Dark Heritage: Wakefield, Parliament House, and the Housing Crisis in South Australia

Edward Gibbon Wakefield. I pass his commemorative bronze bust almost every day - a metal cast of Dark Heritage. This term stems from dark tourism studies associated with specific sites of death, tragedy, and disaster. More recently, the concept of Dark Heritage has expanded to include broader aspects of cultural heritage sites and artefacts associated with complex, contested, and negative histories.

So it is here where I suggest that we take the opportunity to contest the problematic plaque of Edward Gibbon Wakefield on Parliament House on North Terrace. Let me tell you why.

The plaque reads:

IN HONOUR OF

EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD

 1796 - 1862

THE AUTHOR OF THE SYSTEM OF

 LAND - SALES COLONIZATION UPON WHICH

 THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

 WAS FOUNDED FOR FREE SETTLERS

 WITH FREEHOLD LANDS AND RESULTANT

 SELF-GOVERNMENT.

 1952

The plaque highlights the idea that free settlers (South Australia was established as a colony for free British settlers, not convicts) with freehold lands (settlers were able to purchase land outright, rather than being granted land by the government) would result in self-government (land sales and free settlement was intended to lead to the colony becoming self-governing). 

When the bronze memorial plaque was unveiled, Governor Sir Willoughby Norrie said: “Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a warm-hearted man of great public spirit”. Whose public? The truth is that Edward Gibbon Wakefield abducted a 15-year-old heiress, Ellen Turner, and then tricked her into marrying him to gain access to her inheritance - his second attempt at abducting a wealthy heiress. Parliament annulled Wakefield’s second marriage, and he went to prison for three years. He must have developed his warm-heartedness in 1829 when he spent his time locked up writing 'A Letter from Sydney', outlining his theory of systematic colonisation.

The book was written as if it were a letter from a frustrated gentry member living in Sydney, Australia, though Wakefield had never been there. In it, Wakefield proposed that crown lands should be sold at a ‘considerable price’ rather than granting them freely. This resulted in a dependent colonial labour force of poor emigrants who were prevented from acquiring land, leading to the structural exploitation of workers and creating a class system of wealthy landowners and underpaid workers. By inflating land prices and concentrating ownership among wealthy settlers (male settlers, ignoring the roles of women), Wakefield contributed to long-term economic disparities. Worse still, the implementation of Wakefield's ideas involved claiming ‘waste lands’ for colonial settlement, which meant displacing Indigenous populations from their traditional territories, completely disregarding the presence of Indigenous Australians. 

Viewed through this lens, Wakefield’s plaque on the Parliament of South Australia represents ongoing social and economic inequality as well as environmental challenges. His impact on land and housing markets has had knock-on effects that can still be seen today through:

• Artificial land scarcity: driving up prices and making property ownership less accessible.
• Concentration of land ownership: laying the groundwork for ongoing inequality in land distribution and wealth.
• Forced wage labour: creating a dependent working class and deeply rooted socioeconomic inequalities
• Speculative land market: buying land not to use it, but hoping for its value to increase over time to later sell it for a big profit.

Currently, South Australia is facing a severe housing crisis. The property market is increasingly unaffordable and competitive. Adelaide has become a difficult market for renters, with just 0.83% of homes available for lease in March 2024, compared to a healthy vacancy rate of around 3%. And 0% of properties for rent in South Australia (over a highlighted weekend in March 2024) were affordable for someone on Youth Allowance or Jobseeker. The shortage of rental properties has also led to rent bidding and requests for tenancy information that exceeds what a tenant would reasonably expect to provide. The median house price in South Australia increased by 36.8% from December 2019 to December 2022, and for metropolitan Adelaide, the median house price increased 38.1% over the same period, reaching $670,000.

While Wakefield can’t be held responsible for ALL of these chronic housing crisis outcomes, he has played his part. Oh, and don’t forget, he was also a warm-hearted convicted child abductor of great public spirit. His metal face, hard and indifferent, should provoke reflections on human rights and social justice by (re)examining our layered past. Provide historical context. Reframe the narrative. Create a space for open and honest dialogue about controversial history. Here, we can attempt to recognise that the past, particularly Dark Heritage, has multivocal interpretations. 

It has been 72 years. The plaque of Edward Gibbon Wakefield has had a good run. If former Liberal MP Christopher Pyne helped to change the name of his nearby division Wakefield to Spence in 2018 (after Catherine Helen Spence, who advocated for female suffrage and electoral reform), surely we can implore Parliament House of South Australia to remove/alter/change the memorial or erect a counter-memorial? This public building represents our democratic values and symbolises our State's society and identity. At least include something that will prompt conversations about the problematic legacies of colonialists celebrated in our public places and spaces.