Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces . The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
83-555: Inman Valley is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the Fleurieu Peninsula about 86 kilometres (53 mi) south of the state capital of Adelaide . The valley is about 380 square kilometres (150 sq mi) in area. At the 2016 census , Inman Valley had a population of 343. Inman Valley, and Inman River , was named through association with Inspector Henry Inman , founder and first commander of
166-659: A Learning City . The number of international students studying in Adelaide has increased rapidly in recent years to 30,726 in 2015, of which 1,824 were secondary school students. Foreign institutions have been attracted to set up campuses to increase its attractiveness as an education hub. Adelaide is the birthplace of three Nobel laureates, more than any other Australian city : physicist William Lawrence Bragg and pathologists Howard Florey and Robin Warren , all of whom completed secondary and tertiary education at St Peter's College and
249-618: A glaciated pavement in the bed of the Inman River. It was first described in 1859 by, and later named for, A.R.C. Selwyn , who was Victorian Government geologist at the time. Glacial grooves and striations on the polished surface indicate glacial movement to the north-west. Boulder clays , tillites and erratics are also common in the area, which underwent glaciation during the Permian (approximately 270 Ma). The pavement of Cambrian bedrock and Permian glacial sediments were exposed during
332-400: A Digital Land Surface Model in the form of a TIN . The DLSM can then be used to visualize terrain, drape remote sensing images, quantify ecological properties of a surface or extract land surface objects. The contour data or any other sampled elevation datasets are not a DLSM. A DLSM implies that elevation is available continuously at each location in the study area, i.e. that the map represents
415-492: A complete surface. Digital Land Surface Models should not be confused with Digital Surface Models, which can be surfaces of the canopy, buildings and similar objects. For example, in the case of surface models produces using the lidar technology, one can have several surfaces – starting from the top of the canopy to the actual solid earth. The difference between the two surface models can then be used to derive volumetric measures (height of trees etc.). Topographic survey information
498-413: A four-yearly basis, are responsible for local roads and stormwater management, waste collection, planning and development, fire prevention and hazard management, dog and cat management and control, parking control, public health and food inspections, and other services for their local communities. Councils have the power to raise revenue for their activities, which is mostly achieved through "council rates",
581-405: A part of geovisualization , whether maps or GIS systems. False-color and non-visible spectra imaging can also help determine the lie of the land by delineating vegetation and other land-use information more clearly. Images can be in visible colours and in other spectrum. Photogrammetry is a measurement technique for which the co-ordinates of the points in 3D of an object are determined by
664-515: A penal colony. Although South Australia was constituted such that convicts could never be transported to the Province, some emancipated or escaped convicts or expirees made their own way there, both prior to 1836, or later, and may have constituted 1–2% of the early population. The plan for the province was that it would be an experiment in reform, addressing the problems perceived in British society. There
747-570: A place or places, what is now largely called ' local history '. In Britain and in Europe in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its original sense. Detailed military surveys in Britain (beginning in the late eighteenth century) were called Ordnance Surveys , and this term was used into the 20th century as generic for topographic surveys and maps. The earliest scientific surveys in France were
830-487: A province or provinces in southern Australia. The act stated that the land between 132° and 141° east longitude and from 26° south latitude to the southern ocean would be allotted to the intended colony, and it would be convict-free. In contrast to the rest of Australia, terra nullius did not apply to the new province. The Letters Patent , which used the enabling provisions of the South Australia Act 1834 to fix
913-684: A section of the coastline as far east as the Nuyts Archipelago . Thijssen named the whole of the country eastward of the Leeuwin "Nuyts Land", after a distinguished passenger on board; the Hon. Pieter Nuyts , one of the Councillors of India . The coastline of South Australia was first mapped by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in 1802, excepting the inlet later named the Port Adelaide River which
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#1732848272048996-723: A tax based on property valuations. Council rates make up about 70% of council revenue, but account for less than 4% of total taxes paid by Australians. As at December 2021 the population of South Australia was 1,806,599. A majority of the state's population lives within Greater Adelaide 's metropolitan area which had an estimated population of 1,333,927 in June 2017. Other significant population centres include Mount Gambier (29,505), Victor Harbor - Goolwa (26,334), Whyalla (21,976), Murray Bridge (18,452), Port Lincoln (16,281), Port Pirie (14,267), and Port Augusta (13,957). At
1079-537: A theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was later employed by the New Zealand Company . The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history has been marked by periods of economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its fine wine and numerous cultural festivals. The state's economy
1162-543: A valuable set of information for large-scale analysis. The original American topographic surveys (or the British "Ordnance" surveys) involved not only recording of relief, but identification of landmark features and vegetative land cover. Remote sensing is a general term for geodata collection at a distance from the subject area. Besides their role in photogrammetry, aerial and satellite imagery can be used to identify and delineate terrain features and more general land-cover features. Certainly they have become more and more
1245-472: Is also the world's fourth-largest remaining copper deposit, and the world's fifth largest gold deposit. There was a proposal to vastly expand the operations of the mine, making it the largest open-cut mine in the world, but in 2012 the BHP Billiton board decided not to go ahead with it at that time due to then lower commodity prices. The remote town of Coober Pedy produces more opal than anywhere else in
1328-456: Is concerned with underlying structures and processes to the surface, rather than with identifiable surface features. The digital elevation model (DEM) is a raster -based digital dataset of the topography ( hypsometry and/or bathymetry ) of all or part of the Earth (or a telluric planet ). The pixels of the dataset are each assigned an elevation value, and a header portion of the dataset defines
1411-626: Is dominated by the agricultural, manufacturing and mining industries. Evidence of human activity in South Australia dates back as far as 20,000 years, with flint mining activity and rock art in the Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain . In addition wooden spears and tools were made in an area now covered in peat bog in the South East. Kangaroo Island was inhabited long before the island
1494-428: Is essential for the planning and construction of any major civil engineering , public works , or reclamation projects. There are a variety of approaches to studying topography. Which method(s) to use depends on the scale and size of the area under study, its accessibility, and the quality of existing surveys. Surveying helps determine accurately the terrestrial or three-dimensional space position of points and
1577-582: Is flanked by the Southern Ocean , but official international consensus defines the Southern Ocean as extending north from the pole only to 60°S or 55°S, at least 17 degrees of latitude further south than the most southern point of South Australia. Thus the south coast is officially adjacent to the south-most portion of the Indian Ocean. See Southern Ocean: Existence and definitions . The southern part of
1660-438: Is historically based upon the notes of surveyors. They may derive naming and cultural information from other local sources (for example, boundary delineation may be derived from local cadastral mapping). While of historical interest, these field notes inherently include errors and contradictions that later stages in map production resolve. As with field notes, remote sensing data (aerial and satellite photography, for example),
1743-484: Is now Inman Valley Road. Immediately following the completion of surveys the land was opened for selection and in early 1840 the first European settlers to establish a homestead at Inman Valley were the three young James brothers: William Rhodes James, John Vidal James and Richard Boucher James . Their pioneering endeavours were recorded by Rhodes in his journal. They carved a shortcut—James Track—to their land. In 1858, together with partners, Richard Boucher James purchased
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#17328482720481826-543: Is often considered to include the graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of cartographic relief depiction techniques, including contour lines , hypsometric tints , and relief shading . The term topography originated in ancient Greece and continued in ancient Rome , as the detailed description of a place. The word comes from the Greek τόπος ( topos , "place") and -γραφία ( -graphia , "writing"). In classical literature this refers to writing about
1909-581: Is raw and uninterpreted. It may contain holes (due to cloud cover for example) or inconsistencies (due to the timing of specific image captures). Most modern topographic mapping includes a large component of remotely sensed data in its compilation process. In its contemporary definition, topographic mapping shows relief. In the United States, USGS topographic maps show relief using contour lines . The USGS calls maps based on topographic surveys, but without contours, "planimetric maps." These maps show not only
1992-547: Is the Mount Lofty - Flinders Ranges system, which extends north about 800 kilometres (500 mi) from Cape Jervis to the northern end of Lake Torrens . The highest point in the state is not in those ranges; Mount Woodroffe (1,435 metres (4,708 ft)) is in the Musgrave Ranges in the extreme northwest of the state. The south-western portion of the state consists of the sparsely inhabited Nullarbor Plain , fronted by
2075-447: Is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which includes some of the most arid parts of the continent, and with 1.8 million people it is the fifth-largest of the states and territories by population. This population is the second-most highly centralised in the nation after Western Australia , with more than 77% of South Australians living in the capital Adelaide or its environs. Other population centres in
2158-422: Is to something else). Topography has been applied to different science fields. In neuroscience , the neuroimaging discipline uses techniques such as EEG topography for brain mapping . In ophthalmology , corneal topography is used as a technique for mapping the surface curvature of the cornea . In tissue engineering , atomic force microscopy is used to map nanotopography . In human anatomy , topography
2241-710: The Adelaide Hills . Tomatoes , capsicums , cucumbers , brassicas , lettuce and carrots are grown on the Northern Adelaide Plains at Virginia . Almonds , citrus and stone fruit are grown in the Riverland . Potatoes , onions and carrots are grown in the Murray Mallee region. Potatoes are grown on Kangaroo Island . South Australia produces more than half of all Australian wine, including almost 80% of Australia's premium wines. South Australia has
2324-618: The Cassini maps after the family who produced them over four generations. The term "topographic surveys" appears to be American in origin. The earliest detailed surveys in the United States were made by the "Topographical Bureau of the Army", formed during the War of 1812 , which became the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1838. After the work of national mapping was assumed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1878,
2407-656: The Governor of South Australia as his representative. It is a state of the Commonwealth of Australia . The bicameral Parliament of South Australia consists of the lower house known as the House of Assembly and the upper house known as the Legislative Council . General elections are held every four years, the last being the 2022 election . Initially, the Governor of South Australia held almost total power, derived from
2490-569: The Hornsdale Wind Farm in South Australia's Mid-North region. At the time of construction in late 2017, it was billed as the largest lithium-ion battery in the world. The Olympic Dam mine near Roxby Downs in northern South Australia is the largest deposit of uranium in the world, possessing more than a third of the world's low-cost recoverable reserves and 70% of Australia's. The mine, owned and operated by BHP , presently accounts for 9% of global uranium production. The Olympic Dam mine
2573-699: The Riverland and the Adelaide Hills . See South Australian wine . South Australia has boundaries with every other Australian mainland state and territory except the Australian Capital Territory and the Jervis Bay Territory . The Western Australia border has a history involving the South Australian government astronomer, G.F. Dodwell, and the Western Australian Government Astronomer , H.B. Curlewis , marking
Inman Valley, South Australia - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-474: The Tertiary when the Inman River eroded the topography to its present-day surface. A cafe overlooks the glaciated bed of the river, with access onto the rock available via stairs and viewing platforms. South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA ) is a state in the southern central part of Australia . With a total land area of 984,321 square kilometres (380,048 sq mi), it
2739-488: The USGS topographic maps record not just elevation contours, but also roads, populated places, structures, land boundaries, and so on. Topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain , the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms ; this is also known as geomorphometry . In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form ( DEM ). It
2822-511: The University of Adelaide . Adelaide is home to research institutes, including the Royal Institution of Australia , established in 2009 as a counterpart to the two-hundred-year-old Royal Institution of Great Britain. Most of the research organisations are clustered in the Adelaide metropolitan area: South Australia is a constitutional monarchy with King Charles III as sovereign, and
2905-435: The 1880s this led to an extensive dairying industry, including butter and cheese production, with a butter factory being established in 1890. Present-day land use is predominantly grazing, dairy farming, forestry and horticulture. The valley area also attracts bushwalkers and tourists. In the valley is Selwyn Rock ( 35°29′47″S 138°30′45″E / 35.4965°S 138.5124°E / -35.4965; 138.5124 )
2988-534: The 2016 census, 78.2% of the population spoke only English at home. The other languages most commonly spoken at home were Italian (1.7%), Standard Mandarin (1.7%), Greek (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.1%), and Cantonese (0.6%). At the 2016 census , overall 53.9% of responses identified some variant of Christianity . 9% of respondents chose not to state a religion. The most commonly nominated responses were 'No Religion' (35.4%), Catholicism (18%), Anglicanism (10%) and Uniting Church (7.1%). South Australia
3071-417: The 2016 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were: 28.9% of the population was born overseas at the 2016 census. The five largest groups of overseas-born were from England (5.8%), India (1.6%), China (1.5%), Italy (1.1%) and Vietnam (0.9%). 2% of the population, or 34,184 people, identified as Indigenous Australians ( Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders ) in 2016. At
3154-572: The 2020–21 financial year. This was the first time since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began collecting data in 1990 that South Australia had outperformed the other states. The recovery was driven in part by growth in the agricultural sector, which increased its production by almost 24% thanks to the end of a drought. Wheat , barley , oats , rye , peas , beans , chickpeas , lentils and canola are grown in South Australia. Apples , pears , cherries and strawberries are grown in
3237-595: The 60,000-acre Canowie Station , where he lived until 1863, when he returned to England. In Devon he purchased the Georgian-style mansion Hallsannery House in the parish of Littleham , from where he continued his interest and management of the Canowie Pastoral Company until his death in 1908. The other contenders at being first residents of Inman Valley, around the same time, are the brothers Thomas Bewes Strangways and Giles Edward Strangways, but their land
3320-516: The Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray . The state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province , rather than as a convict settlement. Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when
3403-530: The Commissioners' permission to send Company ships to South Australia, in advance of the surveys and ahead of the Commissioners' colonists. The company's settlement of seven vessels and 636 people was temporarily made at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, until the official site of the capital was selected by William Light, where the City of Adelaide is currently located. The first immigrants arrived at Holdfast Bay (near
Inman Valley, South Australia - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-517: The German Lutheran church to this day. South Australia was the location of the first Muslim mosque in Australia. Topography Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary science and is concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief , but also natural , artificial, and cultural features such as roads, land boundaries, and buildings. In the United States, topography often means specifically relief , even though
3569-574: The Imperial Parliament enacted the Australian Colonies Government Act , which allowed for the election of representatives to each of the colonial legislatures and the drafting of a constitution to properly create representative and responsible government in South Australia. Later that year, propertied male colonists were allowed to vote for 16 members on a new 24 seat Legislative Council. Eight members continued to be appointed by
3652-560: The South Australia Police, who pursued two allegedly escaped convicts there in August 1838. No Indigenous name is recorded for the valley itself, but two names are recorded for the river: Moo-oola and Moogoora. The mouth was called Mugurank, meaning 'place of hammerstones'. The first recorded Europeans to sight the valley were likely the party that accompanied explorer Collet Barker (but not Barker himself) in 1831. In its pristine state
3735-669: The area of coverage, the units each pixel covers, and the units of elevation (and the zero-point). DEMs may be derived from existing paper maps and survey data, or they may be generated from new satellite or other remotely sensed radar or sonar data. A geographic information system (GIS) can recognize and analyze the spatial relationships that exist within digitally stored spatial data. These topological relationships allow complex spatial modelling and analysis to be performed. Topological relationships between geometric entities traditionally include adjacency (what adjoins what), containment (what encloses what), and proximity (how close something
3818-455: The basis for much derived topographic work. Digital Elevation Models, for example, have often been created not from new remote sensing data but from existing paper topographic maps. Many government and private publishers use the artwork (especially the contour lines) from existing topographic map sheets as the basis for their own specialized or updated topographic maps. Topographic mapping should not be confused with geologic mapping . The latter
3901-501: The border on the ground in the 1920s. In 1863, that part of New South Wales to the north of South Australia was annexed to South Australia, by letters patent, as the "Northern Territory of South Australia", which became shortened to the Northern Territory on 6 July 1863 . The Northern Territory was handed to the federal government in 1911 and became a separate territory. According to Australian maps, South Australia's south coast
3984-486: The boundaries of the Province of South Australia, provided that "nothing in those our Letters Patent shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives." Although the patent guaranteed land rights under force of law for
4067-604: The cliffs of the Great Australian Bight . Features of the coast include Spencer Gulf and the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas that surround it. The Temperate Grassland of South Australia is situated to the east of Gulf St Vincent . The principal industries and exports of South Australia are wheat, wine and wool. More than half of Australia's wines are produced in the South Australian wine regions which principally include Barossa Valley , Clare Valley , McLaren Vale , Coonawarra ,
4150-581: The community and enforce government regulations. Their principal role was to run the first temporary gaol, a two-room hut. The current flag of South Australia was adopted on 13 January 1904, and is a British blue ensign defaced with the state badge. The badge is described as a piping shrike with wings outstretched on a yellow disc. The state badge is believed to have been designed by Robert Craig of Adelaide's School of Design . The terrain consists largely of arid and semi-arid rangelands, with several low mountain ranges . The most important (but not tallest)
4233-545: The continent, early settlements were all on the eastern coast and only a few intrepid explorers ventured this far west. It took more than forty years before any serious proposal to establish settlements in the south-western portion of New South Wales were put forward. On 15 August 1834, the British Parliament passed the South Australia Act 1834 ( Foundation Act ), which empowered His Majesty to erect and establish
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#17328482720484316-454: The contours, but also any significant streams or other bodies of water, forest cover , built-up areas or individual buildings (depending on scale), and other features and points of interest. While not officially "topographic" maps, the national surveys of other nations share many of the same features, and so they are often called "topographic maps." Existing topographic survey maps, because of their comprehensive and encyclopedic coverage, form
4399-509: The direct survey still provides the basic control points and framework for all topographic work, whether manual or GIS -based. In areas where there has been an extensive direct survey and mapping program (most of Europe and the Continental U.S., for example), the compiled data forms the basis of basic digital elevation datasets such as USGS DEM data. This data must often be "cleaned" to eliminate discrepancies between surveys, but it still forms
4482-476: The distances and angles between them using leveling instruments such as theodolites , dumpy levels and clinometers . GPS and other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are also used. Work on one of the first topographic maps was begun in France by Giovanni Domenico Cassini , the great Italian astronomer. Even though remote sensing has greatly sped up the process of gathering information, and has allowed greater accuracy control over long distances,
4565-479: The first in the world to allow women to stand for election. In 1897 Catherine Helen Spence was the first woman in Australia to be a candidate for political office when she was nominated to be one of South Australia's delegates to the conventions that drafted the constitution. South Australia became an original state of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Although the lower house had universal suffrage,
4648-497: The government is the party or coalition that exerts a majority in the House of Assembly. The Legislative Council remained a predominantly conservative chamber elected by property owners. Women's suffrage in Australia took a leap forward – enacted in 1895 and taking effect from the 1896 colonial election , South Australia was the first government in Australia and only the second in the world after New Zealand to allow women to vote, and
4731-526: The governor. The main responsibility of this body was to draft a constitution for South Australia. The body drafted the most democratic constitution ever seen in the British Empire and provided for universal manhood suffrage . It created the bicameral Parliament of South Australia . For the first time in the colony, the executive was elected by the people, and the colony used the Westminster system , where
4814-694: The indigenous inhabitants, it was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters. Despite strong reference to the rights of the native population in the initial proclamation by the Governor, there were many conflicts and deaths in the Australian Frontier Wars in South Australia. Survey was required before settlement of the province, and the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia appointed William Light as
4897-403: The lead over other Australian states for its commercialisation and commitment to renewable energy . It is now the leading producer of wind power in Australia. Renewable energy is a growing source of electricity in South Australia, and there is potential for growth from this particular industry of the state's economy. The Hornsdale Power Reserve is a bank of grid-connected batteries adjacent to
4980-409: The leader of its 'First Expedition', tasked with examining 1500 miles of the South Australian coastline and selecting the best site for the capital, and with then planning and surveying the site of the city into one-acre Town Sections and its surrounds into 134-acre Country Sections. Eager to commence the establishment of their whale and seal fisheries, the South Australian Company sought, and obtained,
5063-456: The least amount of federal funding for its local road network of all states on a per capita and a per kilometre basis. During 2019-20: South Australia's gross state product (GSP) fell 1.4% in chain volume (real) terms (nationally, gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.3%). South Australia came out of the COVID-19 recession better than the other Australian states, with the economy growing by 3.9% in
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#17328482720485146-656: The letters patent of the imperial government to create the colony. He was accountable only to the British Colonial Office , and thus democracy did not exist in the colony. A new body was created to advise the governor on the administration of South Australia in 1843 called the Legislative Council. It consisted of three representatives of the British Government and four colonists appointed by the governor. The governor retained total executive power. In 1851,
5229-439: The measurements made in two photographic images (or more) taken starting from different positions, usually from different passes of an aerial photography flight. In this technique, the common points are identified on each image . A line of sight (or ray ) can be built from the camera location to the point on the object. It is the intersection of its rays ( triangulation ) which determines the relative three-dimensional position of
5312-482: The members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree . As with the rest of the continent, the region has a long history of human occupation by numerous tribes and languages. The South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote , Kangaroo Island , on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation ,
5395-480: The most applications in environmental sciences , land surface is represented and modelled using gridded models. In civil engineering and entertainment businesses, the most representations of land surface employ some variant of TIN models. In geostatistics , land surface is commonly modelled as a combination of the two signals – the smooth (spatially correlated) and the rough (noise) signal. In practice, surveyors first sample heights in an area, then use these to produce
5478-525: The point. Known control points can be used to give these relative positions absolute values. More sophisticated algorithms can exploit other information on the scene known a priori (for example, symmetries in certain cases allowing the rebuilding of three-dimensional co-ordinates starting from one only position of the camera). Satellite RADAR mapping is one of the major techniques of generating Digital Elevation Models (see below). Similar techniques are applied in bathymetric surveys using sonar to determine
5561-475: The position of any feature or more generally any point in terms of both a horizontal coordinate system such as latitude, longitude, and altitude . Identifying (naming) features, and recognizing typical landform patterns are also part of the field. A topographic study may be made for a variety of reasons: military planning and geological exploration have been primary motivators to start survey programs, but detailed information about terrain and surface features
5644-474: The present day Glenelg ) in November 1836. The commencement of colonial government was proclaimed on 28 December 1836, now known as Proclamation Day . South Australia is the only Australian state to have never received British convicts. Another free settlement, Swan River colony was established in 1829 but Western Australia later sought convict labour, and in 1849 Western Australia was formally constituted as
5727-515: The state are relatively small; Mount Gambier , the second-largest centre, has a population of 26,878. South Australia shares borders with all the other mainland states. It is bordered to the west by Western Australia , to the north by the Northern Territory , to the north-east by Queensland , to the east by New South Wales , to the south-east by Victoria , and to the south by the Great Australian Bight . The state comprises less than 8% of
5810-538: The state has a Mediterranean climate , while the rest of the state has either an arid or semi-arid climate . South Australia's main temperature range is 29 °C (84 °F) in January and 15 °C (59 °F) in July. The highest maximum temperature ever recorded was 50.7 °C (123.3 °F) at Oodnadatta on 2 January 1960, which is the highest official temperature recorded in Australia. The lowest minimum temperature
5893-578: The state's upper house with the balance of power controlled by a variety of minor parties and independents. Local government in South Australia is established by the Constitution Act 1934 (SA), the Local Government Act 1999 (SA), and the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999 (SA). South Australia contains 68 councils and 6 Aboriginal and outback communities . Local councils, elected on
5976-399: The term topographical remained as a general term for detailed surveys and mapping programs, and has been adopted by most other nations as standard. In the 20th century, the term topography started to be used to describe surface description in other fields where mapping in a broader sense is used, particularly in medical fields such as neurology . An objective of topography is to determine
6059-417: The terrain of the ocean floor. In recent years, LIDAR ( LI ght D etection A nd R anging), a remote sensing technique that uses a laser instead of radio waves, has increasingly been employed for complex mapping needs such as charting canopies and monitoring glaciers. Terrain is commonly modelled either using vector ( triangulated irregular network or TIN) or gridded ( raster image ) mathematical models. In
6142-520: The upper house, the Legislative Council, remained the exclusive domain of property owners until the Labor government of Don Dunstan managed to achieve reform of the chamber in 1973. Property qualifications were removed and the Council became a body elected via proportional representation by a single state-wide electorate. Since the following 1975 South Australian state election , no one party has had control of
6225-518: The valley abounded in kangaroos , which were hunted for food by early sealers and whalers at Encounter Bay . Inman Valley was surveyed in late 1839 by a party under Senior Surveyor N. Lipscomb Kentish, formerly of Sydney , assisted by Surveyor Henry Ide, formerly a corporal in the Royal Sappers & Miners (see Royal Engineers ). They pegged out the sections and also a line of road suitable for drays leading from Rapid Bay to Encounter Bay , which
6308-447: The world. Opal was first discovered near the town in 1915, and the town became the site of an opal rush, enticing immigrants from southern and eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II . Higher education and research in Adelaide forms an important part of South Australia's economy. The South Australian Government and educational institutions have attempted to position Adelaide as Australia's education hub and have marketed it as
6391-536: Was cut off by rising sea levels . According to mitochondrial DNA research, Aboriginal people reached Eyre Peninsula 49,000-45,000 years ago from both the east (clockwise, along the coast, from northern Australia) and the west (anti-clockwise). The first recorded European sighting of the South Australian coast was in 1627 when the Dutch ship the Gulden Zeepaert , captained by François Thijssen , examined and mapped
6474-575: Was first discovered in 1831 by Captain Collet Barker and later accurately charted in 1836–37 by Colonel William Light , leader of the South Australian Colonization Commissioners' 'First Expedition' and first Surveyor-General of South Australia. The land which now forms the state of South Australia was claimed for Britain in 1788 as part of the colony of New South Wales . Although the new colony included almost two-thirds of
6557-417: Was near the mouth of the valley at Encounter Bay. Other pioneering settlers promptly joined them, including William Robinson , the latter being the first to drive a horse and cart over Mount Terrible. Other settlers soon followed, such as John Lush. Although various crops flourished, and sheep were successful, from the very earliest years cattle were known to thrive at Inman Valley and so they predominated. By
6640-461: Was the first Australian colony not to have an official state religion, and the colony became attractive to people who had experienced religious discrimination, including Methodists and Unitarians . South Australia also had thousands of Prussian Old Lutheran immigrants, some of whom established their own form of Lutheranism. As a result, the Lutheran Church of Australia remains separate from
6723-470: Was to be religious freedom and no established religion. Sales of land to colonists created an Emigration Fund to pay the costs of transferring a poor young labouring population to South Australia. In early 1838 the colonists became concerned after it was reported that convicts who had escaped from the eastern states may make their way to South Australia. The South Australia Police was formed in April 1838 to protect
6806-559: Was upgraded to AAA by Standard & Poor's in September 2004 and to AAA by Moody's in November 2004, the highest credit ratings achievable by any company or sovereign. The state had previously lost these ratings in the State Bank collapse. However, in 2012 Standard & Poor's downgraded the state's credit rating to AA+ due to declining revenues, new spending initiatives and a weaker than expected budgetary outlook. South Australia receives
6889-769: Was −8.2 °C (17.2 °F) at Yongala on 20 July 1976. The region's overall dry weather is owed to the Australian High on the Great Australian Bight. As of 2016, South Australia had 746,105 people employed out of a total workforce of 806,593, giving an unemployment rate of 7.5%. South Australia's largest employment sector is health care and social assistance, making up 14.8% of the state's total employment, followed by retail (10.7%), education and training (8.6%), manufacturing (8%), and construction (7.6%). South Australia's economy relies on exports more than any other state in Australia. South Australia's credit rating
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