SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Allies Day, October 16, 1942 - King William Street, Adelaide.
The Viking boat girl is Mavis McKay, daughter of the then Norwegian Consul. There was not enough petrol available, so the floats were horse drawn.  The Norwegian float returned to Mr McKay's Port Adelaide office pulled by the horses.  Photo courtesy of Miss Phillis McKay.

An extract from
The Scandinavians in Australia
Olavi Koivukangas & John S Martin
Australasian Educa Press Pty Ltd 1986 ISBN 0 86787 209 8

The first statistical information about Scandinavians in South Australia was in 1881 when there were over 1000 settlers from the Nordic countries. Unlike the other Australian colonies, South Australia had a majority of Swedes and Danes. But there was a concentration of Swedes and Norwegians in Port Adelaide, where most of them were engaged in occupations connected with seafaring. The key role of Scandinavians in South Australian shipping is indicated by the fact that in 1891 Swedes and Norwegians made up a quarter of the total seafaring population. There was also a high proportion of Swedish and Norwegian women in Port Adelaide, which indicates a more permanent settlement than in many other Australian ports.

Although Adelaide was the main centre for the Scandinavians others were scattered throughout the settlement. In the Northern Territory, then under South Australian colonial administration, there were a few Scandinavians. The Norwegian scientist, Knut Dahl, who visited the Northern Territory in the 1890s, wrote that one of the first five men to start digging for copper near the Daly River in 1882 on the spot where the Daly Copper Mine was later situated (1894) was a Dane called Oxell. He and three of his companions were later killed by some Aborigines. Dahl also met a Swede on the Shaw River on a very primitive sheep station; the Swede got very excited at meeting a Scandinavian, Dahl wrote (Knut Dahl 1926 p. 190).

The Scandinavians in Adelaide started moves in 1880 for the formation of a Scandinavian association. One of their number, a Mr Welin, contacted the Scandinavian Society in Sydney to ascertain whether the proposed Scandinavian Society in Adelaide could become a branch of the Sydney society. The Sydney Scandinavians thought that the huge distance posed too many problems, but promised any possible assistance. The matter rested until 1883 when the Scandinavian Society was founded. For eight years it held regular meetings at a hotel in Pirie Street in the city, but it was disbanded in 1891.

The same year the Scandinavian Club of South Australia was founded in Port Adelaide, where there was a concentration of Scandinavians. Premises were secured, papers ordered from Scandinavia, weekly meetings arranged and special activities such as balls and picnics organised. At first there were 60 members, most of whom were Swedish seamen and wharf labourers who had deserted their ships. English became the medium of communication, and the cultural and social programme of a middle-class nature failed to retain the members' interest. They preferred the drinking and card games at the hotels. After a couple of years the Scandinavian Club of South Australia shared the fate of its predecessor.

In the late 1920s there was a Scandinavian Friends Association, which had as its goal the fostering of cultural and social activities among its members. When the communities shrank and immigration diminished, the group disbanded.

In the 1940s during the Second World War there were 59 Danes and Australians sympathetic to Denmark's plight in an organisation called 'Free Denmark Association'. It organised a number of fund-raising activities to assist people in distress in Nazi-occupied Denmark. The organisation existed solely for this purpose and was disbanded after the war.

In November 1964 a small group of Danes, Norwegians and Swedes gathered together to form a committee to revive an old society of the 1920s. This new society was called the Scandinavians Friends' Society. Its objectives were to provide a point of contact for Scandinavian settlers in South Australia, to welcome visitors and newly-arrived settlers from the homelands, to help Scandinavians integrate with the Australian community and support any who found the process of migration difficult. The Scandinavian Friends' Society functioned well for a period, and then interest waned. It was disbanded in 1972, and the national groups went their own ways.

The Norwegians were too few to organise a new society. Instead they continued to meet informally on a monthly basis. In addition, they organised picnics and barbecues, and celebrated their national day.

The Swedes formed the Swedish Club which existed from 1972 to 1975. It produced a magazine called Vikingen, one of the finest Scandinavian club magazines in Australia. Leading supporters of the Swedish Club were Boris and Marianne Von Kopolow who were involved in both editing and producing the club's publication. In 1975 the Swedish Club dissolved and its place was taken by a new organisation called the Nordic Club, which had a broader base and included Danes, Finns, Norwegians and Swedes. There were between 100 and 150 members of the Nordic Club at various times.

The Danish Club of South Australia was also founded in 1972 as a centre for Danes and their descendants and as a means of fostering Danish culture, traditions and language. Like the Swedish Club, it found that its base was too narrow so broadened its scope to include all Scandinavians and changed its name in 1980 to the Scandinavian Association of South Australia. Thus there were two such organisations in South Australia with similar aims, catering for similar groups of people. Accordingly, the Scandinavian Association of South Australia approached the Nordic Club in 1982 to discuss the possibility of a merger. Both groups agreed to unite to form the Scandinavian Association of South Australia. Its initial membership was 217, but after union it fell a little. Nevertheless, it now exists as one of the largest Scandinavian organisations in Australia.