Keswick() is an inner south-western suburb of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, adjacent to the park lands, and located 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 resid ...

. The suburb is home to the

Keswick Barracks Keswick Barracks is a barracks of the Australian Army in Keswick, South Australia. The barracks are located on Anzac Highway adjacent to the Adelaide Showground. The base is separated from the showgrounds by the Adelaide-Wolseley railway line. ...

, the headquarters of the Royal District Nursing Service, the Keswick Cricket Club and Richmond Primary School. The

Adelaide Parklands Terminal Adelaide Parklands Terminal, formerly known as Keswick Terminal, is the interstate passenger railway station in Adelaide, South Australia. The terminal is north of the suburb of Keswick, by road south-west of the city centre, and adjoins t ...

for interstate passenger trains, formerly known as Keswick Terminal, was within the boundary of the suburb until 1987 when, inclusive of adjacent business sites and covering a total area of , it was declared a suburb in its own right.

History

The area was inhabited by the

Kaurna people 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. Kau ...

before settlement by Europeans. Keswick railway station was opened on 6 April 1913. It serviced the local Adelaide train network before being eventually closed and demolished in March 2013. The District Headquarters of the 4th Military District, known as

or "The Home of the Brass Hats", was completed in 1913, and was the first substantial

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

building to be constructed in South Australia. It has had several modifications, including the addition of an extra storey in 1940, and is still standing, located on

Anzac Highway Anzac Highway is an main arterial road heading southwest from the city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Originally named the Bay Road, it mostly follows the track made by the pioneer James Cham ...

, in the northern corner of Keswick Military Barracks. In 1915, the Keswick Hospital (No. 7 Australian General Hospital), also known as the "Diggers Hospital", Repatriation Hospital, or Repatriation General Hospital, was built to accommodate wounded soldiers returning from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as part of the Keswick Barracks complex. In November 1915 funds were being raised to build a recreation hall for the soldiers, designed by

Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne Smith Woods Bagot is a global architectural and consulting practice founded in Adelaide, South Australia. It specialises in the design and planning of buildings across a wide variety of sectors and disciplines. Former names of the practice include Woo ...

, which opened on 11 February 1916. After the opening of the Daw Park Repatriation General Hospital, patients were transferred from Keswick Hospital in December 1946, but an

outpatients A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other heal ...

facility continued to operate at Keswick until 1968, when it finally closed. On 18 September 1918, tram line opened between the existing Sturt Street line, via West Terrace, down Anzac Highway (then Bay Road), to Keswick. It was used to transport returned soldiers to the hospital. Known as the West City Line, it terminated at the entry to the Keswick Army Barracks. After redevelopment of the Bay Road in the 1930s, the tram line was eventually truncated at the new Keswick Bridge in March 1939. The Keswick Terminal opened on 18 May 1984 (near, but not connected to, the Keswick railway station), developed by Australian National as a dedicated long-haul passenger rail station. It was officially classified as a suburb in the

on 30 April 1987.

Population

In the

2021 Australian Census The 2021 Australian census, simply called the 2021 Census, was the eighteenth national Census of Population and Housing in Australia. The 2021 Census took place on 10 August 2021, and was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). ...

, there were 754 people in Keswick. 54.8% of people were born in Australia and 58.1% of people spoke only English at home. The most common response for religion was "No Religion", 42.8%.

Significant establishments

Keswick Barracks

Keswick is home to

, which is an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

Barracks. It is home to the 9th Brigade (Reserve), 10th/27th Battalion, Royal South Australia Regiment (Reserve), the 48th Field Battery (Reserve), and the headquarters of the 3rd Health Support Battalion (3 HSB). Keswick Barracks also houses several DCO (Defence Community Organisation) departments, the SA Branch of

RUSI The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi) is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley. The institution was registered as Royal ...

and the local RUSI library. There is an Air Force unit here too.

Royal District Nursing Service

Keswick is also home to the headquarters of the Royal District Nursing Service, now part of the Silver Chain Group.

Keswick Cricket Club

Keswick Cricket Club was founded in November 1942, with the principle of, “giving anyone who wants to play a game of cricket, an opportunity to play”. At this time, the Keswick Branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society combined with the Glenelg Branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society to form a cricket team to participate in the Catholic Young Men's Society Cricket Association Competition. KCC now fields 4 teams in the Adelaide & Suburban Cricket Association. Matches are played on hard-wicket and turf surfaces around the Adelaide metropolitan area. Keswick Juniors fields U10, U12 and U14 sides in the South Central Junior Cricket Association, and a team in the Adelaide Strikers Girls League.

Heritage-listed buildings

The Headquarters Building of Keswick Barracks was added to the former

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

on 28 September 1982 and to the

Australian Commonwealth Heritage List The Commonwealth Heritage List is a heritage register established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the Australian government, on land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, the Crown in right of the Commonwealth ...

on 22 June 2004. The first building of Richmond Primary School was granted local heritage status from the

on 2 October 2008.

Schools

Richmond 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 ...

R–7 school (5- to 13-year-olds) located in the

inner suburb of Keswick, South Australia. It was constructed in 1898 in Keswick, South Australia located in the Federal Division of Adelaide, the State Electorate of Badcoe and

Notable students

* Wally Shiers (as a mechanic) who along with aviators Ross Smith and Keith Smith were the first men to fly from London to Australia in the Vickers Vimey. *

Glen Broomhill Glen Raymond Broomhill (20 January 1933 – 26 December 2007) was an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seats of West Torrens from 1965 to 1970 and Henley Beach from 1970 to 1979 for the Labor Party. G ...

was a Member of the South Australian Parliament and architect of one of the first modern day container deposit schemes in 1975. *

Raymond Specht Raymond Louis Specht (19 July 1924 – 13 February 2021) was an Australian plant ecologist, conservationist and academic, who participated in the Arnhem Land Scientific Expedition of 1948. Early life Raymond Louis Specht was born in 1924 in ...

Brian Herbert Medlin Brian Herbert Medlin (1927–2004) was Foundation Professor of Philosophy at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1967 to 1988. He pioneered radical philosophy in Australian universities and played an active role in the campa ...

Errol Noack Errol Wayne Noack (28 March 194524 May 1966) was a 21 year old Australian Army Private who was the first Australian National Service conscript to be killed in the Vietnam War, only ten days after he arrived in South Vietnam. Noack was the victim ...

was the first Australian conscript to be killed in the Vietnam War on 24 May 1966.

References

{{City of West Torrens suburbs Suburbs of Adelaide