| 1827 |
Edward Gibbon Wakefield sentenced to three years in gaol. Plans model colony. |
| 1836 |
Governor Hindmarsh reads Proclamation announcing the establishment of Provincial Government. |
| 1838 |
First Lutheran service in Australia held at Port Adelaide. |
| 1838 |
South Australian Police force created - first in Australia. |
| 1839 |
Catherine Helen Spence arrives in South Australia aged 14. |
| 1840 |
City of Adelaide is the first elected town council in Australia. |
| 1844 |
First Australian colony to accept evidence from Aborigines in courts of law. |
| 1851 |
First colony in the British Empire to end state aid to religion. |
| 1856 |
South Australian Constitution Act establishes self government in the Province, the first in Australia to provide for manhood suffrage. |
| 1856 |
First Australian colony to reject plural voting (more than one vote) in upper and lower house elections. |
| 1856 |
First Australian colony to introduce male adult suffrage for parliamentary elections. |
| 1858 |
The Real Property Act introduced a new method of registering the ownership of land, the Torrens Title, which was subsequently copied internationally. |
| 1876 |
First territory of the British Empire, outside of Britain, to legalize trade unions. |
| 1876 |
Women property owners gain the right to vote in District Councils. |
| 1879 |
The Advanced School for Girls opened. first secondary school for girls in Australia. |
| 1881 |
The University of Adelaide first in Australia to admit women to degrees. |
| 1881 |
South Australian Public Trustee Office created, first in Australia. |
| 1888 |
Women's Suffrage League established. |
| 1889 |
Working Women's Trade Union established. |
| 1890 |
The first juvenile court in Australia established in Adelaide. |
| 1891 |
United Labor Party formed, the first 'labour party' in Australia. |
| 1895 |
First Australian Colony to grant women the vote, following the gaining of Royal Assent to the Constitution Amendment Act 1894. |
| 1895 |
First government in the world to allow women to stand for parliament. |
| 1895 |
Auguste Zadow appointed first female factory inspector in South Australia. |
| 1895 |
Catherine Helen Spence appointed to Commission of Enquiry into the Adelaide Hospital - first woman in Australia to participate in a government commission. |
| 1897 |
Catherine Helen Spence stands for election to the Constitutional Convention for Federation, first woman political candidate in Australia. |
| 1897 |
Blanche McNamara appointed Inspector of Schools, first woman School Inspector in Australia. |
| 1905 |
Sense about sex by a woman doctor' (Dr Rosamund Taylor) published in Adelaide. |
| 1909 |
Women's Non-Party Political Association (forerunner of League of Woman Voters) formed. |
| 1910 |
Verran government World's first all Labor Ministry. |
| 1915 |
Kate Cocks and Annie Ross appointed first women police, the first women in the British Empire appointed on equal terms with male officers. |
| 1919 |
Susan Benny elected to Brighton Council, the first woman to enter local government in Australia. |
| 1920 |
Archives Department of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery opened, the first public archives in Australia. |
| 1927 |
Winifred Kiek the first woman ordained into the Christian ministry in Australia. |
| 1929 |
David Unaipon's booklet Native Legends the first Australian publication by an indigenous Australian author. |
| 1936 |
The South Australian Housing Trust founded, the first public housing authority in Australia. |
| 1939 |
'The silver wing and other poems' by Ellinor Walker published. |
| 1965 |
Gladys Elphick, Maude Tongerie and Lowitja O'Donaghue found the Aboriginal Women's Council. |
| 1965 |
State Industrial Court decision to implement of equal pay for female teachers. |
| 1965 |
Roma Mitchell appointed to Supreme Court of South Australia, first woman appointed to a superior court. |
| 1966 |
The Prohibition of Discrimination Act prohibiting racial discrimination assented to, first in Australia. |
| 1966 |
The Aboriginal Lands Trust Act passed to provide for Aboriginal people to hold title to existing Aboriginal Reserves, first in Australia. |
| 1970 |
First Australian State to legalize abortion in certain circumstances under the provisions of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act Amendment Act 1969. |
| 1972 |
Women's Electoral Lobby formed. |
| 1975 |
The legal consequences of illegitimacy were abolished by the Family Relationships Act 1975; first state government to do so. |
| 1975 |
First Australian State to decriminalize homosexual relations between consenting male adults in private. |
| 1976 |
Sir Douglas Nicholls appointed South Australian Governor, first Aboriginal Governor in Australia. |
| 1976 |
Racial Discrimination Act makes discrimination on the grounds of race unlawful. |
| 1976 |
Rape in marriage made a criminal offence, first in the English-speaking world. |
| 1976 |
Government establishes Women's Advisors Office in Premier's Department, first state government to do so. |
| 1976 |
Women's Information Switchboard established. |
| 1976 |
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was proclaimed, making discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status in employment, education, accommodation and the provision of goods and services unlawful; the first such Act in Australia. |
| 1976 |
The Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act grants the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjarra People title to 100,000 square kilometres of their traditional lands. |
| 1980 |
Robin Millhouse introduces a bill for an Act to give effect to the recommendations of the select Committee of Inquiry into Prostitution. |
| 1986 |
South Australian Senator Janine Haines elected leader of the Australian Democrats, first woman to lead a political party in the Federal Parliament. |
| 1986 |
Prostitutes Association of South Australia (PASA) formed. |
| 1991 |
First Australian state to make discrimination based on age unlawful. |
| 1991 |
Dame Roma Mitchell appointed Governor, first woman Governor of an Australian state. |
