Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at
12:13 am
Although Adelaide’s Bicentennial Conservatory was built in 1988 to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary I’ve yet to walk through it, even though I’ve walked by it on more than one occasion. I reckon that this is the year that I may actually see how beautiful it is inside, but I’ll probably wait until it’s a bit cooler as I’ve heard it can get quite humid in there.
I think it’s great that they accepted Guy Maron’s design as he’s a South Australian architect. Although the whole structure is 100 metres long, 47 metres wide and 27 metres high, as you can see from the picture it’s quite delicate in design.

Last I heard it housed between 3000-4000 plants that were specifically selected from Australasia and Malaysia. The Department Of Environment And Heritage has a lot more information on this remarkable structure, which can be found in the Botanical Gardens, including opening hours and admission prices.
Make my day and shout me a beer.
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at
4:51 pm
They reckon that the Adelaide Arcade is the place to shop, and yes it does have a lot of lovely boutiques as well as a few places to sit and relax with a nice cup of coffee.
When originally built in 1885 it had about 50 shops but today it boasts over 100 outlets on multi-levels. What’s surprising is that it took only 5 months to build. Surprising because it would take much longer today even with all the modern technological advances.
For those of you who are interested there’s a very good site with a comprehensive history of the Adelaide Arcade. The Adelaide Arcade even has it’s own museum with artifacts depicting it’s history. You’ll find it on the balcony level of Gays Arcade.
This photo was taken from the Rundle Mall entrance.

This one from the opposite end, the Grenfell St. entrance. Considering how much detail went into the building it’s quite remarkable that they completed it in such a short time. I wonder if it has anything to do with the work ethics of the time.

I found the interior to be just as pleasing as the exterior and if I highly recommend that you stop by when visiting this wonderful city of ours.
Make my day and shout me a beer.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at
4:35 am
The monument that you see below is dedicated to Sir Walter Watson Hughes who was born in 1803 and died in 1887. Originally from England he made his fortune through investments in the mining industry. The Wallaroo Copper Mine was actually discovered on his property, and the Moonta mine was discovered close by. Naturally he had a major slice of both.
Sir Walter is usually referred to as the ‘”father” of the University Of Adelaide, because it was his donation of £20,000 that led to the formation of the University. The monument that you see here was presented by his nephews John James Duncan and Walter Hughes Duncan in 1906.

The next photo shows a little more of the Adelaide University in the background. Since it first came to being in 1874 it has been one of Australia’s leading universities.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/17448229@N00/4333806781/” title=”Adelaide uni by Sire1, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4333806781_ecfc18efa4.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Adelaide uni” /></a>
Learn more about Adelaide University by visiting their home page.
Make my day and shout me a beer.