Conservation treatment of Colonel William Light's plan of Adelaide circa February 1837

Some background

Artlab Australia was pleased to be engaged by the Migration Museum, Adelaide, a division of the History Trust of South Australia, to undertake the treatment of the Colonel William Lights' original hand drawn map showing the layout of the city of Adelaide.

Light and his party landed on an island off the coast of South Australia which was subsequently named Kangaroo Island in August 1836. After only a few weeks, the lack of fresh water and arable land on Kangaroo Island led to parties being despatched to the mainland aboard "The Rapid" which landed at Rapid Bay just south of the current site of Adelaide. Over the following months there was great debate over the the site of Adelaide, with various locations such as Encounter Bay, Port Noarlunga and Port Lincoln being championed by several parties.

The availability of fresh water via the River Torrens (Yatala) and the proximity to a harbour at Barker Inlet (later to be known facetiously as "Port Misery"...), led Light to settle on the site of Adelaide on the Kaurna Plains and survey work began on January 11, 1837. His choice was ratified at a public meeting in a tent, on February 10, 1837.

The task of putting Light's vision to paper was given to Robert Thomas, a fifteen year old draughtsman who travelled with his family. Robert used watercolour and ink to create the drawing, which in its current state measures approximately 1600mm X 1200mm. The first selectors of land chose their town acres from the plan. It shows the numbered sections and Light's positioning of Government House, the Barracks, the Church of England cathedral, the hospital, racecourse and cemetery.

Over the years that followed, the map came into the possession of the South Australian Lands Department eventually coming to the History Trust in 1986 via the Historical relics collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

With no doubt, well meaning intention, layers of varnish were applied to the map over its history, perhaps to saturate the colours, perhaps in an effort to preserve it... Also, we believe that at some point 2-3 cms were trimmed of the map's border, perhaps to accommodate a particular frame......!!

The conservation team

The Light Plan conservation team was led by Vicky Humphrey , now at the British library and included Fred Francisco , Anthony Zammit , Anne Dineen , Jodie Proud , with treatment photography by Elizabeth Murphy.

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