Adelaide's Park Lands have long been home to large events, as well as numberless small, private encounters. Until now, no book has been published to document this wealth of social activity. In The Adelaide Park Lands, Sumerling recounts tales both enchanting and bizarre from the time of earliest European settlement until present days.

Contains hundreds of well-researched, compact entries on events and movements, institutions and industries as well as longer essays on major themes from Aboriginal-European conflict and Aboriginal histories to more recent concerns of wages and water.