Across the Desk of Don Dunstan – Centre of Democracy

In little more than a decade, Don Dunstan turned South Australia into a laboratory for social change. Electoral reform, Land Rights legislation, anti-discrimination laws, environmental protections – reforms that other states were still debating, this state was enacting.

Across the Desk of Don Dunstan: Leading Political Change in the 1970s puts you inside that transformative period. The exhibition traces Dunstan’s second tenure as premier, from 1970 to 1979, exploring the policies and political will behind reforms that were firsts not just for South Australia, but for Australia as a whole.

For those who lived through those years, the exhibition carries particular resonance. For those who came later, it offers something equally valuable: a vivid sense of how political leadership, at its best, can reshape the texture of ordinary life. Entry is free.