Main Building, Roseworthy

The Main Building of the Roseworthy Agricultural College was begun early in 1883 with the carting of the stone and was designed by Edward J Woods, Chief Architect from the Department of Public Works.

It was to have been completed by April 1884 but was delayed due to an extremely wet winter.  Completion was finally achieved in October 1884.  Rather sadly, considering the drawn out controversy that marked the establishment of the College, the Main Building opened with a whimper.  There was no opening ceremony, foundation stone or any other form of commemorative event and only a small acknowledgement in the press as noted by “The Observer” in February 1885.

The Main Building was erected at a cost of £7,625 and contained accommodation for residential students (originally planned for 100 but reduced to 30, with the intention to add extra accommodation wings at a later stage) in addition a lecture room, dining-hall, a reading-room, staff-room and offices.  It is a two-storied building of Tarlee stone and red brick with freestone mouldings and with brick quoins and chimneys.  It also includes a three-storied clock tower.  A single story laboratory addition was added in 1891.

Of interest is the fact that the tower lacked a clock mechanism for over 120 years.  It was not until 2002 that a donation allowed for the installation of a tower clock and bell mechanism.  A state of the art Swiss precision clock that adjusts automatically by a global positioning system connected to Greenwich Mean Time was installed in March 2003.

The Main Building is listed on the State Heritage Register.

Taken from University of Adelaider Archives Information Sheet No.51