Friday Fences

I'm early this week because I have a big weekend coming up.  Guess what?  On Sunday I fly out to Bali for 10 days. So exciting. I've only ever been overseas once before - to New Zealand, so this is a big adventure for me.  I've bought a Toshiba tablet so I can keep everyone updated on my trip - I hope.

I love old houses and these early colonial Australian houses are my favourites. We were lucky here in South Australia that there was plenty of beautiful stone for the early settlers to build with, so our lovely houses have stood the test of time. Unfortunately in a lot of cases they could not withstand the pressure of developers and many of them were destyoyed before the National Heritage Council stepped in. Now many of the remaining buildings are protected and the plaque below attests to this.

I guess for any of you living anywhere other than Australia our 'old' buildings don't seem all that old, but you need to remember that Australia was only settled by Euopeans in 1788 and South Australia wa first colonised in 1836.

These houses are in North Adelaide which was where the wealthy colonists built their permanent homes - some few years after the huts they originally lived in. North Adelaide and this area in particular is a very exclusive and expensive suburb.

I love the balustrade around the balcony on this house and the gates are quite grand too.

There were a number of foundries that produced the wrought iron fences and gates in the early days. Also popular was the iron lacework that adorned the verandas of many houses - I don't have any examples here.

This photo I couldn't resist. These houses face the parklands which surround the inner Adelaide area.  This old lawn tennis court was built for the express use of the local wealthy residents. As you can see it is far from a modern facility, but is still well maintained.

Liz Needle