Pete
Peterkin, The World's Most Versatile Entertainer/Impressionist
tours Adelaide - August 2008
Adelaide
is the capital and most populous city of the Australian
state of South
Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in
Australia,
with a population of over 1.1 million in 2006.
It is a coastal city situated on eastern side
of Gulf St. Vincent on the Adelaide Plains, north
of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and west of the Mount
Lofty Ranges, which rise to around 700 metres
(2,300 ft).
Named
in honour of Queen Adelaide, the consort of King
William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the
planned capital for the only freely-settled British
province in Australia. Colonel William Light,
one of Adelaide's founding fathers, is said to
have designed the city and to have chosen its
location close to the River Torrens. Inspired
by William Penn, Light's design set out Adelaide
in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards
and large public squares, and entirely surrounded
by parkland. Early Adelaide was shaped by religious
freedom, hence its moniker "The City of Churches,"
as well as a commitment to civil liberties. Today
Adelaide is known for its many festivals as well
as for its wine, arts and sports.
As
South Australia's seat of government and commercial
centre, Adelaide is the site of many governmental
and financial institutions. Most of these are
concentrated in the city centre along the cultural
boulevard of North Terrace, King William Street
and in various districts of the metropolitan area.
History
Prior
to British settlement, the Adelaide area was inhabited
by the Kaurna Aboriginal
tribe (pronounced "Garner" or "Gowna").
Acknowledged Kaurna country comprised the Adelaide
Plains and surrounding regions - from Cape Jervis
in the south, and to Port Wakefield in the north.
Among their unique customs were burn-offs (controlled
bushfires) in the Adelaide Hills which the early
Europeans spotted before the Kaurna people were
pushed out by settlement. By 1852, the total population
(by census count) of the Kaurna was 650 in the
Adelaide region and steadily decreasing. During
the winter months, they moved into the Adelaide
Hills for better shelter and firewood.
South
Australia was officially settled as a new British
province on 28 December 1836, near the The Old
Gum Tree in what is now the suburb of Glenelg
North. This day is now commemorated as Proclamation
Day in South Australia. The site of the colony's
capital city was surveyed and laid out by Colonel
William Light, the first Surveyor-General of South
Australia, though the design may be by the architect
George Strickland Kingston . In 1823, Light had
fondly written of the Sicilian city of Catania:
"The two principal streets cross each other
at right angles in the square in the direction
of north and south and east and west. They are
wide and spacious and about a mile long",
and this became the basis for the plan of Adelaide.
Light chose, not without opposition, a site on
rising ground close to the River Torrens, which
became the chief early water supply for the fledgling
colony. "Light's Vision", as it has
been termed, has meant that the initial design
of Adelaide required little modification as the
city grew and prospered. Usually in an older city
it would be necessary to accommodate larger roads
and add parks, whereas Adelaide had them from
the start. Adelaide was established as the centre
of a planned colony of free immigrants, promising
civil liberties and freedom from religious persecution,
based upon the ideas of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.
Wakefield had read accounts of Australian settlement
while in prison in London for attempting to abduct
an heiress, and realised that the eastern colonies
suffered from a lack of available labour, due
to the practice of giving land grants to all arrivals.
Wakefield's idea was for the Government to survey
and sell the land at a rate that would maintain
land values high enough to be unaffordable for
labourers and journeymen. Funds raised from the
sale of land would be used to bring out working
class emigrants, who would have to work hard for
the monied settlers to ever afford their own land.
As a result of this policy, Adelaide does not
share the convict settlement history of other
Australian cities like Sydney, Perth, Brisbane
and Hobart.
Adelaide's
early history was wrought by economic uncertainty
and incompetent leadership. The first governor
of South Australia, John Hindmarsh, clashed frequently
with Light. The rural area surrounding Adelaide
city was surveyed by Light in preparation to sell
a total of over 405 km² of land. Adelaide's
early economy started to get on its feet in 1838
with the arrival of livestock from New South Wales
and Tasmania. The wool industry served as an early
basis for the South Australian economy. Light's
survey was completed in this period, and land
was promptly offered to sale to early colonists.
Wheat farms ranged from Encounter Bay in the south
to Clare in the north by 1860. Governor Gawler
took over from Hindmarsh in late 1838 and promptly
oversaw construction of a governor's house, Adelaide
Gaol, police barracks, hospital, and customs house
and a wharf at Port Adelaide. In addition, houses
for public officials and missionaries, and outstations
for police and surveyors were also constructed
during Gawler's governorship. Adelaide had also
become economically self-sufficient during this
period, but at heavy cost: the colony was heavily
in debt and relied on bail-outs from London to
stay afloat. Gawler was recalled and replaced
by Governor Grey in 1841. Grey slashed public
expenditure against heavy opposition, although
its impact was negligible at this point: silver
was discovered in Glen Osmond that year, agricultural
industries were well underway, and other mines
sprung up all over the state, aiding Adelaide's
commercial development. The city exported meat,
wool, wine, fruit and wheat by the time Grey left
in 1845, contrasting with a low point in 1842
when one-third of Adelaide houses were abandoned.
Trade
links with the rest of the Australian states were
established with the Murray River being successfully
navigated in 1853 by Francis Cadell, an Adelaide
resident.
South
Australia become a self-governing colony in 1856
with the ratification of a new constitution by
the British parliament. Secret ballots were introduced,
and a bicameral parliament was elected on 9 March
1857, by which time 109,917 people lived in the
province.
In
1860 the Thorndon Park reservoir was opened, finally
providing an alternative water source to the turbid
River Torrens. In 1867 gas street lighting was
implemented, the University of Adelaide was founded
in 1874, the South Australian Art Gallery opened
in 1881 and the Happy Valley Reservoir opened
in 1896. In the 1890s Australia was affected by
a severe economic depression, ending a hectic
era of land booms and tumultuous expansionism.
Financial institutions in Melbourne and banks
in Sydney closed. The national fertility rate
fell and immigration was reduced to a trickle.
The value of South Australia's exports nearly
halved. Drought and poor harvests from 1884 compounded
the problems, with some families leaving for Western
Australia. Adelaide was not as badly hit as the
larger gold-rush cities of Sydney and Melbourne,
and silver and lead discoveries at Broken Hill
provided some relief. Only one year of deficit
was recorded, but the price paid was retrenchments
and lean public spending. Wine and copper were
the only industries not to suffer a downturn.
Electric
street lighting was introduced in 1900 and electric
trams were transporting passengers in 1909. 28,000
men were sent to fight in World War I. Adelaide
enjoyed a post-war boom but, with the return of
droughts, entered the depression of the 1930s,
later returning to prosperity under strong government
leadership. Secondary industries helped reduce
the state's dependence on primary industries.
The 1933 census recorded the state population
at 580,949, less of an increase than other states
due to the state's economic limitations. World
War II brought industrial stimulus and diversification
to Adelaide under the Playford Government, which
advocated Adelaide as a safe place for manufacturing
due to its less vulnerable location. 70,000 men
and women enlisted and shipbuilding was expanded
at the nearby port of Whyalla.
The
South Australian Government in this period built
on former wartime manufacturing industries. International
manufacturers like General Motors Holden and Chrysler
(now Mitsubishi) make use of these factories around
Adelaide completing its transformation from an
agricultural service centre to a twentieth-century
city. A pipeline from Mannum brought River Murray
water to Adelaide in 1954 and an international
airport opened at West Beach in 1955. An assisted
migration scheme brought 215,000 immigrants of
all nationalities to South Australia between 1947
and 1973. The Dunstan Government in the 1970s
saw something of an Adelaide 'cultural revival'
- establishing a wide array of social reforms
and overseeing the city becoming a centre of the
arts. Adelaide hosted the Australian
Grand Prix between 1985 and 1996 on a street
circuit in the city's east parklands, before losing
it to Melbourne.
The 1992 State Bank collapse plunged both Adelaide
and South Australia into economic recession, and
its effects lasted until 2004, when ratings agency
Standard & Poor's reinstated South Australia's
AAA credit rating. Recent years have seen the
Clipsal 500 V8
Supercar race make use of sections of the
former Formula One circuit and renewed economic
confidence under the Rann Government.
Geography
Adelaide
is located north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, on
the Adelaide Plains between the Gulf St Vincent
and the low-lying Mount Lofty Ranges. The city
stretches 20 km from the coast to the foothills,
and 90 km from Gawler at its northern extent to
Sellicks Beach in the south. According to the
Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Adelaide
Metropolitan Region has a total land area of 870
km², and is at an average elevation of 50
metres above sea level. Mount Lofty is located
east of the Adelaide metropolitan region in the
Adelaide Hills at an elevation of 727 metres.
It is the tallest point of the city and in the
state south of Burra.
Much
of Adelaide was bushland before British settlement,
with some variation - swamps and marshlands were
prevalent around the coast. However, much of the
original vegetation has been cleared with what
is left to be found in reserves such as the Cleland
Conservation Park and Belair National Park. A
number of creeks and rivers flow through the Adelaide
region. The largest are the Torrens and Onkaparinga
catchments. Adelaide relies on its many reservoirs
for water supply, with Mount Bold Reservoir and
Happy Valley Reservoir together supplying around
50% of Adelaide's requirements.
Climate
Climate of Adelaide
Adelaide
has a Mediterranean climate, where most of the
rain falls in the winter months. Of the Australian
capital cities, Adelaide is the driest. Rainfall
is unreliable, light and infrequent throughout
summer. In contrast, the winter has fairly reliable
rainfall with June being the wettest month of
the year, averaging around 80 mm. Frosts are rare,
with the most notable occurrences having occurred
in July 1908 and July 1982. There is usually no
appreciable snowfall, except at Mount Lofty and
some places in the Adelaide Hills.
Urban
layout
Light's Vision
Adelaide
is a planned city, designed by the first surveyor-general
of South Australia, Colonel William Light. His
plan, now known as Light's Vision, arranged Adelaide
in a grid, with five squares in the inner City
of Adelaide and a ring of parks known as the Adelaide
Parklands surrounding it. Light's design was initially
unpopular with the early settlers, as well as
South Australia's first Governor, John Hindmarsh.
Light persisted with his design against this initial
opposition. The benefits of Light's design are
numerous; Adelaide has had wide multi-lane roads
from its beginning, an easily-navigable grid layout
and a beautiful green ring around the city centre.
There are two sets of 'ring roads' in Adelaide
that have resulted from the original design. The
inner ring route borders the parklands and the
outer route completely bypasses the inner city
through (in clockwise order) Grand Junction Road,
Hampstead Road, Ascot Avenue, Portrush Road, Cross
Road and South Road.
Urban
expansion has to some extent outgrown Light's
original plan. Numerous satellite cities were
built in the latter half of the 20th century,
notably Salisbury and Elizabeth on the city's
northern fringes, which have now been enveloped
by its urban sprawl. New developments in the Adelaide
Hills region facilitated the construction of the
South Eastern Freeway to cope with growth. Similarly,
the booming development in Adelaide's South made
the construction of the Southern Expressway a
necessity. New roads are not the only transport
infrastructure developed to cope with the urban
growth, however. The O-Bahn Busway is an example
of a unique solution to Tea Tree Gully's transport
woes in the 1980s. The development of the nearby
suburb of Golden Grove in the late 1980s is possibly
an example of well-thought-out urban planning.
The newer urban areas as a whole, however, are
not as integrated into the urban layout as much
as older areas, and therefore place more stress
on Adelaide's transportation system – although
not on a level comparable with Melbourne or Sydney.
Government of South Australia
The
Adelaide metropolitan area is divided between
eighteen local government areas, including, at
its centre, the City of Adelaide, which administers
the CBD, North Adelaide, and the surrounding Adelaide
Parklands. It is the oldest municipal authority
in Australia and was established in 1840, when
Adelaide and Australia's first mayor, James Hurtle
Fisher, was elected. From 1919 onwards, the City
has had a Lord Mayor, the current being Lord Mayor
Michael Harbison.
Adelaide,
as the capital of South Australia, is the seat
of the Government of South Australia. As Adelaide
is South Australia's capital and most populous
city, the State Government co-operates extensively
with the City of Adelaide. In 2006, the Ministry
for the City of Adelaide was created to facilitate
the state government's collaboration with the
Adelaide City Council and the Lord Mayor to improve
Adelaide's image. The state parliament's Capital
City Committee is also involved in the governance
of the City of Adelaide, being primarily concerned
with the planning of Adelaide's urban development
and growth.
Demography
As
of 2006 Census, Adelaide had a metropolitan population
of more than 1,105,839, making it Australia's
fifth largest city. In the 2002-2003 period the
population grew by 0.6%, while the national average
was 1.2%. Some 70.3% of the population of South
Australia are residents of the Adelaide metropolitan
area, making South Australia one of the most centralised
states. Major areas of population growth in recent
years were in outer suburbs such as Mawson Lakes
and Golden Grove. Adelaide's inhabitants occupy
341,227 houses, 54,826 semi-detached, row terrace
or town houses and 49,327 flats, units or apartments.
Persons
of high-income are concentrated on the coastal
suburbs (such as Brighton and Glenelg), eastern
suburbs (such as Tusmore and Norwood) and south-eastern
suburbs (such as Burnside and Waterfall Gully).
Almost a fifth (17.9%) of the population had university
qualifications. The number of Adelaideans with
vocational qualifications (such as tradespersons)
fell from 62.1% of the labour force in the 1991
census to 52.4% in the 2001 census.
Over
half of the population identifies as Christian,
with the largest denominations being Catholic
(22.1%), Anglican (14.0%), Uniting Church (8.4%)
and Eastern Orthodox (3.8%). Approximately 24%
of the population expressed no religious affiliation,
well above the national average of 18.7%.
Overall,
Adelaide is ageing much more rapidly than other
Australian capital cities. Just over a quarter
(26.7%) of Adelaide's population is aged 55 years
or older, in comparison to the national average
of 24.3%. Adelaide has the lowest number of children
(under-15 year olds), which composed 17.8% of
the population, compared to the national average
of 19.8.
Overseas-born
Adelaideans composed 23.7% (262,367) of the total
population. The north-western suburbs (such as
Woodville and Athol Park) and suburbs close to
the CBD have a higher ratio of overseas-born residents.
The five largest groups of overseas-born were
from England (7.3%), Italy (1.9%), Scotland (1.0%),
Vietnam (0.9%), and Greece (0.9%). The most-spoken
languages other than English were Italian (3.0%),
Greek (2.2%), Vietnamese (1.2%), Mandarin (0.8%),
and Cantonese (0.7%).
Economy
Adelaide's
economy is primarily based around manufacturing,
defence
technology and research, commodity export and
corresponding service industries. It has large
manufacturing, defence and research zones. They
contain car manufacturing plants for General Motors
Holden and Mitsubishi, and plants that produce
electronic systems that are sold worldwide for
applications in medical, communications, defence,
automotive, food and wine processing and industrial
sectors. The revenue of Adelaide's electronics
industry has grown at over 15% per year since
1990. The electronics industry in Adelaide employs
over 13,000 people, which is more than the automotive
industry. Almost half of all cars produced in
Australia are made in Adelaide. The global media
conglomerate News
Corporation was founded in and until 2004
incorporated in Adelaide and is still considered
its 'spiritual' home by Rupert
Murdoch. Australia's largest oil company,
Santos (South Australia Northern Territory Oil
Search), prominent South Australian brewery, Coopers,
major national retailer Harris Scarfe and Australia's
second largest listed investment company Argo
Investments Limited call Adelaide their home.
The collapse of the State Bank in 1992 resulted
in large levels of state debt (as much as A$4
billion). The collapse had meant that successive
governments had enacted lean budgets, cutting
spending, which had been a setback to the further
development of the city and state. The debt has
recently been reduced with the State Government
once again receiving a AAA+ Credit Rating. The
South Australian economy, very closely tied to
Adelaide's, still enjoys a trade surplus and has
higher per capita growth than Australia as a whole.
Adelaide
is home to a large proportion of Australia's defence
industries which contribute over AU$1 billion
to South Australia's Gross State Product. 70%
of Australian defence companies are located in
Adelaide. The principal government military research
institution, the Defence Science and Technology
Organisation, and other defence technology organisations
such as Tenix are located in Salisbury near RAAF
Base Edinburgh and others such as Saab Systems
near Technology Park. The Australian Submarine
Corporation, based in the industrial suburb of
Osborne was charged with constructing Australia's
Collins class submarines and recently won a AU$6
billion contract to construct the Royal Australian
Navy's new air-warfare destroyers.
There
are 466,829 employed people in Adelaide, with
62.3% full-time and 35.1% part-time. In recent
years there has been a growing trend towards part-time
(which includes casual) employment, increasing
from only 11.6% of the workplace in 1991, to over
a third today. 15% of workers are employed in
manufacturing, 5% in construction, 15% in retail
trade, 11% in business services, 7% in education
and 12% in health and community services. The
median weekly individual income for people aged
15 years and over is $447 per week, compared with
$466 nationally. The median family income is $1,137
per week,compared with $1,171 nationally. Adelaide's
housing and living costs are substantially lower
than that of other Australian cities, with housing
being notably cheaper. The median Adelaide house
price is half that of Sydney and two-thirds that
of Melbourne. The 3 month trend unemployment rate
to March 2007 was 6.2%. The Northern suburbs'
unemployment rate is disproportionately higher
than the other regions of Adelaide at 8.3%, while
the East and South are lower than the Adelaide
average at 4.9% and 5.0% respectively.
Education
School
education in Adelaide is provided by a variety
of public and private schools, which are the responsibility
of the State Government. These schools operate
under the South Australian Certificate of Education
(SACE), or with the International Baccalaureate(IB)
Diploma Programme. Adelaide has the highest number
of IB schools in Australia.
The
higher education system in Adelaide is extensive,
with five out of eight centres of TAFE South Australia
in the city itself. They specialise in non-university
higher education offering a viable alternative.
Adelaide is home to campuses of all three of South
Australia's universities. The University of Adelaide
is a member of the Group of Eight and is the third-oldest
university in Australia. It has five campuses
in the Adelaide area; one being its primary campus
on North Terrace and another being the National
Wine Centre. The University of South Australia
was formed in 1991 from a merger between the South
Australian Institute of Technology and the South
Australian Colleges of Advanced Education. Four
of its five campuses are located in Adelaide,
with two in the city-centre itself. Flinders University,
located in Bedford Park, is named after British
navigator and explorer Matthew Flinders and was
founded in 1966. It is a mid-sized institution
with a medical school at the adjacent Flinders
Medical Centre. Leading US private university
Carnegie Mellon established two Adelaide campuses
in 2006 offering both Australian and US degrees.
The Heinz School Australia specialises in IT and
government management and is based in Victoria
Square, while another campus at Light Square specialises
in new media and entertainment. These institutions
attract students from across Australia and around
the world, contributing to Adelaide’s international
recognition as a ‘City of Education’.
The
SABRENet optical fibre network interconnects Adelaide's
university campuses, technology parks, research
precincts, TAFE colleges and some high schools.
Culture
While
being primarily a British colony, Adelaide attracted
immigrants from many non-English speaking countries
early on, including German Lutherans escaping
religious persecution in Germany.
The first German Lutherans arrived in 1838, bringing
with them the vine cuttings that they used to
found the acclaimed wineries of the Barossa Valley.
After the Second World War, Italians, Greeks,
Dutch, Poles, and possibly every other European
nationality came to make a new start. An influx
of Asian immigrants following the Vietnam War
added to the mix. These new arrivals have blended
to form a rich and diverse cuisine and vibrant
restaurant culture.
Adelaide's
arts scene flourished in the 1970s under the leadership
of premier Don Dunstan, removing some of the more
puritanical restrictions on cultural activities
then prevalent around Australia. Now the city
is home to events such as the Adelaide Festival
of Arts, Fringe Festival, Adelaide Film Festival,
Adelaide Festival of Ideas, Adelaide Writers'
Week, and the Feast Festival amongst others. WOMADelaide,
Australia's premier world music event, is now
annually held in the scenic surrounds of Botanic
Park.
The
annual Royal Adelaide Show, first held in 1840,
began as a simple event for the state's farmers
to show off their produce. Over time, it grew
into a more general commercial fair held in early
September in the inner suburb of Wayville, with
carnival rides, food and entertainment surrounding
the more traditional agricultural exhibitions
and competitions.
The
music of Adelaide has produced various musicians
who have achieved both national and worldwide
fame. Notably the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra,
the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, The Mark of Cain,
The Superjesus, Testeagles, The Angels, Cold Chisel,
and Eric Bogle. American artist Ben Folds considers
Adelaide his second home, epitomised in his song
"Adelaide" and resides here with his
Adelaide-born wife for a number of months each
year. Famous rocker, Jimmy Barnes spent most of
his youth in the northern suburbs of Elizabeth.
The first Australian Idol winner, Guy Sebastian
hails from the Adelaide suburb of Golden Grove.
Hardcore metal band I Killed the Prom Queen also
emerged from Adelaide and the popular Australian
hip-hop outfit Hilltop Hoods come from Blackwood.
Media
Newspapers
in Adelaide are dominated by News
Corporation tabloid publications - Adelaide
being the birthplace of News Corporation itself.
The only South Australian daily newspaper is The
Advertiser, published by News Corporation six
days a week, while the Sunday paper is the Sunday
Mail. There are eleven suburban community newspapers
published weekly, known collectively as the Messenger
Newspapers, also published by a subsidiary of
News Corporation. A recent addition to the print
medium in the city is The Independent Weekly,
providing one alternative view. Two national daily
newspapers are circulated in the city: The Australian
(Monday–Friday) and its weekend publication,
The Weekend Australian (Saturday), also published
by News Corporation, and The Australian Financial
Review published by Fairfax. The Adelaide Review
is a free paper published fortnightly, and other
independent magazine-style papers are published,
but are not as widely available.
All
of the five Australian national television networks
broadcast both analogue PAL and high definition
widescreen digital services in Adelaide. They
share three transmission towers on the ridge near
the summit of Mount Lofty. The two government-funded
stations are ABC
TV and SBS
TV. The Seven
Network and Network
Ten both own their Adelaide stations (SAS-7
and ADS-10 respectively). Adelaide's NWS-9 is
affiliated with the Nine
Network and was owned by Southern
Cross Broadcasting until the sale to WIN Corporation
in May 2007. Adelaide was also notable for two
of their news services' longest-serving newsreading
duos - at Seven, Jane Doyle and Graeme Goodings
presented together from 1989 to 2003, when Goodings
had to quit because of bowel cancer (John Riddell
has since sat in the weeknight chair with Doyle).
At Nine, Rob Kelvin and Kevin Crease presented
together from 1989 to early 2007 when Crease retired
and later died. Kelly Nestor currently sits in
the weeknight chair along with Kelvin. Adelaide
also has a community television station, C31 Adelaide.
The Foxtel
pay TV service is available as cable television
in a few areas, and as satellite television to
the entire metropolitan area. It is resold by
a number of other brands, mostly telephone companies.
There
are twenty radio stations that serve the entire
metropolitan area as well as three community stations
that serve only parts of the metropolitan area.
Of the twenty full coverage stations there are
six commercial stations, six community stations,
six national stations and two narrowcast stations.
Sport
The
main sports are Australian
rules football and cricket Adelaide hosted
the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from 1985
to 1995 on a street circuit in the city's eastern
parklands. The Grand Prix became a source of pride
and losing the Grand Prix to Melbourne in a surprise
announcement left a void that has since been filled
with the highly successful Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar
race event, held on a modified version of the
same street circuit.
Adelaide
is the home of two Australian Football League
teams: the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power.
A local Australian rules football league, the
SANFL, is made up of nine teams from around Adelaide.
Adelaide's
professional soccer team Adelaide United play
in the A-League, at Hindmarsh Stadium with a capacity
of 16,500, one of the few purpose built soccer
stadia in Australia. The club was founded in 2003.
The
Adelaide 36ers and the Adelaide Lightning play
in national basketball competitions, with home
games at the Distinctive Homes Dome and the Adelaide
Thunderbirds play in the national netball competition,
with home games at ETSA Park. Most large sporting
events take place at either AAMI Stadium (formerly
Football Park) or the historic Adelaide Oval,
home of the Southern Redbacks Cricket Team. Adelaide
hosts an international cricket test every summer,
along with a number of One Day International cricket
matches. While Memorial Drive Park hosts the Adelaide
International, a major mens tennis tournament
in the leadup to the Australian Open.
Adelaide
has hosted the annual Tour Down Under bicycle
race since 1999, an event which has gradually
built an international reputation with each successive
year it has been held. It is also host to the
popular Bay to Birdwood run, featuring vintage
and veteran cars from around the world.
Infrastructure
Health
Adelaide's
first hospital is the Royal Adelaide Hospital
(RAH), founded in 1840, it is one of the major
hospitals in Adelaide and is a teaching hospital
of the University of Adelaide. It has a capacity
of 705 beds. Two other RAH campuses specialising
in specific patient services located in the suburbs
of Adelaide - the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre
in Northfield, and the Glenside Campus Mental
Health Service. The other three largest hospitals
in the Adelaide area are The Women's and Children's
Hospital (305 beds), which is located on King
William Road in North Adelaide; the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital (340 beds), located in Woodville and
the Flinders Medical Centre (500 beds), which
is located in Bedford Park. These hospitals are
also associated with medical schools - the Women
and Children's and Queen Elizabeth with the University
of Adelaide and the Flinders Medical Centre with
Flinders University.
In
June 2007 The State Government announced a series
of overhauls to the health sector that would see
a new hospital constructed to replace the Royal
Adelaide Hospital on the old railyards west of
the Adelaide Railway Station. The new 800 bed
hospital will cost AU$1.7bn, and be controversially
renamed the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital,
after the Governor of South Australia.
In
addition to these changes, major upgrades would
see the Flinders Medical Centre become the primary
centre for health care in the southern suburbs
while upgrades for the Lyell McEwin Health Service
in Elizabeth would see that become the centre
for the north. While the trio of the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital, Modbury Hospital and Noarlunga Hospital
would become specialist elective surgery centres.
The Repatriation General Hospital would also expand
its range of specialty areas beyond veterans'
health to incorporate stroke, orthopaedic rehabilitation
and aged care.
Transport
Being
centrally located on the Australian mainland,
Adelaide forms a strategic transport hub for east-west
and north-south routes. The city itself has a
limited public transport system, which is managed
by and known as the Adelaide Metro. The Adelaide
Metro consists of a contracted bus system including
the O-Bahn Busway, metropolitan railways, and
the Adelaide-Glenelg Tram, which has also now
been extended as a metropolitan tram through the
city center. Road transport in Adelaide has historically
been comparatively easier than many of the other
Australian cities, with a well-defined city layout
and wide multiple-lane roads from the beginning
of its development. Historically, Adelaide was
known as a "twenty-minute city", with
commuters having being able to travel from metropolitan
outskirts to the city proper in roughly twenty
minutes. However, these roads are now inadequate
to cope with Adelaide's growing road traffic.
Adelaide
has one freeway, the South Eastern Freeway, connecting
the city with the Adelaide Hills and beyond to
Murray Bridge and two expressways; the Port River
Expressway connecting Port Adelaide and Outer
Harbor to interstate routes and the Southern Expressway,
an interchangeable one-way road connecting the
southern suburbs with the city proper. The Gawler
Bypass skirting Gawler is another expressway style,
high speed inter-urban corridor. A third expressway,
the Northern Expressway (formerly the Sturt Highway
extension), a northern suburbs bypass route, connecting
the Gawler Bypass to Port Wakefield Road, is due
to start construction in 2008. There are also
plans for major upgrades to busy sections of South
Road, Adelaide, including road widening and underpasses
of Anzac Highway, Grange Road, Port Road and the
Outer Harbour Railway Line, during the first stage.
Adelaide
International Airport, located in Adelaide's west,
is Australia's newest and most advanced airport
terminal and is designed to serve in excess of
5.8 million passengers annually. The new dual
international/domestic terminal replaces the old
and ageing terminals known locally as the 'tin
sheds', and incorporates new state-of-the-art
features, such as glass aerobridges and the ability
to cater for the new Airbus A380. The airport
is designed to handle 27 aircraft simultaneously
and is capable of processing 3,000 passengers
per hour. Unusual for a major city, it is located
only about seven kilometres from the CBD.
Utilities
Adelaide's
energy requirements are met by a variety of companies
who separately provide for the generation, transmission,
distribution and retail sales of gas and electricity.
Some of the major companies are: TRUenergy generate
electricity; ElectraNet SA transmit electricity
from the generators to the distribution network;
ETSA Utilities (formerly a government-owned company
which was privatised by the Olsen Government in
the 1990s) distribute electricity from transmission
companies to end users; and AGL who retail gas
and electricity. Substantial investment has been
made in maintenance and reinforcement of the electricity
supply network to provide continued reliability
of supply.
Adelaide
derives most of its electricity from a gas-fired
plant operated by TRUenergy at Torrens Island,
and also by power stations at Port Augusta, Pelican
Point, and connections to the national grid. Gas
is mainly supplied from the Moomba Gas Processing
Plant in the Cooper Basin, and is piped to Adelaide
and other areas within the state. A small part
of supply also comes from wind turbines at Sellicks
Hill, and a trial of more turbines on city buildings
is underway.
Adelaide's
water supply is gained from its reservoirs: Mount
Bold, Happy Valley, Myponga, Millbrook, Hope Valley,
Little Para and South Para Reservoir. Further
water demands result in the pumping of water from
the River Murray. The provision of water services
is by the government-owned SA Water. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
It
was the night of nights in Adelaide - every man
thought he was James Bond, every woman a princess
- and a fortune was won and lost. Mostly lost.
The
opening of the Adelaide Casino at 9pm on December
12, 1985, was about the biggest thing to hit Adelaide
since the Buffalo.
Two
years after the Labor government under John Bannon
passed the Casino Bill, the doors to the money
pit finally opened.
In
flowed some 3000 people, packing the former city
railway station - the men resplendent in dinner
suits, the women glamorous in ballgowns.
Mr
Bannon strode into the two-up pit, took the kip,
flipped two Australian pennies and with the prophetic
cry "Come in spinner" unleashed gambling
on a previously staid state.
Chairman
of casino licence holder AITCO, Ian Weiss, had
promised the casino would be "the most elegant
venue of its type in Australia".
"It
will be styled along the lines of traditional
European casinos as distinct from the Las Vegas
mood other casinos in this country have agreed
to match," he said at the time.
"It
will be housed in a building with a fine architectural
style, and the decor will be both elegant and
opulent."
And
so it was. The elegance and opulence were undeniable.
The grand railway station had been redeveloped
- at a cost of $25 million - into a setting worthy
of Mr Bond.
The
grand marble entrance hall, three colossal chandeliers
each made up of 27,000 crystals and 90 globes,
plush timber panelling, rich carpets and fabrics
. . . the casino oozed class. Even the two-up
pit incorporated joinery detail from old railway
ticket counters.
Then
opposition leader John Olsen, who stood with Mr
Bannon in the pit as he tossed the pennies at
the opening while MCs Bob Francis and Anne Wills
watched, recalls the night fondly.
"The
mood was one of excitement, intrigue and curiosity;
a casino coming to Adelaide was a novel policy
direction, it certainly broke new ground,"
he said.
"On
opening night I was in the two-up pit with John
Bannon and, as I recall, Bob Francis was the MC
- it's the only time I've been in a two-up pit.
But like all things new in entertainment, once
the novelty wears off unless it reinvents itself
and maintains interest it tends to fade, and I
think that's what happened with the casino.
"Every
state ended up with a casino, all attempting to
attract high rollers from overseas, and that started
to change the concept a bit; it changed, and that
was a marketing strategy of the operators."
It
took surprisingly little time for the glamour
to tarnish as the casino got down to the core
business of separating people from their money.
Within
a week of the black-tie opening people were getting
in wearing hot pink tank tops, shorts, faded jeans,
T-shirts and sandshoes, with then-PR manager Wendy
Greiner - now Burnside mayor - saying the only
exclusion was thongs.
Of
course, not everyone dressed down; but the Casino
Royale atmosphere was being watered down.
Then
complaints started to emerge, such as from the
man who said he had lost $70,000 within weeks
and was now ruined. Problem gambling had arrived.
But
this didn't stop hordes of people passing through
its doors - 2.5 million visits in the first year.
Many were drawn simply by curiosity and the chance
to party from midday to 4am every day of the year
except Christmas Day and Good Friday.
While
the casino had a high-rollers' room it faced significant
hurdles in attracting "whales", the
big-spending gamblers who bet in sums most people
could retire on.
With
casinos sprouting up in other Australian capitals
closer to the free-spending millionaires of Asia,
in particular, the casino needed to concentrate
on its home market.
This
meant luring punters to play two-up, craps, baccarat,
mini-dice, chocolate wheels, blackjack, roulette,
big-and-small plus Keno.
The
minumum bet of $1 for many games was attractive
to many.
In
2000, thing stook a new turn, with the licence-holders
selling their initial $25 million investment to
New Zealand's SkyCity Entertainment Group for
$185 million. SkyCity operates a string of casinos
and quickly embarked on morphing its new Adelaide
operation into its own casino culture.
A
$13 million renovation which opened in 2001 made
it clear Ian Weiss' vision of the casino as an
elegant European model was long gone. The chandeliers
were put in storage, cars on swivelling pedestals
were on offer and flashing lights were everywhere.
James Bond was out: Las Vegas was in.
However,
the operators also included corporate responsiblity
in the makeover which turned the "dowdy dowager
into a glitzy tart", as it was described
at the time.
There
were clocks. A problem gambler program. Cheap
meals. Smoke-free areas. New furniture and carpet.
Well-trained and groomed staff. Clear signs. Tourism
plans.
The
high-rollers' room remained decorated to a style
worthy of discreet chic, while the marvellous
marble hall with its huge dome remained a showpiece
and a home for entertainment events. The shift
obviously worked. Revenue for the year to June
30, 2001, was $83 million.
Within
three years it had jackpotted to $110 million
(including $99 million from gambling) as punters
voted with their pockets.
For
the year ending June 30, 2008, total revenue from
Sky City Adelaide was $118.2 million, including
$103.5 million from gambling.
This
comprised $57.3 million from machines and $56.5
million from tables for a total of $113.8 million,
less GST of $10.3 million, to reach the total
of $103.5 million. The balance of $14.7 million
in overall revenue came from food and beverages.
While
popular with punters, the casino has proved popular
with politicians, who quickly became addicted
to the river of gold it sent into state coffers.
In
recent years, SkyCity Adelaide has paid about
$20 million a year in state tax, is the state's
10th largest employer with about 1000 jobs, and
has periodically embarked on expensive upgrades
creating more jobs, tax and prosperity while offering
entertainment and cheap meals. A more recent shift
to concentrate more on gambling and less on nightclub
entertainment saw revenue soar 20 per cent in
the year to February, despite the impact of non-smoking
laws.
Last
year, the casino's owners cancelled a planned
$30 million carpark upgrade and now are reviewing
the business, with the possibility of shifting
to larger premises with its own hotel. Whatever
is decided, it won't be a huge gamble.
Regardless
of the premises, a casino licence is about as
close as you get to a licence to print money.
