Victoria Square, Adelaide

Victoria Square, also known as Tarntanyangga (formerly Tarndanyangga) (), is the central square of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia.

It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, Colonel William Light, who was Surveyor-General at the time, in his 1837 plan of the City of Adelaide which spanned the River Torrens Valley, comprising the city centre (South Adelaide) and North Adelaide. The square was named on 23 May 1837 by the Street Naming Committee after Princess Victoria, then heir presumptive of the British throne. In 2003, it was assigned a second name, Tarndanyangga (later amended to Tarntanyangga), in the Kaurna language of the original inhabitants, as part of the Adelaide City Council's dual naming initiative.

The square has been upgraded and modified several times through its lifetime. It has become a tradition that during the Christmas period a tall Christmas tree is erected in the northern part of the square.

Dual naming and significance

The square was first named "Victoria Square" on 23 May 1837 by the Street Naming Committee, in honour of the then Princess Victoria.

In line with the Adelaide City Council's recognition of Kaurna country, the square was officially referred to as Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga from 2002, modified to Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga by 2013, when Stage 1 of a major upgrade was done.

The names "Tarndanya", sometimes recorded as "Dharnda anya" (or variant spelling) by colonial sources means "red kangaroo rock" and was reportedly the name used by the Kaurna people for "the site of South Adelaide" or the central-South Adelaide area; the local people whose central camp had been "in or near Victoria Square" were called the "Dundagunya tribe" by colonial sources. Tarndanyangga/Tarntanyangga is derived from the Kaurna word for "red kangaroo" – ''tarnta'' (''tarnda'') – and that for "rock" – ''kanya''. The ending "''-ngga''" means it's a location, implying "in, at or on", which is often used in Kaurna place names. Many quarries were built on the southern bank of the Torrens, and ''Tarnta Kanya'' probably referred to one or more rock formations which were quarried, providing much of the stone for the large early buildings on North Terrace.

Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga is still considered an important meeting place for Aboriginal Australians. It is the focus for many political and community-based Indigenous events, such as the National Sorry Day commemoration held by Journey of Healing (SA) on 26 May each year. Each year during NAIDOC Week in July, there is a "family fun day" held at the square and a march to Parliament House.

The Australian Aboriginal flag was flown at Victoria Square for the first time in the country at a land rights rally in Victoria Square in Adelaide on 9 July 1971. On 8 July 2002 the Adelaide City Council endorsed the permanent flying of the flag, which now flies adjacent to the Australian flag.

Description

Victoria Square is in the centre of the city's grid plan, designed by William Light. It is bordered by numerous public institutions at its north and south ends, including the Supreme Court of South Australia, the Adelaide Magistrates' Court, the Federal Court of Australia, the historic old Treasury building (now a hotel run by the Adina hotel chain) and the former Adelaide General Post Office.

On the eastern side is the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St Francis Xavier, the SA Water headquarters, State Government offices, including the office of the Premier, and the Torrens Building, which houses the Carnegie Mellon University.

The west side of the square contains more commercially oriented buildings, including an entrance to the Adelaide Central Market, the Hilton hotel, and the offices of various consultants, law firms and insurance companies.

King William Street passes through the centre of the square from north to south, creating a diamond shape, with the southbound carriageway passing through the east side, and the northbound carriageway passing through the west side of the square. The square is bisected on its east–west axis by the section of road (technically part of the square) that connects Wakefield Street (entering from the east) with Grote Street (to the west).

A tram stop (formerly the terminus) for the Glenelg tram line is just south of the Queen Victoria statue; it was shifted from the centre to the western edge of the square in 2007, as part of the extension that was made to the tram line around that time.

History

The link between the Aboriginal people and the square, as a centre for the surrounding area, stretches back many centuries, to a time when Tarndanya (Red Kangaroo Dreaming) people gathered there for special ceremonies and dances. Tarndanyangga was the "headquarters" or central camp of the "Dundagunya tribe", a community numbering in the thousands. During the 1960s the Aboriginal community renewed its activities in Victoria Square, with the area in front of what was then the central Police Station, (and is now the Commonwealth Law Courts building), becoming a social and gathering point.

19th century

In 1837, the first Surveyor General of South Australia, Colonel William Light, mapped a plan for the City of Adelaide. The design incorporated a central square to function as Adelaide's focal point and provide open space for recreational activities. On his first map, Light called the precinct "The Great Square". It was eventually named in honour of Princess Victoria, then heir to the British throne.

The square was a dusty, treeless paddock until 1854, when the Adelaide City Council embarked on a planting program, constructed four broad diagonal pedestrian paths and erected a wooden fence. The landscaping work was designed by George William Francis, later the first director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

Other work on the square included construction of an east–west roadway that created two garden areas. A fountain was also considered, but it took a further 100 years for this idea to come to fruition. By 1883, plans were under way to extend King William Street directly through Victoria Square, dividing it into four garden areas. The original wooden fence was replaced by ornate iron railings. A statue of Queen Victoria – who had ascended to the throne in June 1837 – was erected in the centre of the square in 1894.

20th century

The statue of Colonel Light, now known as Light's Vision and since 1938 situated on Montefiore Hill, was unveiled on 27 November 1906 in its original location at the northern end of Victoria Square.

The original tram terminus was located outside the Charles Moore & Company department store with services operating via a loop in an anti-clockwise direction in the south-western corner. As part of the rebuilding of the square, in December 1966 the tram terminus was relocated near the centre of the square with Grote and Wakefield Streets to the north and Gouger and Angas Street