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Defence
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Did You Know That.... before 1901 South Australia had its own Army and Navy. In 1865 the government of South Australia voted a sum of $40,000 for the defence of the colony. In 1882 legislation was passed in South Australia for the building of its own war ship. It arrived at Port Adelaide on 30 Septmenber 1884 and was called the HMCS Protector. During the 1880s and well into the early 1900s South Australia had its own Torpedo Station with ten torpedoes. The torpedoes remained in their crates and were never used as there was no torpedo boat!!!! That Joseph Gordon, a Mounted Police Trooper joined the South Australian Army in 1881, later commanded Fort Largs and used his troops to assist the police in Port Adelaide to deal with striking waterside workers. Eventually Gordon became Chief Australian General Staff and a Major General in 1921. That the firm of Shierlaw in Hindley Street provided the uniforms for the South Australian volunteers who fought in the Boer War. Lieutenant John Powell, age 37, was the first South Australian killed during the Boer War. He was a member of the Mount Gambier Infantry and died at Rensburg South Africa on 9 February 1900.
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