Destitute Asylum buildings at dusk, 2024, Migration Museum

Births, Burials & Bodysnatching

Join us at the Migration Museum, located on the site of the former Destitute Asylum, to learn about the darker side of Adelaide’s history. Explore our heritage buildings by candlelight and learn about life and death in the early days of the colony of South Australia. The Destitute Asylum – which operated in the nineteenth century – housed many impoverished and vulnerable people, including women, children, and the elderly, and had a long history of hardship and suffering. Disease, death, and destitution are guaranteed! 

Presented by History Trust of South Australia & Migration Museum