Statue of Queen Victoria, Adelaide — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The statue of Queen Victoria in Adelaide's Victoria Square has been gazing imperiously over the city since 1894, and she hasn't budged much since, apart from one notable relocation in 2014. The story of how she got there is wonderfully Adelaide. Sir Edwin Thomas Smith, a local brewer, parliamentarian, and philanthropist, spotted the statue during a trip to England in 1893 and offered it to the Adelaide City Council. It's a copy of a statue originally made by sculptor Charles Bell Birch for Udaipur, India, later amended for the Imperial Institute in London. Smith specified that the bronze be made from Australian materials: copper from the Wallaroo Mine on the Yorke Peninsula and Australian tin. The unveiling was a community event, carefully timed by Smith for a Saturday at 4pm so the general public could attend without clashing with the football or the horse racing (Smith was a fan of both). Lady Smith did the honours on August 11, 1894. For over a century, Queen Victoria stood at the centre of Victoria Square. Despite shifts in public attitudes towards the monarchy and the British Empire, she held her ground. It wasn't until 2013, when another Victoria Square redevelopment succeeded where previous attempts had failed, that the statue was finally moved to a new position on the north side of the square in 2014. If you're exploring Adelaide's Victoria Square on a Questo quest, the Queen's statue is hard to miss. Look closely at the bronze and think about the copper that came all the way from South Australia's mines to cast a British queen.