Corporate Body

South Australian Department of Mines (1894 - 1977)

Colony and State of South Australia

From
1894
To
1977
Functions
Mineralogy or Mining and Regulatory Body
Reference No
State Records of South Australia ID: GA74

Summary

The Department of Mines was officially established in 1894 and can trace its roots back to a Colonial South Australian Government geological survey in the 1880s and the 1890 Royal Commission on mining (O'Neil, 1983). The Commission recommended the establishment of a Government Department to regulate and invigorate the mining industry in South Australia. The Department was officially formed in 1894 in response to, according to Bernard O'Neil's 1983 thesis page 95, "drought and economic recession in the 1880s and where private enterprise had failed to locate new deposits of water and minerals". In 1977 the title of the Department was changed to the Department of Mines and Energy (1977 - 1997) reflecting its increasing focus on finite energy resources such as uranium, coal and oil.

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Timeline

 1894 - 1977 South Australian Department of Mines
       1977 - 1997 South Australian Department of Mines and Energy
             1997 - 2011 Department for Primary Industries and Resources South Australia
                   2002 - 2010 South Australian Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation
                   2011 - Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA
                         2010 - 2012 South Australian Department for Water
                         2010 - 2012 South Australian Department of Environment and Natural Resources [II]
                               2012 - 2018 South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
                               2012 - 2018 South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
                                     2018 - South Australian Department for Environment and Water

Related People

Published resources

Books

  • O'Neil, Bernard, In Search of Mineral Wealth: the South Australian Geological Survey and Department of Mines to 1944 (Adelaide: South Australian Department of Mines and Energy, 1982), 359 pp. Details

Resource Sections

Elizabeth Daniels

Created: 5 November 2019, Last modified: 8 November 2019

EOAS ID: biogs/P006678b.htm

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