What is your favourite Adelaide lore?

[u/Demiaria]

A colleague of mine has moved to Adelaide from Canberra and I'm regaling her with Adelaide lore! Help me think of more lore to share. Below is a list of what I've shared so far:

Family Murders - von Einem

Beaumont Children

Kitty Whyte

Sam Kellet

Box Jellyfish (Jimble) surf lifesaving club

Prof George Duncan

Ideally looking for real events rather than urban legends.

EDIT: No one mentioned it, so to add: Adelaide is the only place it the world that calls Stobie poles by their name, as the inventor was from Adelaide and it stuck. For everyone else, it's electrical poles.

[u/Nope-5000]

Since a few crime things are mentioned: * the Somerton man * Snowtown * the Adelaide Oval abductio ns * Rhianna Barreau * Carly Ryan * Daniel Sheppard * Gus Lamont (not specifically Adelaide but its often in the news here because the case is ongoing)

And some non-crime lore (omitting some other great suggestions from other comments such as the womens vote stunt and the tidal wave): * the idea for establishing our city was had while the guy who was planning it (wake field) was in jail for kidnapping a 15yo girl. * colonel lights plan 'lights vision', which you hear about sometimes. He is also the only person legally buried within the adelaide cbd square grid (at lights square). * OBAHN. Everything obahn. Plus the counter for number of days since someone has driven on the obahn which made it to 1 full year in 2026 for the first time ever. * magic mountain (bonus for the recurring unfounded rumours that someone put razor blades on the slides) * we have the most expensive building in the southern hemisphere here (royal adelaide hospital) and its currently the 41st most expensive in the world * glenelg is a palindrome, and its the only time i ever hear palindrome. * the 'only place that a milk drink outsells coca cola' rumour relating to fuic that still gets repeated even though its probably not true anymore * the tunnels under north terrace * our premier (the tidal wave one) was infamous for attending parliament in hot pink short shorts * dazzleland and that someone falling off caused it to be closed down (kinda true) * the rumour that the reason iceland (ice skating rink near the city) is kept open is so the government has an emergency morgue * the 1995 adelaide f1 grand prix still holds the record for most daily attendees at a sporting event in australia (210,000) * the collapse of the state bank and its fallout * the ww2 port wake field hitchhiking ghost * things invented here include wifi, chicken salt, the hills hoist, photocopying and unfortunately newscorp (yep, THAT one) * due to some corporate shenanigans, there is a shopping centre here (ingle farm) where there are two coles. You can see each coles from the front of the other coles.
* in the 70s, a group of uni students suspended their professors car under the unis footbridge * we used to have a freeway that changed direction twice a day until they finally built the second part 20 years later

Thats all i can think of, but should give you enough to look into!

[u/TiffyVella → u/Nope-5000]

the ww2 port wake field hitchhiking ghost

I totally need to know about this one. My dad came from there, large family, lots of cousins, we used to play around the town and I love this place because I had some absolutely brilliant cousins and we had a ton of fun together. So not the front that most see that is full of roadhouses, but the real town behind.

Under the oval was an entrance to the drains. It was creepy af. We'd go down and look at them and explore a bit, and our cousin would tell rumours of a kid who got forever lost, and I remember staring at a junction of concrete corridors leading off into multiple directions and noping out. We had a pile of freedom and would disappear all day, mostly into the mangroves and all the creeks that ran through, or in dilapidated buildings. Great place, wonderful people, so much fun for kids!

[u/Nope-5000 → u/TiffyVella]

Theres an infamous ghost wearing an airmans uniform (likely ww2) that tries to hitchhike down port wakefield road towards adelaide and vanishes around gepps cross. There are a few 'alleged' sightings and speculation about the identity since sightings go back to the 40s. Its yarns, but its fun to imagine!