National Motor Museum

Welcome to the South Australian historical vehicle registration data page. This page contains all the registration information for South Australian motor vehicles from the first issued plate, SA No.1 issued to Dr Hargraves in 1907 to SA No.15744 issued to B.C. Watson in 1922. Note Motorcycles and Horse drawn vehicles do not appear in this database.

The list was originally compiled by Mr. George H. Brooks (see https://motor.history.sa.gov.au/discover/george-brooks-library-and-learning-centre/,) and was gleaned from various sources, including SA Motor; a journal published by the South Australian Royal Automobile Association, the pictorial collections of the State Library of South Australia and other material compiled, at the time, by interested parties.

With an interest in veteran and vintage motor vehicles George made it his life’s work to collect and collate the South Australian registration numbering system.

Notes:

Like all historical research the records are continually open to review and should you find an anomaly, which you are able to back up with supporting evidence, we would be interested to hear from you, please contact NMMCurators@history.sa.gov.au and tag the Subject line: SA Rego.

George Brooks was able to source and copy a large number of images of these vehicles, which relate to the registration numbers here. If you would like an image of the vehicle please send an email to NMMCurators@history.sa.gov.au and tag the Subject line: SA Rego – Images. We will do our best to find the image of your vehicle and get back to you. Please note not all SA registered vehicles before 1922 have images related to them.

We are not able to undertake individual vehicle registration searches for vehicles outside the 1907 to 1922 date. If you wish to make further enquiries, related to the dates outside this period, please refer to https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/driving-and-transport/registration/vehicle-registration/check-a-vehicles-registration-expiry-date, or write to Plate Administration, Service SA, Road and Marine Services, Department for Infrastructure and Transport, GPO Box 1533, Adelaide, South Australia 5001 or for telephone enquiries 1300 557 316. Full records prior to approximately 1980 are no longer available, partial records are available for the period from 1969 to 1980, however these records are only those that required departmental alteration, within that time period. Those that did not require alteration do not appear.

Note: all registration enquires are subject to the privacy regulations, within the South Australian, Motor Vehicles Act 1959.