North Adelaide

History

Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colony of South Australia completed the survey for the capital city of Adelaide by 10 March 1837. The survey included 1042 acres (4.2 km²), including 342 acres (1.4 km²) north of the River Torrens. This surveyed land north of the river became North Adelaide.

North Adelaide was the birthplace of William Lawrence Bragg, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915.

Design

North Adelaide consists of three grids of varying dimension to suit the geography. North Adelaide is surrounded by parklands, with public gardens between the grids. The North Adelaide Parklands (the Adelaide Parklands north of the River Torrens) contain gardens, many sports fields (including the Adelaide Oval), a golf course, horse agistment paddocks and some areas sympathetic with the native environment. It has Wellington Square at its centre, and O'Connell Street (named after Maurice Charles O'Connell, Governor of New South Wales) as its main commercial street. O'Connell Street is the continuation of King William Road, and links the main street of Adelaide City with Main North Road. A tram used to run up O'Connell Street; the government is investigating extending the Glenelg tram along King William Road to terminate at Brougham Place. O'Connell Street has many cafes, restaurants, burger bars, shops and six pubs. Lincoln College and Aquinas College are also situated in this grid. Tynte Street is another commercial street in the largest grid running between Wellington Square and the east parklands. It contains the North Adelaide Primary School, a public library, a civic hall, a post office and a pub. Also on Tynte Street are the studios of Adelaide's NWS-9, the local Nine Network affiliate.

The smallest grid contains the Women's and Children's Hospital, the Memorial Hospital, St Peter's Cathedral, St. Mark's College, the Cathedral hotel (popular with cricket fans due its proximity to the Adelaide Oval), and the Queen's Head hotel (the oldest Adelaide pub, renovated in 2003).

The remaining grid is termed Lower North Adelaide. It is nearest the Torrens floodplain. It contains Brougham Place Uniting Church, St. Ann's College, and four pubs. Melbourne Street, with cafes, restaurants, galleries, shops and two pubs, is its commercial street.

Hotels and leisure

Many of the North Adelaide pubs and hotels are heritage-listed. There are fourteen in total: eight in Upper North Adelaide, four in Lower North Adelaide, and two in the Cathedral grid. Six of the Upper North Adelaide pubs are on O'Connell Street: the Caledonian, the Royal Oak, The O Hotel, the Cambridge, the Oxford and The Archer. The Daniel O'Connell (formerly the North Adelaide Hotel) is on Tynte Street, and the Wellington Hotel (which also serves as the local TAB) is located at the eastern side of Wellington Square. The Dover Castle is heritage listed but is no longer a hotel, having been turned into apartments. Lower North Adelaide contains the Kentish Arms, The Lion hotel (formerly a brewery), the Lord Melbourne, and the British (Adelaide's second oldest public house).

North Adelaide's O'Connell Street and Melbourne Street are also very popular for its many well known restaurants such as Fellini, cafe Paesano, Scuzzi, Palazzo, 24-hour bakery, Zappatas and Montezumas.

Education

The North Adelaide Primary School on Tynte Street was established in 1877 and is one of the oldest schools in South Australia. At 2007 its enrolment from reception to year seven was 250. The school's motto recorded on its World War One honour board is Esse quam videri, "To be, rather than to seem" and the school colours are red and blue.

Many residential colleges affiliated with the University of Adelaide are in North Adelaide, including Aquinas College, Lincoln College, St. Ann's College, St. Mark's College, Kathleen Lumley College (Postgraduate) and Australian Lutheran College, the Lutheran tertiary institution and seminary. Queen's College North Adelaide was the longest lasting proprietary boys' college in Australia, closing in 1946.

Transport

North Adelaide is well served by road, although in peak hour some roads, particularly O'Connell Street and Melbourne Street, are quite congested.

North Adelaide railway station is located on the Gawler Line of the Adelaide rail network. The railway station is however on the western edge of North Adelaide with infrequent services and is little used.

There are several Adelaide Metro bus routes that service the area on their way through to other suburbs. Buses run along several routes:

Since 27 January 2014 a free loop bus operated jointly between the Adelaide City Council and the state government circulates through Adelaide and North Adelaide replacing a community bus operated by the Adelaide City Council.

There is provision for bicycles along LeFevre Terrace/Frome Road and Montefiore Road/Jeffcott Street/Wellington Square and many of the streets have little traffic and are bicycle friendly.

Residents

In the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing, the population of the North Adelaide (people usually resident, excluding visitors) was 6,678 people, an increase of 435 from the 2001 census figure of 6,253 people. North Adelaide has a much lower proportion of its population below 14 years (3.7% 0–4 years, 2.2% 5–9 years, 2.5% 5–14 years) compared to South Australia as a whole (6.0% 0–4 years, 5.8% 5–9 years, 6.1% 10–14 years). Conversely, the proportion of the population 20–29 years (13.8% 20–24 years, 11.1% 25–29 years) is much greater than South Australia as a whole (6.6% 20–24 years, 6.5% 25–29 years). There are 0.8% indigenous persons compared to South Australian average of 1.9%.

The strongest religious affiliations in the area (based on the 2006 census figures) were (in descending order): No Religion, Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, and Lutheran.

The median household income of $1151 was more than the Adelaide average of $924. A majority of workers are employed in professional or white collar fields.

Built Form

There were 3,399 private dwellings with the most common form being row or terrace house (38.3%), and units (36.0%). By comparison the Adelaide average were 12.1% and 10.4% respectively. The average household size in North Adelaide is 1.9, less than the Adelaide average of 2.4. There are many significant heritage buildings in the area.

Politics

North Adelaide is part of the state electoral district of Adelaide, which has been held since 2010 by Liberal MP Rachel Sanderson. In federal politics, the suburb is part of the division of Adelaide, and has been represented by Labor MP Kate Ellis since 2004. North Adelaide usually has one or two polling booths for federal and state elections, North Adelaide at the North Adelaide Primary School and Lower/East North Adelaide (last Federal 2013) at St Cyprian's Anglican Church. The first preference votes for these two booths for recent state and federal elections are shown in tables.

In local government, North Adelaide forms the North ward within the City of Adelaide, and the current Lord Mayor for Adelaide is Martin Haese. Since 2014 the North Ward Councillors are Susan Clearihan and Phillip Martin. Significant local issues since 2010 have included: