Brief History of Roseworthy Agricultural College
The predecessor to Roseworthy Campus was Roseworthy Agricultural College (RAC) which opened its doors to students in 1883. The creation of RAC was a significant step by the South Australian Colonial Government, to improve agricultural production in South Australia by the establishment of a joint experimental farm and an agricultural education facility. RAC was in fact the first agricultural college established in Australia.
Prior to the formation of the experimental farm and RAC, the only body providing leadership to the agricultural sector in South Australia was the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA (RA&HS) that, amongst its other functions, conducted the Royal Adelaide Show. Within forty years of its founding, declining soil fertility was threatening the fragile economy of the Colony, prompting the Government to set up a Commission in 1875 to explore ways of providing technical and agricultural education.
The RA&HS had first proposed the concept of establishing a “Model and Experimental Farm” to the Government in 1858 and in 1864 the RA&HS had convened a sub-committee consisted of nine people of influence in South Australian society - RA&HS President Baker, Messrs. McEwin, Forster, Murray, Ferguson, Milne, Bagot, Blyth and Hackett to progress the proposal.
After many years of advocacy, in 1881 the RA&HS sub-committee made a successful deputation to the Hon. The Commissioner of Crown Lands requesting the establishment of an Experimental Farm on a site of not be less than 500 acres selected somewhere between Adelaide and the River Wakefield and that the Experimental Farm should be the site of an Agricultural School. A Professor of Agriculture was then engaged to provide advice to farmers throughout the Colony. That Professor was John Custance, who also became the first Principal of the School that was Roseworthy Agricultural College.
As a result of the deputation, the Government purchased a farm of 728 acres located two miles from Roseworthy. Professor Custance was convinced the various soils on the farm were well suited for experimental purposes and the situation was very convenient for an Agricultural School. RAC opened its doors to students in 1883, with the first ten graduating with a Roseworthy Diploma in Agriculture in 1886.
South Australia’s Agricultural Bureau System was not initiated until 1888 and the Department of Agriculture was not formed until the turn of the century. The Roseworthy Experimental Farm and RAC led the way in agricultural experimentation and education. RAC operated as a separate South Australian Government Department until 1974 as the Agricultural College Department, but under the guidance of the Department of Agriculture.
In 1974, after 91 years of accepting only male students, RAC accepted its first intake of female students. Also in 1974, RAC administratively became a College of Advanced Education under its own Act, switching to become funded by the Commonwealth Government, but administered by the State Government. Officially Roseworthy was known as RCAE, but anecdotally it remained RAC.
On 1 January 1991, as part of a national Commonwealth Government initiative to rationalise the tertiary education sector, RCAE/RAC merged with the University of Adelaide (UofA) to become Roseworthy Campus of the University of Adelaide. On 1 January 2026, the UofA merged with the University of South Australia (UniSA) to create the new Adelaide University (AU) incorporating Roseworthy Campus.
