Salisbury, South Australia

Salisbury /ˈsɔːlzbəri/ is a northern suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the seat of the City of Salisbury, and in the South Australian Legislative Assembly electoral district of Ramsay and the Australian House of Representatives divisions of Wakefield and Port Adelaide. The suburb is a service area for the City of Salisbury district, with an abundance of parklands, shops, cafes and restaurants. Parabanks Shopping Centre is also located in Salisbury, which includes Harris Scarfe and Big W as its signature retailers.

The City of Salisbury is situated 25 kilometres north of Adelaide. It covers 161 square kilometres stretching from the beaches at Gulf St Vincent to the Adelaide Hills. The terrain is mostly flat with the Little Para River winding its way through the district to the sea.

Salisbury, and the surrounding northern suburbs including Elizabeth, have a relatively high crime rate. ^[1]

History

Salisbury was founded when John Harvey began selling town allotments in 1848, from land he had purchased along the Little Para River in the previous year. The town was named after Salisbury in the United Kingdom which was close to his wife's hometown.^[2] Salisbury started its life as a service centre for the surrounding wheat and hay farms.^[3] Salisbury Post Office opened around March 1850.^[4] It grew slowly (from a population of 400-500 in 1881) until 1940 when the establishment of an explosives and filling factory doubled the population almost overnight. The factory, which covered 4.5 square miles, was in production by mid 1942 and by January 1943 employed 6,500 persons producing 135,000 shells, bombs and mines weekly.^[5]

Transport

Salisbury is where the standard gauge line to Crystal Brook diverges from the broad gauge line to Gawler. Until the 1980s, this line was broad gauge.

Trains to and from Adelaide and Gawler operate every 15 minutes at off-peak times on Monday to Friday, and every 30 minutes during the day on Saturday and Sunday. In the evening, services run every hour.

In morning peak hours, there are several trains that run non-stop between Salisbury and Adelaide (or make only one stop, at Mawson Interchange). These are used by a significant number of city workers who either park their vehicle or transfer from buses at Salisbury Interchange.

Local buses from Salisbury Interchange, scheduled to connect with trains to and from Adelaide, use the Adelaide Metro integrated ticketing system. In May 2012 there are 13 local bus routes providing links to many of the northern suburbs, such as routes 400 and 430 to Elizabeth, route 415V to Golden Grove, routes 224, 225, 411 to Mawson Lakes, routes 225, 500, 502, 560 to Para Hills, routes 401, 411 to Paralowie and routes 404, 405 to Parafield Gardens.

Salisbury is one of the few railway stations on the Adelaide Metro network with a staffed ticket office. Salisbury is the third busiest station in the entire Adelaide network after Adelaide Railway Station and Noarlunga Centre.

In 1985 Salisbury station was rebuilt as a major STA bus/rail interchange. This was the second purpose-built transport interchange in the Adelaide metropolitan area (the first had been at Noarlunga Centre).

See also

• List of Adelaide suburbs

References

Coordinates: 34°45′50″S 138°38′32″E / 34.76391°S 138.64228°E / -34.76391; 138.64228