How the Royal Adelaide Show used to look

ADELAIDE’S first Royal Show was staged in 1840, just four years after colonisation — and it’s changed greatly. Here’s how it used to look.

Circa 1950s — People walk past the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.

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JUDGES will sort the sheep from the goats and fabulous sponges from the flops next week.

Almost as importantly, operators will start spinning rides and fairy floss when the gates to the Royal Adelaide Show open on Friday, September 2.

The first Show was staged in 1840 — just four years after colonisation — by the South Australian Agricultural Society, which is now the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA.

It lays claim to being the second-oldest organisation in the state, after the SA Police.

The society was formed in 1839 “for the advancement of agricultural and pastoral knowledge and to promote the development of the natural resources of our noble Colony’’.

The 1840 Show was staged in the yards of a Grenfell St hotel and featured vegetables, cereals, cheese, wool and leather.

While farmers occupied themselves with livestock and grains, the wives were vying for best jam or needlework.

By 1867, when Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited to open the Show, entries even included sausage machines, baking powder, drain pipes and airtight coffins.

Showbags and Mad Mouse rides were a long way off but there were amusements such as maypoles, games of skittles and catching a greasy pig.

The Show moved from Grenfell to Hindley St, to Botanic Park, to North Tce and finally to Wayville, in 1925.

Date unknown — Children enjoy their showbags.

Showbags were introduced as free sample bags around 1926 and the hair-raising Mad Max ride was built in 1963.

In 1969, Queen Elizabeth II confirmed the society’s entitlement to the “Royal” prefix and in 2006, the Show was added to Bank SA’s Heritage Icon list.

The Show will run from Friday, September 2, to Sunday, September 11, at the Adelaide Showground, Wayville.

1965 — Adrian Barker, 6, of Victoria with family dog Jessica, a Basengi.

1970 — Jeffrey Brooks, 7, of Unley, happy with a large collection of bags.

1969 — Zane Mellow, 4, of Pooraka, gets a ride on his dad William’s shoulders.

1964 — Steward Mrs. R. Shepperd looks on while judge Mrs. N. Matheson inspects a jam tart from the junior cookery entries in the Royal Show Handicraft Pavilion.

1963 — Gail Bateup and Mrs Murray Reed, ride on the new Mad Mouse ride.

1963 — Michael Gogler, 4, of Westbourne Park, struggles with the heavy sledge in an attempt to ring the bell

1962 — Edwin Jacobs, 9, and his sister Meredith, 7, sit on a tractor eating toffee apples.

1962 — Special stud Merino rams, which brought a total price of 24,500 guineas (about $6.8 million today), with J. Murray, R. and A.L. Collins, K.G. Cook, R.C. Duncan and Mr Max Rayner.

1899 — Horse-drawn carriages gathered at the Jubilee Oval on North Terrace, for the Royal Show.

1846 — An artist’s impression of the Royal Agriculture and Horticulture Society's South Australian Autumn Show.

1928 — The produce exhibition in the Orient Line Jubilee export apples competition.

Royal Adelaide Show, 1953. 30,000 people gathered in the grandstands.

1843 — An artist’s impression of the first tent show staged in 1843 in Botanic Park, on the east side of Frome Road.

Date unknown — Tired children wait with their showbags.