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Michael Perry Reserve in Stonyfell was created in the 1970s after the subdivision of Clifton estate. This Bunya Pine tree (Araucaria bidwillii) is believed to have been planted between 1872 and 1901 by Nathaniel Knox, the second owner of Clifton.

This Bunya Pine is one of the largest specimens in Adelaide. Interestingly, the Bunya Pine is not a pine but is a member of the ancient Gondwanan plant family Araucariaceae, which is found naturally in South America, South Africa and Australasia. In its natural habitat in the Bunya Mountains, Queensland, it was an important resource for the traditional owners the Wakka Wakka, Jarowair and Barrumgum people and was the focus of harvest festivals.

Here at the City of Burnside, the conservation volunteers are treated to an annual feast of Bunya nut muffins (photo below) or cake baked by our Conservation Officer Dr Mark Ellis.

Burnside Library celebrated its 60th Birthday on Thursday 8 April.

There were three events on the day, starting with a talk on the history of the Library. In the afternoon an event was held on the lawn and forecourt with entertainment by The Amazing Drumming Monkeys and MCs Hayley and Lauren from Adelaydy. Guests included The Hon. Vickie Chapman MP, Member for Bragg, James Stevens MP, Federal Member for Sturt, Mayor Anne Monceaux and children’s author Mem Fox. Mr Stevens read a letter from the Prime Minister The Hon Scott Morrison MP. In it the PM said “I know that all at Burnside worked with great innovation throughout the time of COVID lockdown to connect with your community, keep children learning, and help local people stay optimistic during difficult times”.

The inaugural Environment Day Awards were announced at Beaumont House on Sunday 11 April.

The awards celebrate initiatives and activities that Burnside community members are implementing, across four award categories in the City.

Climate Change Challenge award winners, and Burnside residents, Dr Susan Marsden and Michael Szwarcbord said that they feel strongly about the threats to us all from the climate crisis.

"Everything we can all do, large and small, is really important," Dr Marsden said.

The award winners each received a wooden bowl made by Burnside resident and local wood turner, Flora Rumbelow, as their award 'trophy'. Most of the trophies were turned from a section of a fallen Red Gum branch. One trophy was made from an Olive tree branch taken as part of a regular pruning program at Beaumont House.

The winners are:

Local Sustainability

Andrew Crompton

Andrew works tirelessly as a volunteer at the Waterfall Gully site and gives so much time and incredible knowledge to other volunteers. He even provides extra hours when there are outstanding jobs needing attending. He is an inspiration due to his beliefs in the environment generally. He has been a leader and teacher in environmental management for many years.

Unsung Hero/es

Rotary Club of Burnside Inc.

In the early 1990s David Harvey a member of the Rotary Club of Burnside, initiated an environmental project in conjunction with the Burnside Council to revegetate a disused quarry and council rubbish dump within Chambers Gully Park. During the 2020 lockdown, small groups constructed 22 new habitat boxes for birds and possums.

High commendation: Rob Hilditch. Rob is a volunteer at the Burnside Men’s Shed where he uses and promotes the use of recycled material.

Waste Innovation

Leabrook Quality Meats

This Leabrook butcher has been extremely proactive in waste management and sustainability, reducing plastic consumption by switching to compostable packaging where possible, and recycling shopping bags instead of providing new ones for customers.

High commendation: Aiden Fisk and Ivana Alvarado, two students from Glenunga International High School. Aiden and Alana created a fantastic concept, called Better World System, an app, powered by students, aimed at reducing pollution and rewarding correct waste allocation.

Climate Change Challenge

Dr Susan Marsden & Michael Szwarcbord

Susan and her partner Michael, who are both experienced gardeners, have in the past 15 years had to learn to adapt to the micro-climate and soils in their own locality and to address the impact of climate change. They have reduced their own footprints… and they have helped others along the way.

Originally a six-room stone house, Sunnyside on Lascelles Avenue in Beaumont was built circa 1848. In the 1850s, the second owner Sir William Milne, a wine merchant and politician, transformed the home into a two-storey mansion. The second storey was removed in the 1920s.

Sunnyside was later purchased by documentary film producers Edna and Jack Campbell-Dobbie. From 1950 to 1962 they used the historic home as a film studio. Edna and Jack are considered pioneer documentary filmmakers and are credited with producing Children of the Musgraves (1947) and We Three (1950).

Photograph of Sunnyside circa 1872, City of Burnside Local History Collection.

Council releases confidential minutes after ERD Court’s decision on OTR

The City of Burnside today released the confidential minutes of the Council meeting of 16 March 2021 that was held to discuss its position on an alternative proposal for a development at 285-287 Kensington Road, Kensington Park, as part of an Environment, Resources and Development (ERD) Court process.

This meeting was held in confidence to protect its legal position however Council resolved to release the minutes of the meeting as soon as possible.

The ERD Court has now granted Development Plan consent for 285-287 Kensington Road, Kensington Park to become a new single storey integrated service station complex.

Above: Artist's impression of the proposed new service station.

In releasing the minutes, City of Burnside CEO, Chris Cowley, said that Council has brokered the best outcome it could for this site.

“It was unrealistic to believe that there would be no commercial development at this site, so this decision has achieved an outcome with the least impact to the community’s amenity,” Mr Cowley said.

“The Council Assessment Panel and Council must assess what is put before it, and in line with current state planning legislation and the Development Plan,” Mr Cowley said.

This decision of the CAP and the Council is a pragmatic decision having regard to the Development Plan which provides the best outcome for the community.

The proposal for the site located adjacent The Regal Theatre, is an alternative and considerably scaled-down development, in comparison to previously lodged plans, that makes use of the site’s existing building.

Read the ERD Court order.

The full minutes can be found on the City of Burnside’s website. The final resolution of this meeting includes:

Motion C160321/12780

1. That the council accept the compromise proposal and settle the appeal in the matter of PC Infrastructure Pty Ltd v City of Burnside ( ERD 19- 189 ) on the basis of the amended scheme and conditions generally in accordance with the draft Minute of Order prepared by Norman Waterhouse Lawyers having considered the following:

1.1 The significant level of improvements to the proposal addressing in particular traffic, resident amenity, landscaping, bulk and scale that have occurred since the original 2017 proposal;

1.2 The high likelihood of defeat should the matter progress to a hearing based on the amended scheme;

1.3 The advice of independent traffic and town planning experts engaged by the Council;

1.4 The high likelihood of being unable to secure appropriate and credible expert witnesses that could support the refusal of the amended scheme;

1.5 The potential for the Council’s experts being subpoenaed to give evidence in support of the appellant’s case (in addition to the range of the appellant’s own experts);

1.6 The potential for the appellant to pursue the previous development proposal refused by CAP on appeal and the Court approving that development;

1.7 The potential for the appellant to pursue an even lesser desired development, shaped by the policies of the incoming Planning and Design Code;

1.8 The cost of proceeding to a hearing may be as high as $50,000;

1.9 The CAP has unanimously endorsed the compromise proposal; and

2. That Council:

2.1 Notes that it is legally constrained from publicly releasing its decision in this matter until the matter is determined by the ERD Court.

2.2 Resolves to release the minutes of this meeting as soon as legally permitted to do so.

The City of Burnside recently hosted the inaugural Community Summit in the Burnside Ballroom. Designed to bring together leading community organisations, local health service providers, charities and a range of groups and individuals including local residents and volunteers, to discuss a range of key issues relating to health and wellbeing of our community.

The event included insightful presentations from Deputy Premier and Member for Bragg Vickie Chapman along with St Vincent De Paul Society CEO Louise Miller-Frost. Mayor Anne Monceaux also greeted our guests with a virtual welcome message which was well received by attendees who came from organisations including Anglicare, Red Cross, Hutt Street Centre and Eastern Health Alliance.

The summit included a hands on workshop which was facilitated by several council staff with key focus areas relating to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on community services, issues relating to family and domestic violence, challenges faced by people living with a disability and a better understanding of mental health in our community.

There were several amazing outcomes from the summit, ultimately this initiative was about helping each other identify gaps and breakdowns in the community and search for new ideas and explore partnerships to better serve those people and groups in our community who are In need.

The City of Burnside is striving to lead by example and with new internal initiatives such as the Domestic Violence Protocol, aimed at standing up to stamp out Domestic Violence, it is events and initiatives like the Community Summit which will help us deliver positive outcomes for our community.

Thomas and Kezia Thorpe with their six children lived on Greenhill Road from 1875 to 1907. Their nine-acre property was located opposite Sitters Memorial Drive. The Thorpe family managed a general store with products such as fruit, milk and grains sourced from their garden. The store was popular for market gardeners travelling between the city markets and the hills. The shop burned down in 1961.

Thorpe Road in Burnside is named after the family.

If you are interested in discovering the story behind your street’s name, check out the ‘Street Name Directory’ compiled by the @Burnside Historical Society below.

Street Name Directory

The City of Burnside has supported grass roots young artists by funding youth scholarships at the Adelaide Central School of Art (ASCA).

Two students were granted scholarships for this term’s short courses and two more later in the year.

Nathan Cassidy has just completed a 7-week course at ACSA titled ‘Portraits and Identity’ drawing with charcoal. “I always wanted to go to art classes but I was terrified,” he says. “The teacher, Daniel Connell, was really calm and helped me a lot. We mainly did portraits, working with models, learning how to block in the shapes and then working up to a portrait.” Nathan enjoyed the atmosphere at the Glenside campus and admired the art hanging on the walls. “They were a nice group of people in my class, we just sat around the easels and worked.”

Nathan, 19, is staying at Youth110, a service operated by St John’s Youth Services in the city. It provides self-contained apartments for short stays and crisis response to vulnerable young people in South Australia. He says the scholarship meant a lot to him. “I got an opportunity that I could not have done by myself,” he says.

ASCA CEO Penny Griggs says many young people struggle to have the financial ability to undertake courses such as this. “Our school likes to show young people pathways in the arts,” she says. “Our collaboration with the City of Burnside has a lovely synergy.” Penny says when she reached out to Youth 110 to find suitable applicants they were thrilled and immediately identified Nathan.

In the longer term Nathan is looking for permanent accommodation and plans to do some more courses, some in art and one in cooking.

According to the recently released national Student Experience Survey ACSA were recognised as the No.1 Art School in Australia for Overall Quality of Educational Experience for undergraduates studying creative arts.

At the far east corner of the City of Burnside, part of the former village of Mak-gill (now Magill), were two hotels, World's End and the Tower Hotel. The Tower Hotel still stands at the major intersection of Magill and St Bernards Road (located in the Campbelltown Council boundary). World's End Hotel was located on the corner of Pepper Street and Magill Road.

The World's End Hotel was built in 1845 further down from the major intersection and '...was a famous staging post for heavy traffic halting overnight at Magill with stables that were the most extensive of any in the colony at the time' (Roxley 1976). The Hotel may well have been named by the Scottish, for it had the same name as a pub on the Royal Mile (High Street) in Edinburgh. Perhaps tongue in cheek, seeing that Magill was really at the 'edge of this capital's world', surrounded by bush wattle and mighty eucalyptus interspersed with welcome hotels. The life of the World's End Hotel diminished when the tee-totallers worked to revoke its licence and it became a coffee house around 1909. It was demolished on account of salt damp in the 1960s.

The lane entrance to the Hotel's stables became Pepper Street, and until electricity arrived around 1908, lighting was primitive, with Hurricane Lamps swinging outside the hotels. The image of the World's End in 1884, shows the hitching post and wooden water trough outside the double storied bluestone building. Although, it is documented that a Post Office replaced the hotel, the present old double-storied building next door to the Post Office looks very much like the hotel, so controversy reigns. No 550 Magill Road next door to World’s End Hotel was A C Martin's undertaker and carpentry business built in 1903 and operated by Martin's son, aged 90, till 1976. The architecture is very similar to the World’s End Hotel.

Written by Diana Chessell, Historian to the Pubs Series

World's End Hotel, circa 1884. B 9717. Courtesy of State Library of South Australia.

'The Shed' has come to the aid of a Hallett Cove family by handmaking a wooden chair for a young girl with bilateral cerebral palsy. Rose Stewart uses the ‘horse’ for exercises and to improve her mobility.

Designed by a conductive education therapist, the chair requires the user to straddle it (like a horse) and use the front handle to grip and change balance. The therapist let Rose, 3, use the chair but recommended she get one of her own to use at home.

Rose’s mother, Vicki, rang a couple of Council run Men’s Sheds to see if they could assist. Reaching as far afield (from her home) as Burnside, she was thrilled when Shed Coordinator Evan Reay said he and his volunteers could help.

“It was a long way to travel but it was well worth it,” Vicki says. “I borrowed the chair and asked The Shed if they could replicate it for Rose.”

Evan says it was a bit of a challenge but the men took it on. “We took measurements and photos and then I put Rob in charge of cutting the wood.” The ‘horse’ generated a lot of conversation as the guys tried to work out what it was. Within two weeks the finished work was given to Vicki.

“The response from Evan and the men was nothing but helpful,” says Vicki. “Evan kindly had his enthusiastic team not only replicate the wooden seat but also make it more aesthetically pleasing. They also improved the front handle, allowing Rose a better grip.”

The seat height is adjustable so it can accommodate Rose’s growth as she gets older.

“My family is beyond grateful for The Shed's generosity, time and ingenuity,” Vicki says. “This seat allows Rose to practice her balance, seating, transfer skills and more at home every day, in between her therapy appointments.”

Evan says projects like this make the men feel like they are really making a difference in the community. “It was probably about 10 hours work with the cutting, sanding and varnishing,” he says.

Vicki appreciated it so much that the men are working on making two more chairs for children with similar needs as little Rose.

George Dellar works on a 'horse' at The Shed.