Adelaide’s Flowering Homosexual Culture: 1939‐1972

Abstract

The rise of a homosexual culture in Adelaide by the end of the 1930s has been documented previously. Little has been published on the culture during World War II and up to the 1972 murder of a homosexual university lecturer, Dr Duncan, allegedly at the hands of the police. His death sparked widespread debate, culminating with South Australia becoming the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise homosexuality. This paper traces the features and development of that culture during the years 1939-1972. In so doing, the paper draws extensively on a unique oral history collection which has only recently become available to researchers.