Sir Thomas Playford

33rd Premier of South Australia

Sir Thomas Playford, the 33rd Premier of South Australia, grew up at Norton Summit in the Adelaide Hills. He was premier from 1938 to 1965, the longest serving premier in any of the Australian states. Playford’s policies promoted cheap electricity, minimal taxes and social investment including the Housing Trust to make South Australia attractive to industrial investment. He attracted migrant workers and tripled South Australia’s population in thirty years. His premiership left the state prosperous and industrialised, but socially conservative. His gravestone reads: ‘A man who did good things’.

‘Years ago, a South Australian Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, told me : 'You never get into trouble for what you don't say.''