Cars were introduced to Australia in the last decade of the 19th century but it was not until after 1910 that they began to proliferate. Motorised transport, including trucks and cars became the norm. This increase in motor transport created a demand for accurate road maps and street plans including suburban street directories. As cities grew with expanding suburban areas, and the number of streets and roads proliferated, guides to these were increasingly needed: the suburban street directory was devised to cope with this need. Today the demand is largely being met by GPS.

Gregory's Street Directories began in 1934 when Cecil Gregory produced the first Gregory's street directory with hand-drawn maps. In 1936 the first Gregory's Directory of Adelaide was produced. This coincided with the city's centenary. Street directories come with a key map as well as sectional maps, and an index to street names indicating which sectional map they are on, as well as a simple grid reference. Modern street directories also come with extensive lists of parks, churches, schools, sportsgrounds etc and are now in colour. They indicate where roundabouts and traffic lights occur; some indicate where red light (speed) cameras are located. Because of the continuing growth of suburban areas street directories are revised frequently, but provide fascinating detail of this growth across the decades.

An earlier directory of Adelaide was published in 1922 by W K Thomas and Co. This was the first edition of the Adelaide and Suburban Street Guide and covered the suburbs of Adelaide with the municipalities of Adelaide, Unley, Port Adelaide, Brighton, Glenelg, Henley and Grange, Hindmarsh, Norwood and Kensington, St Peters and Thebarton. It contained a comprehensive index of the streets of Adelaide and its suburbs, showing the suburb, map number and map co-ordinates. It also contained a list of tram routes, transport fares, city attractions and details, advertisements and a description of the city of Adelaide.

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