Adelaide Local Court (GA1943)

In June 1850 the 'Resident Magistrate's Act 1837' was repealed and replaced by the 'Local Courts Act 1850'. The Local Court of Adelaide and the Court of Insolvency came into existence. A Resident Magistrate, Mr Henry R. Wigley SM was appointed to preside over the Local Court and also appointed Commissioner of Insolvency. For twelve months the court sat in a building in Gilles Arcade, not far from the site of the Queen's Theatre which still exists.

At this time a new Post Office building was in the course of erection on the corner of Franklin and King William Street. It was to house the Magistrates Court, a Police Station and Post Office. Its completion was delayed and the Magistrate was without a court. He sat wherever he could, at times in the new Supreme Court building (the Queen's Theatre proper that eventually became the Magistrates Court Building in Victoria Square), at times in rooms in the Prince of Wales Hotel (two doors east of the former Police Building in Angas Street, now the site of the federal court building). At this time the Police Court sat in the Native School, Kintore Avenue (later the Destitute Asylum and now the Migration Museum). The Local Court and the Police Court moved into the old Post Office building in August 1851.

After only 15 years, the Post Office building was found to be too small. It was demolished in order for the current General Post Office building to be built.

Plans were then put in train to build a permanent home for the Magistrates Court on the corner of King William and Gouger Streets (the current site of the Supreme Court). For a period the court sat at a variety of locations including the Town Hall building, and a new Government building that had been erected on the corner of King William Street and Flinders Street (now in an extended form, the Old Treasury Building).

The Local Court and Court of Insolvency (the present Supreme Court building) was completed in February 1869 at a cost of 18 000 pounds. The Local Court occupied that building until 1873 when it exchanged locations with the Supreme Court. The Local Court occupied this heritage building until 1891, in which year it exchanged locations with the Police Court.

The Local Court did not have a permanent, purpose built building once it left the bluestone building on King William Street. In 1961 it occupied the old Industrial Court building on King William Street (since demolished). It had its administrative headquarters in the Old Supreme Court Hotel (now Jeffcott Chambers). In 1983 it, with the newly created District Court, moved into the Sir Samuel Way building. With the growth of the District Court, the Magistrates Court (Civil) then moved to the 16th floor of the Education building at 31 Flinders Street.

Although the criminal business of the Resident Magistrate's Court was gradually taken over by the Police Commissioner from 1844, the Local Courts continued to exercise criminal jurisdiction until 1865, when this jurisdiction was completely exercised by police courts.

Local Courts had two divisions, the Court of Full Jurisdiction and the Court of Limited Jurisdiction, and were regionalised with major community centres each having a separate Local Court. The Judicial Officers of the full jurisdiction were higher status judges, and Magistrates did the judicial work of the limited jurisdiction. The Local Courts Act proclaimed that Local Courts were courts of record that provided for the maintenance of a seal, a Record Book, Minute Book, Plaint Book and Register of Transferred Judgements and Orders, and the treatment of certain records.

In the 1920s two Acts were passed which affected the structure of the Local Courts for the next 60 years. In 1921 the 'Justices Act 1921' was passed, and in 1928 the legislation controlling the Local Courts was superseded by the 'Local [and District] Courts Act 1926', which amongst other changes, withdrew all criminal jurisdiction from Local Courts, and thereafter criminal and civil jurisdiction of magistrates were exercised separately.

A raft of legislation in 1991, which came into effect on 6 July 1992, constituted the Magistrates Court. The 'Magistrates Courts Act 1991' established for the first time in South Australia a unified Magistrates Court with State-wide jurisdiction. It replaced, in relation to the criminal jurisdiction, the anachronistic system of courts of summary jurisdiction that were separately constituted each time a Magistrate or two Justices of the Peace took their seats on the Bench. On the civil side it replaced the Local Courts created by the 'Local [and District] Courts Act 1926'.

Related agencies providing administrative support:

by 1877-1918, Magistrates and Local Courts Department
1918-1966, Adelaide Police Court Department
1966-1970, Adelaide Magistrates Court
1970-1976, Local and District Criminal Courts Department
1977-1992, Courts Administration Division (GA 2020)