Adelaide Botanic Garden First Creek Wetland

Adelaide need to conserve water, so projects like this are significant for our future. Some of the water that would otherwise flow out to sea in periods of heavy rain will be captured and stored here; to be used for watering the Botanic Gardens.

(Copy of an information board at the site)

Breakout Creek Wetlands

Breakout Creek is the last 3.5 kilometres of the River Torrens. A new wetlands has been developed between Henley Beach Road and Tapleys Hill Road. I took this photo a few weeks ago on the day of its official opening.

You can see the project in its early stages; posted here in June 2009.

Mawson Lakes Wetlands

Mawson Lakes is a new suburb about 12 km north of the CBD. Wetlands were created as an integral part of its planning for sustainability.

Street run-off water is filtered through the wetlands, pumped into an aquifer and then used to flush toilets and water parks and gardens. All buildings have a dual water pipe system; mains and recycled.

ABC Wednesdays - T for Torrens

Adelaide's River Torrens is not a fast flowing river. Water is dammed at various points along the river to create lakes and wetlands; the Torrens' Lake in the City being a prime example.

Further downstream the river is almost dry for much of the year, but recent work has been done to develop a series of wetlands like this one upstream from Henley Beach Road.

Now work is being done downstream from there to create another. This is the second stage of the Breakout Creek Wetland project.

This construction stage includes the excavation of 60,000 cubic metres of material to shape the wetlands and the builing of two concrete weirs. Over the next two years the wetands will come alive with the planting of 60,000 local native plants.

Viewing platforms, jetties and boardwalks will be built to provide opportunies for fishing and bird watching.

A brochure on the project can be downloaded here.

The ABC Wednesday meme was created by Denise Nesbitt. To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions click here

Sand carting

As mentioned previously, to maintain the Adelaide beaches there is an ongoing sand carting program. The natural drift is northwards and sand builds up in places like the entrance to the Patawalonga at Glenelg. The sand is being loaded here at Glenelg and 'returned' to Brighton (south of Adelaide).

Beach replenishment was first started in 1973 with an average of 100,000 cubic metres of sand being moved each year. Click here to read more (on the City of Holdfast Bay website)

Tennyson Dunes

Tennyson beach is halfway between Semaphore and Grange. It is one area of Adelaide's coastline that has been preserved, with no housing development right on the beach front.

About 50 native plants have been observed in The Tennyson Dunes; some of these that were once prevalent along the coast now only survive here. Fenced walking paths have been established to help maintain the unique nature of this habitat.

Household solar power

Not only is the City installing solar panels in public places, but many energy conscious residents are installing panels like these at their homes. These panels are installed in the backyard of a friend's house.

A set of panels like these generate about 2500 kWh of electricity in a year. Surplus power is fed into the electricity grid and generous rebates are paid; currently 44 cents per kilowatt hour.

The Federal Government is currently encouraging people to install systems like this by offering a rebate of up to $8,000. A six panel, one kWh system can be installed for about $4,000 (after the rebate).

Solar light

Adelaide has an average of 7.6 hours of sunshine a day, so it makes sense to use it . This is a solar street light in Victoria Square in the City.

Electricity produced from these panels is sent to the State's electricity grid during the day, and the lights are powered from the grid at night. Each light produces about 100 kilowatt hours (kWh) more than it uses each year.

The lights are an initiative of the Adelaide Green City program which aims to develop Adelaide as a Solar City.

Six star building

This is a view looking east from Victoria Square in the centre of Adelaide. The newly completed SA Water building was awarded a green six star rating for sustainability. Read a summary of the building's features on the Green Building Council Australia website.

In the right of the photo is the new Commonwealth Law Courts complex.

Fountain without water

The rivers have dried up for this fountain located in Victoria Square in the centre of Adelaide. The fountain which was formally opened in 1968 has had its water turned off in recent years due to our drought conditions. The City Council is considering turning the water back on, but is coming under fire from many who argue that our scarce commodity would be better used on stressed trees in our parklands.

The fountain named Three Rivers represents the three rivers (the Torrens, the Onkaparinga and the Murray) from which Adelaide receives most of its water. It was designed by South Australian artist John Dowie.

First Birthday

Adelaide in Photos turns one today. When I started this blog one year ago I did not really appreciate the demands and rewards of doing a daily post. At times it has been challenging to keep up, but I have done it - a post a day for a whole year!

The rewards far outstrip the demands. I have learnt so much about my city, my district and my world in general. To get new photos I have visited familiar and not so familiar places, attended events I might not otherwise have attended and spoken to people I might not otherwise have spoken to.

I have so appreciated comments from people in the blogging world and learnt so much about them and their world in the process. Thank you.

I have chosen to repost one photo; one of my favourites but also so significant. The photo of Lake Bonney was taken at Barmera about 200 km from Adelaide. Unfortunately water flow to the lake from the River Murray was cut off during the year to reduce losses from evaporation.


Last night on the News there was a report of dead fish on the edges of the lake; casualties of Australia's drought and mismanagement of the River. Fortunately there is now a whole of Australia approach to the Murray's management, so the future is looking a bit brighter. Of course what we need is more rain in the right places.

Morning stroll

This is a familiar scene along our metropolitan beaches; while I was out riding the other morning lots of other people were getting their exercise walking along the beach.

I took this photograph from Somerton looking south. Barriers of bagged sand have been placed along the beach to limit the sand drift. Also each year millions of tonnes of sand are carted in an effort to preserve our beautiful beaches. (See this previous post)

Save the Murray Rally

Several hundred protesters gathered in Adelaide's Victoria Square today for a rally to save the River Murray. One of the key focuses of the rally was the Lower Lakes system. Experts say that 60 gigalitres is needed now to save the lakes from 'dying'. They say that water is available upstream and should be released.










Click here to see the effects of the lack of water in one of my earlier posts.

Bushfire?

Late this afternoon I looked towards the Adelaide Hills and saw smoke. It was not a bushfire, but a controlled burnoff in the Cleland National Park. The conditions today were ideal; mild temperatures and almost no wind.

The Department of Environment and Heritage, who manage the state's national parks, do burnoffs at this time of year to reduce the amount of undergrowth which could become a hazard during the fire season.

Earth Hour 2008

Click on the photos to enlarge

As part of Adelaide's participation in Earth Hour, the Northern Lights' display and other public floodlit displays in the City were switched off between 8pm and 9pm.

We participated by switching off our lights and electrical appliances - no computers or TV for an hour!

Earth Hour was conceived last year in Sydney (Australia) as a way to highlight climate change. The event has gone global with at least 370 cities around the world taking part this year. Is your city one of them? Read a newspaper report here.

Apparently as a result of last year's event, many individuals and businesses did an audit of their energy uses and made permanent changes.

Here is a photo of our Art Gallery in daylight - the statuettes have gone!

Dune preservation

As part of Adelaide's coastal protection plan, the remaining dunes along the suburban coast are being preserved. These dunes are at West Beach, a few kilometres north of Glenelg.

Moving sand

We love our white sandy beaches, but sadly they now come at a price. There is a natural drift of sand northward along the coast. For many years now sand has been trucked from our northern beaches and dumped on southern beaches.

Additionally sand is trapped due to man made features like the Holdfast Bay Marina at Glenelg. This photo shows sand being scooped up ready for transportation to the beach at North Glenelg or to one of the southern beaches.