Adelaid

The South Australian Agricultural Society was formed in 1839, three years after the arrival of the first European settlers, ‘for the advancement of agricultural and pastoral knowledge, and to promote the development of the natural resources of our noble colony’. The society held its first produce show in the grounds of a Grenfell Street hotel in 1840 and the first livestock show followed in Hindley Street in 1843. The society merged with a horticultural organisation in 1844 and staged the genesis of today’s show in the same year in Botanic Park, drawing nearly 1200 paying patrons to see John Ridley’s historic reaping machine and the first exhibit of local beer.