Prospect is the seat of the

City of Prospect The City of Prospect is an inner urban local government area (LGA) in Adelaide, South Australia. The council seat is the unusually-large suburb of Prospect, which makes up almost two thirds of the tiny council area, which is less than . Establis ...

and an inner northern suburb of greater

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 ...

. It is located north of Adelaide's centre. Surrounding suburbs include Kilburn,

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

Medindie Medindie (formerly also known as Medindee or Medindi) is an inner northern suburb of Adelaide the capital of South Australia. It is located adjacent to the Adelaide Park Lands, just north of North Adelaide, and is bounded by Robe Terrace to the ...

and Devon Park. The suburb has boundaries of Main North Road to the East; Carter Street, Audley Avenue and Avenue Road to the South; The Gawler railway line to the west, and a line 400m north of

Regency Road Regency Road (and its eastern section as Muller Road) is a main east-west road forming a continuous connection between the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Located approximately north of the city centre, Regency Road carries ...

(Livingstone Avenue, Angwin Avenue and Henrietta Street) to the north. Prospect comprises a large majority of the land area (about five-sevenths, or 71%) of the City of Prospect council area.

History

The early Prospect Village was a private subdivision of sections 373 and 349 of the

Hundred of Yatala The Hundred of Yatala is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia covering much of the Adelaide metropolitan area north of the River Torrens. It is one of the eleven hundreds of the County of Adelaide stretching from the Torrens in the sout ...

, which intersected at the village centre (now St Helens Park and St Cuthbert's Anglican Church). To the new settlers, the undeveloped locality presented a "beautiful prospect", being described as "well timbered, with waving gum and shady trees". Thus the early township was dubbed ''Prospect Village'' by Colonel

William Light William Light (27 April 1786 – 6 October 1839), also known as Colonel Light, was a British- Malayan naval and army officer. He was the first Surveyor-General of the new British Province of South Australia, known for choosing the site o ...

shortly after the colonisation of South Australia in 1838. The

was established in 1872, formalising the name for local government and, in 1944, the city council voted to formally adopt the same name for the suburb which was the council seat itself. The first Prospect Post Office opened around 1861 and closed around 1872. A ''Nailsworth'' office (open from 1861) was renamed ''Prospect'' in 1874 and has remained open since then. It was located at First avenue,

Nailsworth Nailsworth is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road (the Roman Fosse Way), south of Stroud and about north-east of Bristol and Bath. The parish had a populat ...

, with two tall palm trees planted in front of the post office to enhance visibility from a distance.

Historic divisions

In the 1940s the area now known as Prospect was separated into seven localities. West of Prospect Road, from north to south, were Prospect Estate, Highbury and Dudley Park (the west portion of the latter presently remaining a separate suburb). East of Prospect Road, from north to south, were Blair Athol (the name today for the old suburbs of Enfield Gardens and Bosworth Park, north of Prospect), Prospect Park, Prospect Hill, St Johns Wood and the old suburb of Prospect itself. Several even older historic named subdivisions existed within the current suburb bounds around the turn of the twentieth century, according to an 1896 map of the Hundred of Yatala: * Section 348 immediately south of the early Prospect Village was once known as Little Adelaide, reportedly laid out into lots by "Mr Tilly" in the late 1830s or early 1840s. It was subsumed by the early suburb of Prospect, but its southern neighbour,

, presently remains a separate suburb. * Section 371 (roughly present-day Rose Street up to Olive Street) was split into Prospect West on the west and Prospect North on the east. * Further north in sections 369 and 352 lay Prospect Hill Extension, later subsumed by St Johns Wood and/or Prospect Hill, and Claraville. * Immediately south of

lay Reepham, its name preserved in the present-day Reepham Hotel at

Churchill Road Churchill Road (and its northern section as Churchill Road North) is an arterial road in the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide, Australia. Route Churchill Road North commences at the intersection of Port Wakefield Road and Montague Roads in C ...

corner, and Sleaford. * The part of Prospect east of the

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

and west of present-day Churchill Road from Winter Terrace up to Regency Road was once considered to be part of

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

(originally section 376 in the Hundred of Yatala). This place name is preserved by the

Islington railway station Islington railway station is located on the Gawler line.Regency Park, formerly "Tam O'Shanter Belt", to the west was home to the Islington sewage farm from 1881 to 1966. * Immediately north of Regency Road in section 354, present-day Prospect's extreme north east, lay Enfield South and Dingley Dell. These were subsumed by Blair Athol. * Immediately north of Regency Road section 367, in present-day Prospect's extreme north west, was a part of Tam O'Shanter East, Tam O'Shanter being an old name for the Regency Park area. This area became Prospect Estate. AudleyHouse

Green spaces

Prospect is home to the

Prospect Oval Prospect Oval is a sports stadium located at Menzies Crescent, Prospect, South Australia. The oval has a capacity of 20,000 people with seated grandstands holding approximately 2,000. An unusual feature of the oval is that it is laid out askew ...

, a sports stadium located at Menzies Crescent. Larger parks in the suburb include the Soldier's Memorial Gardens, St Helens Park, the Prospect Estate Reserve and Barker Gardens. Smaller green spaces include St Johns Wood Gardens (34°53'1.39"S 138°36'8.47"E) on the corner of Alpha Road and Main North Road, Percy Street Park (34°52'41.55"S 138°35'58.69"E), Dean Street Park (34°52'54.50"S 138°36'5.90"E) on the corner of Barker Road, Bradford Park (34°53'37.38"S 138°35'55.14"E) on Bradford Street, and Wilson Street Park (34°53'39.34"S 138°36'3.80"E) on the corner of Highbury Street. Soldier's Memorial Gardens (34°53'7.75"S 138°35'56.91"E) is the largest park in Prospect. It has an open grass area and includes a playground, tennis courts and a performing stage for park events. Other features include sandpits, water features, a footbridge, a heritage shelter and the Prospect Community Garden. St Helens Park (34°53'33.35"S 138°35'43.33"E), located on Prospect Road, has a playground, public barbecues, rose gardens and climbing trees. It is also accessible from the rear of the park via Koonga Avenue. The City of Prospect's Spring Fair was formerly held here for almost four decades. Barker Garden (34°53'3.39"S 138°35'38.96"E) is located on the corner of Alpha Road and Prospect Road and features a memorial for Australia soldiers, rose gardens and garden arches in the centre. It is popular for wedding ceremonies and light displays during the Christmas period.

Education

Prospect has several schools, including primary schools. Rosary School, a private Roman Catholic school from Reception to year 7, Prospect Primary School and Prospect North Primary School. Other schools include

Blackfriars Priory School Blackfriars Priory School is a private Roman Catholic school for boys situated in Prospect, an inner-northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is conducted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of the Assumption. History The school ope ...

, an all boys private Roman Catholic school from early learning to year 12, and

Prescott College, South Australia , motto_translation = Nothing Without God , principal = Peter Charleson , chaplain = , key_people = , location = Prospect, Adelaide, South Australia , country = Australia , enrolment = 191 , enrolment_as_of = 2008 , colours ...

, a co-ed

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

school from year 7 to 12.

Notable People

Rachel Sanderson Rachel Sanderson is an Australian politician who represented the seat of Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia from the 2010 election to the 2022 election. Sande ...

References

External links

Prospect, South Australia on Trove
{{Coord, -34.884, 138.594, format=dms, type:city_region:AU-SA, display=title Suburbs of Adelaide