Robert G. Thomas

Robert George Thomas FRIBA (16 February 1820 – 14 April 1883) was a draftsman and architect in the British colony of South Australia. He drew the original plans for the City of Adelaide and was later responsible for the design and execution of some of its significant buildings, including several churches in a Gothic style.

Thomas was the eldest son of newspaperman Robert Thomas, and was articled as a draftsman to George Strickland Kingston, who was appointed by the South Australian Company to accompany Colonel William Light to South Australia. Light's brief was to select and survey a site for the city of Adelaide, and survey it ready for sale to speculators and prospective residents. They were part of the "First Fleet of South Australia" of 1836: Light was on the Rapid, but Thomas was with Kingston, aboard Cygnet, which arrived in South Australia a month after Rapid, much to Light's annoyance. The sixteen-year-old Thomas was confusingly also listed as a passenger on the Rapid. His parents and brother Robert Kyffin Thomas were also in the "First Fleet" aboard Africaine, to set up the colony's first newspaper, the South Australian Register, and print the Government Gazette.

It was Thomas, a "very clever penman" who drew the first map of Adelaide and North Adelaide. Light left the employ of the South Australian Company in 1838 and founded a private firm, Light, Finniss & Co., with Thomas as a partner, to act as purchasing agents and surveyors and to provide expert assistance to prospective landowners, and to Local Government bodies. The company was dissolved on the death of Light in October 1839. Thomas then worked as secretary for Kingston, who succeeded Light as Surveyor-General, at the same time working as architect on the original Adelaide Hospital. Although he had no formal training as an architect, he demonstrated considerable aptitude and gained experience in 1845 designing business premises, then in April 1846, he left with fellow architect W. P. James aboard the Cleveland for Britain, where the recent boom in railway construction had put a premium on experienced architects. James and Thomas had worked together on the design of a bridge, whose failure was blamed on their design, and the resulting controversy may have precipitated their departure.

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