Every country has it’s pioneers but usually when one thinks of pioneers the first thing that comes to mind is great feats of heroism in times of tribulation and hardship, forging ahead into the unknown finding new territory to settle. The fact is that being a true pioneer does not necessarily include heroism although it may well mean battling very hard times, working the land and making it your own.

South Australia has many pioneers and while many may not consider Johann Herbig as one I tend to disagree. It all began on the 3rd of October 1855 when Johann Friedrich Herbig arrived in South Australia on the Wilhelmine from Germany. Although poor he manage to lease about 80 acres of land on a time payment schedule and not having enough money to build a house he lived in a old gum tree that was found on his property. This hollow red gum tree is located at Springton South Australia and is about 60 km’s from Adelaide. It’s about 300-500 years old, has a diameter of 7 metres and a height of 24 metres.

He lived in the tree for about five years. He met his bride to be, Anna Caroline Rattey on the 1st of December 1876 and married her in 1858 and they lived in the tree together. A year later the first of their sixteen children, Johann, was born in their tree house. It wasn’t until their second son was born a year later and the tree became too small for the growing family, a hut was built.

He died on the 18th October 1886 aged 58 due to an unfortunate accident. The tree has been occupied on several occasions by others and today the Herbig Family Tree represents a graphic link to early European settlement of the area.

Many people when talking about family trees think of it in terms of genealogy, but here in South Australia we have a tree that was inhabited by a family for roughly five years. This would make it one of the few actual living tree house

The tree is located 63 km north-east of Adelaide in Springton which was originally known as Black Springs. It is a small township at the south-eastern extremity of the Barossa Valley. It is definitely worth a look at if you are in the area.

Make my day and shout me a beer.

The Cross Of Sacrifice is a monument that stands 11.6 meters tall commemorating those who lost their lives in the Great War 1914-1920. It is part of the Woman’s War Memorial that is situated at Pennington Gardens. In the background you can see the spires of St Peter’s Cathedral Adelaide. At the other end of Memory garden sits a Stone Of Remembrance.

I took a photo of the plaque at the base of the monument which apparently replaced the original on Anzac Day 1965.

Make my day and shout me a beer.

Last night I went to view the Northern Lights display in Adelaide, and I am here to say that it was nothing short of spectacular. They say that up to 15,000 people a night go to check out the display of 70 different projections of light that is projected on the facades of the State Library, SA Museum, Art Gallery, Elder Hall, Mitchell Building and Bonython Hall. My only gripe was that the displays changed every five minutes and I found it a little tedious.

The Northern Lights were created using digital software and giant French-made PIGI system projectors that each weighed more than 200kg. I reckon I was extremely fortunate as I caught the last display.

I noticed that although there were a lot of people taking photos with there camera phones or digital cameras, very few actually used tripods and I am afraid all those who didn’t use a tripod will be disappointed with their photos. These are some that I took. Clicking on any photo will enlarge the photo.

Bonython Hall

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SA Museum

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SA Library

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Mitchell Building

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Elder Hall

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Art Gallery

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All these shots were taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX50. This is a digital 7.2 mega pixel camera and I used the Scene mode that was set on night scenery, the shutter speed being set to the maximum 8 seconds.

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Although Adelaide is known as “The City Of Churches”, if it wasn’t for the fact that in Australia you could almost walk into a Pub no matter where you go, it could also be known as the “City Of Pubs”.
As I am a lover of old architecture I took this picture of The Metropolitan Hotel which was established in 1839.

It has a lot of character and is well known for it’s good service and cheap accommodation. Located in the heart of Adelaide at 46 Grote St. it is within walking distance of Rundle Mall, the Adelaide Markets and the general business district.

If you want to book a room or a function Phone: 08 8231 5471

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The Orange Spot Bakery, located on 752 Anzac Highway Glenelg, has to have the best pies and cakes in town. Even though I was born and raised in South Australia and I have visited Glenelg on many occasions, last Australia long weekend (January 28th) was the first time I ever stepped foot into this establishment.

It was definitely one of the highlights of my visit as the products that I bought and took back for the family to enjoy were sensational.

Just to give you an idea of the prizes they have won I took a picture of just a small selection of their trophies.

Make my day and shout me a beer.