21 February 1963 Queen Elizabeth visited Elizabeth
On 21 February 1963 Queen Elizabeth II visited the new town of Elizabeth, established to the north of Adelaide, which was named after her. This planned satellite town was first announced by the Premier, Tom Playford, on 4 May 1950 when 3000 acres of open farmland near Salisbury were purchased by the South Australian Housing Trust. With increasing immigration it was realised that moderately priced public housing was needed and with its broad acres Tom Playford hoped to attract industry to the area as well. The Housing Trust could no longer build large, rental housing estates on land closer to Adelaide, and so planned a new town instead, close to employment at the weapons Research Establishment and in the direction Adelaide's suburbs were likely to expand.
The town was officially inaugurated by the Premier on 16 November 1955. The next day the first families moved into their new homes. With encouragement from the Housing Trust industry began to move to the area, and in May 1958 General Motors Holdens poured the foundations for its new factory. Over the years the town has grown into a city and with its many sportsgrounds, reserves, parks and gardens, and the thousands of trees which have been planted, it is a far more attractive place than the treeless, dusty plain of the 1950s which greeted the eyes of its first inhabitants who were genuine twentieth century pioneers.
Margaret Galbraith and Gillian Pearson, Elizabeth The Garden City, Corporation of Elizabeth, 1982.
usan Marsden, Business, Charity and Sentiment: the South Australian Housing Trust 1936-1986, Adelaide, 1986, Chapter 5.