Events Calendar
To keep our staff and customers safe we will continue to follow the physical distancing, building capacity limits and increased hygiene practises outlined by the State Government in their roadmap to recovery. When entering the library please make sure you sanitise your hands at the sanitiser stations provided. Bookings are essential and you will also need to complete a Contact Tracing Form so we can undertake tracing if needed. You can download the Contact Tracing Form to complete and bring with you when you attend the event.
A TUESDAY TALK - BOOKS IN MY LIFE
In partnership with the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: David Donaldson
Tuesday 2 February 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
In partnership with the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: David Donaldson
Tuesday 2 February 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library

From a family that never went to the cinema, and had resisted acquiring a radio, David Donaldson 'fell into film' while at Sydney University.
David Donaldson was a NSW country boy who in Arts at Sydney University was much influenced by HW Arndt and John Anderson. Enlightened by Roger Manvell's powerful Penguin, Film, he found himself inaugural director of Sydney Film Festival.
David came to South Australia at the opening of what became TAFE after work with Administrative College in Papua New Guinea.
He has held offices in the Australian Council of Film Societies (1953-60), Australian Film Institute (1958-1974) and National Film Theatre of Australia (1972), and was a foundation member of Media Resource Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. Of all film directors, he admires John Ford, Leni Riefenstahl, John Heyer and Cecil Holmes. While having engaged with digital, he appreciates more the visual qualities of celluloid film.
His current interest is Peerless Films whose studio was at Beaumont.
David Donaldson was a NSW country boy who in Arts at Sydney University was much influenced by HW Arndt and John Anderson. Enlightened by Roger Manvell's powerful Penguin, Film, he found himself inaugural director of Sydney Film Festival.
David came to South Australia at the opening of what became TAFE after work with Administrative College in Papua New Guinea.
He has held offices in the Australian Council of Film Societies (1953-60), Australian Film Institute (1958-1974) and National Film Theatre of Australia (1972), and was a foundation member of Media Resource Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. Of all film directors, he admires John Ford, Leni Riefenstahl, John Heyer and Cecil Holmes. While having engaged with digital, he appreciates more the visual qualities of celluloid film.
His current interest is Peerless Films whose studio was at Beaumont.
LIVE & LEARN - RESEARCHING YOUR LOCALITY
In partnership with the The Friends of the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Carolyn Spooner
Tuesday 16 February 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
In partnership with the The Friends of the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Carolyn Spooner
Tuesday 16 February 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library

Every place in South Australia has a story to tell, you just need to know where to look. Community Engagement Librarian Carolyn Spooner will take you through the range of resources in the State Library of South Australia, many online, that can assist you in researching the locality you are interested in.
In the Family History Collection, the Sands and MacDougall postal directories from the late 1800s up to 1973 give the name and sometimes the occupation of householders street-by-street and house-by-house in suburban Adelaide. A picture tells the best story and you will discover a quick way to view images of your locality among more than 250,000 photographs of South Australia in our Pictorial Collection.
In the Map Collection are early town plans and Hundreds maps in country areas. In the Archival Collection are a series of property valuations and house plans submitted by Bullock & Wilkinson to the State Bank for insurance purposes from 1888 to 1912. There are also some 2,000 maps prepared by real estate agents and auctioneers Shuttleworth & Letchford showing places for auction from 1850 to 1920.
Other resources such as local histories, building magazines, newspapers, oral histories, government gazettes and ephemera, can all build up a picture of your locality for your family history or a new project.
Image: George and Mary Smith with Ella Pwinell at a house on View Street in Unley Park circa 1920. SLSA: PRG 1642/25/316
In the Family History Collection, the Sands and MacDougall postal directories from the late 1800s up to 1973 give the name and sometimes the occupation of householders street-by-street and house-by-house in suburban Adelaide. A picture tells the best story and you will discover a quick way to view images of your locality among more than 250,000 photographs of South Australia in our Pictorial Collection.
In the Map Collection are early town plans and Hundreds maps in country areas. In the Archival Collection are a series of property valuations and house plans submitted by Bullock & Wilkinson to the State Bank for insurance purposes from 1888 to 1912. There are also some 2,000 maps prepared by real estate agents and auctioneers Shuttleworth & Letchford showing places for auction from 1850 to 1920.
Other resources such as local histories, building magazines, newspapers, oral histories, government gazettes and ephemera, can all build up a picture of your locality for your family history or a new project.
Image: George and Mary Smith with Ella Pwinell at a house on View Street in Unley Park circa 1920. SLSA: PRG 1642/25/316
SHAKESPEARE NOW AND THEN
Presented by: Gillian Dooley, Garth Rowe, Graham Strahle
Saturday 20 February 2021 at 2.00pm
Cost: $20 Standard / $15 Concession
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
Presented by: Gillian Dooley, Garth Rowe, Graham Strahle
Saturday 20 February 2021 at 2.00pm
Cost: $20 Standard / $15 Concession
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
A varied program for voice, viola da gamba & recorder of music associated with Shakespeare. Included are songs by Renaissance musicians Robert Johnson and Thomas Morley which were probably performed when the plays were first staged, and compositions for 17th and 18th-century adaptations of 'The Tempest' by Henry Purcell and others. The vast range of music inspired by Shakespeare's poetry and plays through the centuries shows Shakespeare's enduring appeal. We will include arrangements of songs by later composers such as Haydn, Vaughan Williams, Margaret Sutherland, Dorian Le Gallienne, Eric Gross and Adelaide's Chester Schultz. We are also looking forward to presenting the world premiere of new settings of 3 sonnets by Canberra composer Michael Dooley especially commissioned for the group.
A TUESDAY TALK - BOOKS IN MY LIFE
In partnership with the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Patricia Sumerling
Tuesday 2 March 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
In partnership with the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Patricia Sumerling
Tuesday 2 March 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library

Patricia Sumerling is co-author of the landmark publication Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide, 1990, and the author of The Adelaide Park Lands: A Social History, 2011. She is the author of Elephants and Egotists: In Search of Samorn of the Adelaide Zoo, 2016, and debuted as a novelist in 2010 with the historical crime mystery The Noon Lady of Towitta. Having a long term interest in hotels, her first book on them was Down at the Local: A history of Hotels in Kensington, Kent Town and Norwood. Now completing one on pubs of the city, this is part of a larger project of a social history of the pubs of South Australia.
Image: Patricia Sumerling, 2018. SLSA: B 76803. Jenny Scott, photographer
Image: Patricia Sumerling, 2018. SLSA: B 76803. Jenny Scott, photographer
LIVE & LEARN -
AN EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY:
THE CLARKS OF HAZELWOOD PARK
In partnership with the The Friends of the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Carolyn Spooner
Tuesday 16 March 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library
AN EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY:
THE CLARKS OF HAZELWOOD PARK
In partnership with the The Friends of the State Library of South Australia
Speaker: Carolyn Spooner
Tuesday 16 March 2021 at 11.00am
Cost: FREE
Hetzel Theatre, Institute Building, State Library

Francis and Caroline Clark with their eight surviving children emigrated to South Australia on the Fatima in 1850. The State Library holds the family archive, including the shipboard diaries kept by Francis and by his son John Howard, who went on edit the South Australian Register and was a board member of the South Australian Institute, forerunner of the State Library.
Daughter Caroline Emily founded the Boarding-Out system and her long reminiscences cover her life up to 1911. Son Henry Septimus was the gardener of the family and planted the first vines of Stonyfell Winery. Another son and amateur naturalist Matthew Symonds kept bird observation notebooks in the Burnside district from 1859 to 1919 which provide an invaluable historical perspective. The first of these notebooks has been transcribed by a State Library volunteer.
The other children all made useful contributions to the life of the social and business community, culminating in Hazelwood Park becoming a community asset in perpetuity.
Image: Ellen Rosa Clark and her brother Henry Septimus circa 1862. SLSA: PRG 331/30/2/29
Daughter Caroline Emily founded the Boarding-Out system and her long reminiscences cover her life up to 1911. Son Henry Septimus was the gardener of the family and planted the first vines of Stonyfell Winery. Another son and amateur naturalist Matthew Symonds kept bird observation notebooks in the Burnside district from 1859 to 1919 which provide an invaluable historical perspective. The first of these notebooks has been transcribed by a State Library volunteer.
The other children all made useful contributions to the life of the social and business community, culminating in Hazelwood Park becoming a community asset in perpetuity.
Image: Ellen Rosa Clark and her brother Henry Septimus circa 1862. SLSA: PRG 331/30/2/29