1800s
1830s
- 1836: South Australia proclaimed by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December at the Old Gum Tree, Glenelg.
- 1836: Site for Adelaide chosen by Colonel William Light beside the River Torrens.
- 1837: Colonel Light completes survey of Adelaide city centre and designs the city's grid layout. Allotments of 1 acre (0.40 ha) are made.
- 1837: First regional settlement, later named Gawler, is founded north of Adelaide.
- 1837: Adelaide's first hospital opens on North Terrace.
- 1838: South Australia Company institutes "Special Survey" to encourage wealthy pastoralists.
- 1838: The first Australian police force is formed in Adelaide, the South Australia Police.
- 1838: Overlanders Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney arrive in Adelaide from New South Wales with 300 head of cattle.
- 1838: First German immigrants arrive and settle in Adelaide and surrounds.
- 1838: Governor George Gawler arrives.
- 1839: Colonel Light dies at Thebarton and is interred in Light Square beneath a memorial. He is the only person buried within "the square mile".
- 1839: The first road in South Australia, Port Road, is opened.
- 1839: Edward John Eyre begins his explorations of the Flinders Ranges and beyond.
- 1839: Gawler township is established.
1840s
- 1840: The first portion of Government House is completed, becoming the first in Australia.
- 1840: Royal Adelaide Show held for the first time.
- 1840: The Corporation of Adelaide is founded, the first municipal authority in Australia.
- 1840: Maria wrecked on Coorong and survivors massacred. Gawler orders punitive expedition.
- 1841: Construction of Adelaide Gaol begins.
- 1841: Adelaide Hospital (later Royal) opened.
- 1841: Governor George Grey arrives to replace Gawler.
- 1842: Copper is discovered at Kapunda.
- 1843: The first Legislative Council building opens on North Terrace.
- 1844: The colonial Government takes control of the Corporation of Adelaide.
- 1845: Copper is discovered at Burra.
- 1845: Port Pirie founded on the upper Spencer Gulf.
- 1846: John Ainsworth Horrocks dies while exploring land to the northwest of Lake Torrens.
- 1847: St Peter's College established.
- 1848: Pulteney Grammar School established.
1850s
- 1850: The forerunner to Harris Scarfe, G. P. Harris and J. C. Lanyon, opened on Hindley Street.
- 1852: The Corporation of Adelaide is reconstituted. First transport of gold overland arrived in Adelaide.
- 1852: Adelaide Educational Institution opens in Ebenezer Place.
- 1854: The township of Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf is surveyed.
- 1854: The township of Gambierton, later Mount Gambier is founded in the South East.
- 1855: James Macgeorge lays telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
- 1855: Charles Todd, Astronomical and Meteorological Observer, arrives.
- 1856: The South Australian Institute, from which the State Library, State Museum and Art Gallery derived, is founded.
- 1856: Government telegraph line and steam railway between Adelaide and Port Adelaide opened.
- 1856: South Australia becomes one of the first places in the world to enact the Secret Ballot.
- 1857: Adelaide Botanic Garden opened at today's site in the Parklands at the corner of North and East Terraces.
- 1858: Melbourne–Adelaide telegraph line opened.
- 1858: The first edition of The Advertiser newspaper is published.
- 1859: A jetty of more than 350 metres in length is constructed at Glenelg.
- 1859: Shipwreck of SS Admella off Carpenter Rocks in the South East. 89 dead. Worst maritime disaster to this day.
1860s
- 1860: Thorndon Park Reservoir supplied water through new reticulation system.
- 1861: East Terrace markets opened.
- 1861: Copper discovered at Moonta, on the Yorke Peninsula.
- 1862: John McDouall Stuart successfully crosses the continent from north to south on his sixth attempt.
- 1863: First gas supplied to city.
- 1864–1867: Great drought
- 1865: Bank of Adelaide founded.
- 1866: Sisters of St Joseph founded by Saint Mary MacKillop in Penola to teach poor rural children.
- 1866: The Italianate Adelaide Town Hall opened.
- 1866: First oil exploration in Australia at Alfred Flat near Salt Creek, along the Coorong.
- 1867: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, made first royal visit to Adelaide.
- 1869: The City Market (later Central) opened on Grote Street.
- 1869: Prince Alfred College established.
1870s
- 1870: Port Adelaide Football Club established.
- 1871: South Australian Cricket Association is formed.
- 1872: General Post Office opened. Adelaide became first Australian capital linked to Imperial London with completion of the Overland Telegraph.
- 1873: First cricket match played at Adelaide Oval.
- 1874: Adelaide Oval is officially opened.
- 1874: University of Adelaide founded.
- 1874: Iron ore mined and smelted at Mount Jagged, then abandoned.
- 1875: Adelaide Steamship Company founded.
- 1876: Adelaide Children's Hospital founded.
- 1877: The Adelaide Bridge across the River Torrens completed.
- 1877: Copper mines at Burra and Kapunda close.
- 1878: First horse-drawn trams in Australia commence operations in the city.
- 1879: Foundation stone of the University of Adelaide laid.
- 1879: Advanced School for Girls founded; moves to Grote Street in 1881.
1880s
- 1880–1886 "seven years' drought"
- 1880: Telephone introduced in South Australia.
- 1880: Fort Glanville opens.
- 1880: Reformatory Hulk Fitzjames commissioned and moored off Largs Bay.
- 1881: The Art Gallery of South Australia opened by Prince Albert Victor.
- 1881: Torrens Lake created following the construction of weir.
- 1881: Coopers Brewery is established.
- 1881: Drought ruins thousands of farmers on marginal land in the Mid North and Goyder's Line is recognised as the limit to agricultural settlement.
- 1882: First water-borne sewerage service in Australia commenced.
- 1882: The City Baths opened on King William Road.
- 1883: Adelaide Zoological Gardens opened.
- 1884: Adelaide Trades and Labor Council inaugurated.
- 1884: Fort Largs opens.
- 1885: The Adelaide Arcade opens.
- 1886: Commercial Bank of South Australia fails in February.
- 1885: Flinders Column erected at the Mount Lofty Summit.
- 1887: The Overland train service between Adelaide and Melbourne commences.
- 1887: Stock Exchange of Adelaide forms.
- 1889: School of Mines and Industries opens on North Terrace.
- 1889: Lead smelters built at Port Pirie.
1890s
- 1891: The Central Australia Railway reaches Oodnadatta in the far north.
- 1892: First public statue, Venus (Venere Di Canova), unveiled on North Terrace.
- 1892: Following drop in share values, Bank of South Australia taken over by the Union Bank of Australia.
- 1894: Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894 , the world's second Act granting women suffrage and the first granting women the right to stand for parliament passed in Parliament House on North Terrace.
- 1896: Moving pictures shown for first time in South Australia at Theatre Royal on Hindley Street.
- 1896: Happy Valley Reservoir opened.
- 1896: Adelaide Hospital Board of Management sacked by the Government. The dysfunctional nature of the workplace came to a head when Edward Willis Way, no friend of Premier Kingston, was accused of nepotism.
- 1897: Constitutional Convention on Federation held in Adelaide.
- 1899: South Australian contingent leaves Adelaide for the Second Boer War.
- 1899: State Referendum on Federation: South Australia votes Yes (70.2%).
