South Australians are lucky.

They have not only a temperate climate but a government developed from the principles of the Enlightenment, which encourages innovation and social progress. The lead South Australians have given the world in agriculture, science and social advancement can, in part, be attributed to the women and men described in this volume and to the system set up by Wakefield and his team in London in 1835. The culture espoused by people such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill reached a long way!

RB Smith's invention of the Stumjump Plough, Lawrence Bragg's discoveries which eventually found the structure of DNA and Mary Lee's world-first embraced innovation and social reform. Perhaps the greatest gift to humanity though was Howard Florey's development of penicillin. These people and others are saluted in this book.

Their contributions do not appear to be diminishing. Terry Tao's recent solutions to long-standing mathematical problems and the installation of the world's biggest battery in 2019 suggest we are not faltering, but there is a long way to go.