Middleton Beach, South Australia, between Goolwa and Port Elliot.

We went to Middleton on the Fleurieu Peninsula between Goolwa and Port Elliot. We took the Goolwa road from Mount Compass and then turned onto Flagstaff Hill Road for a direct route to Middleton.

James at Middleton Beach.

Wikipedia adds: “It also has two doctors’ surgeries, a pharmacy, general store, hotel, bakery, hairdresser, antique shop, manufacturing jeweller, beautician and a high quality restaurant. It has two playgrounds, tennis courts and an art and craft centre.”

We weren’t there for any of those things, just the surf beach. There are no waves to speak of on Adelaide beaches, which are sheltered in the Gulf St Vincent.

The South Coast is exposed to the Southern Ocean, so the waves are substantial and the water is colder.

Being 37 degrees today we weren’t worried about the water temperature, although plenty of sunscreen was needed to avoid baking in the heat.

The kids really loved the waves and had a lot of fun with their boogie boards.

The waves weren’t huge, just big enough for the kids to enjoy. The waves break several times before they reach shore, generating a strong undercurrent, which needs to be watched, and churning up a lot of seaweed.

It’s not great for swimming, as there isn’t really a swell, just a series of breakers. It’s not really safe for small children to go out any distance either.

We went equipped with an esky, some snacks and plenty of cool drinks.

The only negative comment I’ll make is in relation to amenities. We drove along a fair distance of foreshore before we found a toilet block, which is pretty much essential when children and women are in your group.

The toilets were old and smelly, had no hand basins or taps, and no shower to rinse. And they are the only toilets along that significant stretch of beach.

They’re the ones to the right on this map. The others in the village are away from the best surfing areas.

After leaving Middleton we explored briefly in Port Elliot before continuing to Victor Harbor for a picnic in a shady area on the foreshore.

Everyone had a good day.

Port Elliot was proclaimed by the Governor of South Australia, Sir Henry Young, on August 28, 1851. He named the town in honour of his friend, Sir Charles Elliot, who was at that time the Governor of Bermuda.

A great future was envisaged for the port, with the construction of a horse-drawn railway from Goolwa to Port Elliot (Australia’s first public railway).

Port Elliot was to have acted as the major south coast seaport for the transport of goods which had been shipped down the Murray River.

Unfortunately for the schemers and dreamers, the water was too shallow and the port proved unviable.

Nevertheless, the railway went through and the town prospered to some degree as a tourist destination.

The prosperity was not so great however, to indulge in the construction of an impressive council chamber. Indeed, there were some residents who thought the building was totally unnecessary.

According to the South Australian Register, about 40 people attended a meeting of the district council on March 5, 1879 at Warland’s Hotel.

The chairman, Mr AR Addison, said the council had 400 pounds in the bank and could well afford to spend 120 pounds on a building to call home, transact business and “deposit the valuable documents belonging to the district”.

Mr F Ellis and Mr J Dodd disagreed, saying “it would be much better to spend the money on roads” but they were of the minority view.

Thanks to Mr Addison and his far-sighted colleagues, Port Elliot today has this lasting grand architectural legacy.

The Alexandrina Council hires out the building as a meeting room.

Core skills include aquaculture nutrition, genetics and propagation, microalgae production, marine and freshwater ecological research, environmental assessment, oceanography, aquatic biosecurity and fisheries biology, assessment and modelling.

Some of the tanks pictured above were empty following the Christmas break, but others were home to various fish species including Kingfish, Snapper and Mulloway.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) is a leading national researcher into fish farming, which is a growing aquaculture industry.

Much of the work is undertaken in collaboration with universities and commercial partners.

Microalgae research

The Algal Production Group is one of the centre’s interesting activities.

The group is focused on providing practical and cost effective algal production systems for use in aquaculture, nutrient remediation, nutraceuticals, bioenergy and in biofixation of carbon.

Nutraceuticals are products that have the characteristics of both a nutrient and a pharmaceutical.

Bag culture of microalgae at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre.

In December 2008 the State Government announced a $1.2 million research grant to pioneer a commercially sustainable biofuels industry from micro-algal feedstock.

Microalgae are single-celled microscopic organisms which, like plants, use photosynthesis to convert the sun’s energy into chemical energy.

Microalgae are much more efficient converters of solar energy than any known plant, because they grow in suspension where they have unlimited access to water and more efficient access to CO2 and dissolved nutrients.

Microalgae are capable of producing more than 30 times the amount of oil (per year per unit area of land) compared to oilseed crops.

Indeed, microalgae have the potential to produce up to 10 times the volume of biofuels compared to traditional oilseed crops grown on the same land footprint. But unlike oilseed crops, microalgae can use non-arable land and seawater.

This has potential to deliver major economic and social benefits.

What’s most impressive about this work and other research undertaken by SARDI is the collaboration between Federal and State Governments, universities and commercial partners.

The Tour Down Under was first held in 1999 and has grown year every year to become the biggest cycling race in the southern hemisphere.

The TDU is a festival of cycling, with a range of associated events that create a party atmosphere across South Australia. Amateur cyclists can also get involved in the action.

The Tour attracts top-class international competitors, previously including Lance Armstrong, who was here in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

This year, Tour de France Director Christian Prudhomme will be a special guest for the first time.

Prudhomme will spend three days in South Australia, arriving on Tuesday, January 17. He will be joined by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) media director Julien Goupil.

The Tour Down Under is teaming up with the ASO, and owners and managers of various sporting events around the world, regarding international broadcast rights.

The Tour Down Under will be televised into of millions of homes around the world, with the 2011 event receiving 284 hours of international and local television coverage.

This is fantastic exposure for Adelaide and South Australia.

The eight-day event this year will feature some of the world’s best sprinters including Alessandro Petacchi, Andre Greipel, Oscar Freire, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Daniele Bennati and Robbie McEwen.

I plan to attend stage six in Adelaide on January 22.

The Herbarium is the key centre for knowledge and information on South Australia’s native and naturalised plants, algae, fungi and lichens.

The centre is internationally recognised for its research and advisory role in plant systematics.

The millionth specimen was a delicate fungus found growing on damp, rotten wood on Kangaroo Island.

It was found by State Herbarium Honorary Research Associate Pam Catcheside (pictured), the Herbarium’s Collections Manager Helen Vonow and David Catcheside.

Identified as Entoloma parasiticum (also known as Claudopus parasiticus), botanists say the small gilled fungus is likely to be a new species. The wood appears to have fallen after the 2007 bushfire on Kangaroo Island.

Other noteworthy collections held by the Herbarium include most specimens of fungi, lichen and marine algae collected from the state since about 1870.

The lichen collection includes specimens obtained by Sir Douglas Mawson from the Antarctic 100 years ago.

The State Herbarium has a long tradition of sharing its knowledge and research with the community and scientists, and this will be enhanced by a new online tool to search publications.

The website contains the full content of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens from the first edition in 1976 to the most recent addition. The fifth edition of Flora of South Australia is also being released as each section is completed.

The preparation of a new Flora of South Australia is a major current project of the State Herbarium. This fifth edition will describe every flowering plant, conifer and fern native to or naturalised in the state and provide a means to identify them.

Most species will be illustrated with line drawings or photographs. While the previous edition (1986) covered more than 3600 different plants, this number has now risen to 4800 — more than 1200 new plants now recognised in the state since the 1986 edition.

It’s great to see this important information being made accessible to the general public.

Advance Australia Fair won the contest and later became the National Anthem.

Looking at the poll results on the Australian Electoral Commission website, it surprised me that Song of Australia (excellent version above by Peter Dawson from 1932) won the ballot convincingly in South Australia (with 34.12 percent), despite being trounced elsewhere in the country.

I have since discovered the lyrics were written by English-born poet, Caroline J Carleton, who moved to South Australia.

According to this website:

“Caroline Carleton (1820-1874), daughter of William Baynes, and her husband Charles James Carleton, arrived in South Australia from England in the Prince Regent in 1839. Their two children had died during the voyage. The Carletons lived in Adelaide for some time where Charles practised as a medical officer. They later moved to Kapunda where he had a similar position at the mines.

“After the death of her husband, on July 20, 1861, she started teaching but later, due to ill health, moved to Wallaroo where here daughter was teaching. Caroline died at Matta House on July 10, 1874, to be remembered as a clever, courageous, kind and courteous gentlewoman. Her admirers later had a monument placed over her grave at Wallaroo.”

The lyrics are:

Gumeracha is just 37km from Adelaide and is one of South Australia’s oldest settled areas, dating back to 1839.

Today it has a population of 600 people and a toy factory with a big rocking horse.

I don’t know what it is about Australian towns and why they feel that size matters, but I guess a big rocking horse is better than a big galah or pineapple.

The rocking horse is 60 feet high, 34 feet long and weighs 25 tonnes.

It is a 20:1 model of the toy rocking horses made on the site, which claims to be the largest wooden toy factory in Australia.

There is a small wildlife park there as well, which the kids enjoyed, featuring kangaroos, goats, alpacas, ducks and chickens.

The Adelaide Hills are delightful at this time of year, green and fresh, with a nip in the air.

This is a good day trip for taking children or overseas visitors.

We’re now looking for something else to explore.

According to the Parliament website:

From 1843 to 1851, South Australia was governed by a Legislative Council of seven members, all nominated by the Crown, who ran the colony under the direction of the Governor.

The new Legislative Council of 1851 comprised 24 members, eight nominated by the Crown and 16 returned by the electors. The Governor no longer presided over deliberations and the members elected their own speaker.

The Constitution of the new Council was in some respects an experiment and power to amend it was given to Council, subject to approval by the Crown. This hybrid Council of appointed and elected Members continued to be the Legislature until the inauguration of responsible Government in 1857.

Jordan Bastoni writes:

“The Legislative Council was formed to protect people with property, the social elite, and so voting rights for the Legislative Council were subject to a property qualification.

“The Legislative Council became heavily dominated by conservative members. This led to a very unrepresentative chamber, in which the Labor Party could never win more than four out of 20 seats.

“The unrepresentative Legislative Council was coupled with an electoral system for the House of Assembly that was heavily malapportioned. Metropolitan electorates, that could be expected to return Labor MPs, were three times as large as rural electorates, which most commonly returned Liberal Country League MLCs.”

Wikipedia adds:

“Even after electoral legislation had been implemented in 1967 by Steele Hall that produced a fairer electoral system for the House of Assembly, the council remained unchanged. It was only in 1973 under Don Dunstan that changes were finally made.

“Dunstan, a social reformist, tired of the council’s obstructionist attitude, and put forward bills for its reform. Initially rejected by the council, the reform created a single statewide electorate of 22 members, with half being elected each time. It eventually passed with bipartisan support.”

Today, the Legislative Council acts as a house of review. The political numbers are divided equally between the Government (Labor), the Opposition (Liberal) and crossbenches (Greens, Family First, Independent).

Proceedings are usually rather sedate compared with the House of Assembly.

The chamber is still modelled on the House of Lords to the extent that messages from the Governor are read in the Legislative Council and Parliament is officially opened there.

Portraits of the Queen and Prince Philip adorn the main entrance.

The furry marsupial is listed as nationally endangered.

We saw this little fellow today (pictured) at the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. We were enjoying a picnic when Maggie suddenly shouted “mouse”!

He’s a lot bigger than a mouse. Southern Brown Bandicoots are about the same size as small rabbits with a long, pointed snout, small eyes, rounded ears, a compact body, large rump and sparsely furred short, thin tail approximately half of the body length.

Front and hind feet are strongly clawed. Fur is coarse, grey or yellowish brown above with a whitish belly.

The bandicoot is known to use certain plant species for shelter and protection from predators (fox and cat) including introduced plants such as blackberry.

On average, the female bandicoot will have around three young in each litter and between two and five litters per year. Unfortunately less than half of these young babies will make it to adult life.

The bandicoot eats both meat and plants. Some of the plant matter includes seeds, berries, grasses, clover roots, mosses and fungi. Bandicoots also eat spiders, flies, centipedes, millipedes, worms, beetles, fleas, moths, butterflies, and even wasps and ants.

There are plenty of millipedes around at the moment, so they must be feasting.

Preservation efforts by a small band of volunteers have resulted in the creation of a 5km-long plant corridor in the Aldgate Creek area of the Mt Lofty Ranges.

The corridor will help to sustain the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot and other threatened native plants and animals.