Torrens Island Sanctuary which overlays the entire island. Torrens Island Torrens Island is an island in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Port River Estuary between the Port River and Barker Inlet, about northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. Since European settlement of Adelaide in 1836, it has been used for a number of purposes. Being uninhabited, an island, adjacent to Port Adelaide, and near Outer Harbor, Torrens Island was initially used as the site of a Quarantine Station for new arrivals (by sea) to South Australia. One example of its use was during the so-called "Boonah crisis".
Electoral district of Torrens 1938 election, lasting until the 1985 election, though it was won once by Labor at the 1944 election. Torrens was one of just three metropolitan seats (with Burnside and Mitcham) won by the Liberal and Country League in 1965 and 1968. Torrens was recreated in its current state for the 1993 election, based on much of the abolished seats of Gilles and Todd, as a nominally marginal Labor seat, but was won for the Liberal Joe Tiernan. Tiernan died while in office in 1994, and Robyn Geraghty reclaimed the seat for Labor at the Torrens by-election with an 8.6 percent