On South Australia‘s “birthday” last year, i.e. Proclamation Day,  I wrote about the origins of European settlement in this particular part of Australia. Not a convict settlement but a planned “Utopia of the South” which you can read HERE.

Another year gone, we’ve just commemorated our 177th Birthday/ Proclamation Day,  so I decided to trawl through TROVE to see how this occasion has been commemorated in days gone by.  I LOVE Trove…    😆

In 1873, on the 37th Anniversary of the founding of the colony, the  South Australian Register reported:

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), Tuesday 30 December 1873, page 5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39302450

TROVE also delivered up many wonderful photos, from the State Library of South Australia, showing how this day has been celebrated in the past at Glenelg beach (the Bay), where the Proclamation was read when the first “settlers” arrived.

Searching the 1873 newspapers around the rural area where my Susan settled shortly after arriving from Ireland, just 19 years after the Proclamation was read, there was not a mention of the celebrations which were clearly being enjoyed elsewhere. Seems it was simply “business as usual”.   I wonder why???…

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Copyright © 2013.  Catherine Ann Crout-Habel.