Lockleys is an inner western suburb 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 ...

, in the City of West Torrens. Australian Bureau of Statistics data from May 2021 revealed that Adelaide's western suburbs had the lowest unemployment rate in South Australia.

History

The area was inhabited by the

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...

people before the

British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

. The area was subject to flooding by the

River Torrens The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the ...

, which originally ran into an area named " The Reedbeds" in the upper reaches of the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

. In the 1930s the Torrens Channel, also named Breakout Creek, was cut through the coastal dunes to

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger S ...

, to drain the wetlands and eliminate the flooding. A large part of Lockleys is within a bend of the River Torrens. Hence, prior to subdivision, the area was renowned for its rich soil, market gardens and greenhouses. The name comes from a property (section 145) owned by

Charles Brown Fisher Charles Brown Fisher (25 September 1817 – 6 May 1908), generally referred to as C. B. Fisher, was an Australian pioneer pastoralist and livestock breeder. History Born in London, he was the eldest son of (later Sir) James Hurtle Fisher and h ...

, then Edward Meade Bagot and Gabriel Bennett, who built a course there for amateur horse racing. The property was rented by trainers J. Eden Savill and C. Leslie Macdonald for their Lockleys Stables where many good racehorses were prepared.

Hank family

The area was divided for housing. However, the Hank family lived on Torrens Avenue, Lockleys and had established 11 acres of

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

there after world war I. The Hank brothers (Ray, Bill and Bob) all attended the Lockleys Primary School in Brooklyn Park and would all become footballers for the

West Torrens Football Club West Torrens Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1897 to 1990. In 1991, the club merged with neighbouring Woodville Football Club to form the Woodville ...

in the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

Bob Hank Robert William "Bob" Hank (19 June 1923 – 14 June 2012) grew up in and lived in Lockleys and was an Australian rules footballer who played for West Torrens in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Career Hank began ...

would go on to become an

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

Hall of Fame inductee, winning the

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Will ...

in both 1946 and 1947 and winning a record 9 league best and fairest awards for his club. A pavilion in the eastern grandstand at

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby le ...

is named the Bob Hank Pavilion and the grandstand at

Thebarton Oval Thebarton Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia currently used for a variety of sports including Australian rules football. It was the home ground of South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club West Torrens between 192 ...

is named the Hank Brothers Stand after these Australian Football legends. Bob Hank also famously clean bowled Sir Donald Bradman in a District Cricket final in March 1947 whilst playing for the

West Torrens Cricket Club The West Torrens District Cricket Club ("Western Eagles") is a Premier Grade Cricket Club in Adelaide, South Australia. It competes in the West End Premier Cricket Competition, which is administered by the South Australian Cricket Association ( ...

against Bradman's

Kensington Cricket Club The Kensington District Cricket Club ("The Browns") is a semi-professional cricket club in Adelaide, South Australia. It competes in the South Australian Grade Cricket League, which is administered by the South Australian Cricket Association (SA ...

John Martin's warehouse

The former John Martin's department store had a bulk warehouse on Pierson Street, which was also a storage location for the floats used in the company's annual Christmas Pageant.Westpac Home Ownership Service Centre
Maras Group. Retrieved 19 February 2021. The warehouse was converted by EDS for a data and call centre, which opened in 1996, and later owned by the Maras Group and operated by

Westpac Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, ...

as a mortgage processing centre. In September 2021 a development application was announced for rezoning the

call centre A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephon ...

and adjacent child care centre, to allow a medium density residential development to be built on the site.

Windsor Theatre

The Windsor Theatre, located at 362

Henley Beach Road Currie Street is a main street in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.Map
of the

RSL hall in March 1925, with the construction cost of £3,800 covered by community fund-raising, with much of it donated by John Mellor. It was called the Lockleys Memorial Hall. On 10 October in the same year, the hall was used by Lyric Theatres Ltd to screen a film, and soon became a successful

movie theatre A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

. At some point it was named the Odeon Star (indicating ownership by

D. Clifford Theatres D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbreviat ...

).PDF
/ref> The Windsor Group acquired the cinema in October 1948, renaming it as the Windsor Theatre, and by 1949 the lease had been acquired by

Ozone Theatres Ltd Ozone Theatres Ltd, formerly Ozone Amusements, was a cinema chain based in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1911 until 1951, when it sold its theatres to Hoyts. It was founded by Hugh Waterman and was jointly run by him and seven sons, including ...

. During the 1950s the cinema was substantially upgraded. The "Nostalgia Walk" was created, with hundreds of original movie posters lining the walls. It seated 500 people, and was the first cinema in Adelaide to sell popcorn. The Windsor ceased operating in August 2012, and remained mostly vacant for a couple of years after that. When threatened with demolition in 2014, there was public debate and much resistance from organisations which saw its heritage and cultural value to the area. In 2018, the theatre was purchased by the City of West Torrens. It was finally demolished in early 2021, to make way for a council redevelopment. During demolition, a hidden basement was rediscovered, containing a kitchen and supper room.

Sport

Lockleys is home to the Lockleys Football Club, known as the Demons, who play in the

South Australian Amateur Football League The Adelaide Footy League, formerly known as the South Australian Amateur Football League (SAAFL), is a semi-professional Australian rules football competition based in Adelaide, South Australia. Comprising sixty-seven member clubs playing ove ...

. AFLW player

Ebony Marinoff Ebony Marinoff (born 15 November 1997) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Marinoff is a three-time AFL Women's premiership player and five-time AFL Women's All-Australian, and ...

played for the club, as well as former

player Jimmy Toumpas. The Lockleys Football Club facilities are shared with the West Torrens Baseball Club. The South Australian Badminton Association is also located in Lockleys, neighbouring the football club and baseball club. The

Kooyonga Golf Club Kooyonga Golf Club is a private golf club in Australia, located in South Australia at Lockleys, a suburb west of Adelaide. Members entry is off May Terrace, Brooklyn Park. Work on the course started in 1922 and the first nine holes opened on ...

is also located in Lockleys. Kooyonga was the name of the suburb before it became Lockleys.

Government

Lockleys is in the City of West Torrens local government area, split between the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

electoral district of Colton and

electoral district of West Torrens West Torrens is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Named after the City of West Torrens (which is so-named because of its location on the River Torrens), it is a 25.1 km² suburban electorate in A ...

, and in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

Division of Hindmarsh The Division of Hindmarsh is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia covering the western suburbs of Adelaide. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was split on 2 October 1903, ...

Education

Two schools are located in Lockleys – Lockleys North Primary School and St Francis School. Despite its name, Lockleys Primary School is located in neighbouring suburb Brooklyn Park.

Lockleys North Primary School

Lockleys North Primary School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

grades R-6 school located on Malurus Avenue. Students come from a wide variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds due to the demographics of West Torrens area.

History

With the expansion of the western suburbs of Adelaide the school was built in 1960. The school celebrated its 50th anniversary with an open day for old scholars and old staff on 14 November 2010.

Facilities

In July 2010, two new school buildings opened – "Tirkandi" (Library) and "Torrens" (classrooms for year 6-7's). The library was opened by Steve Georganas, the Member of Parliament for the seat of Hindmarsh. The school grounds also have a

soccer pitch A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". T ...

which have not only used by the school, but also local sporting clubs. The gymnasium has also been used for

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

by local sporting clubs.

Special programs

Specialist programs are offered in science, physical education, music, German and Greek. File:Lockleys North 02.jpg, Auditorium File:Lockleys North 03.jpg, Sports fields File:Lockleys North 05.jpg, Quadrangle

St Francis School

St Francis School is a coeducational grades R-6 school located on Henley Beach Road. It is a private Catholic school.

References

External links

Geoscience Australia

South Australian State Gazetteer: Placenames Online

{{City of West Torrens suburbs Suburbs of Adelaide