The Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia, dated 19 February 1836 and formally titled "Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom erecting and establishing the Province of South Australia and fixing the boundaries thereof", was presented to

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

to formally seek the approval to establish the Province of South Australia. It defined the boundaries of the new colony, but also, significantly and unlike the ''

South Australia Act 1834 The ''South Australia Act 1834'', or ''Foundation Act 1834'' and also known as the ''South Australian Colonization Act'', was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the settlement of a province or multiple province ...

'', included recognition of the rights of the

Aboriginal peoples of South Australia The Aboriginal South Australians are the Indigenous people who lived in South Australia prior to the British colonisation of South Australia, and their descendants and their ancestors. There are difficulties in identifying the names, territorial ...

. It is sometimes referred to as Letters Patent 1836.

History

The ''South Australia Act 1834'' legislated for the establishment of a settlement in South Australia, but did not provide specific directions with regard to how the Province of South Australia was to be founded, which these Letters Patent, formulated by the

Colonisation Commissioners for 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 ...

, supplied. The main change to the 1834 Act was to amend the wording referring to the land as "unoccupied", and offer recognition of the rights of the " Aboriginal Natives" to live unhindered within the lands of the Province of South Australia. These

Letters Patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

, dated 19 February 1836, were presented to King William IV to formally seek the approval to establish the Province of South Australia, and on 23 February 1836, an

Order-in-Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council (''Kin ...

provided authority for the establishment of government in the Province of South Australia. The Order-in-Council provided for a governing Council comprising the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, the Judge or Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Advocate-General and the

Resident Commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such ...

, with broad legislative and executive powers including the imposition of rates, duties, and taxes. However, laws could only be proposed by the Governor and were subject to approval or disallowance by the King as advised by the Imperial Government. The Order-in-Council again expressly protected the rights of "Aboriginal natives".
Draft of the Order-in-Council Establishing Government 23 February 1836 (UK)
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National Archives of Australia
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Description

The Letters Patent, long title "Letters Patent under the

Great Seal of the United Kingdom The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom (known prior to the Treaty of Union of 1707 as the Great Seal of England; and from then until the Union of 1801 as the Great Seal of Great Britain) is a seal that is used to sym ...

erecting and establishing the Province of South Australia and fixing the boundaries thereof", defined the boundaries of the Province of South Australia: The Letters Patent included a recognition of the rights of the "Aboriginal Natives" to live within the lands of the Province of South Australia: This differed from the statements of the ''South Australia Act 1834'', which described the lands as "waste" and "unoccupied". An amendment to the 1834 Act (the ''

South Australia Government Act 1838 The ''South Australia Act 1834'', or ''Foundation Act 1834'' and also known as the ''South Australian Colonization Act'', was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the settlement of a province or ...

'', 1 & 2 Vic, c. 60, passed 31 July 1838) incorporated the changes.

Afterwards

The first migrant ship, the ''John Pirie'', set sail for the colony three days later. On 28 December 1836,

Governor Hindmarsh Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh KH (baptised 22 May 1785 – 29 July 1860) was a naval officer and the first Governor of South Australia, from 28 December 1836 to 16 July 1838. Family His grandfather William Hindmarsh was a gardener in Con ...

issued a Proclamation of the new Province at Glenelg. On 31 July 1838, the changes were brought into law by "An act to amend an act of the fourth and fifth years of his late majesty empowering his majesty to erect South Australia into a British province or provinces" (short name ascribed by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

: ''

''), 1 & 2 Vic, c. 60.

Significance to Aboriginal people

As colonisation proceeded, no heed was paid to the words of the Letters Patent about Aboriginal rights to land: there were no treaties signed; colonists bought, leased and were granted land, thus effectively dispossessing the original inhabitants of their land. In 1966, Premier

Don Dunstan Donald Allan Dunstan (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for th ...

passed the ''

Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 The ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966'' is the short title of an Act of the Parliament of South Australia, assented to on 8 December 1966, with the long title "An Act to establish an Aboriginal Lands Trust, to define the powers and functions ...

'' on the basis of the unfulfilled Letters Patent, which gave rights to Aboriginal people over their land (later enshrined in the ''

''). From the early 21st century, research focused on the potential legal implications of this disregard of the Letters, and the document again became a source of debate. On

Proclamation Day Proclamation Day is the name of official or unofficial holidays or other anniversaries which commemorate or mark an important proclamation. In some cases it may be the day of, or the anniversary of, the proclamation of a monarch's accession to the ...

in 2006, the then SA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs,

Jay Weatherill Jay Wilson Weatherill (born 3 April 1964) is an Australian politician who was the 45th Premier of South Australia, serving from 21 October 2011 until 19 March 2018. Weatherill represented the House of Assembly seat of Cheltenham as a member of ...

, acknowledged publicly that the failure of the state to have met the Letters' promise 170 years later has "been the cause of much loss and suffering for Aboriginal people". On 24 April 2007 the

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australia ...

MLC,

Sandra Kanck Sandra Myrtho Kanck (born 20 April 1950) is a South Australian politician. She was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1993 to 2009, first elected for the Australian Democrats for an eight-year term at the 1993 election a ...

, and Greens MLC,

Mark Parnell Mark Charles Parnell (born 9 September 1959) is an Australian former politician and parliamentary leader of the SA Greens in the South Australian Legislative Council. He was the first SA Greens representative to be elected to the Parliament of ...

, on the occasion of the

Sesquicentenary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

(150 years) of Responsible Government in South Australia referred to the Letters Patent when they read a statement authorised by the Aboriginal Alliance Coalition Movement in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, "asking you to acknowledge that your enjoyment, if not the spirit, of your commemorative congratulations, blindly overlooks the denial of our English land rights within our own country in establishing your parliament on the land of the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

and on the country of their unacknowledged descendants". The 175th anniversary of the Letters Patent was commemorated at the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre at

Warriparinga Warriparinga, also spelt Warriparingga, (meaning ''Windy Place'' in the local Kaurna language) is a nature reserve comprising in the metropolitan suburb of Bedford Park, in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Also known as Fairfo ...

on 19 February 2011, as a document which preserves the rights of the Aboriginal inhabitants. The 2014 film ''King's Seal'' tells of the struggle for recognition of rights that were granted by the Letters Patent.

2018 Kaurna native title agreement

On 21 March 2018, a

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

agreement between Kaurna elders, the State Government and

the Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...

was formally accepted in a judgement in the Federal Court, 18 years after the original claim was lodged. The judgement recognises Kaurna people's native title rights over 17 parcels of undeveloped land not under freehold, and extends from

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 Sp ...

to the

Mt Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

, from Myponga Beach in the south to Redhill in the north, and includes Adelaide's metropolitan area. The Kaurna people were also recognised as the traditional owners of the

Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of Ade ...

References

Sources

*
Transcript of Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia 19 February 1836 (UK)
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National Archives of Australia