Take a step back in time and look in on Adelaide streets as they were 100 years ago.

In these unique digital montages, Adelaide people of 1914 mingle with their 21st century counterparts on streets that retain an uncanny resemblance to the way they were.

South Australians, seemingly oblivious to the impending war, stand on street corners chatting, their lives merged with their modern counterparts who scurry about their business.

The original photographs were taken around 1914 on glass plate negatives.

The photographers used large format field cameras, propped on the back of trucks, or standing precariously on shop awnings – unrestricted by modern OHS laws.

To match the perspective and view of the old cameras, the modern scenes were created from a mash-up of three to five photographs taken on a digital camera.

Each image has been hand-blended from the old and new to create individual digital montages bringing together the lives of Adelaide people going about their daily routines despite the separation of a century of history.

The experience of "being Australian" had not yet been defined on the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Western Front; Australia was about to change in unimaginable ways when these photographs were taken, but in some ways, as the montages suggest, perhaps Adelaide has not changed that much.

Corner of Rundle and Charles Streets, Adelaide, taken 16 July 1915, showing shoppers passing Brunkhorst's premises. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Unknown photographer. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )

People attending a Boer War Memorial service in North Terrace, viewed from the corner of King William Street looking to the south-east. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Unknown photographer. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )

Overhead view of King William Street, Adelaide looking north from the Town Hall clock tower; pedestrians mingle with horse drawn vehicles and electric trams. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Alfred Searcy. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )

Crowds of holiday-makers walking on the jetty at Henley Beach, others are on the sands or the foreshore. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Alfred Searcy. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )

A team of four rowers and their cox working out on the Torrens River at Adelaide. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Alfred Searcy. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )

An electric tram and shoppers in The Parade, Norwood, with the Norwood town hall in the background. The town hall is now obscured by trees which have replaced the tram line. ( 1914 - State Library of SA: Alfred Searcy. 2014 - 891 ABC Adelaide: John Donegan )