What characterizes South Australia?

South Australia is a state in central southern Australia, covering about 984,000 square kilometres with a population of about 1.85 million. It is bordered by Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, making it the only state to share land borders with all of the other mainland jurisdictions.

The state stretches from the desert and outback in the north, through the Flinders Ranges and Lake Eyre Basin, to the Mediterranean climate of the Adelaide Plains, the wine regions of the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, and Clare Valley, and the coastline along the Great Australian Bight and the Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray. About 80 per cent of South Australians live within 100 kilometres of Adelaide.

South Australia was founded in 1836 as the only Australian colony established under a deliberate plan of free settlement, with no convicts ever transported to it. The Wakefieldian theory of systematic colonisation shaped its early development, and the colony was a pioneer of progressive reforms: women were granted the right to vote in 1894 (and to stand for Parliament, the first jurisdiction in the world to grant both rights).

South Australia produces about half of all Australian wine by volume and a quarter by value, with the Barossa, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra among the country's most internationally recognised regions. The Olympic Dam mine in the north of the state is one of the largest deposits of copper, uranium, and gold in the world. South Australia is also home to the AUKUS submarine program at Osborne, the Australian Space Agency in Adelaide, and the Adelaide Festival of Arts. The state has the highest share of renewable electricity of any major Australian grid, regularly running on more than 70 per cent solar and wind.