Thursday 12th March 2020
Driving distance approximately 245 klm / 150 miles
We are only a three hour drive to Adelaide, headed for the (pre social isolation) welcome of my friends of 45 years, yet still we find distractions along the way. Again on the road early, we stop half an hour after leaving Keith, at the small agricultural town of Tintinara – population around 500.
The now disused railway station has been converted into tourist information and a craft shop – both of which were closed at this early hour. There is an impressive mural on one side, which was too much in shadow for my photos. I found this photo on the internet:
Here is a close-up of one section that I was able to capture:
Hopefully you spotted the kangaroo metal sculpture. Nearby, is an emu family:
And, out the front, a farmer with his dog, sheep and a calf:
All under the shadow of an epynomous ubiquitous (that word is for ex-crossword writer Derrick Knight – who failed my first attempt 🙂 ) bore-water windmill and water tank:
Some readers will remember we were disappointed to be forced to abandon the silo trail on account of accommodation shortages. So we were delighted to learn that we would pass another just a short drive down the road at Coonalpyn. The big difference with this mural is that it is on a fully operational silo and right beside the main road.
The murals depict a magnificent tribute to five Coonalpyn Primary School children, whose images will now live on in the history of the town forever. The lucky five were six-year-olds Kiarah Leske and Blake Thompson, five-year-olds Macey Jacobs and Reef Gregor and nine-year-old Ciara Johnson. The children are in various poses with two children looking to be actually drawing onto the face of two of the silos. Source: https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/coonalpyn
This mural is by Guido van Helten who also painted the one at Brim, Victoria, which I featured in an earlier post.
On a more prosaic note, ever since my early days as a young backpacker, I never “let a chance go by”, but it is always nice when a town has gone to great lengths to make their public convenience an artistic stop, such as this mural, created by 27 volunteers over 3000 hours:
If you are reading this post as a driving guide, then once you reach Murray Bridge, you will find yourself on the highway which has been built since the days I lived in Adelaide in the 1970s. Unless you wish to take an exit to one of the scenic townships in the Adelaide Hills, then you will follow this route right into the city.
I lived in Adelaide from 1974 – 1978, and remain in contact with many of the friends I made in that time. We plan to stay several days with one couple who live close to the beach on the western side of Adelaide.
Adelaide has a compact, well-planned city centre. I have written about it before, but repeat some fast facts here:
- Adelaide is the capital of South Australia.
- South Australia is unique in that it shares a border with every state and territory on mainland Australia. The South Australian border is 3,185 km long (appx 2000 mi).
- The population of South Australia was 1.743 million (in 2018). Adelaide is home to about 1.4 million of them. (It was about 500,000 when I lived there).
- European settlement of South Australia began in 1836 at a place called Glenelg (and also Kingscote on Kangaroo Island).
- South Australia was purposely established as a colony for free settlers, and Adelaide is the only capital to be inhabited by free settlers from its inception.
- It was nick-named the City of Churches. In fact, when I lived there, we had an in-joke that the only serious drinking we could manage on a Sunday was if we went communion-hopping from one church to another.
- In fact, it did have, and still has, many pubs (but they were closed on Sundays when I lived there). I think the City of Churches tag may have grown out of its reputation for religious tolerance. German Lutherans, for example, found a haven here. . . . and you could get a drink at the airport bar on a Sunday . . . trust me, I know.
- It is located on the River Torrens, and one of the few cities in Australia to have a planned layout. Thanks to the foresight of one of its founding fathers, Colonel William Light, Adelaide is comprised of a grid system, demarcated with wide boulevards and public squares, all enclosed within four large thoroughfares called North, South, East and West Terrace, and beyond each of those is a belt of parkland.
We arrived in time for a tasty home lunch, and then later in the afternoon took a leisurely drive north, from Henley Beach along the coast of Gulf St Vincent, up to Port Adelaide about 10klm (6 mi) away. This is where I began my life-long career in shipping and logistics as a young waterfront clerk for a customs agent. No longer a working port – because container ships berth further north at Outer Harbour (at the tip of the peninsula on the below map) – Port Adelaide has waxed and waned in development. Now modern new apartments with private boat moorings line one section that I knew as a vereeee working-class part of the harbour. We’ll get the chance to have a close up look during this stay, as former neighbours of ours when we lived in inner-Sydney have recently bought one of them!
Much eating, drinking and talking ensued for the rest of the evening 🙂
Great Gwen enjoyed all the history etc
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Thank you!
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Love Adelaide!! We spent time there being involved with the Tour Down Under for several years with a group of fellow cyclists. We stayed in a lovely house in South Terrace on our first visit – a very happy family we were!
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It’s always been a beautiful city, but on this visit I noticed so much high-rise going up that at first glance it’s skyline is being ruined. But we didn’t spend much time actually in the city, so would have to visit again to judge that properly.
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So nice to read more of your toad trip and it was news to me that South Australia borders all other mainland states! Stay safe and enjoy your travels!
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Some of the borders are in very remote outback places that I haven’t yet visited, but the claim is true! https://www.bing.com/search?pc=COSP&ptag=N8103D021319AE20BDC3E2E&form=CONMHP&conlogo=CT3210127&q=borders+of+south+australia
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Silo murals are always a hit, aren’t they? But the tourist center put a lot of work into their designs too. You sure had a long drive!
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Apparently this mural has brought a lot of business to the town, and the cafe directly across the road was doing good business on the day we were there. Most of the silos are in more remote place.
The final driving tally was about 4,000klm. I’ve still days worth of blogs to write and post. As COVID-19 ramped up, we did a couple of long drives to get back closer to home – where are now.
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The silo murals are beautiful!
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Hi Lavinia! So nice of you to comment. All of them were fantastic, but I found this one particularly appealing.
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Wow, more of those silo murals. I love the wall murals of Mexico but never knew of the silo murals of Australia until you pointed them out. Thank you, Gwen
Prayers and wishes for you.
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I did a bit of digging. Guido van Helten did a silo art work in Mankato Minnesota last year! Winter apparently was a challenge – haha – but he was to finish in the spring. Apparently he has done others in the US also. Wow!
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I’ll have to find out more about it. Thanks, Gwen
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Many thanks for the mention Gwen (I’ll forgive the typo 🙂 ). More splendid artwork.
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Typo! Aaarggh. Point me to it and I’ll fix it. You think I should have used “ubiquitous” instead of “epynomous”?
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Eponymous was the typo. Ubiquitous would have worked better X
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Of course it’s the preferred word. That’ll teach me to try to blog while watching the deleterious nightly news. (giggle)
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🙂
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ps, and EPYnomous sounds more like a pen you stick yourself with when having anaphylactic shock.
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🙂
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Wow, another lovely mural and those silos, the imagery is so emotive. Perhaps it’s the subject matter combined with the scale that does it. I applaud the artist and the sponsors.
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I knew you’d love that one. I’ve dug around and found “The painting of the 30-metre silos was the flagship project in an arts-renewal program called Creating Coonalpyn.
The Council, in conjunction with Country Arts SA along with local business sponsors, funded the $100,000 scheme, which included five smaller art projects along with the large silo painting.
The aim was to attract more visitors to the struggling farming town, and bring the community together through art.”
Across the road was a coffee shop that was doing a roaring trade, so that was good to see. And I’ve discovered that the artist painted a silo in Minnesota USA last year.
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Thank you for all the info and great to see that something positive like the artist’s skill and creativity can be seen across the ocean on another continent. It’s also nice to think that it’s not just bad things that spread across the world.
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