Colonel Light Gardens was developed in the 1920s as a 'model garden suburb' with a distinctive community identity. In 1914 Charles C Reade, a leading proponent of the garden city movement which had an emphasis on an optimal living environment for all residents, toured Australia lecturing in town planning. Following these lectures, the South Australian Government purchased 'Grange Farm', part of the William Tennant Mortlock estate, in 1915 in order to establish a garden suburb. However, throughout World War One, the property was used as an army training camp.

During this period, Reade was appointed South Australia's (and Australia's) first government Town Planner and created designs for 'Mitcham Garden Suburb' - later re-named Colonel Light Gardens. Design features included a radial street pattern (in contrast to the more usual Adelaide suburban grid pattern), private detached homes (based on the Californian bungalow), numerous reserves and tree-lined streets and strict controls for the streetscape such as street frontages and placement of utilities. The Garden Suburb Act detailing a development plan was passed in 1919.

This image was published was published in the 1921 pamphlet Colonel Light Gardens : a model garden suburb : comfort, convenience, beauty to promote the new suburb and attract buyers. 'Comfort, convenience and beauty' were attainable, and by the mid-1920s around 60 blocks of the north-east section had been purchased, with numerous homes built or under construction. In 1924 the Labor Government, through the State Bank, instigated the metropolitan mass housing 'Thousand Homes Scheme' to provide low cost, affordable, attractive homes, particularly for returned soldiers and working class citizens. Most of these homes were built in the southern and western sections of Colonel Light Gardens, and by the end of the decade, housing development in this suburb was mainly completed.

Today Colonel Light Gardens is 'considered the most complete and representative example of a garden suburb in Australia' and is recognised as a State Heritage Area.