Rain! - In South Australia?

Wednesday 1 November

Stamford Plaza, Adelaide - what a lovely hotel – very civilized – with all the facilities you need. It’s a shame we didn’t have time to visit the pool and spa area (hopefully we will have time in Auckland when we stay in a Stamford Plaza Hotel again). Following breakfast, we all trooped on the coach for a short tour of Adelaide city.

This area was first settled in 1836 when an Englishman had the idea of creating a Utopian community without the use of convict labour – Sydney, Perth and Van Diemansland (Tasmania) had all used convicts as a work force to clear the land, construct residences for the gentry, work the fields for food and any other labour required. He applied to the English government for 300,000 acres of land, which would be divided up into plots, and wealthy gentry would be asked to pay 2 GBP per acre (in those days this was a lot of money), to provide funds to pay a workforce to build the city. At first the government refused, but eventually, after receiving support from many wealthy families, they agreed. The first surveyor of the area was William Light, son of Francis Light who was so influential in Penang. Unfortunately he died before his plans for the city could be finalised. The new surveyor, John Heinmarsh, was very unpopular, but he divided the area into 380 x 1 acre plots on the north side of the river and 700 x 1 acre plots to the south, which left about 2,000 acres for gardens and parkland. When the English King, William IV, heard of the settlement he decreed it would be called ‘Adelaide’ in honour of his wife. Today the city still boasts large areas of parks and gardens, making it appear very green and spacious. Our first stop was at a look-out point where there was a statue of William Light looking back across the Torrens Lake river to the Adelaide Oval, where one of the Ashes tests will be played later this month. It took several Governors and eight years before the area became self-sufficient.

This city is also known as the “city of churches”. The first church was built in 1838, and by the early 1900’s there were 100 Protestant and Catholic churches, but 600 Methodists (serving only 15% of the population). The cathedral, St Peters, is sited on the river bank, just down from our hotel, and is also built of sandstone, although the original design was for a brick construction.

Right opposite the hotel was a large two storey ‘brown’ building (built of red sandstone with woodwork painted dark brown and darkened windows) that used to be the railway terminus – in fact the ground floor is still the railway, but the first floor was turned into a casino a few years ago, much to the disgust of certain parts of the Adelaide community. Some of the older buildings have either been demolished, rather than refurbished (not so many as other state capitals), or the facades have been kept and new modern interiors built around them, so that you can get a flavour of what the city was like in olden days. The original exteriors were decorated with wrought iron latticework around the balconies (all buildings of any consequence had balconies and verandahs) – and much of the raw material for these was taken from the fittings on the boats bringing raw materials to this port. The library, art gallery and court house are examples of this. Apparently there is a unique exhibition of Aboriginal art permanently displayed in the art gallery, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop and view it. We also saw the house that the founder of Ayers Rock lived in while in Adelaide – he threw great parties here for the well-to-do.

Adelaide city is a very pleasant city, not too big, not too busy, but clean and smart. The suburbs are all “bungalow” developments, which I still find strange – they are built close together, with common open spaces nearby, served by wide dual carriageways, with grassy central reservations. The Australian Formula 1 race used to be held in this city but in the mid 1990s it was moved to Melbourne – Adelaide citizens are not happy about this and are fighting hard to get the grand prix back. Leighton Hewitt, the tennis player came from Adelaide and we passed the tennis courts he used to practice on.

Having seen most of the sights, even if briefly, we made tracks out of Adelaide, retracing yesterday’s route back to the Clare Valley, a major wine growing region of South Australia. The winery we were visiting was called Sevenhills, and produces most of the wine used in Churches in Australia, Asia and New Guinea (about 25% of its crop), as it is run by a monastery of Jesuit priests and novices. There is a large church built in the grounds, dating back to the 1860’s – not so long after this region was first settled and the crypt contains the remains of all the abbots who have served here. The monks appear to live in austere accommodation, some of it dating back to 1868.


Sevenhills’ range of 18 varieties of vines grow in 50 hectares of land and a full range of white, red and rose wines are produced as well as some fortified wines – sherries and ports – as well as liqueurs. We tasted a range of the drinks produced – the dry sherry was quite good – would have been better with lots of ice; the Reisling was harsh and slightly sour; the Gertztrammer was smooth, but perfumed; the Rose was not nice at all, very, very dry and unappetizing, as if it hadn’t been maturing long enough; the Grenache was quite pleasant and probably the most palatable; the merlot and shiraz were both thin, and needed more ‘legs’. All in all, we were not that impressed by the wines we tasted, but it was only 11.00 in the morning, and possibly a little early to best appreciate wines. We had sufficient time to wander around and see the church, which was minimalistic in everything except the altar vestments and the stained glass windows. We wondered how many people attended services here, as the Church was at the far end of the groves of vines, well away from the nearest town.

There are over 33 separate wine growing areas in Australia, with 80% of the 4.5 billion litres produced each year being exported – England takes the lion’s share, followed by the US and Europe. This region is one of the most important regions in the country, with companies like Penfolds, Wolfblass and Barbarossa Valley, situated here. There are lots of varieties of grape within the wine plantations, mostly propagated from cuttings brought from England by the first settlers. Shiraz, Chardonnay and Cabinet Sauvignon are the most popular grapes, although the Merlot variety is fast catching up with the others. Recently there has been a glut of wine, and to dispose of some of the surplus stocks, even though it may be top quality – it may be sold to other bottlers, who call the wine “clean grape” and only state the area where it was produced, not the specific company. These wines can be bought for just a couple of Australian dollars – very cheap.

This part of South Australia depends almost entirely on agriculture for its economy, the land divided between huge tracts of wheat and vast groves of vines. The grapes are usually produced in the valleys, near a water supply, while the wheat is grown on the rolling hills and plains in great yellow swathes. We saw many farmers out cutting and threshing their wheat today, and the fields – although considerably larger – resembled England’s corn fields in the September sun.

We returned to the nearby town of Clare for lunch – major roadworks were causing havoc with the traffic as well as covering everything in proximity with a thick layer of dust. After a brief snack and drink, we were soon on our way again, making for Quorn. As we neared the town we could see the Flinders Ranges in the distance, the highest land in South Australia. The landscape became more and more barren and scrubby. Over the hills dark enveloping clouds began to surround us. On the right side of the coach we could see a large dust storm whirling the sandy soil into the air. On the left side, the dark clouds dropped lower, obliterating the landscape almost entirely in some places. And then it began to rain!! Everyone on the coach was very surprised (not least the driver, who had to get out his tool kit and repair one of the wipers – it had probably never been used before) – no one had expected to see rain on this trip. At first it was a short shower, just enough to wet the road, but later as we approached Quorn it came down more heavily, forming puddles – a phenomena to the Aussies. Consequently we only stopped for a toilet break in the town, (we are due back here for lunch tomorrow – there appeared to be about three dilapidated hotels, all looking as if they were still in the 1950’s – with old-fashioned dark wood bars and shelves with mirrors behind (like in the cowboy films), and bar stools and ancient sash windows. There were only a couple of young girls returning home from school to be seen. This town grew up because one of the first train lines in Australia went from Quorn to Port Augusta – the train still runs at weekends and on special occasions, as a tourist attraction.

In the late 1840’s a surveyor, George Goiter, surveyed the whole of South Australia on horseback and delineated a line where he thought farmers would not be able to sustain a living and identifying it with boundary markers. Needless to say, some farmers crossed this line, and for some years, even scraped a poor living. But many lost their livelihoods during severe droughts that followed, although three farmsteads managed to survive in the Flinders Range area, Wilpena Pound, Arona and Akabar, until the first two were incorporated into the National Park system about 30 years ago and the third still operates as a private company.


South Australia has an average of 550 mm of rainfall per year, and much of their supply is from boreholes, particularly outside the capital. As we made our way to Wilpena Pound, in the Flinders Range National Park, the rain grew heavier and lightning forked across the sky. It was really quite dark – so different from the beautiful sunshine when we left Adelaide. Red gum trees with huge girths and tall slender white Cyprus pines (hated by termites, so used to build houses and fences) grew in the scrubby land at the side of the road, and we saw lots of kangaroos, some sheltering under bushes, others progressing in giant hops across the ground. There are east and west greys, reds, wallabies and a couple of other kinds – but I couldn’t tell the difference – I was just so elated to see kangaroos in the wild. Some are quite small, some had babies peeping out from their pouches, and others are huge powerful beasts, taller than us – making giant leaps along the roads – perhaps that why there are so many casualties. Our tour leader saw several skinks on the ride here (from the front of the coach) – but they move away quickly at the sound of the approaching coach, so most of us didn’t catch a glimpse.

We rode through the Flinders Range – named after Matthew Flinders, a young man who rode all the way round the Australian coast between 1801 and 1803, mapping the shoreline. He saw these mountains from Spencer Gulf, and named them after himself. The highest mountain he named Mount Brown – but nobody is sure why.

Our goal for tonight was Wilpena Pound (Wilpena being the Aborigine word for “cut hand” or “bent hand”) – a natural bowl formed during major movements of the earth’s surface millions of years ago. It is about 17 km long, 8km wide and has a circumference of about 57 kms. There is a large grassy pound at the base and as there is only one entrance, it has been used by farmers over the years, to graze their stock as there was no way the animals could climb the cliffs and escape, and it was also easy to round them up. We are staying at a resort nearby the path up to the entrance of the Pound. Once again we are staying in “motel” terraced rooms, and as it is far out in the wilderness, we expected the accommodation to be similar to the lodges in Thailand – but we were wrong. The rooms are carpeted, with all mod cons. The bathrooms are well equipped and there is tea and coffee making facilities and air conditioning.

The coach driver unloaded all the luggage in the rain – and as soon as we had settled ourselves in Room 15, we went to the bar for an aperitif, passing an open air swimming pool on the way (looking quite inviting). The bar was a large barn like structure, where we could sit and watch as more kangaroos bounced past. It had stopped raining for a short while, but while eating dinner, we could see the rain falling in a continuous stream from the overhanging roofs. The food here was buffet style, including roast beef and chicken schnitzels, veggies and salad. For desert there was bread and butter pudding with cream and a sickly chocolate mousse – two of Colin’s favourites.

Tomorrow we are treated to a bit of a lie in as we don’t leave this resort until midday. We have volunteered to go on the walk up the side of the pound to see the view, while others are taking flights over the area – we are saving our pennies for Ulura (Ayers Rock). The rain has stopped again now, so hopefully we can expect a dry and sunny morning.

I doubt I am going to be able to post this blog till tomorrow at the earliest as we cannot get a mobile phone line out – so may have to “work” on the coach again.