A highly readable and enjoyable, historical overview of the Governors of South Australia.
Philip Payton is the author and/or editor of 60+ books, ranging from a biography of the poet laureate John Betjeman to works on Australian and Cornish history, to specialist interest books on mining and naval matters. He is Professor of History at Flinders University and Emeritus Professor of Australian and Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter in England. In Vice-Regal, Payton uses all these considerable skills in research and writing to produce a fascinating, enjoyable and highly readable account of the Governors of South Australia. The sections on individual governors vary in length due, at least in part, to the disparate group of people represented here, the times in which they served and whether they used the opportunities of the office to influence/improve the lives of South Australians.
The first chapter provides the reader with an insight into the role of South Australia’s governors, highlighting how the role has changed over the years since settlement in 1836 and providing some background into the difficulties early governors experienced when the role was less clearly defined. Subsequent chapters introduce us to the individual personalities as well as the official side of administrations.
Our first governor, John Hindmarsh was a distinguished naval officer who had fought in the Battle of the Nile against Napoleon. However, he was less successful in balancing the competing interests in the new colony and was soon recalled. The new governor, George Gawler (1838-1841) was also a military man and he too had seen distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars. He also had an advantage over Hindmarsh in that the roles and authority of the Governor and the Resident Commissioner had been clarified by statute passed in the British Parliament.
Payton is even-handed and impartial in describing each successive governor so we see how their backgrounds and previous experience may have helped or hindered their progress in the role. The author situates the individual governor’s stories within the larger tale of the development of South Australia—in particular, how the role of the governor was changed by having a representative, elected government in the state. While wider representation for the people was a necessary step on the way to statehood, it also resulted in further clashes between the elected government and vice-regal representatives. Although it was 1968 before an Australian-born appointee became Governor, in the years since then South Australia has led the nation in appointments which reflect the diversity of the Australian population, except for the issue of gender where the current governor is only the third female in the role.
Wakefield Press has, as always, produced a fine edition of Payton’s vice-regal history. It may seem a minor point, but I particularly liked the weight and finish of the paper and the inclusion of photographs and drawings, from the earliest days of settlement to the interior of today’s Government House. The book is a wonderful introduction to the history of the individuals, the role of the governor and wider South Australia political history. For those interested in future reading on the topic, a comprehensive Notes and References section and an Index is provided at the end of the book.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
Distributed by: Wakefield Press
Released: October 2021
RRP: $39.95
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