Bicentiennial Conservatory

At the north-eastern end of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens is the Bicentennial Conservatory – a nautilus-shell-shaped glass and steel structure which is visible from certain western facing points of the Adelaide hills. Designed by South Australian architect Guy Maron, it was opened to celebrate the Australian bicentenary in 1988. It is the largest single span glasshouse in the southern hemisphere, and one of the largest in the world.

I remember visiting it shortly after it opened, when most of the plants were not much more than seedlings. Twenty-four years later and I have to ask….what are they going to do with the trees that are now touching the roof?

No pictures of the outside of the shell – but some of the detail of the rainforest within.

The (rather civilised) way into the jungle…

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Adelaide Botanic Gardens

In the parklands across the road from the northern entrance.

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens sit on the eastern end of North Terrace adjacent to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and forming part of the Parklands which ring the city. A wide variety of mature trees, native and exotic as well as formal and informal plantings form a number of different “chambers” within the park, so that you can picnic or play within the park without being aware of everybody. A number of truly novel plants, including the Amazonian Waterlily – Amazonian in proportions – make this an interesting day out, particularly if you are accompanied by children who need to be exercised!

There are also a number of public arts dotted throughout the gardens – some in the classic style, others more modern. A formal rose garden is popular for weddings, as is the Botanic Gardens restaurant, set in the centre of the gardens near the lake. The Santos Museum of Economic Botany also boasts a cafe and decking which can be used for functions – but I have never been there when the museum was open so I have no idea what it is like inside! Presumably economic botany is about using plants for profit – medicines, agriculture and the like?

On the north-eastern corner of the gardens is a giant glass dome – the Bicentennial Conservatory, featuring an indoor rain-forest.

Enjoy

Money-tree

Amazonian Waterlily

emblem of the Amazonian Waterlily, etched onto the conservatory glass

More pictures from Australia? Try
Melbourne Jail and the Melbourne Aquarium
In the red hot centre
South Australian Museum

South Australian Museum

A trip to the South Australian Museum, on North Terrace in Adelaide. A few photographs of the Pacific Islander collection and the building, the war memorial and an abandoned building on North Terrace that has fallen “victim” to some street art.

breast decorations made from shell

Fiji Times declares peace in the Pacific (WWII)

Pacific Islander mask

the War Memorial, North Terrace, Adelaide

an attractive but abandoned building on North Terrace, Adelaide

faces at the window (detail)

ornate plaque

Life is a beach

These pictures were taken at Goolwa and Middleton beaches at the end of January 2012 – the end of the summer season. Goolwa and Middleton, and the nearby town of Victor Harbor, are traditional summer holiday places for people from Adelaide. The towns are a combination of retirees (God’s waiting room, as they say) and holiday homes. This is where the “schoolies week” is held in South Australia. Only an hour’s drive from Adelaide, this area is very accessible even for a day-trip, and is often a couple of degrees cooler – very important in an Australian summer.

wild weather

leave nothing but footprints (which are quickly washed away)

swim between the flags

jumping off the rocks into the surf

rocky island

surf school

dog chasing ball

where are the chips? Being held hostage in the car by a flock of seagulls....

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