Discovering Adelaide 4 - The Rundle Mall

Rundle Mall, originally Rundle Street is the main retail shopping strip in Adelaide City Centre. I remember it as a child as a busy, bustling street with tramlines down the centre and buses, including double decker buses.

The picture on the left was taken in 1938,  some 40 years before the street became a pedestrian mall.  Rundle Street was named in 1837 after John Rundle a member of the British  House of Commons and the original director of the South Australia Company which planned and set up South Australia as a new colony in Australia -  a colony of free settlers, not convicts.

Rundle mall is home to some 1000 retail businesses and services, including all the major retail shopping complexes and smaller chains and boutiques. There are also numerous arcades and plazas housing smaller retail shops.

Back before the Mall was created in 1976, a favourite landmark and meeting spot was the  Beehive Corner on the corner of Rundle Street and King William Street.

On the opposite corner was Lawrence's tobacco shop and just a little way down was a milkbar known to every teenager and young adult in Adelaide. Sigalas's made hot dogs, hamburgers, milkshakes, sodas, nut sundaes and the most amazing Banana Splits. It was Adelaide's first American style milk bar and it took  us by storm.



The sculpture "The Spheres" by Bert Flugelman (affectionately known as The Malls Balls) is now the favourite landmark and meeting place. It is also a great place for reflection photography.

Probably the most beloved sculptures are the 4 bronze pigs - Horatio, Truffles, Augusta and Oliver. Few can resist patting the pigs as they walk past and children just have to sit on them . When  it was mooted a few years ago to move the pigs from the Mall, there was an enormous outcry - the pigs stayed!!

Rundle Mall is a favourite place for buskers and there are always some there - all ages, talents, sizes.

Dotted along the strip are small outdoor cafes where old friends can meet up for a coffee.

And overlooking these small concerns are the large department stores, some of which have been there in one form or another for a hundred years.

I really love Rundle Mall  -  it has great shopping, restaurants, street art, music, pop up eateries and best of all it doesn't get as crowded as the big regional shopping centres. It is my go to place for Christmas shopping. Visit Adelaide - visit the mall.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Our World Tuesday".

Mellow Yellows

I love the simplicity of yellow or white daisies - surely one of the best loved of the flowers. They take me back to my childhood when we would make daisy chains with the 'dandelions' or play "Loves me, Loves me not" with the petals.

Whether they be plain yellow - these are actually weeds

or mauve and yellow

or the classic white and yellow -  double or single

There is something about a daisy that tugs at my heart strings.


Liz Needle  -  linking with "Monday Mellow Yellows"  and   "Macro Monday".

Country Reflections

  Our still summer days have produced very clear reflections in the local dams. Usually we have blue skies as well, but this summer has been very mild and often overcast and wet. These were taken in early summer after a very wet spring.

Liz Needle  -  linking  with "Weekend Reflections".

Stunning Skies

http://skyley.blogspot.com.au/Last Wednesday evening Adelaide was blessed with a stunning sunset which brought out the cameras all over the state, especially along the beaches. I think our Hills sunsets are just as special on nights like this one.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Skywatch Friday".

White is not White

After a very wet spring and summer our front and side paddocks are still very wet and muddy, made even worse by the neighbours cattle that we agist. The water birds however, love it, especially a trio of Australian White Ibis who have moved in.

I have trouble calling them 'white' as they are permanently muddy off white from the mud.  I don't find them particularly attractive birds and the noise they make is quite ugly. The dogs hate them and as soon as they (the ibis) take flight from one dam down to the other, honking and screeching, the dogs race the length of the paddock, looking up at the ibis and barking fit to kill. The noise is atrocious.

Here is one of our trio resting in a tree near the dam. Note the "white" feathers!!!  The straw like feathers hanging from the neck indicate that the ibis is breeding, which may also account for the scruffy condition it is in.

Here is a shot I took at the Botanic Gardens where there are green lawns for them to roam on. These are really "white"and look in better condition than the one above - probably better fed by visitors to the Gardens.

These look much more attractive than our friends.

Similar though not related are these Spoonbills taken at a local wetlands. The black-billed birds are Royal Spoonbills while the others are Yellow-billed Spoonbills.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday".