[1] An earlier club with similar aims and membership was the South Australian Club, founded in 1838, which purchased the Victoria Hotel from William Williams on Hindley Street for their premises.

The club house was built in the same year as the club's establishment in 1864,[7] after 14 prominent colonists, including John Baker, John Morphett and Arthur Blyth, raised £4000 for the building.

The building was designed by one of the founding members, Edward Angus Hamilton, and the club adopted the grass tree as their crest.

[8] The majority of the founding members were pastoralists, with a large number of businessmen, and there were many lawyers and government officials among them.

In 1980, the club house was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate.