Until the late 1920's gliding was the realm of a few individuals who would build themselves a glider and then try to fly it, usually with no training and with varying degrees of success.

The only pre-1929 club in operation was the Air Scouts of Australia at Loxton in the Riverland region of SA. This group was founded by Carl Hoffman, based on the German youth movement.
They built and trained on a youth glider - a rigid framed tandem-wing hang-glider. One of their two machines has survived and is in the S.A. Gliding History Trust collection.

In June 1929, the National Geographic magazine published an article, with 40 photographs, detailing gliding activities in Germany. This article sparked interest in gliding in many countries around the world including America, Australia, Japan and South Africa.

In South Australia both the Adelaide University Engineers Gliding Club and the Gliding Club of South Australia were formed within hours of the magazine's arrival.

The Gliding Club of S.A. bought a primary glider from Percy Pratt of Victoria, for $200. Their machine arrived, by train, at Parafield on 31st December 1929 and they were operational before the University Engineers, who spent their summer vacation building their glider for a total cost of $34. This latter was the first club-built primary glider in South Australia.

The Aero Club's Chief flying instructor, Mr. George Kenneth Rice-Oxley, took quite an interest and instructed for both clubs. He had Frank Roberts, an Aero Club aeronautical engineer at Parafield, build him a glider based on German plans. The design was refined somewhat, covered with silk instead of cotton, and with fairing behind the pilot. In August 1930, Rice-Oxley broke the British Empire gliding record while slope soaring for 62 minutes at Sellick's Hill, south of Adelaide. Not bad considering most primary glider flights were of about 2 to 3 minutes.

Rice-Oxley's flight caused a young engineer, Laurie Davey to sell his partially completed powered biplane to fund his design and building of Australia's first sail-plane. With the experience gained in the biplane, he used the photos and descriptions in the 1929 National Geographic as a basis for his design. His 62ft wing-span "Miss Australia I" was completed at Blackwood, in the Adelaide Hills, in August 1931.

During the mid 30's there were no fewer than 10 gliding clubs in South Australia, using primary gliders.

The most prominent "father of S.A. gliding" was Harold Bottrill, a PMG line foreman. First member of the original Gliding Club of S.A., he also test flew other peoples' gliders as well as providing technical advise to other clubs. He developed a set of adjustable weights which enabled him to "fine-tune" the C of G on gliders he was flight-testing. In addition Harold Bottrell devised the method of auto-tow training which became the standard in S.A. though all clubs. When posted to Saddleworth, in the mid-north of the state, in 1933 he built a primary glider, cutting all of the timber for the spars and ribs from a solid log of spruce, and making all of the metal fittings himself in his home workshop. After six months, once the machine was completed, he formed the Northern Gliding Club, of which Charles Kingsford Smith was patron.

When Harold Bottrill was posted back to Adelaide, he took his glider with him, flying it at O'Halloran Hill, Pooraka, Tea Tree Gully and on the sea front at Seaford. When moved again by the PMG, to Alice Springs in central Australia, he donated the machine to the Gliding Club of S.A.

Ultimately, his primary glider was sold to form the Waikerie club in 1937.
The sailplane 'Miss Australia I' joined it there in 1938.

Almost all of the clubs went into recess during WW II, and unfortunately most of the machines didn't survive, or were mislaid.

After the war new gliding clubs began to spring up. In 1950, Edmund Schneider, well known German glider designer (Grunau Baby etc) and manufacturer, was invited to come to Australia and set up a factory. He accepted and arrived with his family in 1951. They moved to S.A. in early 1952 and set up a factory/workshop, eventually being located at Parafield Airport.

Many sailplanes were designed and built by Edmund Schneider and his son Harry. Among these is the venerable Kookaburra, which was the backbone of two-seater training in Australia from the mid-1950's to the end of the 60's. The ES60 Boomerang first flew in November 1964, and immediately proved to be superior to imported sailplanes, until the advent of glass-fibre construction. (In 1994, during a sports class contest, one pilot averaged 113 km/h over the course in his Boomerang against a 15m fibreglass machine's 120 km/h.)