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“The Old Gum Tree” on Glynburn Road, Kensington Gardens is approximately 300 years old. The state heritage-listed River Red Gum is 29 metres tall and has a 10.4-metre girth.

Pre European settlement, trees such as the River Red Gum, South Australian Blue Gum, Peppermint Gum and Golden Wattle once wooded the slopes of Burnside generously.

Photograph: Glynburn Road, c. 1905.

The Burnside Library is turning 60 this year!

On 8 April 1961, the library opened with a book stock of 7,800 and one full-time staff member. In January 2000, the old library building was demolished. The current building opened in October of the same year.

Pictured here is the former Burnside Library. Do you have any memories of the ‘old’ library?

Young Citizen of the Year John White

John White, 29, has been named as City of Burnside’s Young Citizen of the Year for 2021 at this morning’s Australia Day Ceremony at Hazelwood Park. John has been a band conductor since 2014 for several community bands. He was awarded the South Australian Band Association Band Person of the Year in 2018. John often mentors youth and provides learning support for children with disabilities and general students. Since a young age he has performed in community bands and will often volunteer to fill in on instruments. John wasn’t expecting such an accolade but says it is good to draw attention to the Band.

Jenny Cooper has been named 2021 Citizen of the Year at an Australia Day Ceremony at Hazelwood Park this morning. Jenny, 58, was recognised for her efforts in starting up the Australian branch of Breadtags for Wheelchairs, a not-for-profit organisation which collects bread tags and recycles them to raise funds. Jenny, of Rosslyn Park, set up a national collection network and engaged a local recycler, Transmutation in Robe, to produce bread boards, bowls and platters. By September 2020 Aussie Breadtags for Wheelchairs had recycled over 2 tonnes of breadtags, (approximately 5.4 million) and in that time has funded 14 wheelchairs. It was quite humbling to receive the Award," Jenny says.

After nearly 30 years, John Moore has handed in his resignation as a dedicated volunteer at St. Saviour's cemetery, Glen Osmond. His many years of volunteering have earnt him the award of 2021 City of Burnside Citizen of the Year.

John, 94, took on this voluntary work when he retired from teaching at Pulteney Grammar School.

An active member of St Saviour's Glen Osmond parish, John learnt that the volunteer who tended the cemetery had retired and he took on the task. “I was my own boss, week by week,” he says.

He attended regularly on Mondays, even on public holidays, to do little projects, always ready with his tool box. These projects included re-aligning monuments and edging, removing old tree stumps (“I dug them up by hand”), trimming hedges, making sure that gates shut properly, fences were secure, maintaining paths, spreading gravel, unearthing an old headstone and keeping other headstones upright or safe.

“It is important to respect the dead,” he says. “Some of the gravesites are so old that they don’t have headstones so we don’t know the history.”

But what history he did know he regularly shared while conducting history walks during History Month in May for a number of years, as well as showing classes from local schools and the Burnside Historical Society members. Each year he organised the skip for the annual cemetery working bee and kept attendance records. He also looked after the application for Council green bins and made sure they were put out each fortnight — always as full as possible!

John made many improvements, discussed management plans, dealt with vandalism, floods and drainage problems, trees and large branches falling, always with a positive attitude. John's achievements have been recognised by the parish and members of the public, who access the cemetery for walks, quiet contemplation, learning about social history of the area and visiting family members.

With his 95th birthday coming up in March he thought it was time to fully retire. “I still go to see Liz, who took over from me.”

His reaction to being selected as Senior Citizen of the Year was “I am staggered. Volunteer of the Year yes but Citizen of the Year!”

Asked his plans for his own burial he says “I have decided, when my time comes, to be cremated and my ashes to be in a memorial at the cemetery.”

History:

The cemetery, belonging to St. Saviour's Church, lies to the north-east of the Church, further along Pridmore Road. As with the church it is situated on land gifted by Osmond Gilles in 1854.

On the south side of the cemetery stands the tombstone of Glen Osmond's first resident, Edwin Olliver. Nearby are the headstones of other pioneers, including those of Redman Goldsack and his wives, Elizabeth and Christiana.

In a central position, under the shelter of a cypress tree, is the oldest headstone, recording the resting place of Moritz F. Weidenbach (interred 1858). Many of the oldest graves are without headstones, possibly due to the relatives having left the neighbourhood.

In 1909, brothers Malcolm and Wyn Tweedie built their home The Croft and established a 67 acre apricot orchard in Highfield (now St Georges). They planted a wide variety of apricots, most ripening at Christmas time.

Each year a tent village emerged in the paddock for University students seeking holiday work. The fruit business was unsuccessful, and the Tweedie brothers made more from selling their land in the 1920s than they ever did from their produce.

Glen Osmond became the birth-place of Australia’s mining history when two Cornish miners discovered silver-lead ore at Mt Osmond in 1841. Three mines were quickly established in the area: Wheal Gawler (1841), Glen Osmond Mines (1842) and Wheal Watkins (1843). Robert Watkins purchased the land for Wheal Watkins in 1842. Over its 10 years of intermittent operation between 1843 and 1916, Wheal Watkins yielded approximately 15,00 tons of ore.

Thanks to Mayor Monceaux and Meredith Ide from the Burnside Historical Society for providing us with a brief history of the mine. To discover more about the history of Burnside mines visit the Local History Corner at: http://bit.ly/MiningInBurnside Or go to: https://www.burnsidehistory.org.au/ to book a tour, or read more about history in Burnside.

The Lockwood Store was the centre of village life in Burnside. In 1859, Joseph Lockwood built the shop and a two-room house on the corner of High Street and Lockwood Road. From 1863, Lockwood operated a post office from the store and acted as an agent for the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The building was later extended, with a second storey added, providing residential accommodation.

In 1989, renovations connected the building to the neighbouring townhouse development.

OMBUDSMAN INVESTIGATION ON CORPORATE CREDIT CARD USE

The Ombudsman, Wayne Lines, has today released a report finding that in the period 30 June 2015 – 30 June 2017, the City of Burnside’s policies and credit card management framework had led to maladministration under the ICAC Act 2012. The matter had been referred to the Ombudsman in October 2018.

It was found that from 2015 - 2017 the record keeping of credit card transactions were inadequate, and that internal policies failed to provide guidance to staff as to what constituted appropriate expenditure which led to a culture of misspending.

New CEO Chris Cowley welcomed the release of the findings of the investigation, acknowledging that when senior managers were made aware that the credit card framework, controls and record keeping were inadequate, new credit card management processes were put in place to tighten control over credit cards.

“It is in the public’s interest to know that this investigation has been conducted and that the issues have been addressed,” Mr Cowley said.

“I appreciate a number of these transactions would not have passed the ‘pub test’ and my commitment going forward is that transactions of this nature will not occur again,” Mr Cowley said.

“This all happened before my watch and I am determined to change the culture here,” Mr Cowley said.

“Culture is set from the top in an organisation”, Mr Cowley said. “Although no misuse has been found against staff in this investigation, I will ensure our current processes and policies are further strengthened by implementing the recommendations of the Ombudsman.”

“The Ombudsman’s views certainly align with my expectations regarding the use of Council credit cards and expenditure by staff,” Mr Cowley said.

Mr Cowley said that in 2017 senior managers had begun addressing the issues that were subject to this investigation by overhauling the credit card management system and embedding more clarification on what constituted ‘appropriate expenditure’ for credit card usage in policy.

The Ombudsman acknowledged in his report that Council has since made many improvements and changes to its credit card policy and protocols; and commended the Council for the initiatives undertaken to strengthen its accountability and transparency for credit card use and expenditure by council employees.

The changes already implemented include:

• an online credit card register that is published monthly on the council’s external website.
• more rigour around credit card spending with detailed reviews undertaken each month.
• development of dashboard reports which provide the Executive and Management Teams with information on credit card expenditure.
• monthly credit card transactions reviewed by three levels of council administration.
• monthly credit card reports available on ‘Power BI’ which allows council management and the Executive Team to obtain information on credit card expenditure.
• regular audits undertaken on sample transactions.
• provision of ongoing training for council employees on credit card usage.
• an Annual Review of processes and protocols.
• regular reminders sent out to employees on timeliness of coding their transactions within ProMaster – Council’s finance management system.
• updating policies/protocols including the Elected Members’ Allowances and Benefits Policy, Reward and Recognition Protocol, Internal Financial Controls Framework, Corporate Credit Card Protocol and Corporate Credit Card Policy.
• the introduction of the Entertainment and Hospitality Policy with clear definitions on what is acceptable business-related spending.

The Ombudsman has made 13 recommendations to further strengthen the work already undertaken to safeguard against the types of expenditure that had been the subject of the investigation.

Council will report to the Ombudsman on the steps taken to implement the recommendations by 2 March 2021.

Read the Ombudsman's Report

Over the past few months Garry McDonald has been out walking in his Glenunga neighbourhood and meeting lots of people.

“I was overjoyed at seeing teddy bears stuck in hedges and fences,” Garry says. “I call them ‘bed buddies’ because that is what my grandkids call them.”

He was impressed by the lack of security and the apparent confidence in the community that the teddy bears would not be stolen; and decided to add a 'bed buddy', Barnie, to his front gate.

“He had such a lovely coat that I made a raincoat for him from a shopping bag for the winter,” says Garry.

Garry added more to the 'collection'. “Eiligh is a Scottish lass who carries a shield which resembles the Coronavirus emblem. She is in the back window of my car to protect me from the virus coming up from behind me!”

Garry was struck by the positive community spirit these bed buddies seemed to epitomise and started a competition to find the display which was the most innovative and showed community engagement.

The woman who won (Sheriden) had a collection of bears and toys around a tree on her verge and a hand written note asking children to take them to the park for a play because she could not leave the house. Garry gave her a big box of chocolates.

He also took a photo of a family with their ‘bed buddies’ and entered it into an RAA competition which also won a box of chocolates.

“Michelle and Adrian and their boys have joined a growing number of Glenunga residents bringing joy to young and old sharing their 'bed buddies' with those who traverse the local streets,” says Garry. “Like all acts of kindness, it is infectious. Behind each 'bed buddy' is a family saying they want to be part of bringing silver linings to lighten the impact of COVID-19, displaying a desire to be neighbourly and to build this community.”

“People are reaching out and wanting to be neighbourly,” Garry says. “COVID has given us the chance to be more neighbourly.” He says he smiles at people in the street and they smile back. “I say ‘hi’ and they say ‘hi’. We really are all in this together.”

Garry says Council’s Know Your Neighbours campaign is in this same spirit. He encourages people to get to know a neighbour and maybe offer to do a small thing for them, like putting out the weekly rubbish bin. “Don’t be afraid to approach someone and offer some help. You don’t have to become firm friends but you can make a difference for someone by doing a favour – however small.”

Know Your Neighbours web page