Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, has been deliberately planned with parks and gardens surrounding the CBD. Botanic Park is one such park and is located between Adelaide Zoo and Adelaide Botanic Gardens. The Bicentennial Conservatory is just a five minute walk from where I took these photos.

Links:

• Adelaide Botanic Gardens
• Bicentennial Conservatory
• Adelaide Zoo

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

As a treat for my many readers, today we will have something a little different. Instead of an article about somewhere I’ve travelled to, I want to share some photos of my favourite places.

Enjoy.

If you’d like to leave a birthday message in the comments section, that would also be great.

Australian Pelican, Mallacoota, Victoria

Ama Dablam, Nepal

Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour

Giant Panda, Adelaide Zoo, South Australia

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

At the end of August we took our daughter to Adelaide Airport. She was on her way to teach for the rest of the year in Ethiopia. After seeing her off we drove to Botanic Park near the CBD of Adelaide. Here we had a picnic lunch before driving back home.

Adelaide’s park-lands are a feature of this beautifully planned city. The main park-lands, of which this is just one section, surround the CBD and separate it from the suburbs. It’s certainly a wonderful place to picnic and spend some time relaxing.

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Tungkillo Hotel, South Australia

When we go to visit our daughter in Clare in the mid north of South Australia, we usually go through the small township of Tungkillo. This town is near the eastern slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges on the road from Adelaide through Birdwood to Mannum.

In all the times we have driven through this town, I recall only stopping on one occasion – to buy an ice cream from the general store – the only store which is now closed. The hotel (shown in the photos) does good meals I believe, but we’ve never been through the town at the right time to stop for a bite to eat. The town is a small community in the midst of farming country, mainly sheep, mohair goats, cattle and some wheat farming where it isn’t too hilly.

The photo below also shows a large pipeline. This transports water from the River Murray at nearby Mannum to the reservoirs which store water for our state capital city, Adelaide.

Tungkillo Hotel, South Australia

Hay bales near Tungkillo, South Australia

Stenhouse Bay jetty, Yorke Peninsula

Stenhouse Bay on the southern end of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia was once a thriving port. It was established in 1913 when gypsum was mined in nearby Inneston. The rock, once treated, was used in the building industry as plaster of paris and cement. Many older homes in Adelaide have plaster ceilings made from gypsum mined in this area. The mining works closed in 1972 and many of the houses in Stenhouse Bay and Inneston were demolished. Some still remain and are used by the national park rangers, either for staff accommodation or  for hire for tourists. I’ll show some photos of them in a few days.

Stenhouse Bay jetty, Yorke Peninsula

Historic Elephant House, Adelaide Zoo

The beautiful old 19th century building shown above used to house the elephants at Adelaide Zoo. The zoo no longer houses elephants here and it has been converted into an historic interpretive centre (see photo below).

I can remember going for a ride on an elephant at the Adelaide Zoo when I was a child (more than 50 years ago). The last elephant held in this zoo’s animal collection died at the Monarto Zoo section a few years ago. While neither section of the zoo currently holds any elephants, I understand there are plans to re-introduce some to Monarto Zoo in the next few years.

Historic Elephant House, Adelaide Zoo

Meerkats at Adelaide Zoo

Both sections of the Adelaide Zoo in South Australia have a god collection of Meerkats on display. These delightful animals are always a favourite with visitors to the main zoo in Adelaide as well as the Monarto section of the zoo.

Meerkats at Adelaide Zoo

Meerkats at Adelaide Zoo

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Adelaide Zoo

The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat can be found within about an hour’s drive of my home. Despite having driven in that area many times over the  last three decades, I’ve only ever seen one in its natural habitat on a handful of occasions. Being nocturnal accounts for the main reason for not having seen it more often.

Mind you, I’d rather not encounter this lovely animal on a dark night on a lonely country road. I’ve almost hit one while driving along late at night and would rather not do so. Not only would a car fatally wound a wombat (which is something I’d hate), but the car would not be in a good state after a collision with one of these solid, dumpy animals. It would be like hitting a rock.

This species is also found in other parts of southern South Australia and Western Australia. See the photo below for more information. There are two other species of wombat: the Common Wombat and the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat, the latter being critically endangered.

Further reading:

• Wombat - information on the Adelaide Zoo website.

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Adelaide Zoo

Tammar Wallaby, Adelaide Zoo

Tammar Wallabies are found in south western Western Australia. They inhabit coastal mallee scrublands and eucalypt woodlands. They tend to stay in dense vegetation during the day and feed mainly at night.They were previously also found in South Australia, but land clearing and introduced pests like foxes and cats are thought to have made them locally extinct in this area.

A feral population was established on a New Zealand island, and in the last decade a large number of these had been repatriated to Monarto Zoo (a part of Adelaide Zoo) and then reintroduced into Yorke Peninsula where they have established breeding populations.

You can read more about this species on the zoo website here.

Tammar Wallaby, Adelaide Zoo