Each month from February to November the Society meets on the first Friday of the month at 7.30pm to hear intriguing stories and colourful accounts of our state’s lively past. Suggestions for speakers are always welcome.
These talks are held in the Burnside City Uniting Church, 384 Portrush Road, Tusmore. Enter via Fisher Street. Visitors are always welcome but are asked for a $5 donation.
The 2026 schedule is:
Feb 6 Taylor – Echoes of Exploration: Colonel Light’s Campsite Rediscovered at Rapid Bay
Mar 6 John Mayo – Two Lives in Adelaide in the 1840s: George Mayo and Maria Gandy
Apr 10 Ian Hopley – Headstone Project in South Australia
May 1 Ian Smyth – Celebrating 100 years of broadcasting in South Australia
Jun 5 Malcolm ‘Rulebook’ Ashwood – The Definitive Rulebook: SA Sporting stories
Jul 3 Richard Venus – More to Todd than a Telegraph Line
Aug 7 Gavin Scrimgeour – Mitcham Camp and the Training of AIF Volunteers in SA, 1914-1918
Sep 4 Karen Agutter – SA Migrant Work Camps
Oct 2 John Walker – George Fife Angas’ speech on Aboriginal South Australia
Nov 6 Richard Maerschel – South Australian Motor Racing 1902 – 1961
For your interest, the first program for the Historical Society can be found below.
A cache of audio cassettes were recently discovered. These date back to the first meeting in 1974, with a huge variety of topics from garden culture, to significant trees, from migration schemes to Federation. There are politicians, authors and historians sharing their discoveries and passions.
Those that were of a suitable quality have been uploaded onto a dedicated channel on youtube: