Commenting on Notes on Adelaide: Adelaide can’t allow this treasure to crumble away 

I happened to see David Washington’s eloquent plea on behalf of Edmund Wright House in the midst of correcting proofs for a revised and updated second edition of the  Wakefield Companion to South Australian History.

First published in 2001, this one-volume historical encyclopedia contains numerous brief biographical entries on famous, notable and notorious persons connected with this state and previous colony, mostly Dr Carol Fort’s unsigned but impressive work. 

Her memoir of Edmund William Wright (1824-1888) records that after training as a civil engineer and architect, Wright ‘worked in several countries before designing Adelaide’s most important civic buildings’, including the town hall, general post office and original section of Parliament House, churches and private homes.

The sculptor John Dowie termed Wright ‘Adelaide’s Christopher Wren’, not least for his design of the Renaissance-fronted structure on King William Street which housed the former Bank of South Australia.

This was renamed ‘Edmund Wright House’ in 1971, after a public appeal to save that remarkable building from demolition raised $250,000, convincing the then state government to buy and restore it.

How extraordinary  that, half a century later, another state government decided to reverse that process, leaving the fate of this architectural gem to the vagaries of the property market.

It is more than past time for the present ALP government to resume its former pioneering role in built heritage conservation: Edmund Wright House would be a most appropriate place to start. -Wilfrid Prest

Commenting on the story: SA history body weighs into SA Museum debate

In response to comments made by HCSA President Professor Matthew Fitzpatrick, I would like to point out the Open Letter in The Advertiser (10 April 2024) concerned staff cuts and downgrading of staff roles in Research and Collections; it was not addressing the exhibitions, whether one regards them as ‘embarrassingly antiquated’ or not.

The Open Letter has at last brought the Museum’s plight to the public’s attention and was necessary because individual submissions to the Minister were being responded to with a standard letter written in hollow marketing spin, saying that all will be well, and effectively dismissing any concerns.

Professor Fitzpatrick talks about ‘the modernisation of [the SA Museum’s] practices’. Has he discussed collection management and research practices with the Research & Collections staff? If he does, I expect he will find they are keeping pretty much up to date, within the constraints of limited budgets.

Is he aware of how damaging the proposed restructure would be? How does he think the proposed three collection managers can adequately look after 4.5 to 5 million zoological specimens? I am told that there are currently 9 and should be 11 collection managers for the zoological collections; reducing them to 3 is unthinkable.

Fitzpatrick’s comment that without renewal the Museum would ‘continue its insular irrelevance’ shows ignorance of and contempt for the institution and its world-class endeavours. – Clare Bourne

Commenting on the story: National Trust to come home to Ayers House

The formal announcement of the return of the National Trust to Ayers House is overdue but very welcome.

On 10 June 2021, David Speirs, the then relevant Minister, moved to summarily evict the Trust from its 50 year stewardship of Ayers House and Museum. His government’s intention was to convert this state heritage building to offices, function rooms and catering facilities for the History Trust, a statutory government agency, and to use it for government activities which would capitalise on the commercial opportunities and politicised status symbolism of its proximity to Lot 14.

None of this could justify or excuse the evisceration of Ayers House, tarnishing its cultural heritage status and sacrificing its historically iconic museum. So now, the House and Museum will be rescued from potential neglect, renovated and restored, cared for in perpetuity by the National Trust, and, once again, opened to the public. – Warren Jones