Exhibition at Frome Road

Watercolour on paper sketch of an exhibition at Frome Road, including figures and dwellings.

South Australia was only four years old when the first agricultural produce show was held in the yard of Fordham's Hotel, in Grenfell Street, Adelaide, in December 1840. From this modest beginning the Royal Adelaide Show of today has grown. In February 1843 the fourth horticultural show was held in the parklands in Frome Road (today's Botanic Park) under a marquee.

In February 1844 the Horticultural and Agricultural Societies combined as the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia and their first show was again held under marquees and tents in the same parklands. The Botanic Park site became an ever expanding display of marquees, stalls, booths and by 1853 the marquee was immensely long as depicted by Adamson. A permanent exhibition building was built at a cost of 2,000 pounds near the old marquee site in late 1859 and hosted the 1860 Autumn Show. The 'Royal' prefix was granted to the Society by Queen Victoria in 1869.

The show was moved to the Jubilee Exhibition building in 1895. From 1925 the annual shows were moved to the present site at Wayville.

James Hazell Adamson (1829-1902) was a painter, lihographer and photographer and exhibited widely in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

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