Adelaide from the Foothills

My city, Adelaide, capital of South Australia, is a coastal city of just over one million inhabitants, situated on the plains of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St. Vincent and the Mount Lofty Ranges. It is 20 km from the coast to the foothills, but it stretches 90 km from its northern extent to the southern beaches.
South Australia was first charted by Capt. Matthew Flinders in 1802 in H.M.S. Buffalo.
On 8 April 1802, while sailing east, Flinders met up with the French explorer Nicolas Baudin, who was sailing west aboard Le Géographe. Both men had been sent by their governments on separate expeditions to map the unknown southern coastline of Australia. Flinders and Baudin met and exchanged details of their discoveries and Flinders later named the site of their meeting Encounter Bay. What was unknown to both men at the time, was that England and France were at war.
This is a view from the Mount Lofty Ranges, looking over the capital city of the only freely-settled British province in Australia.
The Square Mile of the city of Adelaide has wide boulevards and large public squares, and is entirely surrounded by parklands.
If you click on the image you may see this more clearly. Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate, where most of the rain falls in the winter months and there is usually no appreciable snowfall.
I hope this will help to introduce my city and I look forward to zooming-in on future occasions.

Carrick Hill House, overlooking the city.

It's now time to focus on the more cultural aspects of Adelaide.

This is grand old home at Springfield in the Adelaide foothills, was built in the 1930's.
"Carrick Hill" was the home of Sir Edward and Lady Hayward and built in the style of an English manor. It is one of the few period homes in Australia to have survived with its grounds undiminished and most of its original contents intact. Carrick Hill was bequeathed to the state on Sir Edward's death in 1983 (his wife having predeceased him). It is open to the public for most of the year, but is closed during July for essential maintenance.

I took this photo at a friend's wedding and naturally relished the opportunity of soaking up the charm of this lovely old residence.

Koka Kola and Pepsy Kola

At home in the Adelaide Hills there is abundant wildlife. A few kilometres from here, there is dense native bushland where kangaroos can be encountered sunning themselves on the warm bitumen roads.
These two furry friends are our KOALAS and they live high up in the Gum (Eucalyptus) Trees around our property. I took this photo after the baby had fallen to the ground from quite a height, bounced and carefully clawed it's way back up again to it's mother's back.
Koalas are not bears nor placental mammals. They, like Kangaroos, are MARSUPIALS, and they simply eat gum tree leaves and very little water. If one stands below them one may think it's raining. Wrong!
The males, when mating, make such a din, the sound could be mistaken for a fierce rhinoceros.
This baby is just recently out of the mother's pouch, but climbs back in from time to time.
Here is a precis about them from Wikipedia; perhaps a bit too detailed!

Marsupials are mammals in which the female has a pouch in which it rears its young through early infancy. The female has two vaginas, both of which open externally through one orifice but lead to different compartments within the uterus. Males usually have a two-pronged penis which corresponds to the females' two vaginas. The penis only passes sperm. The pregnant female develops a yolk sac in her womb which delivers nutrients to the embryo. The embryo is born at a very early stage of development (at about 4-5 weeks), upon which it crawls up its mother's belly and attaches itself to a nipple (which is located inside the pouch). It remains attached to the nipple for a number of weeks. The offspring later passes through a stage where it temporarily leaves the pouch, returning for warmth and nourishment.

Off to the Back of Beyond

I recently rented a twin engined, 10 seater, Piper light aircraft to fly a group of friends to William Creek (Population, 4), in northern South Australia. On the way up, we flew over the "Marree Man", which is my photo, today.
The Marree Man, is a geoglyph discovered by air in 1988 and depicts an indigenous Australian man, of the Pitjantjatjata tribe, hunting animals with a throwing stick.
Lying 60 km west of Marree, the figure is 4.2 km high with a circumference of 15–28 km. It is the largest known geoglyph in the world and is estimated to have taken between four and eight weeks to create, but despite this, its origins are extremely mysterious, with not a single witness to any part of the massive operation.
The lines of the figure were 20–30 cm in depth at the time of discovery and up to 35 metres in width. It was made with a 2.5 metre wide, eight-tine plough which was attached to a tractor, with the lines needing as many as 14 passes. The tractor would have had to have travelled an estimated 400 km and used up more than 300 litres of fuel.
Check out (and thanks to) Wikipedia: "Marree Man".
The Google Earth Co-ords. are 29 32 11.05 south and 137 28 03,64 east

Eat it or Photograph it?

After celebrating AUSTRALIA DAY one naturally thinks of breakfast and where better, than on Kangaroo Island, the 3rd biggest island of Australia. Here, one can view Australia at a safe distance and commune with nature (or a hangover), face to face.
Breakfast on this island paradise naturally comprises of Champagne and bacon and eggs, Jude's specialty. Dennis has flown in from Oregon to adjudicate and yep, guess who's salivating with the camera.
After feeding the troops, Advance Australia Fair should be sung, but most Aussies don't know the words. We do, however know the second verse of God Save the Queen. "Thy greatest gifts in store, on her be pleased to pour, Long may she reign."
At this point we're all pleased to pour another Champagne to the tune, "may she defend our shores and ever give us cause, to sing with heart and v,,,, at which stage the voice has given out and the fish are biting. The Queen is forgotten and the lunch (beer) loaded in the boat and that's another day down under.

Happy Australia Day

No matter where you are on the face of the globe, IT'S AUSTRALIA DAY. We celebrate the landing of the Fist Fleet at Botany Bay, New South Wales on January 26 1788.

However grand an occasion that may be, here in South Australia we celebrate by a day at the beach or the cricket, some have friends around for a hit of tennis and the mandatory barbeque under the stars.

This young man elected to go to the beach wearing his baseball cap (from Santa Clara) and watch the world go by. The young ladies wore a range of various hats too and the local General Store Proprietor drove the 1.5 kilometers down the beach to sell icecreams and drinks.

If you Google search Maslin Beach you'll soon get the hang of it. HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY TO ALL

The Murray Princess on the Mighty Murray

Here's a lovely old paddle steamer trundling upstream on south-eastern Australia's lifeline, the mighty Murray.
You could say this location is somewhere between Adelaide and the "Back of Beyond".
Walker's flat is a popular destination for Shack Owners who, on weekends and holidays go water skiing, have mates round for a barbeque and a beer and unlax. It's about 90 kilometres east of Adelaide as the crow flies. Languages spoken range from Ozzie to Swahili depending on the lateness of the hour. Most sentences end in "Nah worries mate", which roughly translates as "d'accord" in French. On Google Earth rip over to 34 45 49.47 S - 139 34 14 . 70 E.
Today the Solar Day was 14 hours and 55 seconds long at Walker's Flat.

In Adelaide, the majority of cars are either locally built or imported from Japan. Naturally some discerning motorists recognise quality and make a bold statement in their taste in motor cars.

Aussie motoring in the proper style

In Adelaide, the majority of cars are either locally built or imported from Japan. Naturally some discerning motorists recognise quality and make a bold statement in their taste in motor cars.

Yippee, My First Posting

Welcome to my first post, and I look forward to showing you a photo a day, from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.

Today my daughter and I have tackled the ins and outs of Blogger.com, and have successfully added my first photograph and blog to Adelaide Daily Photo!