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Are you an ex-scholar of Burnside Primary School?

In 2019, Burnside Primary School celebrated 150 years of public education for children in the local area.

The Burnside School opened in 1869 with 42 students and the first licensed headmistress Ruth England. The private home, located on William Street, which served as the first classroom is known today as The Cottage.

Over the past century, purpose-built classrooms have been added as the school expanded. There are now over 800 students and 70 staff members. Alumni include Andy Thomas (Astronaut), Tim May (Australian Cricketer) and Fiona Pike (Australian Golfer).

The maypole is from 1910 and the Year 7 class photograph is from 1931.

Burnside Local History Collection

In celebration of World Environment Day later this week, today’s windback is putting the spotlight on these Eucalyptus camaldulensis (River Red Gums). A local heritage listed landmark in the suburb of Tusmore, these trees line the rear of properties that front Tusmore Avenue.

Originally about 17 pairs, the trees were planted by William Rogers of Tusmore Farm during the 1850s and marked the main driveway to Tusmore House from Greenhill Road. Tusmore Farm included 800 sheep, 50 cattle, horses and over 100 acres in wheat and other cereals. The house’s gardens boasted cocoa-nut palms, banana trees, cedars, bamboos and pines. The farm was subdivided in 1912 and Tusmore House demolished in 1924.

The trees are a reminder of the original estate and remain as an indication of the location of the Tusmore House.

Photographs:

Entrance gates to Tusmore Farm circa 1898.

Sketch of Tusmore Farm from The Paddocks Beneath: A History of Burnside from the Beginning, by Elizabeth Warburton, page 87.

River Red Gums on Tusmore Avenue, Tusmore, June 2021.

In early 2020 Burnside Library initiated a Young Adult (YA) Book Discussion Group. Despite COVID-19 restrictions the group has grown and is at the point of splitting into two groups. They meet monthly in the Library on Thursday evenings.

In April they invited an Adelaide author to a meeting, Poppy Nwosu (pictured), author of many titles including Making Friends with Alice Dyson. The members of the group read her novel in the month leading up to the meeting and came prepared with comments and questions about her novels. The group loved hearing about Poppy’s creative process, daily writing routine and ‘writing perks’ such as purposefully NOT describing how a character looks because she likes to leave that up to the reader. During the meeting, Poppy even gave away some copies of another of her novels Taking Down Evelyn Tait. The group really enjoyed having an author attend the plan is to have other Young Adult authors attend in the future.

YA Book Discussion Group is run by one of Council’s friendly and dedicated volunteers, Kiana and she is always looking for new members. If you have a 14 - 23 year old in your family who loves to read YA novels, meet people and talk about books, please contact the Burnside Library on 8366 4280 to register their interest.

Did you know there are 5km of stormwater culverts across the City of Burnside?

To make sure we’re looking after these well, we periodically check on them to see what condition they’re in and to identify any issues that need repairing. And that’s what we’re doing now - the City of Burnside has engaged Plumbing & Pipeline Solutions to undertake a proactive assessment of Council’s underground culvert network. The project involves the inspection of the entire Culvert network throughout the City using closed-circuit television (CCTV) and will provide Council with a maintenance program to ensure any defects are repaired and prioritised on a risk basis.

The survey is currently underway and will be complete by mid-June 2021.

Attunga House and garden is one of the few remaining examples in Adelaide of a large house in its original garden setting dating from the early Federation period. The two-storey house of 14 rooms was built in 1900 for Benjamin Burford under the design of Adelaide architect F W Danker. It was built on a 4.5-acre paddock that was previously part of Prescott’s Farm. The property was purchased in 1905 by Otto Georg Ludwig von Rieben. Von Rieben laid out the garden in Edwardian style, with broad sweeps of lawn, adding trees, aviaries and a fernery.

In 1944, the building and grounds were generously donated by von Rieben to the Burnside community and Council for use as a hospital. The garden was intended ‘for the peaceful recreation of hospital patients and the community’. In 1949, the conversion into a hospital was completed and opened with beds for 21 patients.

The new Burnside War Memorial Hospital opened in 1956, replacing Attunga House, however, to this day it continues to be used for medical support purposes.

Photograph: Official party at Attunga to inspect the gift of Otto von Rieben to the City of Burnside, 1944. State Library of South Australia, B 49774.

The Rotary Club of Burnside has been awarded a $12,000 grant to purchase equipment for the Laurel Avenue community garden.

The Stronger Communities Programme Round 6 grant was awarded by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

Rotary Club of Burnside Secretary John Caddy said the idea for the Grant application came about when at the old nursery site. “When I heard the nursery was relocating and Laurel Avenue was potentially to become a community garden I said ‘How can we help?’”

The grant will pay for a picnic setting, three benches and a cubby house, all to be constructed from recycled materials.

John said the community garden is “a fantastic idea” and he looks forward to the equipment being installed in July or August.

Photo: Rotary Club of Burnside President Des Munro and Secretary John Caddy.

Background:

In June 2020 work commenced to create a community space at the site formally used as a nursery on Laurel Avenue, Linden Park. An extensive community engagement process has been undertaken and, along with resident input from a Working Reference Group, a landscape design and the parameters of the use of the garden have been created. Through this process a name has been proposed.

The Laurel Avenue Pirkurna Wirra / Peter Bennett Organic Community Garden is the proposed name for Burnside's newest community garden.

The garden will include bike racks, a book library, a small greenhouse, sheds, compost bin, bush tucker garden, a cubby house, a picnic setting and park benches.

For more information on the name/s and to see the concept design go to our website.

Laurel Avenue

Vine Inn on Glen Osmond Road was built in 1850, named after the vines that flourished nearby. Thomas Henderson was the first licensee, after his death, his wife managed the business until 1874. The Inn was an accepted place for meetings such as election talks and inquests.

After 1909, the building was used as a boarding house run by Anne Fairclough, then later converted into a corner shop. It was demolished in the 1970s.

An article from The Register in October 1916 shares an amusing memory of the Inn:

“If the walls of the weather-worn Vine could speak they could tell many interesting stories. Travellers by the Mount Barker coach will recall the retriever dog owned by the late Mr Willmott, to whom many passengers threw pennies. Picking up the coppers in its mouth the clever canine would enter the bar and return with biscuits, which it would eat on the verandah, to the great amusement of juveniles.”

Photograph: Vine Inn, Glen Osmond 1916. Burnside Local History Collection.

It is National Volunteer Week, the annual celebration to acknowledge the generous contribution of our nation’s volunteers. In celebration, Volunteering Australia is pleased to announce the theme for National Volunteer Week 2021 – ‘Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine’.

At a ceremony at The Regal Theatre on Tuesday the Mayor presented the following awards for service and achievement:

25 years

• Wilma Bajka Van Velze, Pepper Street Arts Centre
• Marjorie Molyneux, Pepper Street Arts Centre
  
  

20 years

• John Chinnery, Library Book Repairs
• Charlie Simoner, Library Book Repairs
• Raj Rajagopalan, Justice of the Peace
  
  

15 years

• Anthony Bransbury, Library Book Repairs
• Graham Fennessy, Library Book Repairs
• Alexia Heffernan, Library Shelving & Distribution
• Judy Stohr, Library Book Repairs
  
  

10 years

• Sandra Edwards, Conservation
• Sue Fox, Pepper Street Arts Centre
• Robert Hilditch, Men’s Shed
• Margaret Kahland, Aged Care 3 R’s Program
• Annabel Price, Library Book Discussion Group
  
  

5 years

• Keith Chiveralls, Community Transport
• Kevin Clark, Graffiti Removal Team
• Marguerita Hanna, Library Events
• Jane Nicholson, Library Book Discussion Group
• Diana Chessell, Eastwood Community Centre
  
  

Outstanding Achievement by a Volunteer

• Ann Wilson, Justice of the Peace
  
  

The Premier’s Certificate of Recognition for outstanding volunteer service 2021

• Burnside Toy Library Volunteers.
  
  

We will share the stories of our volunteers as National Volunteer Week continues, so please keep an eye on Engage Burnside to find out more about the inspirational people who support us.

John and Charlie are part of Community Connections, Library Book Repairs Volunteer Program. Raj is in the Justice of the Peace Volunteer Program.

John is the Library’s expert repairer of damaged books, maintaining them in good shape for patrons to enjoy for many years. He is a keen golfer and also a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. John is great fun to work with, and his dry sense of humour keeps library staff and volunteers smiling.

Charlie is part of the Library Repairs team and performs a variety of tasks, including repairs to books, unpacking deliveries of new books, DVDs and audio books and helping with other tasks. Charlie is a quiet achiever and doesn’t give too much away about himself, but has a caring nature and has formed some close bonds over the years with other volunteers. He is a cat lover, which makes him an instant favourite with many library staff members.

Raj is a very sociable, outgoing person with a big smile. Raj turns 90 in November and has given his time to our Justice of the Peace services at the Council for over 20 years and always attended the training sessions to learn and update his knowledge of the documentation that he was presented with in his role as a JP. Raj still attends the gym regularly and that’s how he looks and stays so young.

Joining at the point of her retirement from a busy professional life, Marjorie is proudly declared by us as one the ‘originals’ of the Pepper Street family. She has great familiarity with Centre programs, as well as its history, which she shared via her contribution to the Centre’s 25 year birthday celebration video last year. (Wilma also contributed to that video).

Marjorie’s willingness to embrace the many changes of a growing Centre are to be commended. From modest beginnings in a small space, the Centre expanded to the full building and grew – and grew.

It is quite possible Marjorie didn’t envisage such things when she started as mastering the art of cappuccino froth, nor the use of touch screens, computer sales software of EFTPOS machines that introduce themselves (“Hi – I’m Albert”)! With grace and humour she has tackled all new developments.

Marjorie is also an artist – describing herself as a hobby potter. She is well known for her fascination with birds as inspiration, including some very fine, beautifully glazed ‘toothpick birds’. If you don’t have one yet, make sure you get along to Pepper Street!

Wilma has volunteered in a myriad of ways over the life of Pepper Street Arts Centre. Being one of the very first members of the team she has some of the earliest memories of the Centre, and has seen its growth first hand from almost day one.

Many years were spent providing refreshments at exhibition events, welcoming visitors, answering the phones, making sales, and being an enthusiastic advocate for the Centre. Evolving in her contribution, Wilma has also become a familiar face on Fridays at the Pepper Street weaving loom. The local community enjoy watching her at work, asking questions and learning about her craft – even the loom itself has been a curiosity, with one gentleman spending quite some time on its engineering with a view to making his own.

It is a unique opportunity for visitors to interact with an artist at work. You can see Wilma’s beautiful wearable art in the Pepper Street gift shop – well worth a visit.

Wilma is a great believer in the way in which art supports quality of life and wellbeing in our community. We thank her for 25 years of amazing service to Pepper Street Arts Centre.