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The City of Burnside is navigating the opening of borders and ensuring that we can still continue to deliver services to the community, even with new strains of COVID in our state.

One way of doing that is to help remind people to check in and wear a mask, as per state government Transition Committee directions.

This is one way to ensure the safety of our community at our facilities (especially the vulnerable), and our staff, to ensure that Council can continue to deliver services to the community.

As school holidays begin our Library faces its busiest time of the year. It is vital that visitors are protected by high standards of hygiene and COVID compliance.

Almost every visitor is wearing a face mask and if not, they comply as soon as it is pointed out that it is a mandatory condition of entry. Council has a supply of masks for those who forget.

Our Customer Service Team is in their own ‘bubble’ with limited exposure to other staff so they remain safe as the first point of contact with the community.

All staff are encouraged to wear masks and maintain social distance and teams are alternating working in the office and from home to minimise their chance of contact.

All of these actions are for the health and safety of our community, our employees and the general public.

This is the second year the Mayor’s Christmas Card Competition has been run. The theme was ‘What makes an Australian Christmas?' A recurring theme in entries was sunshine, barbecues, native Australian animals and Santa in shorts. The competition was open to Year 3 and 4 students from schools within the City of Burnside.

Anna, a Year 4 student at Linden Park Primary School, was declared the winner at a ceremony on Tuesday 7 December. The four finalists were all designs which really spoke of Christmas. They were vibrant and colourful. Anna’s card had the theme ‘Christmas is about caring’. It shows a young girl who has hurt herself playing ball and a kangaroo wearing a Santa hat offering to help. Anna said that caring means “We help each other”.

Anna’s mother Venus, said she was very proud of her daughter. She said the win was unexpected but Anna has always loved to draw. She also enjoyed dancing and gymnastics and had to make special time in her busy school schedule to draw her design.

More than 50 entries were received and the Mayor chose three runners up. They were Tiziana, 8, in Year 3 at Linden Park Primary School and Indigo and Alice, both 9 and in Year 4 at Rose Park Primary School.

Mayor Monceaux with winner Anna and her entry.

Runners Up Tiziana, Alice and Indigo.

Is your Christmas tree up yet?

This photograph is of Burnside Town Hall on 21 December 1940 during a Christmas event for children of military service personnel, organised by the Volunteer Defence Corps of South Australia.

Photograph: George Ignatius Ziesing. SLSA B 62413/40.

A rare butterfly has been sighted in the City of Burnside – a chequered copper! Chequered Copper Butterflies once occurred across Adelaide, but they are now considered rare in the region. They were last recorded in Burnside, near Stonyfell, in 1938. Recently, a member of Council’s park staff was surprised to see a Chequered Copper.

“When we were working at Beaumont Common I noticed a butterfly I had never seen before… I let my team leader know and we found a few of them, it was really exciting.”

Chequered Coppers have a wingspan of around 2.5 cm with an eye-catching splash of metallic copper on the forewing and traces of copper on the hindwing. The outer margins of the wings have a distinctive white and black chequer pattern. Their scientific name for Chequered Coppers is Lucia limbaria and they are sometimes called Small Coppers or Grassland Coppers.

The caterpillars of this species rely on ants to survive. The caterpillars live in the nests of small black ants (Iridomyrmex species). They release pheromones that mimic the pheromones of the ants, so the ants protect them. The caterpillar typically builds its chrysalis underground, within the ants’ nest, emerging 10-13 days later as Chequered Copper Butterflies.

The presence of Chequered Copper Butterflies is a testament to the quality of the planning and groundwork conducted by the council’s park and biodiversity management teams. These butterflies are quite particular in their requirements for habitat.

Chequered Coppers need open areas with native grasses. The butterflies also require Native Sorrel (Oxalis perennans), plus the attendant ants. In Beaumont Common, council staff have recreated habitat that is favourable to these beautiful and rare species, removing weeds and allowing indigenous plant species to thrive. The open grassy woodland at Beaumont Common is perfect for Chequered Coppers.

Other rare and threatened species are also present in public and private parks and gardens in the area. For example, Cryptic Sun Moths, Southern Brown Bandicoots, and Yellow-footed Antechinus can all be found in Burnside, where suitable habitat exists. Council is working to maintain these habitats to ensure these species do not become locally extinct.

Council is working with Butterfly Conservation SA to monitor the butterfly population. If you would like to learn how to provide habitat for butterflies in your garden, the book Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden is a great place to start. Copies of the book can be purchased through Butterfly Conservation SA or they can be borrowed through Burnside Library.

More photos of the butterflies in Burnside are available on iNaturalist, a website and app for recording observations of wildlife.

A Chequered Copper Butterfly at Beaumont Common

Native Sorrel in Beaumont Common

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Have you organised your Christmas cards yet?

This Christmas postcard from 1902 shows the corner store on Union and Mill Street in Dulwich under management by Mrs M.A Coleman as a draper and grocer. Built circa 1896, this shop serviced the local area as a shop and post office. The building is now a private residence.

Postcard, 1902. Burnside Local History Collection. Courtesy of H Grant.

In September 2021 Council approved the renovation of the Dulwich Community Centre in line with concept plans and future community consultation as part of the 2022/23 Business Plan and Budget engagement. Concept designs were developed to understand the possibilities of this site.

There is an extensive amount of work to still be done before any renovations can begin, including a detailed design undertaken during the 2021/22 financial year followed by a Development Application process. The decision to fund the construction of the centre will be made as part of the 2022/23 Annual Business Plan and Budget process.

For more background on this project you can read the Council Report and minutes.

The redevelopment proposes to demolish the old house and front extension and retain and upgrade the existing large hall, with a new purposed-built stage at the rear and a new entry foyer. A new off-street carpark with permeable paving and accessible amenities will bring the facility up to meet current building standards.

Get involved in future engagements like the 2022/23 Annual Business Plan and Budget by registering on engage.burnside

During October, as part of the nature festival, the City of Burnside hosted an exhibition with visual art from over 50 local artist plus high school poetry that were inspired by trees.

The natural world is a vital component of the human experience, providing food, water, air, relaxation and inspiration. Trees are conspicuous ambassadors of the natural world, their lives entwined within the cycles of resources on which we depend. Trees are also conspicuous in our community, bringing beauty, peace, shelter, wildlife and wellbeing. Trees are fundamental to the landscape of Burnside and metropolitan Adelaide.

The winner from the people’s choice awards was Stephanie Foley, who took out first place with her piece Sunlit gum leaves. Stephanie explains “Trees always have and always will inspire me and my artwork. I always feel a bit dried up in places without many trees, their presence is enriching on so many levels, physically and mentally.”

In second place was Heather Waring’s artwork Autumn glory. “The distinct seasons we enjoy in Adelaide and the cycle of regeneration heralded by our trees as the seasons turn, always stirs my creativity,” says Heather. “This piece of art was inspired by the glorious splash of autumn colour as I watched the sun illuminate the leaves of maple trees.”

Ursula Kiessling won third place with her work Adelaide hills. “When I was a child back in Germany I used to climb a lot of trees,” Ursula says. “Now I paint them! Where would we be without trees? Who does not admire their beauty, majesty and the abundance of food many provide for us, as well as for animals, birds and insects? Trees, as we all know, also clean the air and provide oxygen for the atmosphere.”

Amy Dillon from St Peters’ Girls’, won the poetry competition for Secondary School Students (year 7-10).

The City of Burnside would like to thank all the artists who showcased their wonderful work.

Kensington Park residents Ian and Dorothy wrote to City of Burnside CEO, Chris Cowley, to give feedback on the Home Library Service.

Chris said that the lovely note "reinforces the importance of our Library service and the unique way we deliver them in the City of Burnside".

Here is the letter that Ian penned:

Thumbing through my tattered ancient encyclopaedia to a page providing a very brief idea of what a library is, the 102 words published provided me with two surprises. The first unexpected wonder was, that unknown to me the first library was at Nineveh in around 2,500BC. The second pre-Christmas cracker treat informed me, that the first public library was opened at Athens in 330BC. In the latter case the custodians of the library books might not have trusted the public enough to allow borrowing of the books. These printed pages for reading were for referencing purposes ONLY.

Fast forward to around 1946/7 a period when most of the British public were living in peace, where the n eds of the British population were partially met via the rationing of many essential foods and materials. My wife, I, my siblings, and our parents lived through a period 1945-1955 in what could be termed as a strangulated method of living.

At my age of 9-10 some boys used their imagination to quickly become a Scotland Yard detective. Requisites were a notebook, a magnifying glass (part of a broken bottle) and imitating the plain clothes policemen of that period by smoking a cigarette positioned at the corner of a mouth. The cigarette was made from rolled toilet paper filled with dried leaves from a bush my mates and I unanimously named WILD WOODBINE. The increasing heat inside the cigarette would occasionally hurriedly force insects from this homemade fag and risk their death by falling to the ground. 75 years later I have noted insects falling from leaves upon a tree and surviving their fall. Their usually ultra-light weight allows them to drift downwards and effortlessly alight upon the ground.

Another magnet of joy for me during my early post-war life was a visit to a local library with my recently de­-mobbed father from his REME battalion. Our local library was not only a storage area for oodles of books, but it was a space in which I am sure my father acutely sensed the peace within this place offering a comfortable browse while standing. Chairs were a scarce resource enabling readers pre-WW2 to sit in relative comfort. I wandered and looked upon so many books I really didn't want to make my mind up on what 2 books I could borrow. Like so many post-war children I became addicted to the very popular author Edith Blyton and her ‘Just William' stories.

Wherever my wife and I have settled there has always been a library able to provide me with personal choice reading and additional study material. The Adelaide University Library, unlike the Athens library of 330BC, offered me as a student at the Institute of Technology, access to study books which could be borrowed (if one was quick off the mark), and reference material which was not loaned out. A library or libraries seem to suggest a town or a city has reached a point in its growth in much the same way, as a large tree adds buttresses to strengthen and stabilise this plant which grows wood.

During the many years in which my wife and I have received monthly visits from the Burnside Library Home­ Delivery Service, seem to me to act in a similar way to the travelling fibres of a tree root. They often reach out over extensive distances to locate water, sugars, and exchangeable minerals. They play a vital role in maintaining a healthy tree. And I believe our monthly visits by Amanda help maintain a robust library system.

Thank you ALL for your continuing respected efforts in trying to satisfy the reading needs of people of any age. Keep putting down strengthening roots. Keep well and safe.

Ian & Dorothy, Kensington Park

Mayor Anne Monceaux with the Burnside Highlights from this week.

Summary:
✅ Over 90% of residents over 15 have received double dose COVID-19 vaccinations as of this week
✅ James Stevens MP at Laurel Avenue Pirkurna Wirra/Peter Bennett Organic Community Garden
✅ Tusmore Wading Pool redevelopment continues, opening early 2022
✅ Upcoming Christmas events including The Regal Theatre shows and more
✅ City of Burnside Instagram Photo Competition closes Friday 10 December

This is just a summary of some of the things happening within the City of Burnside. You can read the full minutes from the meeting at bit.ly/BurnsideAgendasMinutes

City of Burnside has donated more than $2,400 to Fauna Rescue SA. This money was raised from the Native Plant Giveaway earlier this year. People were encouraged to make a $2 donation when collecting their plants, which will help Fauna Rescue SA continue operating.

Marie, chair of Fauna Rescue SA, said they receive approximately 14,000 phone calls a year and they are always on the search for volunteers to support the organisation.

Pictured: Mayor Anne Monceaux, Dr Mark Ellis and Marie Kozulic, chair of Fauna Rescue SA, hold a cheque, surrounded by staff and volunteers.