FOCUS On Burnside - the news hub

Adelaide has experienced a few cold days this week, but not this cold! This photograph from the Local History Collection is of the Burnside Council Centre car park in the 1980s before the Civic Centre redevelopment. Have you ever seen snow in the Burnside area?

Council hosted an event for Young Leaders in the Ballroom on Tuesday 21 September with 40 students from Seymour College, Pembroke School, St Peter’s Girls’ School, Mary MacKillop College and Marryatville High School with a theme of Respect.

The Welcome to Country was given by Senior Kaurna man Mickey O’Brien.

The students heard a key note address from former Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. Natasha spoke of her own personal journey as the youngest woman ever to enter Federal Parliament in Australia and her leadership roles in the Australian Democrats from 1995 to 2008.

She said her first take out about leadership is inclusion. “Leadership is under scrutiny in Australia now,” she said. “Some attitudes are being called out and challenged. It is important as this forms our attitudes towards leadership.”

She advised the audience to look at who they admire and the traits that they have, both the good and bad traits.

Her second take on leadership is about respect. “Violence is preventable,” she said. “Gender inequality and disrespect is at the core of this violence. And this is at the core of the solution.”

She urged the students to do what they could, no matter how small. “Support charities, look at school policies, be a good bystander and call out inappropriate behaviour. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.”

Natasha said education is the great equaliser. “It is a serious global challenge for girls to access education. The best leaders are investing in girls through education,” she said.

She described empowerment as giving someone the tools to create change and then to listen to what they have to say. “Leadership is a mindset. Real and lasting improvement requires us all to be leaders. In home, school, sport clubs.”

A discussion panel followed with Fiona Dorman, Chair Premier’s Council for Women, John White, Young Australian of the Year for City of Burnside and Amber Brock-Fabel, Young Achiever of the Year SA Environment winner, They encouraged people to stand up and be heard, to call out injustice when they saw it and to recognise that young people sometimes need guidance, mentoring, direction and support.

The students then undertook a workshop to discuss key learnings and takeaways.

The City of Burnside’s Council Assessment Panel (CAP) has rejected a request to demolish a Local Heritage Place located at 2 Wootoona Terrace, St Georges. Built in 1919-20, the house is an example of an ‘Interwar’ sandstone Californian Bungalow style dwelling.

The CAP, that comprises four Independent Members and one Elected Member, assessed the application to demolish the house on Monday 6 September. The application was refused on the basis that local and state heritage places should be preserved and enhanced, and the building was able to be rehabilitated.

The house was built for Florence and Richard Duncan. Richard was the youngest son of James Duncan, founder of Duncan and Fraser, a vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1865 in Adelaide that built horse-drawn carriages and horse trams, and subsequently bodies for trains, electric trams and motor cars, becoming one of the largest carriage building companies in Australia.

At the time the house was built in 1919, Duncan and Fraser was solely focused on manufacturing the Ford Model T motor car.

Florence and Richard, along with James, were the founding members of The Automotive & Motor Cycling Club of South Australia in 1903, now known as the Royal Automobile Association.

In 1986 a Burnside Heritage Survey recognised the house at 2 Wootoona Terrace as one of local heritage significance. It was listed as a Local Heritage Place in 1998.

The applicant has a right to appeal the decision in the Environment, Resources and Development (ERD) Court.

Mayor of Burnside Anne Monceaux with the Burnside Highlights from our 14 September Council meeting.

Keep an eye out for the fruit fly field teams in your area in September and October, with the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) checking gardens across outbreak areas as part of the fruit fly eradication program.

Now spring is upon us, fruit fly are more active in the warmer months and it’s more important than ever to be vigilant for this pest. PIRSA teams are organic baiting the leaves where fruit fly like to rest, and collecting fallen fruit and checking ripe fruit for maggots.

Please give them access to your yard to do this important work. PIRSA’s trained fruit fly teams are identifiable by their orange overalls and ID cards; all staff are police-checked.

PIRSA can’t do this alone – we must all play our part to help eradicate fruit fly.

• Pick ripe fruit from your trees.
• Collect fallen fruit from the ground and place it in the green bin* – don’t compost or bury. *If you do not have a green bin and you are in a red outbreak area, put at-risk fruit and veg in an airtight plastic bag and call the Fruit Fly Hotline 1300 666 010.
• Check your fruit for blemishes or maggots.
• Call the Fruit Fly Hotline if you suspect fruit fly – 1300 666 010.

Remember, red areas are outbreak areas. Do not share at-risk fruit and vegetables with your neighbours, and don’t pack any at risk fruit and vegetables in your lunch for school or work. For more information including a full list of fruit and vegetables at risk from fruit fly, visit fruitfly.sa.gov.au

Visit the fruit fly website to see which areas fruit fly officers are baiting (https://fruitfly.sa.gov.au/news_and_resources/updates_and_newsletters/fruit_fly_visits_in_spring)

PIRSA’s fruit checking and collection teams will be visiting gardens until January.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) need your help to stop fruit fly spreading during ‘Spring Clean’ month.

PIRSA is asking you to dust off your snips, saws and secateurs, grab a bucket and get your garden up to scratch.

This time of year is especially important when it comes to fruit fly, as the pest can emerge from the soil and become more active as the weather warms up.

Now it’s more important than ever to give fruit fly no chance of stinging your fruit and to be vigilant for signs of fruit fly in your garden. The goal is to remove fruit so it’s not available to fruit fly in spring.

The best ways to prevent fruit fly include:

• Picking any ripe and fallen fruit and vegetables at risk from fruit fly to break the life cycle (this gives any female fruit flies no chance to lay eggs or for pupae to dig into the soil below your tree).
• Placing unwanted at-risk fruit and vegetables in your kerbside green bin (do not compost or bury) if you live in a red outbreak or yellow suspension area.
• Picking up your saw, snips or secateurs and pruning back fruit trees so you can pick your fruit more easily.
• Checking your fruit for blemishes on the skin (this is where the female can lay eggs) and cutting it up to look for maggots.

Remember, if you see anything suspicious, seal the fruit in a plastic bag and contact the Fruit Fly Hotline on 1300 666 010.

If you compost at-risk fruit and vegetables, you could be burying fruit fly maggots and letting them develop into flies which emerge in Spring.

PIRSA has arrangements with councils in affected fruit fly areas to ensure green waste is appropriately managed to kill off any maggots or flies.

Check if you live in a red outbreak or yellow suspension area and find out what you need to do to help protect SA and break the fruit fly life cycle.

Visit https://www.fruitfly.sa.gov.au/outbreak-restrictions/home-garden

Cooking For a Cause is a free four-week course offered to people of high school age who live, work, study or play within the City of Burnside.

At each session participants are taught how to cook a healthy, nutritious meal which are then delivered to various organisations for the homeless in South Australia, via Oz Harvest.

Twins Alice and Daisy Braithwaite, 15, have completed the course as part of their participation in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Alice says they both enjoy cooking at home. “This is a chance to make meals for others and learn new cooking skills,” she says. Daisy agrees saying “We are helping people and it makes me thankful for what we have.”

The girls have the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the meal they have prepared.

Chef Kate Williamson says basic kitchen skills such as holding a knife correctly are important to learn. “I see huge improvement in them over the four weeks,” she says. “Also some fussy eaters find they are happy to try something different as they have prepared it themselves.”

There is a limit of eight (8) students at each course and pre-booking is essential.

Courses for 2021 are full but dates for 2022 will be announced soon. For more information please contact Aleisha Sullivan, Community Development Officer on 8366 4200 or asullivan@burnside.sa.gov.au

Alice and Daisy in the kitchen.

In 2020 a group of Burnside residents proposed a project and were successful in gaining funding from the 'Your Neighbourhood' program for the establishment of a demonstration verge garden. The idea was to show a practical example to local residents of a verge planted with attractive, mainly native species that conform to Council’s Verge Planting Guidelines(PDF, 153KB). The Demonstration Verge at The Shed, 6 Conyngham Street, Glenside was planted up in August 2021 and will be maintained by council as a resource for residents.

If you want to plant your own verge you need to submit a Verge/Road Reserve Landscaping or Planting Application to get permission from Council.

Image: The Demonstration Verge soon after planting in August 2021. Watch it grow over time.

The C. Tuckers Store was located on Glen Osmond Road, Eastwood and operated from approximately 1887 to 1892. Charles and Betsy Tucker migrated to South Australia from Somerset England in 1847. Charles’ occupations included builder, storekeeper and medicine maker, and Betsy was a nursing sister. The Eastwood store sold Charles’ horse and cow medicines and ointments.

When Charles passed away at age 66 in 1892, he left a widow, four sons, four daughters and 32 grandchildren. The extended family history is available to read in the Burnside Local Room.

Photograph: C Tuckers on Glen Osmond Road, circa 1875. Burnside Local History Collection.

The mature olive trees of Davenport Olive Reserve in Beaumont are remnants of Sir Samuel Davenport’s olive plantation. The trees were planted in 1864, and at its peak, the plantation held over 14,000 trees. The trees are retained as a memorial to the founding of the olive oil industry in South Australia.

In 1836, several olive trees arrived in South Australia aboard the HMS Buffalo with Governor Hindmarsh and his secretary George Stevenson. These trees were the beginning of the South Australian olive oil industry. Sir Samuel Davenport (1818-1906) of Beaumont House, is responsible for the proliferation of olives in the Burnside area.

Photograph: Sir Samuel Davenport standing in an olive grove, Beaumont circa 1900. Courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, B 6106.

Words based on a talk by Margaret Ford OAM presented at Burnside Library, 12 May 2021:

Using cuttings from the trees brought over on the Buffalo, olive trees were planted in North Adelaide, Elder Park (near the first Government hut) and Hackney. Circa 1850s, stock obtained from the Hackney Olive Tree Nursery was used to plant olive groves in Beaumont. The two main groves were located at Gleeville Farm, which was the first house in the Beaumont area built in 1839 by Edward Burton Gleeson (since demolished it was located near Sunnyside Road, Beaumont), and at Beaumont House owned by Sir Samuel Davenport.

In 1843, aged 25, Sir Samuel Davenport arrived in South Australia. Davenport had previously travelled around Provence in the south of France and became convinced that for South Australia the olive and almond were particularly suitable crops. "There are perhaps, about ten olive trees in the Colony. It would be well if there were ten thousand, for a more valuable generous plant does not exist. Once planted, it requires no care, but continues to yield its increasing store for centuries," he wrote.

Planting olives was vigorously promoted by Davenport, who represented South Australia at the first International Exhibition in London in 1851 where he showcased South Australian olive oil and won a prize for it. He became a manufacturer of olive oil, planting approximately 1200 trees in a small grove in rows around his vineyard in Beaumont. At its peak, Davenport's olive plantations held over 14,000 trees, including 27 different varieties imported from Italy, Spain, France and Turkey. In 1868 Davenport built an olive oil factory next to Beaumont House, importing a Chilean mill for pressing. The factory ceased production in the 1930s.

When Davenport retired from active farming, his nephew George Cleland (1852-1931) continued the business and called the oil "Davenport". G.F. Cleland & Sons manufactured a blended oil until 1965, for years employing about 30 people to fill the five-ounce bottles. The Beaumont olive plantation was subdivided in the 1930s, split by Linden Avenue. Some of the olive trees from the historic plantation remain.

In 1899 the principal manufacturers of olive oil in South Australia were:

• The Stonyfell Olive Company, Burnside
• Sir Samuel Davenport, Beaumont
• Waverley Vinegar Company, West Terrace Adelaide
• Thomas Hardy and Sons, Bankside
• Corporation Olive Yard, HM Gaol
• Chaffey Brothers, Renmark

Where to visit historic sites relating to Davenport's olive oil manufacture:

1. Davenport Olive Reserve, John Cleland Drive, Beaumont
   Small reserve with trees from the Davenport olive plantation in Beaumont, planted in 1864.
2. Oliver Crusher Monument at Wood Park, Collingwood Avenue, Hazelwood Park
   A monument olive crusher is displayed in Wood Park constructed of elements from the olive oil factory established by Samuel Davenport.
3. Beaumont House, 631 Glynburn Road, Beaumont
   The olive groves bordering the property were planted by Samuel Davenport circa 1860.

History Corner Blog