On the 19th of February 1836 the Province of South Australia was established by Letters Patent:
” . . . It is Enacted that it shall and may be lawful for Us with the Advice of our Privy Council to erect within that part of Australia which lies between the Meridians of the one hundred and thirty second and one hundred and forty first Degrees of East Longitude and between the Southern Ocean and the twenty-six Degrees of South Latitude together with all and every the Islands adjacent thereto and the Bays and Gulfs thereof with the advice of our Privy Council to Establish one or more Provinces and to fix the respective Boundaries of such Provinces Now Know Ye that with the advice of Our Privy Council and in pursuance and exercise of the powers in Us in that behalf vested by the said recited Act of Parliament We do hereby Erect and Establish one Province to be called the Province of South Australia – And we do hereby fix the Boundaries of the said Province in the manner following (that is to say) On the North the twenty sixth Degree of South Latitude On the South the Southern Ocean – On the West the one hundred and thirty second Degree of East Longitude – And on the East the one hundred and forty first Degree of East Longitude including therein all and every the Bays and Gulfs thereof together with the Island Called Kangaroo Island and all an every the Islands adjacent to the said last mentioned Island or to that part of the main Land of the said Province Provided Always that nothing in those our Letters Patent contained shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Native In Witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patent Witness Ourself at Westminster the Nineteenth day of February in the sixth year of our Reign. . . “
It is interesting to note, however, that the South Australian western border lies exactly half way between original border of New South Wales and New Holland (proclaimed in 1788) at longitude 135o E, and, the relocated border to longitude 129o E (proclaimed in 1829).
Perhaps it is just a sheer coincidence that the longitude of 132o E is exactly half way between the original and the relocated longitudes ?? . . .
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View other important events in South Australia’s History . . .
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