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What do you think of the City of Burnside’s float entry for the 1962 Adelaide Festival of the Arts parade?

The inaugural Adelaide Festival of the Arts took place in March 1960. The Festival was held bi-annually and included hundreds of events celebrating arts, music and culture over three weeks. One of the highlights was the opening parade on King William Street, Adelaide. Many Councils entered the procession.

The @Adelaide Festival is now held annually, and we are currently in the midst of its 61^st year! Hope you are enjoying some of its fantastic events.

Almost 30 children from Kensington Gardens Preschool visited the Kensington Gardens Reserve Project site to learn about Kaurna culture and the cultural importance of the site. It was also an opportunity for the children to see the construction up close.

The mainly 4-year-old students have been following the progress of the project for some time. Director Catherine Honeychurch says the school has always been known as ‘The Kindy in the Park’ (Ngartuwirra Wirrangka).

“We are very excited about this group of children, they only started in January and we use the park as part of our Reconciliation Action Plan.” The children keep a journal of construction activities and work they see happening on the project.

Council is working closely with Kaurna Traditional Owners on the Kensington Gardens Reserve Project to recognise and respect the importance of this site to First Nations People.

Kaurna Elder Aunty Lynette Crocker welcomed the children as a representative of the Kaurna people. “I welcome you to our City. I greet you in the spirit of humanity,” she said. “For me and my ancestors before me this is a place of reflection. This is a very important area of Burnside in the history of South Australia, Adelaide and the Kaurna people. “

Aunty Lynette asked the children to look after and watch the area. “I want you to understand and acknowledge how you feel about the city, learn about nature and the living things in your neighbourhood,” she said.

Kaurna representative Trevor ‘Boodgie’ Wanganeen showed the children some artefacts made with materials similar to those recovered from the site and explained how his ancestors made their own weapons and utensils “long before white man came”.

Background:

The KGR Project will deliver significant environmental and recreational benefits to the reserve and the surrounding creek ecosystem.

The overall project will include an extensive revegetation program with more than 40 trees, 1,450 shrubs and 4,300 groundcovers to be planted in the area surrounding a new wetland. A dedicated ‘biozone’ area will feature 2,400m2 of plantings across three distinct areas that will complement the remnant SA Blue Gum ecosystem at the reserve.

Native species will be used exclusively for all new plantings, 4,800 new ‘biozone’ plantings will be locally sourced and indigenous to the reserve. The wetland will benefit existing trees by removing the existing lake walls and feature over 10,000 new plants that will improve the quality of stormwater that enters Stonyfell Creek

Council is working closely with Kaurna Traditional Owners to monitor the construction and to develop opportunities for Kaurna heritage recognition such as public art, cultural sites and signage.

More information about the project, and more photos of the visit, can be found at https://engage.burnside.sa.gov.au/kensington-gardens-reserve-project

Kaurna representative Trevor ‘Boodgie’ Wanganeen

Kaurna Elder Aunty Lynette Crocker

When Burnside became the Municipality of Burnside on 16 May 1935, winemaking and olive oil production were important industries. A competition to design the Burnside City crest was won by Edward Murray Seymour in 1938. The final design was approved in 1939.

Two of Burnside's early industries are represented in the crest - a grape bunch depicts winemaking and a barrel and olive branches depict olive oil production. Another feature of the crest is the Glen Osmond Toll House, which was built in 1841 and closed in 1847. At the top is South Australia's emblem, the piping shrike.

This crest is now only applied to very formal documents presented by the Burnside Council.

Olive Growing

Burnside’s first olive truncheons were planted by Samuel Davenport in Beaumont after being imported from France in the 1840’s. Davenport took his knowledge and applied it to similar soil upon his arrival in South Australia in 1843.

About 25 years later, Beaumont became home to Australia’s first commercial olive oil production. ‘Sir Samuel Davenport’s Virgin Olive Oil’ was sold interstate and was included in many international exhibitions, winning medals in France and India.

In 1873 another olive plantation emerged as The Stonyfell Olive Company began business. The Stonyfell foothills plantation gradually increased in size to boast over 10,000 trees of over 15 varieties. Despite the demand for the plantations’ high quality oil in Australia and internationally, olive oil production was never very profitable. Eventually cheaper imported oils rendered the local plantations unprofitable and production ceased at Stonyfell in1958 and at Beaumont in 1962.

Penfolds Winery

Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold arrived in South Australia with his wife Mary in 1844. A practicing doctor, Dr Penfold had great faith in the curative properties of port.

Together they purchased 60 acres of land at Magill and built a stone cottage which they called “The Grange” (which is today one of Burnside's oldest buildings). They also planted cuttings from French and Spanish vines which they brought with them from England.

It was in fact Mary Penfold and her maid Ellen Timbrell who made the first Penfold wine. In the early days, production was restricted to wines of the port and sherry type, but as demand grew, other varieties were added.

The vineyards and wine making business also grew with the help of Penfold’s son- in-law Thomas Hyland, who married their daughter Georgina. In 1881, the stock of wine at the Magill winery was 107,000 gallons, with two thirds being exported to other Australian states and also to New Zealand.

In 1950, the company made the historic decision to focus on table wines. Shortly after, two of Australia's finest red wines were developed at Magill, namely Grange Hermitage and St Henri Claret. Today all Penfolds Grange vintages are collector’s items.

In the 1980’s most of the land was subdivided for housing. A small vineyard, the cottage and the winery buildings were retained.

The Magill Estate Shiraz is still made entirely from the grapes of this vineyard. The remaining five hectares of vines are almost surrounded by suburbia, providing a unique setting for the Magill Estate Restaurant that opened in 1995.

Glen Osmond Toll House

Constructed in 1841 as a toll keeper’s quarters, the Glen Osmond Toll House is one of the state’s oldest buildings. It was built to enable a cash strapped government to collect fees to help finance the construction of the Great Eastern Road, the main route to the eastern colonies. This was, and still is, the only toll road to have ever been built in South Australia.

The amount of the toll depended on the type of vehicle or animal travelling on the road, with common charges being one shilling for a one horse coach, sixpence for every ridden horse and three shillings for a carriage drawn by six or more horses.

Exemptions included the Governor’s horses and “persons traveling to divine service on Sunday.”

Not surprisingly, the tolls were unpopular and inefficient, as travellers became adept at bypassing this section of road.

In 1847 politician Sir Samuel Davenport successfully moved for the abolishment of the toll and the building became obsolete. The small hexagonal stone building still stands in its original position, now in the middle of a multi-lane highway.

The single toll gate used to block the road was recovered and restored in the early 1950’s, and now stands on a grassed area near the toll house.

The City of Burnside's 2020 Annual Community Survey was released today with the Burnside community giving the highest satisfaction rating since 2013.

The survey is conducted on a yearly basis to understand the community's perceptions of the Council's service delivery performance.

It is the only fully representative survey conducted in the City and the results are a genuine reflection of our community's opinion. The results are used to inform decision making at Council.

Our community's overall satisfaction with Council is the highest it has been since 2013 when this survey commenced. The increase is driven by significant improvement in the proportion of very satisfied responses - increasing from 40 per cent in 2018 to 60 per cent in 2020.

Council also asked the community for an opinion on three strategic questions:

• Council advocacy for activating cycling (advisory panel, advocate with cycling bodies, ERA approach);
• Support for electronic consultation or an option to ‘opt out’ of hard copy consultation; gauge whether residents would be interested in reducing footprint and costs around consultation and other available tools; and
• Support for more shrubs and understory plantings in parks and Council Infrastructure to support habitat and birdlife.

To find out all the results, or to read the report, visit the Annual Community Survey webpage.

The first of Council’s heritage plaques has been installed at 470 Glynburn Road, Burnside. Former Councillor, the late Graham Bills, and his wife Tesslyn bought the property 20 years ago. A keen historian and a fan of heritage, Graham conducted extensive research to uncover the house’s history. What he found resulted in a successful application to have the home Local Heritage Listed in 2005.

“Graham was always interested in heritage,” says Tesslyn. “It is only because Graham did all the ground work that this has come about.”

In April 2020 Council resolved to instigate a Pilot Project to install plaques to mark key heritage places within the City of Burnside. This is the first of 25 to be installed.

History:

Ebenezer Claude Gore built the Californian Bungalow in 1925 for his wife, Violet Esther Gore (nee Lucas) to the design of Adelaide architect Len Golding. Claude was a schoolmaster, horticulturalist and soil expert.

The home is built of freestone and red brick, complemented by a Kentish gable end and verandah. At that time, the property address was 160 Burnside Road.

The Gore family operated Burnside Florists, a successful florist business that sold flowers grown on the property. Many properties in the neighbourhood were dedicated to flower production. To the east of the home (near where 1A Young Street now stands), there was a commercial flower garden. The family supplied flowers to numerous Adelaide outlets from 1945 to 1980.

When Claude passed away in 1971 property maintenance became too onerous for the family and in 1972 they sold a portion of the estate. Even though most of the garden was gone, Violet and Mary Gore sourced flowers from other growers and continued to make wreaths and arrangements.

In 1950 Claude collaborated with retired engineer Mr Bateman to design and construct concrete building blocks. ‘Gorebats’, named after both inventors, are large concrete blocks, reinforced with steel rods and slotted on the side, indented in varying sizes. Once in place concrete fills the gaps and large reinforcing rods are placed through the support blocks.

The Gorebats were created at the rear of the property and then trucked to the site. The joint enterprise ended around 1960 and that section of land was sold.

Existing examples of Gorebat construction:

• Knightsbridge Baptist Church Hall (1952)
• Aldgate Memorial Hall (1958)
• Cherry Gardens Memorial Hall (1956)
• Echunga Memorial Institute (1956)
• 1A Young Street, Burnside (1957/8)
• Reynella Memorial Hall (1953)
• Verdun Memorial Hall (1960)

Heritage SA Database

Len Golding – Architect

Monreith Private Hospital in Toorak Gardens was founded in 1932.

The Fergusson family of Monreith, Scotland migrated to Australia in 1839. Andrew and Alexander Fergusson purchased land in Section 274 (Toorak Gardens) and named the farm Monreith after their hometown. They grew wheat and barley and built a flour mill in present-day Sprod Avenue.

In the early 20th Century, the property was subdivided and HWF Miller purchased two blocks fronting Portrush Road. In 1923, Miller built a house at what is now 401 Portrush Road.

Sister R H Paice managed a rest home on Greenhill Road and aspired to convert 401 Portrush Road into a hospital. In 1932, Paice and her husband bought the property. Renovations in the late 1930s doubled the size of the building. The hospital included surgical and maternity wings.

Monreith Private Hospital closed its doors in 1997. It is now an Aged Care Facility.

Photographs: Monreith Private Hospital, 1940.

The Rotary Club Of Burnside has donated two defibrillators to Council to be used in the two community buses.

Delivered personally by John Caddy on 16 February they were installed quickly by our team the next day.

The timing is perfect as all the Commonwealth Home Support Programme volunteers are completing their First Aid Course which covers CPR and the use of defibrillators.

The Honourable Patricia Lynne WHITE AM

Trish White is probably best known to South Australians as a former Labor Minister under the Rann government. But it is also for her significant service to engineering that she has been acknowledged in the Australia Day Honours.

As a 24-year-old she was a senior engineer and project manager at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).

“It toughened me up,” Trish, 56, says. “In those days electrical engineering was ‘geeky’ and there weren’t many female engineers. There was no internet then. I was at the leading edge.”

In the early 1990s Trish was working in Canberra and was often asked to appear in Senate Estimates to explain technical issues to non-technical audiences.

“I have always wanted to solve problems for people and was attracted to the political and technical. I had a taste of the power of policy making to change people’s lives.”

She moved to Adelaide and joined the Rann Opposition team as Member for Taylor, a position vacated by former Premier Lynn Arnold. When Labor won the election in 2002 she became a Minister.

“It was enormously difficult to transition from engineering to politics,” Trish says. “Engineers deal with concise, factual matters.”

After 16 years in politics Trish, of Leabrook, stood down for family reasons. “I had two little boys and a sick husband,” she says.

She established her own company Slingsby Taylor and has a portfolio of Board positions. She was Board Chairman and National President of Engineers Australia, 2018-2019.

“As an engineer I get a lot of inspiration from nature. Burnside has a lovely combination of built and natural environment.

“I am grateful for all the people who have mentored me over the years and for the recognition of engineering and the impact of it to the country. Innovation drives the country.”

Did you know that there are approximately 350 km of footpaths across the City of Burnside?

These footpaths help to connect people and places, encouraging active travel and exercise, and linking our neighbourhoods. Ensuring we effectively manage and maintain these footpaths is very important – lucky for us we have an amazing team of people in place to help us do so! Below is a little bit of information on what they do to help keep our footpaths safe.

All footpaths are annually inspected to identify any defects (trip hazards). This involves one of our team members going out to visit and inspect every footpath across the city, and record any defects found. These defects are prioritised to be repaired based on their risk (which includes assessing the size as well as the location) with the highest priority defects being scheduled for repair first.

Each year Council staff repair around 2,800 defects in footpaths and roads. We also have a footpath renewal program which replaces whole segments of footpaths in a similar manner, with those in worst condition being replaced first. This program proactively replaces several kilometres of aged and cracked footpaths every year. The City of Burnside puts a very high level of emphasis on providing a robust program to monitor and respond to footpath defects, committing nearly $1 million per year on replacing and maintaining footpaths.

If you become aware of any defects you are concerned about, you can log them directly with Council at action.burnside.sa.gov.au, which will ensure they are included in the maintenance program.

Dr Patrick Phillips AM

For his significant service to medicine and to diabetes organisations, Pat has been awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM). As an active member of Diabetes Australia (both nationally and in SA) Pat has contributed to the preparation and implementation of strategies to improve health care and education throughout Australia. He is a general endocrinologist with a special interest in diabetes, thyroid and bone disorders such as osteoporosis. (An endocrinologist is a medical specialist who treats people with a range of conditions that are caused by problems with hormones.)

Dr Phillips was Director of Endocrinology at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, for more than 20 years. He was also former editor of the Diabetes Australia national magazine Conquest and coordinator of the RACGP Guidelines in diabetes.

“I helped organise camps for kids and teenagers with diabetes,” Pat says. “It is difficult for children with diabetes and their parents, especially Type 1, as their blood sugar levels can vary wildly.” An important part of education was to provide support networks for parents and nutrition advice.

He has also consulted at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Lyell McEwin Health Service and the Modbury Hospital.

“I was lucky to be involved in the ASEAN Diabetes Prevention and Control Project,” Pat says. “That was a cooperative project between Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.”

When asked his greatest professional achievement he cites his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. Married to Beverly for 50 years he says his greatest achievement and source of pleasure is his family. Father to one son and six daughters, he is the proud grandfather of 11. “The whole family lived within walking distance of each other (until recently) and we get together regularly,” Pat says. “I am proud that three of my daughters became doctors and one is a midwife.”

Pat, of Toorak Gardens, was surprised at his Award but says it gives him more credibility. “I have been invited to get involved with an association of other Award winners to assess further nominations.”

He is semi-retired, still consulting one day a week at the Queen Elizabeth Specialist Centre.