The city of corpses? Contested urban identity and the stigma of crime in Adelaide, South Australia

Matthew W. Rofe

Landscape Research, 2016, vol. 41, issue 8, 966-979

Abstract: Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, has long been referred to as the City of Churches. This moniker denotes Adelaide to be a city of pious refinement and conservatism. Indeed, Adelaide’s landscape is replete with numerous and very beautiful churches. However, urban identities are more complex than simple landscape reflections and are constructed, contested and re-contested by actors both internal and external to a given place. Indicative of this is the alternate moniker for Adelaide as the City of Corpses. The origins of this alternate place identity lie in a series of violent crimes, serial killings and unexplained disappearances over a span of some 40 years. These crimes are said to have shocked Australia and, combined, have come to be construed as ‘signals’ that beneath Adelaide’s genteel surface something sinister lurks.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2016.1151486

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