The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...

whose interest is in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, particularly, but not only, of

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 ...

. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in relation to

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

. The society was originally the Adelaide Philosophical Society, founded on 10 January 1853. The title "Royal" was granted by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

in October 1880 and the society changed its name to its present name at this time. It was incorporated in 1883. It also operates under the banner Science South Australia.

History

The origins of the Royal Society are related to the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association, founded in August 1834, before the

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 ...

, and whose book collection eventually formed the kernel of 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 ...

. The Society had its origins in a meeting at the Stephens Place home of

J. L. Young John Lorenzo Young (30 May 1826 in London – 26 July 1881 at sea) was an English-Australian educationalist and founder of the Adelaide Educational Institution. History Young was born in London, a son of John Tonkin Young (1802 – 10 April 188 ...

(founder of the

Adelaide Educational Institution Adelaide Educational Institution was a privately run non-sectarian academy for boys in Adelaide founded in 1852 by John Lorenzo Young.B. K. Hyams'Young, John Lorenzo (1826–1881)' ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 6, Melbourne Unive ...

) on the evening of 10 January 1853. Members inducted to the new "Adelaide Philosophical Society" were Messrs. John Brown,

John Howard Clark John Howard Clark (15 January 1830 – 20 May 1878) was editor of ''The South Australian Register'' from 1870 to 1877 and was responsible for its ''Echoes from the Bush'' column and closely associated with its ''Geoffry Crabthorn'' persona. ...

, Davy, Doswell, Charles Gregory Feinaigle, Gilbert, Gosse, Hamilton, Hammond, W. B. Hays, Jones, Kay, Mann, W. W. Whitridge, Williams, Wooldridge and John Lorenzo Young. J. Howard Clark was elected secretary. On 15 September rules were adopted and His Excellency the Governor Sir Henry Young was elected president. T. D. Smeaton has also been credited with helping found the Society. Its aim was "the diffusion and advancement of the Arts and Sciences", and one of its earliest subjects of discussion was the formation of a museum showing the natural history of the

Colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

. At the time of its first Annual General Meeting membership had risen to 35, and in 1859 the Society was incorporated under the '' South Australian Institute Act''. The establishment of the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

in 1875 revitalised the Society, which had flagged for some years before. It received royal

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

, becoming the Royal Society of South Australia late in 1880, following the nomenclature used in other Australian colonies, and perhaps hoping to emulate their success. The

Field Naturalists Society of South Australia The Field Naturalists Society of South Australia Incorporated was founded in 1883 as a section of the Royal Society, and whose aims were to further the cause of the natural sciences in the colony. It was incorporated in 1959 and is still active. Me ...

was formed as a section of the Society in 1883. In 1943 Constance Eardley became the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Society.

Membership

There are five classes of members:Membership
, Royal Society of South Australia Inc. * Honorary Fellows * Sustaining Fellows * Fellows * Associate Fellows * Student Fellows

Awards and medals

The society awards:Awards & Medals
, Royal Society of South Australia Inc. * The

Verco Medal The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in rel ...

* The Publication Medal * The Royal Society of South Australia Postgraduate Student Prize * The H. G. Andrewartha Medal

Publications

The RSSA has published the journal ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia'' since 1879, previously (from 1877–1878) ''Transactions and proceedings and report of the Philosophical Society of Adelaide''. From 2004, the journal partnered with the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

in the Southern Scientific Press, amalgamating their two journals. From 2005, the journal has been available in electronic form only, via

Taylor & Francis Online Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kin ...

. In June 2020 an annotated list of 95 Australian bird

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s was published in the ''Transactions'', the first such list since 1975, contributing to the documented knowledge of

bird extinction Out of the approximately 11,154 known bird species, 159 (1.4%) have become extinct, 226 (2%) are critically endangered, 461 (4.1%) are endangered, 800 (7.2%) are vulnerable and 1,018 (9.1%) are near threatened. There is a general consensus among ...

s. The list includes three species of huge

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

s from the

Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...

and

Lake Frome Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, long and wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total s ...

areas of

, which were estimated to inhabit the area for 25 million years before becoming extinct about 140,000 years ago, most likely from

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. There were also

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

s measuring about tall, which lived between about 60 million and 30 million years ago, dying out in the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

List of presidents

Royal Society of South Australia Presidents:List of Presidents
, RSSA

Verco Medal recipients

:"The medal shall be awarded for distinguished scientific work published by a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. It is the highest honour that the Society can bestow on one of its Fellows. Only those who have made a significant, outstanding contribution to their field(s) of study receive the award." The medal is named in honour of

Joseph Verco Sir Joseph Cooke Verco (1 August 1851 – 26 July 1933) was an Australian physician and conchologist. Early years Verco, born at Fullarton, South Australia, was a son of James Crabb Verco. Both his parents came from Cornwall, UK. He was ed ...

. The first award of the medal was to Prof

Walter Howchin __NOTOC__ Walter Howchin (12 January 1845 – 27 November 1937) was a geologist who lectured in mineralogy and palaeontology at the former Adelaide School of Mines and the University of Adelaide; he won the Clarke Medal in 1907.N. H. Ludbrook, ...

in 1929.Award of the Sir Joseph Verco Medal 1929-1976
TRSSA, Vol 100, p.208, www.samuseum.sa.gov.au Previous winners include:

Notable members

Notable members of the Royal Society of South Australia have included: * Prof.

William Henry Bragg Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was an English physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman who uniquelyThis is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel ...

,Cumming, D.A. and Moxham, G. ''They Built South Australia'' published by the authors February 1986 * Prof. Sir Robert William Chapman, * Thomas Charles Cloud (died 1918), * Alexander William Dobbie (born 1843), * John William Hall Hullett (born 1847), * Prof. Horace Lamb * Dr. Cecil Thomas Madigan (1889–1947), * James McGeorge, * Thomas Parker, * Walter Rutt (1842–1925), * Prof.

Ralph Tate Ralph Tate (11 March 1840 – 20 September 1901) was a British-born botanist and geologist, who was later active in Australia. Early life Tate was born at Alnwick in Northumberland, the son of Thomas Turner Tate (1807–1888), a teacher of math ...

* Sir Charles Todd, * Carl Albert Unbehaun (1851–1924) and * Robert Archibald White.

References

External links

*
The Story of the Royal Society
''The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, SA)'', 22 March 1929, p. 13 {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Society Of South Australia Society of South Australia, Royal Learned societies of Australia Organisations based in Adelaide Clubs and societies in South Australia 1853 establishments in Australia