George W. CottonPrint Page

The Mylor Cotton Memorial Hall was erected by public subscription to commemorate George W. Cotton, a member of the Legislative Council of South Australia who developed the concept of the working men's blocks and pushed the required legislation through Parliament. 

The Cotton Memorial Institute built in the memory of the late George W. Cotton was originally opened on the 14th February 1896. A new institute hall was built and renamed the Mylor Cotton Memorial Hall in 1923. 

George Witherage Cotton (1821 - 1892) was a land dealer and Member of the South Australian Legislative Council; a champion of the scheme to put working men onto small blocks (around 20 acres ) on which they could carry out agricultural production. 

He was elected to the Legislative Coucil elections of 1882 (at the age of 61). In the depression years following he took an interest in the unemployed and in land reform. Cotton developed a working men's blocks scheme in which the government would offer blocks of up to 20 acres (8.1 ha) of crown land at low rents. Income from such blocks would eventually be adequate to support a family, forming the basis of a new society of independent producers and co-operative associations.

In 1885 the South Australian government began to implement Cotton's plan. Blocks were surveyed and occupied in many parts of the colony, from Adelaide suburbs and country town fringes to the open country. In 1896 about 12,900 people, or nearly 4 per cent of the population, lived on them.

Cotton Memorial Institute Opening 1923

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