SAPlanned settlement
Elizabeth
A whole town built from scratch for factory workers and migrants.
1955New town opened by the Premier
WHAT STARTED IT
In 1950 the State Government chose farmland between Salisbury and Smithfield for a new satellite town to house workers for growing industry and migrants. The site lay on the railway and main road north of Adelaide, with land set aside for factories.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Premier Thomas Playford opened the town on 16 November 1955, named with the Queen’s consent after Elizabeth II, and the first tenants received their keys the next day. The South Australian Housing Trust built quickly: by early 1958 about 2,000 houses held almost 8,000 people, and General Motors-Holden had taken 235 acres for a body plant.
TURNING POINTS
1955Premier Playford opens Elizabeth on 16 November; the first tenants get their keys the next day.
1957The Hotel Elizabeth opens in August, the first building in the new town centre.
1958About 2,000 houses are finished, the population nears 8,000 and Holden plans a body plant.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
The suburb of Elizabeth, around the town centre, had about 1,000 residents in 2021. It remains the hub of a much larger northern district of Housing Trust neighbourhoods built in the 1950s and 1960s.