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 list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. 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 ...

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 for their premises. Members included Sturt, Morphett and Fisher. 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, t ...

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 beg ...

, and the club adopted the grass tree as their crest. The majority of the founding members were pastoralists, with a large number of businessmen, and there were many lawyers and government officials among them. Most were

Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, 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 Euro ...

. 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 Heri ...

. 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 ...

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, 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 Au ...

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 e ...

* John Baker * Robert Barr Smith *

* 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 bloc ...

* Darcy Rivers Warren Cowan *

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 K ...

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

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 *

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 So ...

* Michael Harbison * 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 w ...

* 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 parents ...

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, a ...

* Charles Mann * George Mayo *

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 *

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 *

George Riddoch George Riddoch (10 August 1842 – 23 April 1919) was an Australian pastoralist and politician. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1893 to 1896, representing Victoria, and a member of the South Australian Legislative ...

* John Riddoch * Arthur Rymill *

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 Cornw ...

* 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