When it comes to arts and culture, South Australians have always thought outside the square. The Adelaide Festival Centre was the first of its kind in Australia (opening a controversial few months before the Sydney Opera House). The Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts began 44 years ago and has long been recognised as one of the most innovative arts festivals in the world (its sister event, the Adelaide Fringe, is the second biggest in the world after Edinburgh). There's also a colourful Cabaret Festival and the international music festival WOMADelaide.

Doing it Outdoors
South Australians take their culture outside, too! In summer you can sit on a picnic rug in the Adelaide Botanic Park and watch movies after dark (the same location is transformed every year for WOMADelaide). Watch trapeze artists perform high above Torrens Parade Ground during the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts. Join 100,000 of your closest friends for the Adelaide Fringe Festival opening party in Rundle Street. Hear the likes of Vikram Seth, Val McDermid and Robert Drewe tell the stories behind their best selling books at Adelaide Writers' Week in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden, or celebrate Adelaide's multicultural diversity at Greek, Italian, German and Polish festivals in the city parklands.

For details on South Australia's many arts and cultural events, take a look at our comprehensive events listing. If you want to know more about the State's arts and cultural institutions, contact Arts SA on + 61 8 8463 5444.

North Terrace – Adelaide's Cultural Boulevard
Many of South Australia's great cultural institutions are located on leafy North Terrace (also known as Adelaide's cultural boulevard). The State's library, museum, art gallery and the Migration Museum have pride of place alongside Parliament House, the University of Adelaide and Government House – making this the perfect starting point for any cultural experience in South Australia. (And a series of great self-guided heritage walks will point you in the right direction).

View the best collection of early Australian art in the country, and a highly significant collection of Aboriginal dot paintings of the Western Desert at the Art Gallery of South Australia. (Other collection highlights include 'A Break Away' by Tom Roberts, Adelaide Hills and Flinders Ranges landscapes by Sir Hans Heysen and the much-loved 'A T-Tree Glade' by Frederick McCubbin).

The recently refurbished State Library of South Australia is worth a visit in its own right, but has also become a Mecca for cricket fans keen to pay tribute to Australia's cricketing icon, Sir Donald Bradman. See 52 scrapbooks documenting Sir Donald's career from 1925 to 1948, plus more than 140 items including trophies, bats, clothing and oral recordings.

At the South Australian Museum you can explore the life and science of explorer Sir Douglas Mawson (and see his sled, tools, boots, camel-hair sleeping bag and a model of his Antarctic hut). Or find the opalised skeleton of a six-metre-long plesiosaur and other stunning opal fossils in the Fossil Gallery.

History & Heritage
For a peek at the past, visit one of the many sites operated by the History Trust of South Australia. Learn the stories of the many immigrants who helped to shape South Australia at the Migration Museum on North Terrace. See over 400 cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills. Discover how the sea helped to shape our State at the South Australian Maritime Museum at Port Adelaide.

Culture You Can Buy
West along North Terrace and just around the corner in Morphett St, you'll find the JamFactory Contemporary Craft & Design Centre – a world leader in the design, production, exhibition and sale of work by leading and emerging Australian designers. See designers hone their skills in four studios dedicated to ceramics, furniture, metal and glass.

South Australia's culture also has a wild side – right up north in the mining frontier towns of Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie. These three opal fields account for more than 80 per cent of the world's production, and the world's largest piece of uncut precious opal (at 3.5 kilograms) was found in Coober Pedy. In Adelaide, there's heaps of great opal shops including the Adelaide Gem Centre on Hindley Street and The Opal Mine in Gawler Place.

Although most South Australians live within a sniff of the sea, the Outback remains enshrined in the national psyche. One man who helped to shape the legend was RM Williams. Born and raised in South Australia, RM tried his hand at various bush crafts including cattle droving and gold prospecting before turning his hand to creating leather boots and bush saddlery. Today, few blokes in the bush would be without a pair of RM Williams boots. You'll find the RM Williams Outback Heritage Museum in Percy Street, Prospect, just north of the city centre.

South Australia's rich Indigenous heritage dates back 45,000 years. Before the arrival of European settlers in 1836, the area now known as South Australia was inhabited by more than 10,000 people from 43 different language groups. The Adelaide plains were home to a group known as the Kaurna (pronounced Gar-na), and they called the area "Tandanya," meaning "the place of the red kangaroo."

Indigenous culture is celebrated and shared at world-renowned attractions and sites across the State. Hear captivating stories of survival, adaptation and the Dreaming, and see more than 3,000 Aboriginal items on display at the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery in the South Australian Museum. Discover the vibrancy and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through the visual and performing arts at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. Share the culture of the Ngarrindjeri people on a three-day wilderness, bush-tucker and cultural tour at Coorong Wilderness Lodge on the Fleurieu Peninsula. See Aboriginal rock art and the 7,000-year-old skeleton of a young boy at Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park near Mannum in the Murraylands. Experience something really special when you drive along the Aboriginal Dreaming Trail through Adnyamathanha land in the Flinders Ranges.

Even our politicians have acted ahead of their time. South Australian women were the first in the world to be allowed to stand for parliament, way back in 1895. As Attorney-General and former Premier, Don Dunstan set fashion trends by regularly wearing skimpy shorts to parliament back in the 1970s. Dunstan achieved an unprecedented series of social, cultural and political reforms. He was a strong believer in individual rights, and introduced anti-discrimination legislation to protect the rights of women, homosexuals, consumer protection and Aborigines.

Dunstan ensured that South Australia became the first state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality in 1975.

The SA Equal Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of a person's sexuality in the areas of accommodation, employment and the provision of services.

Take care leaving venues late at night, and in emergencies phone 000. The parklands, of which there are many, can be dangerous after dark. For police patrol assistance phone 11444.

There are minor on-the-spot fines for possession of cannabis for personal use.
If you need a lawyer urgently, phone 8268 9266 (24 hours)
Women's Legal Service - 8221 5553
SA Police Victim Contact Officer - 8207 5145
SA Police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officer - 8207 5707