In August 1834 the British parliament passed the South Australia Act which established the future colony of South Australia. This Act had two special features. The new colony was to be financially self supporting and unlike previous Australian colonies, none of its settlers were to be convicts. Within a year enough money had been raised through the sale of land grants and other sources for the first settlers to be sent out. In early 1836 three ships sailed from England and in July the first permanent settlement was established on Kangaroo Island. At the end of the year the population of the new colony was 546.
The site of the future city of Adelaide was surveyed in the first two months of 1837. By the end of the year the layout and names of streets and squares of the new city had been established and a Supreme Court, hospital and church and many houses built. In the next year further progress was made. By the end of 1838 the first election had been held, the first bank had been opened and the first murderer had been executed. On Dec 31st the population was over 6000, 3000 of whom were emigrants from Europe.
Another unusual feature of the colonisation of South Australia was that it introduced a scheme proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield to provide free or assisted passages to emigrants who had suitable character and skills to found the new colony. To implement this scheme an organisation called the Emigration Commission was established. In the summer of 1838 James Hall obtained his appointment to the Emigration Commission. His role was to select suitable emigrants in Ireland, a task he was to carry out until the scheme was discontinued in 1840 because of shortage of funds. An interesting aspect of this appointment was that it appeared to be only open to surgeons of the Royal Navy.