Adelaide

When the first Europeans arrived in the area what is now Adelaide, it was inhabited by some 300 people of the peaceful Kaurna tribe. Their territory extended south towards Cape Jervis and north towards Port Wakefield. They had close ties with the Narungga people of Yorke Peninsula. Little is known about the social life of the Kaurna, but evidence shops that they were skilled at working with skins and fibers. Already before the arrival of the Europeans, the Kaurna people had been affected by epidemics of Western diseases, such as smallpox, which had arrived at the region down the Murray River from New South Wales, where the Europeans had arrived earlier.

In December 1836 the site for Adelaide was chosen by the colony's Surveyor-General, Colonel William Light, for its well-drained, fertile soil and the proximity of the Torrens River, which guaranteed a ready water supply. Colonel William Light also created the city's remarkable design. The settlement was named after Queen Adelaide, the wife of the British King William IV.

Adelaide was one of the few places in Australia that was settled by free people and the city has no convict history. The British government never provided the colony any financial backing, so when the city started booming, most of the money that was generated, stayed in the state, unlike most other places in the country. As a result, Adelaide was a prosperous place. The colony gave new settlers civil and religious liberty and by 1839, large numbers of Lutherans fleeing religious persecution were arriving from Prussia. In 1840, Adelaide's European population was 6557, but by 1851 that number stood at 14,577. By the early 1840's Adelaide had some 30 satellite villages, including the German settlements of Hahndorf, Klemzig and Lobethal. It was in these villages that the state's wine industry was founded.

Adelaide's growth rate has always been closely tied to its prosperity. A wheat boom in the 1870's and 1880's caused a building boom. Nowadays, you can still see many of the beautiful buildings that were built during these decades. During WWI, the 1920's and the post-WWII years periods of rapid expansion took place. After WWII, many new migrants from Europe arrived, especially from Italy. They brought the café culture that lends Adelaide its relaxed ambience.

During the late 1960's and 1970's, South Australia made several ground-breaking political reforms. Sexual discrimination, racial discrimination and capital punishment were prohibited and Aboriginal land rights were recognized. South Australia's original settlers had been the first to recognize Aboriginal ownership of land, but that didn't prevent them from occupying it.

Adelaide has developed as a linear city squeezed between the Mt Lofty Ranges and the sea. The suburbs stretch from Maslins Beach in the south and Gawler in the north and nearby towns are increasingly becoming dormitories for city workers. The Barossa Valley, the Adelaide Hills and Southern Vales have been protected and no more houses are built there.

Adelaide's early colonists built their dwellings with stone. They constructed a solid, dignified city that is civilized and calm in a way that no other Australian state capital can match. Apart from solid architecture, Adelaide had a solid religious community too. The city was once regarded as a place of wowsers (read: puritan spoilsports) and it was renowned chiefly for its disproportionately large number of churches.

Adelaide has a marvelous setting. The center is surrounded by green parkland and the metropolitan area is bound by the hills of the Mt Lofty Ranges and the waters of the Gulf St Vincent. The city sits on the eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent, in the far south of South Australia.

Adelaide's grid pattern makes it an easy city to explore. Especially in the central business district it is very easy to find your way around. The center of town is formed by Victoria Square and the main drag, King William, runs right through it. The main shopping area is Rundle Mall. There you will find Adelaide's big department stores. Rundle Street's eastern end has some of the city center's best dining and boutique shopping. Parallel to Rundle Street runs the grand boulevard of North Terrace, the city's cultural center. A gallery, a museum, the state library and the university all straddle it. The Torrens River separates the city center from North Adelaide, and a green belt of parkland surrounds both areas.

When to Go

Summer (December to February) in Adelaide can be extremely hot and if you do not have access to a pool or an air conditioner it can be unpleasant. In late February, the three-week long Adelaide Arts Festival is held. In even-numbered years the festival takes place in the beginning of March. During the festival, you can see live drama, dance and music. It also includes a writers' week, art exhibitions and poetry readings and it is attended by guest speakers from all over the world. The Fringe Festival takes place around the same time and features alternative contemporary music and performance art. In odd-numbered years, the outdoor festival of Womadelaide is held in February.

Spring and autumn are probably the most pleasant times to visit Adelaide, while the winter, from June to August can be cold and soggy. Overall, Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate with maximum temperatures averaging 28°C between November and March. In winter, temperatures can fall below 10 degrees.

Places of interest

South Australian Museum

The South Australian Museum, with its huge whale skeleton in its front window, is one of Adelaide's landmarks. It is primarily a natural history museum that includes countless stuffed animals, but it has also good displays of Aboriginal artifacts, including an Aboriginal Dreamtime exhibition. The museum is situated on North Terrace.

Other Museums

Nearby the South Australian Museum are several other interesting museums. One of them is the excellent Migration Museum that tells the story of people from over 100 nationalities who have migrated to South Australia. The University's Museum of Classical Archaeology has an amazing collection of antiquities dating from the third millennium BC.

Art Gallery of Southern Australia

Entrance to the Art Gallery of Southern Australia is free. The gallery is next to the South Australian Museum and contains Australia's largest and one of its most comprehensive collections of domestic, Asian and European art. The exhibition includes a fine selection of paintings by great colonial and contemporary Australian artists. There is a fantastic collection of South-East Asian ceramics, as well as a display of decorative arts. The world's second-largest collection of Rodin sculptures can also be found there.

Festival Center

Adelaide's Festival Center resembles a squared-off version of the Sydney Opera House. It is the home of the Adelaide Festival, which consists of a variety of performance spaces and galleries. During the summer, free rock concerts are performed in the outside amphitheatre on Sundays. The Festival Center has a wonderful riverside setting. People picnic on the grass out the front and paddleboats to go out on the river, can be hired nearby.

Tandanya

Tandanya is an Aboriginal cultural institute containing galleries, arts and crafts workshops, performance spaces, a cafe and a gift shop. On Friday nights there are performances of plays and traditional music in the cafe.

Markets

Adelaide's East End Market is the place to head for alternative clothes and jewelry. The Orange Lane Market is the city's answer to Petticoat Lane. There you will find Indian fabrics, second-hand clothes, tarot readings, antiques and even massages on offer.

Glenelg

Despite of the occasional visits of giant white pointer sharks, the beautiful white, sandy beach at Glenelg is the most popular in Adelaide. There is no good surf, but the swimming is excellent (as long as the sharks stay away). Glenelg's old-style amusement park offers shooting games, scary rides and test-your-luck machines. East of the park's ferris wheels is the fun park of Magic Mountain. It includes waterslides, mini-golf and arcade games.

There are several relics from Adelaide's early days in Glenelg. The Old Gum Tree marks the spot where the proclamation of South Australia was read in 1836. The HMS Buffalo was the ship that brought the first settlers to the region. A replica of the ship is moored in Glenelg's boat harbor. There is a museum on the ship, where you can learn more about its voyage from England to South Australia. The ship also houses one of the Adelaide's best seafood restaurants. A vintage tram runs from the city center right to Glenelg beach.

Around Adelaide

Adelaide Hills

The scenic Adelaide Hills are only a 30 minutes drive from the city center. They are part of the Mt Lofty Ranges and a popular day trip destination. The hills are criss-crossed by a network of bush walking trails that stretches for more than 1000 km and also include a range of conservation parks. Well worth a visit are the historic townships of Birdwood, Clarendon, Strathalbyn and Hahndorf.

Hahndorf

Hahndorf is the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia. Hahndorf is a popular place for day-trippers from Adelaide. The town was settled in 1839 by Lutherans who left Prussia to escape religious persecution. Even nowadays the town has an honorary burgermeister (mayor).

Hahndorf is a major tourist attraction and it can get very busy, especially on weekends and during holidays. The town has many old German-style buildings, including the 1839 German Arms Hotel, which houses one of the best pubs in the Adelaide hills. The Hahndorf Academy was established in 1857. Nowadays it is home to an art gallery, craft shop and museum. In the museum you can see several paintings by Sir Hans Heysen, the famous landscape artist who lived in Hahndorf for many years.

The best time to visit Hahndorf, is on Founders Day, which is held over a weekend in March. Hahndorf is 29 km (18 miles) south-east of Adelaide and buses ply the route several times a day.

McLaren Vale

The Barossa Valley is the best-known of South Australia's winery destinations, but McLaren Vale is much more accessible from Adelaide. The area is especially suited to red wines and the first winery was established there in 1838. Demand in the 70's prompted growers to change crops and nowadays the production of white wine is very important too. There are more than 20 wineries with cellar-door sales in McLaren Vale. The surrounding countryside is home to another 50 wineries. Many of these sellers reside in the beautiful old buildings that were originally constructed there.

At the end of October; the McLaren Vale Wine Bushing Festival takes place. It involves wine tasting and tours and it is finished off with a grand feast. Buses run between the wineries during the festival. Every day, three buses run the route between Adelaide and McLaren Vale; 30 km (19 miles) to the south.

Victor Harbor

Victor Harbor is the main town on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was founded in the 1830's as a sealing and whaling center. Whaling in the area was abandoned in 1864.

Not far off the coast from Victor Harbor is Granite Island. A double-decker tram pulled by Clydesdale horses uses the causeway that connects the island with the mainland to bring visitors there. The views across the bay, from the top of the hill, are wonderful. On Granite Island is an educational center, where you can learn more about the little penguins that roam the area. During the evenings you can watch the penguins coming back from fishing.

Southern right whales can sometimes be spotted, swimming near the causeway, between June and October. They pass through the area on their annual migration.

More information on the whales is available at the South Australian Whale Center in Victor Harbor. The center operates a whale information network that covers sightings up and down the South Australian coast. Victor Harbor is 84 km (52 miles) south of Adelaide. It has bus and tourist-train connections with Adelaide.

Other activities

The Mt Lofty Range is excellent for bush walking and there are several clubs in Adelaide that organize them. Sailing can be practiced along the shoreline of the Gulf of St Vincent. There are many beaches that offer good swimming possibilities, such as Seacliff, Brighton, Somerton and Glenelg. For surfing you have to go further away, as the surf around Adelaide is not good enough for that. Off Glenelg beach is an artificial reef that was designed for divers. At Thebarton are an indoor ice-rink and ski-slope where you can practice ice-skating and skiing all year round.

Transportation

Adelaide's airport is about 6 km (3.7 miles) west of the city center and is served by international carriers from all over the world. Adelaide has air connections with many other cities in Australia, including all of its state-capitals. Adelaide is far away from the other state-capitals in the country, so flying is often the best option. An airport bus connects the airport with many of Adelaide's hotels and hostels. The bus also makes a stop at the interstate train station.

Bus travel is cheaper than flying, but be prepared for long journeys, as distances are great. Adelaide has bus connections with all major cities in the country. There are often two choices: take one of the major lines that run direct routes between the large cities, or take a smaller bus and meander around a bit. The latter will be a longer trip, but also more interesting. Buses also run to Alice Springs and to regional centers in South Australia. Interstate buses arrive at Central, which is right in the center of town.

Transportation around Adelaide itself is easy, as the city has an integrated local transport system that includes metropolitan buses, trains and a tram that operates between the city center and Glenelg. The so-called O-Bahn bus way runs on concrete tracks between the city center and the Tea Tree Plaza shopping center.

Interstate trains run from Adelaide to Alice Springs, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. The interstate train terminal is in the suburb of Keswick, just southwest of the city center.

Adelaide is a cyclist-friendly city. There are various good cycling tracks, as well as bicycle lanes on many of the city's streets.

Accommodation and food

Accommodation in Adelaide ranges from camping grounds to up-market hotels. Whatever your budget, make sure you book well ahead if you intend to be in town during the Adelaide Arts Festival, as most rooms are fully booked during that event. Most hostels and budget hotels are in the southeastern corner of the city center. The area around Hindley Street offers many mid-range options, while the top-end hotels are concentrated on North Terrace.

Adelaide is famous for its focus on food and wine. The city has more restaurants per head of the population than any other city in Australia. Dining in Adelaide is a culinary adventure, as the city offers a huge variety of cuisines and wide range of local wines. Rundle Street, Hindley Street and North Terrace are the main food centers, where you will find many bars and restaurants.