Dedication of the Adelaide Australia Temple
At the groundbreaking of the Sydney Australia Temple — the country’s first — on Aug. 13, 1982, Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “There is no reason in the world why we can’t have temples in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.”
A temple for Adelaide was announced March 17, 1999, and temples in each of the cities Elder McConkie mentioned would also receive temples within the coming five years, fulfilling his prophetic words.
After the temple’s construction in Adelaide, the 12,000 Church members in the temple district invited their friends and family to tour the building during its open house, which saw 49,303 visitors. The Adelaide Australia Temple was then dedicated June 15, 2000, by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. The Prophet was accompanied by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Elder Holland said that those not in the Church would also feel the Spirit, power and influence of a dedicated temple in their community. “They will be very impressed and very gratified, very rewarded for the dedication and completion, the arrival of this new temple in their midst. It certainly is a beautiful city, a very receptive city to such religious matters. With nearly 50,000 people visiting the open house, it seems to me to reflect the nature of the citizenry here.”
When Rhelma Badger attended a Church activity with her daughter, Kerrie, while the Adelaide temple was still under construction, she didn’t realize that the visit would result in a radical change to her life. Badger, a member of another Christian faith at the time, had been invited by her daughter to look through the unfinished temple. Kerrie, who had joined the Church just a few months prior, was anxious to help her mother understand firsthand the excitement that she and other young Latter-day Saints were experiencing knowing that a house of the Lord was rising in their midst.
Badger was married to a member of the Church, but she declined many invitations to be baptized because of her parents’ negative feelings toward the Church and some confusion about Church doctrine.
Although Badger saw little more than scaffolding and bare concrete during her visit to the temple site with her daughter, she felt something very different, she recalled, something that she had never experienced before. “I felt so warm as we went into the baptismal area and then the sealing room,” she said. “I went home and asked God to tell me what to do and for help to be able to tell my parents that I wanted to join.”
A little while later, without any prompting from Badger, her father phoned her and said that it was about time she joined the Church to be with her husband and daughter. Badger was taken by surprise at her parents’ change of heart and was baptized shortly afterward.
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “All that is done here will be in recognition of the immortality of the human soul. ... There will be carried forward in this house a great work of redemption in behalf of the dead, many of whom have waited long for these saving ordinances. May this be a day of rejoicing on both sides of the veil, and may all who have the privilege of working here feel the obligation and responsibility of this great vicarious service.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Adelaide Australia Temple here.
Timeline of the Adelaide Australia Temple
A temple for Adelaide was announced via letters to priesthood leaders in the temple district on March 17, 1999. The groundbreaking ceremony for the temple was held May 29, 1999.
Visitors toured the completed house of the Lord from June 3 to June 10, 2000. The Adelaide Australia Temple was dedicated by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley on June 15, 2000.
Architecture and Design of the Adelaide Australia Temple
The 10,700-square-foot Adelaide Australia Temple was built on 6.94 acres of land, and snow white granite makes up the temple exterior. Grass fields, trees, shrubbery and sidewalks fill the temple grounds.
The interior of the temple features two instruction rooms and two sealing rooms. Both the Melbourne Australia Temple and the Adelaide temple, which were dedicated a day apart and built during the same time, have the same square footage, exterior finishes, and number of instruction and sealing rooms.