The suburb is a service area for the City of Salisbury district, with many parklands, shops, cafés and restaurants.

Salisbury was founded by John Harvey, who arrived in the province of South Australia from Scotland in 1839 as a young single man, three years after the establishment of government by British settlers.

[9] Salisbury railway station was built in 1857 on the 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad-gauge main northern line to Gawler.

[6] The District Council of Salisbury was established in 1933 (amalgamating Yatala North south of the Little Para and Munno Para West to the north)[16] which centred local governance of the area on the main population centre between Enfield and Gawler, the township of Salisbury.

By January 1943, 6500 persons were employed, producing 135,000 shells, bombs and mines per week.The population of the district doubled to more than 4000,[6] most being concentrated in the Salisbury township, [18] bringing to an end the bucolic life of the townspeople.

[19]: 45  Four years after the war had ended and the factory had closed, a large influx of newcomers again occurred when about 1000 employees of a new rocket testing project were progressively accommodated at a new South Australian Housing Trust estate at Salisbury North, which started to take shape in 1949.

In morning peak hours, there are several trains that run non-stop between Salisbury and Adelaide (or make only one stop, at Mawson Interchange).

As the size of the congregation increased, a second church, designed by Daniel Garlick in Gothic style, was built in 1865, after the first foundation stone was laid by Bishop Augustus Short in 1858.

The replacement church was gutted by fire in 1989, after being heritage-listed on the Register of the National Estate for its fine stained glass windows and other significant architectural and historical features.

[30] The redevelopment consisted of three stages, with five specialty stores added to the eastern side mall, the relocation of the Coles supermarket and external upgrades, which were completed in 2017.