From the moment the South Australian Heritage Act was proclaimed in 1978, a range of interest groups sought to influence heritage policies at both state and local government levels. As noted positively by Davis et al., ‘organisations make a significant contribution to the distribution of influence and the circulation of policy ideas. Groups advocate solutions for public problems — whether through the discrete lobbying of business councils or the more public displays of farmers and conservationists’. With regard to heritage, the groups advocating policies that would permit unrestricted development in Adelaide, even occasionally for listed heritage buildings, were developers, architects, financial institutions and others with commercial interests in the building industry. Their lobby groups were the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), the Property Owners and Ratepayers Association, and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), although many members of the RAIA supported the preservation of historic architecture. Among Adelaide's heritage lobby groups, some were organised and more or less dedicated to the preservation of the city's Victorian and Edwardian character that remained during the Bannon decade, and some were ad hoc and informal, with a more narrow focus on saving an individual building.