This site is a unique resource which is continually evolving. In 2016 Joelie Hancock was intrigued by Institute buildings she spotted around South Australia (SA). She wanted to know who funded them and why. The answers inspired her to find and document
In June 1856 the South Australian Institute Act was established to ‘promote the general study and cultivation of all or any of the various branches of . . . art, science, literature and philosophy’ in the colony. In that year two institutes
Until last month Ken and I had some unresolved issues about the Kincraig and Naracoorte Institutes. We knew that the Kincraig Institute began in 1864 and in 1909 its ‘merging’ with the Naracoorte Institute was reported in several newspapers and an SA
A visiting clergyman sowed the seed for an institute in Mount Gambier in 1862. The idea quickly took off in the form of lectures, a library, fund raising and a temporary building. Next came a government grant for a Mount Gambier Institute
Paddle steamers opened up the Murray River in the 1850s – to farmers, traders and families. Where there are families we find communities that need a place to meet, socialise and improve themselves. And so Institutes were formed along the Murray. At
In country towns institute buildings have been the heart of their communities – for meetings, council offices, dances, performances, government elections, picture shows, church services and concerts. Peter McFarlane relates an incident from 1962 when Minlaton Town Hall was used as a
Our road trip to visit 34 Institute buildings in the Mid North was for three days this May, which happens to be History Month. We got to 32 of them – missing the turn-offs to Gulnare on our way north on the
My research into SA Institutes continues and occasionally surprises me. Recently I came across reports of the North Adelaide Institute giving prizes of books in the 1950s to students at the North Adelaide Primary School. I could see that giving library subscription
Whether it’s sharing cross-word clues in the library, cheering on the local boxer, learning to sew, discovering talent, a family reunion, or catering for a centenary celebration, Institutes spark treasured memories. The four Personal Stories here come from suburban Clarence Park, Minlaton
In the first year of the SA Institute (1856) there was a request for the Institute libraries to supply books in the German language. When three years later the Institutes could subscribe to circulating boxes of books, German books were also offered
A drive back from Port Fairy this October was a chance to visit some former Institutes and alert them to the website. We stopped at buildings in nine towns: Mount Gambier, Millicent, Rendelsham, Beachport, Robe, Kingston, Meningie, Tailem Bend and Monteith. The