Atlas Page 85
By Henry T. Burgess

The circumscribed area of the city, the increasing value of business sites, and considerations of health and pleasure, not to mention speculative land manias, have girdled Adelaide with a ring of suburban towns stretching for several miles in every direction. The topography of its surroundings has had a tendency in the same direction, for every part is suitable; there are no natural obstructions to traffic, and while some people from constitution or taste prefer the sea-side, others seek the upland slopes that overlook the plains. Among other advantages of the metropolis is its excellent train and tram service. King William Street is a focus whence lines diverge to every point of the compass. Four watering places can be reached in little more than half an hour from the North Terrace rail way station. There is a tram-line to Henley Beach, and the Glenelg train comes up to Victoria Square. North, east, and south, the metals are laid along the principal thorough fares leading to all the townships of any importance within a five-mile radius, and along from the Post Office to North Terrace there is a. constant procession of tram-cars.

The North Adelaide line, after passing, the Anglican Cathedral on Pennington Terrace —a site more convenient than conspicuous —climbs the North Adelaide hill obliquely, along the brow of which stand a number of handsome private residences. The ground-level here is really lower than that of the city proper, but by a curious optical illusion the spectator seems to look down from it across the park-lands, and the Mount Lofty range rises with singular abruptness and grandeur. To the left is the Brougham Place Congregational Church with its lofty snow-white tower. More in front are the buildings of the Children’s Hospital, and to the right Christ Church and Bishop’s Court. Along O’Connell Street are some good business premises, and in the cross-streets right and left may be seen other noble churches and spacious schools. Farther on is Prospect, and beyond that Enfield. To the north-east are Medindie and Walkerville, with numerous mansions, and beautiful gardens down to the river. The views from all the North Adelaide terraces are extensive and superb. The declivity near Ovingham looks down on the fertile breadths and dense plantations of the sewage farm at Islington and the plains between Adelaide and the Port. "Montefiore," the elegant residence of the chief justice, stands on a jutting plateau, and commands an uninterrupted view on three sides, the horizon being bounded only by the hills and the sea. In every direction the scenery is interesting and the landscape one of which the spectator never grows weary.

The Port line runs through Bowden, which is one of a cluster of contiguous townships devoted to manufactures. Here are gas-works, rope-works, brick-yards, fellmongeries, glass, pottery and other factories, around which is densely grouped a labouring population. Next comes Kilkenny, where there are foundries, then Woodville embosomed in trees —whence a branch line leads to the Grange —on to Alberton simmering among its sand-hills, which seems a continuation of the Port. Large mills, timber-yards covering several acres of ground, great blocks of warehouses, bonded stores and merchants’ offices, a fine pile of government buildings, an imposing town hall, stately churches, long lines of shops with plate-glass windows and deep verandahs, busy hotels and bustling streets, all indicate that the Port is a place of life and activity. The river presents an utterly different appearance from that of the shallow mangrove fringed inlet first explored by Admiral Pullen fifty years ago. Along its entire length the channel has been deepened and widened. Instead of nine feet six inches, there are now sixteen or seventeen feet at low water on both the inner and outer bars, and the basin opposite the principal wharves is six hundred feet wide. The total wharf frontage is nearly thirteen thousand feet. The principal dock has an area of five acres, and twenty-one feet depth of water. Steam hoists, cranes, tramways, freshwater pipes and all the appliances of a first-rate port are provided, including, a well-managed Seamen’s Home. About nine miles from the mouth of the estuary it is crossed by the Jervois swing-bridge, and thence there are continuous townships across the two miles of sandy peninsula to the Semaphore. At Glanville a short line branches off to Largs Bay, where a light-house on iron piles with a revolving white light points out the entrance to the creek. Though the coastline shows but little indentation, a large protecting shoal forms in some measure a natural breakwater, and there is generally smooth water at the anchorage. There is here a large marine hotel, and a pier two thousand three hundred feet long which at its outer end is forty-eight feet wide, with a depth of eighteen feet at low-water spring-tides. From its extremity looking south, the jetties at the Semaphore, Grange, Henley Beach, and Glenelg are distinctly visible. Overlooking the anchorage, and defending the port and its shipping from being shelled by hostile cruisers, are the only fortifications in the colony. These batteries mount two ten-inch guns, each weighing twenty tons, and two sixty-eight pounders. Low sandhills line the beach, forming a kind of natural rampart, behind which a military road has been constructed, and along it a defending Force could manoeuvre quickly and effectively. Over the plains between Adelaide at id the sea are numerous scattered townships, and almost all the open country is under cultivation. Vines and fruit-trees will flourish everywhere, and the Bankside vineyard is one of the largest in the colony. Heavy crops of lucerne and other fodder plants find a convenient market in the city close at hand.

Glenelg claims to be the front door of the colony, and is its most fashionable watering -place. Its smooth and sandy beach, broad and well-lighted pier, spacious baths, extensive and well-cared-for esplanades, splendid town hall, fine hotels, noble churches, and numerous and excellent lodging-houses, all proclaim that it does its best to merit these designations. In and near it are several princely mansions built by wealthy colonists, and the fleet of yachts and other pleasure-boats near the jetty is seductive to lovers of the sea. The time to see Glenelg at its best is on Commemoration Day, when the bay is the scene of aquatic sports, the pier crowded from end to end with spectators, the beach covered with booths, merry-go-rounds, and all the attractions of a fair, and dotted with picnic parties, and the streets are everywhere gay with bunting. At such times the crowd is estimated at anything between twenty and thirty thousand, and as many as fifteen thousand are conveyed to and fro by the Glenelg railway, alone. A little way inland is the Morphettville racecourse, with its elegant and spacious grand-stand and other appointments. Hard by is Sir Thomas Elder’s racing and training establishment. Three miles down the coast is Brighton, another favourite watering place, connected with Glenelg by a tram-line that passes through Somerton, and not far from it is a large building erected as an asylum for the blind, the deaf, and the dumb.

Due south of Adelaide is the municipality of Unley —covering between five and six square miles —which comprises several townships that are served by three distinct tram-lines. Within or near its boundaries are Way College, recently purchased by the Bible Christian denomination, a Home for Incurables at Fullarton, a large and lofty, Dominican convent and school standing in ten acres of ground, the buildings of which cost eight thousand pounds, and an appallingly extensive lunatic asylum at Parkside. Next to these the most conspicuous buildings are the churches, of which several are roomy and handsome. It is a favourite suburb for artisans, who occupy hundreds of comfortable detached cottages, each with its thriving garden, and there are many, more pretentious dwellings. Still farther south is Mitcham, the terminus of one of the tram-lines, and which the intercolonial railway just touches. It lies along the banks of Brownhill Creek, that runs through the fine estate of Torrens Park, formerly, the residence of Sir MT. W. Hughes, whose house, rising above the surrounding trees, looks like an English baronial mansion. The village spreads over the adjacent slopes, is picturesque everywhere, and all a garden. To the east and north another tram-line leads to Glen Osmond, through which defile the southern road to Mount Barker penetrates. Near by is one of Sir Thomas Elder’s splendid properties, and other wealthy colonists have made beautiful hollies in the locality.

The eastern suburbs are the most populous, and in many respects the most attractive. The municipality of Kensington and Norwood alone contains upwards of ten thousand people, and there are adjacent towns and villages not included in its limits. Norwood is a parallelogram in the centre, and through the middle of it runs the Parade, which is exactly in line with Rundle Street. But for an unfortunate deviation at Kent Town, there would be a continuous roadway in a straight line four miles in length from West Terrace to the hills. At the angle where the road is deflected the view spoiled by the ugly premises of the Kent Town brewery. A little to the right is the imposing facade of Prince Alfred College. Away to the left is St. Peter’s College, which has given a name to a cluster of townships that are grouped in the municipality of St. Peters. Continuing eastward, the Kent Town Wesleyan Church is conspicuous. It is a Gothic structure capable of accommodating thirteen hundred persons, and exceedingly attractive both within and without. Turning several corners, the tram-line reaches the Parade, a wide and beautiful thoroughfare adorned with some fine buildings-the post office, institute, town hall, the graceful spire of one church, and the elegant tower of another, at its eastern extremity, being especially prominent. The route passes through Kensington to Marryatville, whence another tram may be taken to Burnside, where the steeper slope of the hill is reached; hence it is a delightful ramble among the luxuriant gardens into the Waterfall Gully, which from the beauty of its rural scenery is a favourite resort. Willows overhang the watercourse; the valley has a succession of prolific gardens; there are new beauties at every turn till the waterfall itself is reached, where a streamlet pours over a ledge of rocks sixty to eighty feet in height. A path leads up the steep hillside, and a little scrambling leads the visitor to a second and third fall in bosky dells with broad-leaved fern, delicate maiden-hair, graceful foliage, mosses and lichens all around.

Another tram-line, skirting Norwood on the north, leads to Magill, five miles from Adelaide —a lovely, village on hill-slopes like Mitcham and Burnside —through which is the road to Norton’s Summit and Marble Hill. On an eminence to the north is a large building known as the Industrial School, to the south is the Reformatory, and between them, but on higher ground, the Auldana vineyard. This property occupies a charming situation, as having an elevation of about six hundred feet it overlooks the whole of the Adelaide plains, with the deep blue sea for a background. It was purchased about forty years ago by Mr. Patrick Auld, so that it is one of the oldest vineyards in the colonies. It has now passed into the hands of a company, of which Mr. W. P. Auld is the manager. The vineyard covers about one hundred and twenty acres, mostly, of rich loam, decomposed ironstone and lime, and contains seventy thousand vines, the greater part being trellised on wires run through stout gum posts, and are pruned low. The rows are usually eight feet apart, so that carts in the vintage season can pass between, and the ground is ploughed, scarified, and harrowed. Both white and red wines are produced, and among the favourite varieties of grapes are the Pallomino, Verdeilho, Blanco, Doradella, Shiraz, and Reisling. The vintage is a lively time, for then from thirty to forty extra hands are engaged in picking the grapes, which are packed in boxes and taken by bullock-carts to the cellars. The wine-making premises and appliances are large and complete; the cellars are well built with thick stone walls and double roofs. They contain a large number of slate tanks capable of holding from five hundred to one thousand gallons each. The annual output is about twenty thousand gallons, and at least five times that quantity has already been shipped to London by order. The highest prize for Australian wine at the Melbourne International Exhibition was gained by, the products of the Auldana vineyard, which has also won high honours in the other colonies, in England, and on the continent of Europe. There are other vineyards, hill slopes in the immediate neighbourhood, to which in many respects the description of the Auldana vineyard will apply.

Another interesting trip may be taken by branching off at Kent Town, between St. Peters and Stepney, through Payneham and Campbelltown to Paradise. All the way the valley of the Torrens is close on the left-hand. The soil is a rich black loam, and exceedingly fertile. Water for irrigation is obtained by, windmills. Market gardens are numerous, anti there are several hundred acres of orangeries in full bearing besides other fruit-trees and vines. The profusion and even prodigality with which nature rewards the cultivator must be seen to be believed.

Throughout the whole of these eastern suburbs tokens of comfort and affluence are visible everywhere. The houses are mostly, detached, roomy, comfortable, and always well built. Many, of them are spacious and ornate, and on even the rows of cottages there are attempts at ornamentation. The soil is rich, and no skill in gardening is needed to produce brilliant masses of bloom. There are flowers around nearly every front door, and fruit-trees in nearly every backyard. All the denominations have good churches, there are large public and private educational establishments, an excellent water-supply, the deep drainage system is being extended, and the health and well-being of the community are carefully watched over by energetic boards of health and municipal corporations. Similar remarks will apply to most of the suburbs. Together with the city, they contain a population of a hundred and twenty thousand persons, of whom it may be said that for salubrity of climate, pleasantness of situation, beauty of surroundings, convenience for business, appliances for mental and moral culture, social comfort, general prosperity, and facilities for recreation, the lines are fallen to them in pleasant places, and they have comparatively little of which to complain.

cont...