The city of Elizabeth was established in 1955 as a deliberately planned satellite town 28 km north of Adelaide. It was established by the South Australian Housing Trust on 3000 acres (12 km²) of rural land between the older towns of Salisbury and Smithfield

Build your future in Elizabeth, South Australia - leaflet c 1960. Elizabeth (named after Queen Elizabeth II) was a purpose built new town, north of Adelaide, that was similar to the British 'New Towns' experiment - started in 1955 it was planned, with distrinct hausing and industrial centres, along with a town centre. This splendid leaflet, issued by the South Australian Housing Trust who developed the city, was designed to lure British emigrants to move here - it details the planned town, the new 'dream' homes and the industrial opportunities - this was to become the home of Holden General Motors, Phillips Electrical as well as Brisit Tube Mills (Australia). It was I suspect, in many ways part of the White Australian dream of the post war period. It now forms part of the City of Playford.

 

Make your home in Elizabeth' - leaflet issued by the South Australian Housing Trust, December 1960. A leaflet aimed firmly at the UK market and designed to show the houses available in the then 'new town' of Elizabeth, South Australia - and the cost! The houses range from A$3,650 to A$4,250 and the weekly repayment on a loan was £4.4.0

 

Elizabeth has residential suburbs (the earliest were Elizabeth South and Elizabeth North) each configured as a local community around a small shopping centre (each originally contained a supermarket, bank, hotel and service station along with other shops), as well as the larger shopping precinct in Elizabeth itself.

Major employers such as Holden and the Long Range Weapons Establishment (later Weapons Research Establishment (WRE), now DSTO) moved into the area, and migrants (especially English) were encouraged to settle in Elizabeth.

Above is the theatre in Elizabeth town centre call.

 

Elizabeth is now part of the City of Playford, the City of Elizabeth having merged with the City of Munno Para in 1997.

 

The Elizabeth City Centre shopping centre has been recently renovated and extended in 2004.

Above is my old Primary school (as it is in 2010) showing the OCT and Junionr Primary block