachlan (born 2 October 1936) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1990 to 1998, representing the Liberal Party. He was Minister for Defence in the Howard Government from ...

Hugo Carl Emil Muecke Hugo Carl Emil Muecke (8 July 1842 – 6 June 1929) was a businessman and politician in the colony and State of South Australia. History Muecke was born the eldest child of Dr. Carl Muecke (16 July 1815 – ) at Rathenow, near Berlin, and was ...

Angas Parsons Sir Herbert Angas Parsons, KBE, KC (23 May 1872 – 2 November 1945), generally known as Sir Angas Parsons, was a Cornish Australian lawyer, politician and judge. Early life and education Parsons was born in North Adelaide on 23 May 1872, ...

A. E. V. Richardson Arnold Edwin Victor Richardson MA, BSc., (12 September 1883 – 5 December 1949) was an Australian scientist noted for dry farming research, who became founding director of Waite Research Institute then director of the organisation now known as ...

* George Riddoch * John Riddoch *

Arthur Rymill Sir Arthur Campbell Rymill (8 December 1907 – 27 March 1989) was a businessman, solicitor and Lord Mayor of Adelaide, South Australia. History Born in Adelaide, the son of businessman Arthur Graham Rymill (9 May 1868 – 10 September 1934) ...

William John Sowden Sir William John Sowden (26 April 1858 – 10 October 1943) was a journalist in South Australia, who was knighted in 1918. History Sowden was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, the son of Thomas Sowden (c. 1832 – 3 May 1888), a miner from Cornwall ...

* Samuel Tomkinson * William Wigley

References

External links

* Retrieved 15 January 2021.
Virtual Tour of the Club (requires Flash)

History
Buildings and structures in Adelaide 1863 establishments in Australia Organizations established in 1863 Organisations based in Adelaide Gentlemen's clubs in Australia South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate Adelaide Establishment {{Australia-org-stub