5 December 2011 - Belair National Park Caravan Park, Adelaide, South Australia

This morning dawned sunny and clear, cold and windy; we finally ventured out mid-morning, catching the train once more into Adelaide. We were back at the museum by 11 am and back in the Aboriginal Cultural Centre examining the exhibits we had missed on Saturday. We found the South Australian Biodiversity Exhibition excellent too and then it was lunchtime. Picnicing out under the trees in the museum gardens with the pigeons was just as delightful as it had been on the weekend, and then we went for a walk further eastwards along North Terrace, past the University and the hospital before turning back. Both those institutions are right on the road frontage and the hospital staff and patients who had a yen for a cigarette were all outside within full view of the passer-by, the walkers like us or the motorists who dared a distraction from the busy traffic. A few of the patients obviously had a greater need for tobacco than a sense of decorum; pyjamas were the order of the afternoon.

We were back along the street to the Parliament building to take part in a tour at 2 pm. Security at the entrance was strict, pretty much as it is when you take a flight at an airport. There were just five of us, which was a nice small number given that the guide was quietly spoken.

Parliament

The two house parliament of South Australia was proclaimed by constitution in 1856. Parliament was first convened in the building that stands next door to the current more grand edifice. The first part of this second building was constructed in 1889, but left unfinished until 1936, when Sir Langdon Bonython, whose name graces several public facilities about the city, got sick of looking at this unfinished work, and gifted the required 100,000 pounds to allow for its completion. Three years later his wish was materialised. It is built in the classical style with majestic marble columns; the marble sourced from Kapunda and the granite from Victor Harbour, both places as yet unvisited. Because of the nearly fifty year gap in the building process, there are variations in the structure. For instance, the columns on the newer side are made up of more smaller blocks that those on the older part, the inner stair cases are less grand those in the original. Now and since then, it is the Lower House than sits in the older grander chamber, while the Upper House sits in the newer and less grand.

Trying out for Speaker in the Lower House...

Parliament is in recess now until the middle of February so we had fun sitting in the chairs of the Important Ones; me, in the Speaker’s and Chris in the Premier’s in the Lower House, and me in the President’s (or Queen of England’s if and when she opens the house). Our guide works in the Parliament as a bit of a gopher by all accounts although he did not describe his job as such. Because of this he was conversant with so much of the machinery of the parliament and able to answer our many questions with confidence.

.. then for President in the Upper House

The tour took a full three quarters of an hour, so we decided to make a dash for the railway station to take advantage of the oldies free travel, and did so successfully. On arrival at Glenalta, we drove the kilometre or so to Blackwood, had a gas bottle filled and shopped at Coles, before returning to camp and relaxing with a couple of cups of coffee, one after the other. It has been another excellent day and the museum is still not finished with.