Thebarton ( ), formerly Theberton, on Kaurna land, is an inner-western suburb of

Adelaide, South Australia 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 ...

in the

City of West Torrens The City of West Torrens is a local government area in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Since the 1970s the area was mainly home to many open spaces and parks, however after the mid-1990s (1993-1995) the LGA became more resident ...

. The suburb is bounded by the River Torrens to the north, Port Road and Bonython Park to the east, Kintore Street to the south, and

South Road South Road and its southern section as Main South Road outside of Adelaide is a major north–south conduit connecting Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula, in South Australia. It is one of Adelaide's most important arterial and bypass roads. As ...

to the west. Many buildings and landmarks that bear the name of Thebarton were in the history municipality, the

Town of Thebarton The Town of Thebarton was a local government area of South Australia from 1883 until 1997. It was seated at the village of Thebarton, now an inner west suburb of Adelaide. History The township of Thebarton was split from the City of West Torr ...

, which included most of the adjoining suburb of

Torrensville Torrensville is a western suburb west of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It was named after Irish-born economist and chairman of the South Australian Colonisation Commission, Robert Torrens. Torrensville is in the City of West Tor ...

. These include the

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 Football Clu ...

, the Thebarton croquet and bowls club, Thebarton Theatre, and

Thebarton Senior College Thebarton Senior College is a public senior secondary school located in Torrensville in Adelaide, South Australia. The school was established on the site in 1919 as Thebarton Boys Technical High School, with adult re-entry students accepted in 1 ...

. The historic Adelaide Gaol, nominally shown as being in Thebarton, and the adjacent Thebarton Barracks of the South Australia Police actually lie within the northwestern Adelaide Park Lands. A part of Thebarton adjacent to the River Torrens, later the site of the South Australian Brewing Company, was originally known as Southwark. Hemmington, Hemmington West and West Thebarton were also suburbs later incorporated into current-day Thebarton.

History

Prior to

European settlement 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 areas now known as Thebarton and Hindmarsh were called ''Karraundongga'' (meaning "red gum spear place") by the Kaurna people, who would craft spears from the red gum branches gathered on the banks of the Torrens there. The suburb of Thebarton was named after the home of Colonel William Light, the first Surveyor-General of the colony of South Australia, where he lived with his de facto wife Maria Gandy and her brothers. Light named his home after '' Theberton Hall'' of

Suffolk, England Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, where he was educated. The area was known as Theberton until approximately 1840, with the variant spelling now accredited to a typographical error, rather than a corruption of "The Barton", based on the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''bere-tun'', meaning "barley farm", as was thought for some time. Colonel Light surveyed the town-acre as Section 1 and built Theberton Cottage towards the northern part of the area. The area was first subdivided for housing in February 1839, although it took a number of years for the housing to establish, Thebarton Post Office opening on 24 October 1850. By 1866 the population was estimated at around 450 people. Thebarton Racecourse, which operated from as early as 1838 to 1869, was formed on grazing land in the area now known as Mile End, and later subdivided and completely built over. The Torrenside Brewery, next to the Torrens on Port Road, was founded in 1886 by A. W. & T. L. Ware, in the then suburb of Southwark. After acquisition by the Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Company Ltd, and its subsequent acquisition by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1939, it was renamed from Walkerville Brewery to Southwark Brewery in 1949 and the company's Walkerville Nathan beer was renamed Southwark beer in 1951. The brewery closed on 17 June 2021, with its landmark chimney tower

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

, to be preserved when the site is redeveloped. The artefacts in its on-site museum are being donated to the

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...

and other local institutions.

Local government

Thebarton was part of the then largely rural District of West Torrens until 1883, when the residents of the more urban suburbs of Thebarton, Mile End and Torrensville successfully petitioned to become the Corporation of the

. In 1997 the Town of Thebarton re-amalgamated with the City of West Torrens.

Demographics

Thebarton has a significant

Greek-Australian Greek Australians ( el, Ελληνοαυστραλοί, ) are Australians of Greeks, Greek ancestry. Greek Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Greek diaspora. As per the 2021 census, 424,750 people stated that they had ...

population and is the suburb with the largest Greek Australian population per capita in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. In fact, according to census data released by the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

in 2001, the suburbs of Thebarton and neighbouring

together are home to 4,471 Greek-Australians; i.e., 18.7 per cent of the total population.

Facilities

The Thebarton campus of the University of Adelaide, also known as Adelaide University Research Park, occupies a complex of former industrial buildings in the northeastern corner of the suburb.

Landmarks

* St George Greek Orthodox Church on Rose Street, Adelaide's largest Greek Orthodox church * The

Ice Arena An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

, home of the Adelaide Adrenalines, who play in the Australian Ice Hockey League *

, former home of the West Torrens Football Club in the South Australian National Football League; now home to the Adelaide Footy League. * The Thebarton Incinerator on West Thebarton Road was designed by Walter Burley Griffin in 1935, completed in 1937, and decommissioned in 1964. It is one of two Burley Griffin buildings listed among the 120 nationally significant 20th-century buildings in South Australia, the other being the Hindmarsh Incinerator at Brompton. * The West End Brewery at 107 Port Road (closed June 2021). *The well-known Thebarton Theatre is actually in the neighbouring suburb of

. *The Adelaide Gaol is easterly-adjacent to Thebarton in the western Adelaide parklands. *A rectangular memorial on the corner of Albert and Maria Streets, dedicated to Maria Gandy, William Light's partner, was unveiled on the 200th anniversary of her birth on 23 November 2011. On each of four sides is an inscription celebrating her roles as pioneer, settler, carer and mother.

Heritage listings

Thebarton has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * 39A Dew Street:

Lady Gowrie Child Centre Zara Hore-Ruthven, Countess of Gowrie ( Zara Eileen Pollok; 20 January 1879 – 19 July 1965) was the Anglo-Irish wife of the 1st Earl of Gowrie, Governor of South Australia 1928–34, Governor of New South Wales 1935–36 and the longest servi ...

* 1 George Street:

Squatters Arms Hotel Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

* 42 and 42A Phillips Street: Thebarton Baptist Church and Hall * 77 Port Road:

Southwark Hotel Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed d ...

(pronounced ) * 107 Port Road, site of the West End Brewery: ** Plaque only – Site of Colonel Light's Cottage (13 December 2001) **Remains of `Theberton Hall' Colonel William Light's House (including Underground Room, Underground Tank and Well) (provisionally added 20 May 2021) **Walkerville Brewhouse Tower, built 1886, enlarged 1898–1899, doubled in size 1901–1903, one of a few remaining and one of the largest examples of a brewhouse tower in South Australia (provisionally added 20 May 2021) ** Electric Supply Company Transformer (13 December 2001) * 35-37 Stirling Street: Faulding's Eucalyptus Oil Distillery * 34-36 West Thebarton Road:

Thebarton Incinerator Thebarton ( ), formerly Theberton, on Kaurna land, is an inner-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of West Torrens. The suburb is bounded by the River Torrens to the north, Port Road, Adelaide, Port Road and Bonython Park to ...