Royal Geographical Society of South Australia

One of the earliest geographical societies in the world, the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia (RGSSA) was founded in Adelaide on 10 July 1885, and held its first meeting on 22 October of that year with Sir Samuel Davenport as President.

History

The Society was set up in the model of a small number of other pioneering organisations such as La Société de Géographie (1812) in Paris; the Geographical Society of London (1830); and the American Geographical Society (1851).

Originally intended as a branch of the Geographical Society of Australasia (later the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia), founded in Sydney two years earlier, it was named the ‘Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) Inc.’ Remarkably, "the parent body alluded to in the original title never came into formal existence". Whilst the parent organisation failed, South Australia's so-called Branch Without a Tree functioned autonomously and prospered independently, ultimately adopting its present name in 1996.

A good deal of the colonial exploration of inland Australia was conducted with private sponsorship and in the name of the Society. Indeed, the Society played a role in two major late-nineteenth century expeditions, namely the Elder Expedition and Calvert Expedition in Western Australia. Additionally, it raised £2,000 to purchase the York Gate Library in 1905, a notable private collection amassed by a London merchant, Stephen William Silver, relating to geography, exploration, and colonisation. This purchase helped secure the Society's permanent home, which it still occupies in affiliation with the State Library of South Australia (formerly the Public Library). This gratis accommodation arrangement was an enduring initiative of South Australia’s first Labor Government at the start of the 1900s to create learning opportunities for anyone, particularly students and researchers.

The Society’s extensive collection came to be built around the York Gate acquisition, with three more collections subsequently being obtained by bequest or purchase from Australians Thomas Gill, Dr Lucas Benham, and Dr Jim Faull. This then set up a special accommodation arrangement whereby items are made available to the public for all time in return for the provision of library space. Initially housed in purpose-built premises in the Institute Building, the Society is currently located in the Mortlock wing of the main State Library Building on North Terrace – often cited as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. The Society continues to play an important role in underpinning and advancing geographical knowledge in South Australia and beyond.

Home of the RGSSA: the Mortlock Wing, State Library of South Australia.

Society connections

Since its inception in 1885 the Society has served individuals as well as private and public organisations by facilitating quests for new pastoral runs, mineral locations, and water. Difficult as it is to imagine in the 21st century, much of the country was not mapped until World War Two. Many of the State’s movers and shakers agitated for, or were a part of, the early Society. They included “men of substance and ability” such as Thomas Elder, Samuel Way, Samuel Davenport, Charles Todd, Henry Ayers, John Langdon Bonython, John Lavington Bonython, George Kennion, John Anderson Hartley, Robert Barr Smith, Josiah Simon, Robert Kyffin Thomas, John Bakewell, David Murray, George Farr, Walter Tyas and in the 1950s, Warren Bonython, Thomas Magarey, Charles Hope Harris, and George Goyder. The Society had the State’s under treasurer, Thomas Gill, as its inaugural Treasurer for 30 years.

From its outset the Society had very close connections with the University of Adelaide. From 1885 until at least 1931 the University Council included at least one-third of its members from the Society and often in excess of half.

The Society began with 82 members and until about 1945 always had fewer than 250 members. Membership in the earlier years of this period included some of last wave of the State's explorers. These included William Patrick Auld, Herbert Basedow, Peter Egerton-Warburton, David Lindsay, William Tietkens, Lawrence Wells, and Charles Winnecke. The Society's interests tended to focus on the region within which the Society was located in what has come to be understood a part of Modernist 'encyclopaedism'.

In the early-to late 20^th century the Society was served by many distinguished geographers who have come to be associated with it, including Archibald (Archie) Grenfell Price, who was on Council for the remarkable period of 1924-62 and President from 1937-8, Charles Fenner (President from 1931-2), Leonard Keith Ward, and Douglas Mawson. More recently active members and have included a number of celebrated scholars such as Fay Gale, Nick Harvey, Iain Hay, Les Heathcote, Ann Marshall, Graeme Hugo, Alaric Maude, Murray McCaskill, Guy Robinson, and Peter Smailes.

Because of its prestigious address and community title the Society was fortunate to collect much information about the State’s establishment for over 100 years until the last quarter of the 20^th century when the History Trust of South Australia (1981) and Department of Environment and Conservation (1971) came into being. RGSSA collections now complement those organisations' knowledge and activities.

The Society also has current connections with the History Trust of South Australia through its History Network and Museums and Collections initiative. The Society also has links with a range of institutions and geographical organisations including South Australia’s universities, the Institute of Australian Geographers, Geography Teachers’ Association of South Australia, Royal Geographical Society of Queensland, the Australian Academy of Science, and the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG).

The RGSSA Library

The RGSSA’s Library is one of the South Australia's most significant cultural assets and one of the Society’s key resources.

• It gathers together in one place accounts of the historical geography of human settlement from out of Africa to Europe, the Americas, the Far East, and Oceania.
• It features significant accounts and artefacts of colonial exploration, particularly across South Australia, the northwest of Western Australia, eastern New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and Antarctica. The Society's collections are said to include more than 1200 items in relation to indigenous peoples and culture.
• The collection includes numerous first-hand accounts of First Nations contact in Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, and the Pacific. These are produced, in frequency order, English, Latin, German, some in the three Asian scripts, Chinese Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, and Arabic. (there are a few other languages such as Welsh, Syriac and Vietnamese). Australian Aboriginal vocabularies and songs are included, including sound recordings.
• The collection describes and explains the development of national and international quests for raw materials and innovative processes that today shape our world’s countries boundaries.
• The RGSSA is committed to making accessible its collection. For example, it lends collection items to other state and national Institutions around Australia for exhibitions. They collaborate with the South Australian Parliamentary Library to share collection items, having donated copies of maps and parliamentary papers to fill in the gaps in that collection. In 2024 the Society began publicising holdings through an online Treasures collection.
• RGSSA volunteers are also devoted to preserving the collection, dedicating themselves to cataloguing, digitising, and conserving materials, ensuring that they will be available to future generations.

Use of the RGSSA’s Library is available to anyone, anywhere in the world in person or electronically.