Sweet Adelaide

Adelaide is the southern terminus of the Ghan railroad, and we disembarked there at noon on Monday June 6^th. It is the fourth largest city in Australia, located mid-country on the southern coast, and the center of large agricultural area. It is proud to say it was founded convict-free. Its sister city is Christchurch, NZ, (in the news again tragically with more quake damage) and reminded me of that city with a distinctive English flair and proud brick Edwardian buildings like the University of South Australia.

U. of S. A.

The CBD is oriented quite rectangularly and is easy to navigate. Most of the key tourist spots are within easy walking distance. Rundle Street Mall is a major shopping area, and further down the street there are plenty of attractive restaurants,

Interesting outdoor mall art

The South Australian Museum is well worth visiting, if only to see the world’s oldest wooden boomerang.

The collection of wooden shields really stood out

As did the decorated pearl shells from the north

and the above bark painting.

Next door is the Art Gallery of South Australia. One modern aboriginal painting was painted in reaction to British nucleartesting done 1955-1963 on traditional aboriginal lands which are still part of the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia. An unknown number of natives and servicemen were exposed to radiation and have suffered health effects.

Poison Country by Jonathan Kumintjara Brown

 There were also non-Australian works of interest, like this Burmese “Contemplation on the Impermanence of the Body”.

Also, this figure of “Buck with a Cigar” by Marc Quinn.

The Central Market is a local institution with a wide range of foods, produce, and knick-knacks.

Another local institution of the sporting variety is the Adelaide Oval, self-described as the “world’s prettiest cricket grounds". It is 140 years old. Many of cricket legend Don Bradman’s matches were played there and they have a statue of him out front

and a small museum with a collection of his memorabilia.  (I wrote some about The Don in the 4/23/11 blog.)

Adelaide is on a river and on the coast with some notable beach communities like historic Port Adelaide and the palindromic Glenelg, but time and inclement weather precluded spending much time there. As this long sabbatical winds up, there are two more locations on the agenda. Off to Tasmania!