SESSION 8

‘A Conjectural 1836 Model Plan for Adelaide, South Australia: Postulation and Testing of a Pre-emptive Model Plan for the Capital’ presented by Ron Danvers LFRAIA

Tickets

Colonel William Light’s history has been the subject of several admirable publications, but none have satisfactorily addressed the method he used in designing, surveying and laying out the plan of the City of Adelaide on the topography of the site chosen on December 31, 1836. Although evidence supports there being a preemptive Model Plan produced in London before that date, the connection has generally been missed on how such a plan, following the pattern of many colonial antecedents, could have been simply cut up to fit the topography of the chosen site. In postulating the form a Model Plan might have taken by reverse engineering the final plan, it becomes obvious that this was the method used by Light to lay out the plan of the Capital. It was not done in a week from January 3, 1837 as Stretton suggested, but by February 7 the basic cutting up had been formulated and sketched by Light from Green Hill.

www.danversstudioarchitects.com
Presentation time: Wednesday 21 May 2025, 6:30 pm
Presentation duration: 40-45 minutes

Please note: tickets include x2 presentations by Ron Danvers LFRAIA and Andrew Buxton.

Image: Colonel Light’s sketch map of Adelaide 7 February 1837 from Green Hill, courtesy of RGSSA (Original held at Public Records Office, Kew Gardens).