South Australian Museum

 

I've always extolled the virtues of early development of libraries, art galleries and museums. It impresses me that when actual existence and survival were at stake, people still found time, energy and money to develop the arts and museums. Founded in 1856, just 20 years after Adelaide was founded, the South Australian Museum sits majestically on the cultural boulevard known as North Terrace, in the Adelaide Parklands. With over four million objects and specimens in their collection, we figured that would be enough to keep us busy for a few hours.

Though the Museum offers exhibitions on dinosaurs and Egypt and meteors … all interesting, mind you … we were most interested in their Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, considered the largest collection of Aboriginal artifacts in the Southern Hemisphere. This and the Pacific Cultures Gallery are what intrigued us the most, though we couldn't help admiring the dinosaurs in the front entry hall.

“The Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery celebrates the cultural achievements of Australia’s Aboriginal people, one of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. This object-rich experience features over 3,000 items across two floors. The artifacts are from communities across the country, drawing from the Museum’s extensive collections.” This was on the must-see list and we headed there straight away.

One facet of Aboriginal culture we had heard of, but never really researched, was the Dreaming. We thought it referred to out-of-body, drug-induced experiences, but we couldn't have been more wrong. Rather it is the Aboriginal creation myth and stories of their cultural development, laws and traditions handed down in art and storytelling for generations.

One particularly striking exhibit was entitled Yuendumu School Doors. “The people of Yuendumu [in the Northern Territory] began transferring their traditional ochre ground paintings to canvas in the 1980s and then to the doors of the Yuendumu School. Twenty-seven Dreamings (tjukurrpa) were represented on the Doors, referring to more than two hundred sites in Warlpiri and Anmatyerre territory. For thousands of years the Warlpiri people traced their Dreaming symbols onto compacted desert sand as part of their ceremonies and when the ceremonies were over the images would be brushed away by hand or by the desert winds. The Yuendumu doors have now captured these stories in paint.” The South Australian Museum acquired the entire collection of doors in 1995 and restored them. The best 12 are on display here now for all to see and admire. The interpretive information and the stories they tell give some insight into Aboriginal ideas and beliefs.

We're always amazed to see island cultures that we've never even remotely heard of … tiny little isolated places that have developed their own unique cultures … like Tiwi, for instance, a tiny island group off Darwin in the Timor Sea. I'm sure there are hundreds of little islands out there with people being born and dying and carrying on life in centuries' old ways. Pictured are very distinctive Tiwi Island burial poles.

We wandered into the Pacific Cultures Gallery. We've visited Tonga and Fiji and Vanuatu and had a feel for their cultural artifacts, motifs and designs. Papua New Guinea (PNG), however, has always held a particular fascination for us. Replicas of the PNG thatch huts and trading canoes were on display.

The weapons, masks and especially the painted human skulls were a bit disconcerting. We know of a few folks who have stopped in PNG and enjoyed their visit. We know of another couple who were held at knife point and robbed. It's not on the way currently, but you never know what the future holds.

As always, as questions are answered, more questions arise. We just learned of the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute here in Adelaide and, before we leave, we're going to try to visit this gallery, touted as Australia's oldest Aboriginal-owned and managed multi-arts center.

Adelaide's Historic Botanic Gardens

 

There are actually three botanic gardens in the Adelaide area, but we visited the most accessible one within walking distance to the city center. The Adelaide Botanic Gardens encompass about 51 acres of land on the original parklands surrounding the city as planned by Colonel William Light. The gardens officially opened in 1857.

We wandered around in the morning when it was cool and lovely and fragrant. We were drawn in immediately by the Lotus Garden. The lotus were in bloom … dinner plate size, lovely pink blossoms that could knock your socks off. Ducks and water fowl slid into the water between the reedy stems and leaves and disappeared into the coolness within.

We stopped at the Amazon Waterlilly Pavilion en route to the Info Center. Though it was warm outside, the high humidity hit us immediately as we entered. This lovely glass house's singular purpose is as a home to the elegant Victoria amazonica waterlily. Though none were in bloom, the huge lily pads covered the surface of the pond. We remembered seeing even larger pads and colossal blossoms on our trip to Iquitos on the Amazon several years ago.

Free tours of the garden were available and we took advantage. It ended up being a personal tour as no one else showed up. Teresa, our guide, was extremely knowledgeable and obviously knew the gardens well. We strolled down the oldest avenue of Moreton Bay Figs in Australia.

She pointed out flowering caper plants in one garden (like the ones I put in my potato salad or eat with salmon and cream cheese on bagels)...

...and echinacea in the herbal health garden. She provided insight into Aboriginal medicine and remedies.

We visited the exquisite Victorian glass palm house. Constructed of clear and cobalt glass supported by iron glazings and imported from Bremen, Germany in 1875, it's thought to be the only one left in existence. It's been painstakingly refurbished and houses plants from Madagascar. An interesting note here … Australia and Madagascar were joined 150 million years ago as part of the super-continent, Gondwana and thus some of the plants in the Palm House are ancestors of many of Australia's native plants.

The Bicentennial Conservatory was built in 1988 and is the largest single span conservatory in the southern hemisphere (we're not really sure what that means, but it was impressive) and houses lowland rainforest plants. There's a wonderful glass mirrored sculpture in front of the Conservatory entitled Cascade by Sergio Redegalli that's most impressive.

At the end of the tour, Teresa encouraged us to visit the Santos Museum of Economic Botany right next to the Visitors Center. Opened in 1879, it celebrates the value that the botanical world brings to our society and the importance of plants in our lives; past, present and future. It is considered “the last purpose-built colonial museum in the world”. I came across a mushroom exhibit and was amazed at just how many types and colors of mushrooms there were and wondered what Alice would think of all of these.

The current exhibit, Coco der Mer, offers an artist's obsession with the largest seed in the world, the coco de mer (coconut of the sea) found exclusively in the Seychelles Islands of the Indian Ocean. It was odd and definitely erotic in a weird sort of way, but interesting.

What impressed us most about these gardens weren't the flowers or even the beautiful glass houses or the museum. It wasn't the eye candy that got to us. It was an epiphany of sorts … an “Oh, I finally get it!” moment when we figured out that botanic gardens weren't designed primarily to display beautiful blossoms or help to introduce us to and identify exotic trees and shrubs. No, they served very distinct purposes in the early colonial days: To establish forest reserves and preserve populations of endangered species of the area; to develop and evaluate new crops to determine which were (are?) best suited for the climate and environment; to provide fresh fruits and veggies; to provide seedlings to start other gardens and orchards; to evaluate the medicinal uses of local plants and herbs as advised by the indigenous people; and the list goes on and on.

I'm always amazed at what we learn on what we considered an ordinary trip to city.

Exploring Adelaide...Starting at the Rundle Mall

 

In all the time we've been here, we'd yet to actually visit the city of Adelaide. It was Australia Day and we had an evening agenda of attending some of the festivities, but since we were going to town, we wanted to make the most of it. According to several articles I read about Adelaide, the best way to see the city is on “shank's pony”. What? I had to look that up, but “on foot” was what it meant. We took the iron horse (i.e. train) into the city, but shank's pony was the chosen method of locomotion from there on.

Adelaide is a wonderful city, founded in 1836 and meticulously planned by surveyor, Colonel William Light. Adelaide's streets are laid out in a grid pattern and surrounded by parklands which are still preserved. A central square (Victoria Square) and four smaller squares encompass the CBD (central business district) and are ringed by parklands. Light's Vision, a huge bronze statue, sits on Montefiore Hill and shows Light pointing at his beautiful city.

We took the early morning train on Sunday … cheapest then, it's off peak all day Sunday. We wanted to walk the less-crowded streets, explore a bit and perhaps take in one of the city's many museums, among other things. First things first though, I wanted to walk through the Rundle Mall, Australia's first pedestrian street mall with shops and restaurants, and many Adelaidean icons to behold. We're not into shopping much, which is a good thing because all the shops were closed. We met friends at Beehive Corner, which has been a convenient meeting place in the city for over a century. The Gothic building which stands on the corner, built in 1896, boasts a beehive turret with a golden bee sitting atop it and the name Beehive Corner embossed in gold. It's now home to Haigh's Chocolates, another South Australia icon.

As we walked along the Mall, I was on the look-out for the four famous Rundle Pigs. Actually, the comical bronze statues of pigs raiding a trash bin is entitled “A Day Out” by Marguerite Derricourt. Further investigation indicated their names are Horatio,Truffles, Augusta and at the bin, Oliver.

And as many have done before me, I wanted to ride one of the Rundle Pigs, so I did.

Then, of course, there are the Mall's Balls (The Spheres by Bert Flugelman), two huge stainless steel balls balanced on top of each other which are attention-getters and obviously great fun for young and old.

A 19th century fountain, restored in vivid Victorian colors, gurgled and spouted, providing a pleasant backdrop to a few folks having a coffee on the Mall and enjoying the day.

As an extra treat as we were walking along the Mall, we encountered the world's largest cockroach. Ah yes, the Dublin Cockroach was erected originally to prevent construction of a new landfill dump in Dublin, SA. The landfill was built anyway and the poor old cockroach was left to rust until it was rescued and refurbed. It's only in Adelaide for short time before returning to its well-loved home, but as luck would have it … we got a chance to see it. Sometimes we just can't believe our luck.

David noted a sculpture on the side of a wall and pointed it out to me. It turns out that it's a neo-cubist welded copper wall sculpture created in 1959 representing the spirit of progress and entitled Progress by Lyndon Dadswell. David has a knack for picking out the unusual from the ordinary.

We concluded the Rundle Mall Adventure with lunch at The Austral on the East End of Rundle … after the mall runs out. It's been around for 131 years and claims to be an icon itself, so we thought we'd give it a go. Good food, good service, pub-bish atmosphere, outdoor sidewalk tables, specials and cold local beer.

Evidently there's even more to discover about the area and I've downloaded a guide for our next trip to seek out what escaped us. Hate to miss anything. By the way, shank's ponies were pretty tired at the end of the day.

Stay tuned as we explore Adelaide's historic Botanic Garden, the South Australian Museum, the Art Galley of South Australia and so much more. Let me catch my breath!

Part 2 will have to wait till next weekend when we plan to return to lovely Adelaide to pick up where we left off. We still have several museums to see and we haven't visited the iconic Central Market (closed on Sundays).