Adelaide city centre



The Adelaide city centre is the innermost locality of Greater Adelaide, known by locals simply as "The City" or "Town". The locality is split into two key geographical distinctions: the city "square mile", bordered by North, East, South and West Terraces; and that part of the Adelaide Parklands south of the River Torrens which separate the built up part of the city from the surrounding suburbs. The locality is home to the parliament of the state of South Australia and many key state government offices. Due to the construction of many new apartments in the city, the population has grown from 10,229 (2006 census) to an estimated 18,575 (2010).

History
Prior to the European settlement of South Australia, the Adelaide Plains, on which Adelaide was built, was home to the Kaurna group of Indigenous Australians.

The colony of South Australia was established in 1836 at Glenelg, and the city itself established in 1837. The location and layout of the city is accredited to Colonel William Light (1786-1839) in a plan known as Light's Vision.

Built environment
Adelaide is separated from its greater metropolitan area by a ring of public parklands on all sides. The square mile within the parklands is defined by a small area of high rise office and apartment buildings in the centre north, around King William Street, which runs north-to-south through the centre. Surrounding this central business district are a large number of medium to low density apartments, townhouses and detached houses which make up the residential portion of the city centre.

Layout
The layout of Adelaide, known as Light's Vision, features a grid pattern of wide streets and terraces and five large public squares: Victoria Square in the centre of the city, and Hindmarsh, Light, Hurtle and Whitmore Squares in the centres of each of the four quadrants of the Adelaide city centre.

Between North Terrace and South Terrace, all east-west roads change their names as they cross King William Street. Also, travelling north-south, the cross-streets alternate between being wide (up to 4-lanes wide) and narrow (2-lanes wide), with the exception that Grote Street and Wakefield Street are up to 6-lanes wide. Note that in the south half of the city, in several places the Adelaide City Council has increased the widths of footpaths and changed the road markings so that traffic is restricted to use a lesser number of lanes than the full width of the road.

Travelling south from North Terrace, the street pairs are:

Street names
The streets and squares were named by a committee of a number of prominent settlers after themselves, after early directors of the South Australian Company, after Commissioners appointed by the British government to oversee implementation of the acts that established the colony, and after various notables involved in the establishment of the colony.

The Street Naming Committee comprised: All members of the committee (except Stephens) had one or more of the streets and squares in the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide named after themselves. Brown Street, named for John Brown, was subsequently subsumed as a continuation of Morphett Street in 1967. In the same year, Hanson Street, named for Richard Hanson, was subsumed as a continuation of Pulteney Street.

The squares were named after: The east-west streets named on 22 December 1836 were: Most of these people did not reside in or visit South Australia.
 * Victoria - the regent, later the monarch Queen Victoria
 * Hindmarsh - Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, first Governor
 * Hurtle - Sir James Hurtle Fisher, first Resident Commissioner
 * Light - Colonel William Light, Surveyor General
 * Whitmore - William Wolryche-Whitmore MP, a Colonial Commissioner in London
 * Rundle – John Rundle MP, Director of the South Australian Company
 * Hindley – Charles Hindley MP, Director of South Australian Company
 * Grenfell – Pascoe St Leger Grenfell MP, presented town acre for Holy Trinity Church and other country lands
 * Currie – Raikes Currie MP, Director of South Australian Company
 * Pirie – Sir John Pirie, alderman and later Lord Mayor of London, Director of South Australian Company
 * Waymouth – Henry Waymouth, Director South Australian Company
 * Flinders – Matthew Flinders, explorer
 * Franklin – Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, midshipman under Flinders
 * Wakefield – Daniel Bell Wakefield, barrister who drafted the South Australia Act
 * Grote – George Grote MP, treasurer of the South Australia Association
 * Angas – George Fife Angas, a Colonial Commissioner and founding Chairman of Directors of the South Australian Company
 * Gouger – Robert Gouger, first Colonial Secretary

The naming of the streets was completed on 23 May 1837 and gazetted on 3 June.

East-west streets: North-south streets:
 * Carrington - John Abel Smith (Lord Carrington)
 * Wright - John Wright, Colonial Commissioner and financier
 * Halifax - Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * Sturt - Charles Sturt, explorer
 * Gilles - Osmond Gilles, early treasurer of the colony
 * Gilbert - Thomas Gilbert, storekeeper and postmaster
 * Morphett - John Morphett, member of the South Australian parliament
 * Pulteney - Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, British naval officer
 * Hutt - William Hutt MP, a Colonial Commissioner

Politics
Since the mid 1990s, Adelaide has consistently favoured the centre-left Australian Labor Party (Labor) at both federal and state elections, although the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia (Liberal) have on occasion obtained a primary vote majority within the suburb's boundaries, and in the 1993 state election, an absolute majority. Under the preferential system in Australia, however, the 15% or more of the vote which typically goes to the Australian Democrats and the Greens consistently favours Labor.

At federal level, Adelaide is within the Division of Adelaide, a marginal seat which historically has alternated between the Liberal and Labor parties. It has been held since 2004 by Kate Ellis of the Labor party.

In the South Australian House of Assembly, Adelaide is within the Electoral district of Adelaide. The seat has mostly been held by Labor, but from 1989 until 2002 was held by Dr Michael Armitage for the Liberals. From 2002 to 2010, it was held by Labor's Jane Lomax-Smith. Since the March 2010 state election, it has been held by Rachel Sanderson for the Liberal party.

Polling place statistics are presented below combining the votes from the five Adelaide booths (Adelaide, Hospital, East, South and West):