Adelaide is Australia's fifth
largest city. Adelaide is the only major metropolis in the world to have
its city centre completely surrounded by parkland. Today, driving along
King William Street towards the Torrens, the layout of this city is
immediately evident. Past the Adelaide Oval, considered by many one of the
finest-looking traditional cricket grounds in the world, you cross the
Torrens River to arrive at North Terrace. (For children, a trip on Popeye,
a launch that plies the river from near the Festival Centre to the
Adelaide Zoo, is a great outing.) This tree-lined boulevard has many fine
buildings: Government House, the State Library, the South Australian
Museum, the Art Gallery of
South
Australia (which contains the larges
collection of Aboriginal artifacts in the world and Adelaide University. A
little further along, past the Royal Adelaide Hospital, are the Botanical
Gardens and the State Herbarium, begun in 1855. These gardens include the
oldest glasshouse in an Australian botanical garden, and the only Museum
of Economic Botany; the Conservatory contains a tropical rainforest. The
the west of King William Street is Parliament House, completed in 1939; a
little further along, in what once was the Adelaide Railway Station is the
Adelaide Casino.
Continuing along King William Street you come to Rundle and Hindley
Streets - the former is the shopping heart of Adelaide, the latter is the
night spot centre - then the town hall. A little further south is Victoria
Square, with lawns and a fountain, the terminus for the Glenelg tram, and
the clock tower of the GPO. King William Street continues to South
Terrace, where gardens and parks, including the rose garden and
conservatory and the Himeji Gardens (a traditional Japanese garden), make
up the southern perimeter of the city proper.
Being so close to the Barossa Valley and the wineries of the Vales to the
south, it is no wonder that Adelaide boasts more restaurants per capita
than any other city in Australia. Hindley and Rundle Streets in the heart
of the city, Gouger Street, close to Victoria Square, and O'Connell and
Melbourne Streets in North Adelaide are the best places to go.
Eating out three meals a day can get expensive for travellers. But an Adelaide hostel offers guests a free breakfast and self-catering facilities to prepare other meals.
Glenelg, on the coast just 10 km from the city centre, and a city in its
own right, is the summer playground for Adelaide residents and visitors -
the larges amusement park in the State, and many restaurants, are here.
Port Adelaide, 25 minutes west of the city, is home to the South
Australian Maritime Museum, the Historic Military Vehicles Museum, and the
South Australian Historical Aviation Museum, among others. Here you can
also cruise on an old sailing ketch, or take a steam train ride along the
old Semaphore Railway.
The beaches south of Port Adelaide (including Glenelg) are ideal places to
swim and many have a jetty where kids and adults can dangle a line.
Further south the beaches are even better; surfers love the breaks in and
around Christies Beach, Moana and Seaford. For divers there are the reefs
and marine sanctuaries at Port Noarlunga or at Aldinga. The nearby Mount
Lofty Ranges offer other nature experiences - seeing native animals close
up at Cleland Wildlife Park, picnics and day bushwalks at Belair National
Park, and rock climbing at Morialta Falls Conservation Park.
Any mention of Adelaide must include reference to its major international
festival, the Adelaide Festival, held in March; artists from around the
world come to perform here. There are a host of other festivals and
events, including Adelaide Fringe Festival in February, the Oakbank Racing
Carnival in April, the Royal Adelaide Show in late August/early September,
and the International Rose Festival in October. In the Adelaide Hills, the
Barossa Valley or down along the Fleurieu Peninsula there are many other
festivals.
For the history buff there are the Mortlock Library of historical
material, the Migration and Settlement Museum and the South Australian
Police Museum, and the SA Theatre Museum, a magnificent complex of halls
and theatres.
