St Kilda, South Australia
Encyclopedia
St Kilda is a seaside suburb in Adelaide
, South Australia
that is home to an award-winning adventure playground
, tram
museum, mangrove
forest walk and an abundance of birdlife. St Kilda has only a small number of houses and a 2006 population of 246. There is a single connecting road to the rest of Adelaide which, where the road enters the suburb's residential area, is surrounded by salt crystallisation lagoons
used in the manufacture of soda ash
.
The inhabited section of the suburb occupies less than 100 hectares along the seafront, with the remainder used for salt lagoons and also settlement ponds of nearby Bolivar
sewage treatment
works.
What was originally a seaside town was named by John Harvey, the founder of nearby Salisbury
, as it reminded him of St Kilda
in the Outer Hebrides
of Scotland with its similar abundance of birdlife. St Kilda is an internationally recognised bird watching
area with over 100 species of birds feeding in and around the mudflat
s, salt Lagoon
s, mangroves and seagrass
beds.
s that were covered in shell grit and saltbush
and surrounded by mangrove and samphire swamps. Fishermen had established huts on the islands by 1865 and by 1873 there were 13 huts and a boathouse
recorded when the area was surveyed by Thomas Evans. By the 1890s people were visiting the islands attracted to the supposed curative properties of the mangrove mud, using the beach for bathing and fishing for crab
s.
St Kilda was proclaimed a town on 31 July 1893 with sales of the first allotments made on the same day. In 1886 it became part of the Munno Para West District Council area, moving to the district of Salisbury on 1 July 1933 along with most of the Munno Para West area. The islands were extensively modified after floods in 1948 and 1957 which cut off St Kilda from the rest of Adelaide. Salisbury council began building up the area, expanding seawalls and reclaiming additional land by dumping of earth spoil.
The St Kilda Hotel, built out of limestone
from east of Elizabeth
, opened in 1898 with Matthias Lucas as the first publican
and remains the suburbs only hotel. A school opened in October 1902, where the tram museum is now sited, admitting students in November of the same year, . The school was closed from 1917 to 1924 and finally closed permanently in 1949 with students moving to Salisbury North
Primary School and the building eventually being used at Virginia
primary school. In 1924 a telegraph office opened in Shell Street and, due to the suburb of St Kilda
in Melbourne
having the same name, the post office service requested that the name be changed. Over some local objections the name was changed to Moilong (a Kaurna word for Where the tide comes in) but this was reversed after local protests. Moilong Telegraph Office opened in 1924, was upgraded to a post office in 1945, renamed Saint Kilda in 1965 and closed in 1974.
St Kilda's population has never been large with 50 non-permanent residents counted in the 1901 census, 68 (including 20 permanent) in 1911, 30 total residents in 1933, 80 in 2002 and increasing to 246 by 2006.
St Kilda's adventure playground covers 4 hectare
s along the seafront and is one of South Australia's best known. The playground has a constructed shipwreck
, wooden castle
, huge slides, a spiral slide inside a hill, flying foxes
and numerous other pieces of play equipment, with South Australian children naming it in 2002 as the best adventure park in the state.
The park was conceived by the Lions club of Salisbury
and funded through club fundraising activities, council matching funding and government employment schemes providing free labour. It was opened by Salisbury mayor
Ron White on 24 October 1982 and has had recent upgrades to the park, including a shaded set of equipment shaped like a submarine
for younger children, and the building of a small maze
.
with floating moorings for over 80 boats, two boat ramps and a sheltered channel out into the Barker Inlet
, part of Gulf St Vincent. Recently expanded the marina now has hard stands for boats and some slipping facilities.
The boat club, founded as the "St Kilda Boatowners Association Incorporated" in 1964, after permission was gained from the council and landowners to develop St Kilda tidal creek as the area lacked boat launching facilities. The creek was straightened and deepened repeatedly, originally by hand, and a causeway extended out to sea to protect the channel. A new clubhouse was opened by MP
Lynn Arnold
in 1980 and the latest boat ramp in 2002 by the mayor of Salisbury Tony Zappia
.
Large, constructed saltwater evaporation lagoons surround the only road into the suburb. Imperial Chemical Industries
(ICI) began construction of the Solar Evaporation Lagoons in 1935 using up to 600 workers to dig out the lagoons by hand and then expanded them mechanically after World War II
. The lagoons stretch in a broken chain from Dry Creek
to Port Gawler alongside the Barker Inlet, and are approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) north–south by 3 kilometres (2 mi) east–west. The lagoons are filled in spring and salt normally harvested in autumn when it is piped as saturated brine
solution to Osborne
on the Le Fevre peninsula
, and used by Penrice Soda Products in the only soda ash production facility in Australia. The lagoons proliferate with bird
life and have been recognised as a bird sanctuary
due to their status as an important breeding and feeding area for species from as far away as Alaska
. As of 2006 the Lagoons are operated by Cheetham Salt Limited with 600,000 tonnes of salt used by Penrice in creating soda ash via the solvay process
.
St Kilda is adjacent to the mangrove
forest bordering Barker Inlet
, part of the largest tidal estuary of Gulf St Vincent. Late in the 19th Century embankments were constructed through the mangroves in an effort to reclaim land for pasturing. With the construction of the banks of the adjacent saltfields maintenance of the embankments ceased and the mangroves began to reclaim them. One of these embankments is used as the beginning of a boardwalk through the mangroves which forms a 1.7 km loop through the samphire saltmarsh flats and mangroves reaching the border between the ocean and forest.
The boardwalk was constructed in 1984 by the City of Salisbury to encourage appreciation of the mangrove's ecological importance. On 29 April 1995, South Australian Premier
Dean Brown
and federal MP
Chris Schacht
opened the award-winning St Kilda Interpretative Centre at the entrance to the boardwalk which showcases the flora, fauna and processes within the mangrove forest. Since 1997 the mangrove trail has been privately managed, hosting school visits as well as casual visitors.
The boardwalk is within the barker inlet aquatic reserve, where the taking of crabs shellfish and plants is prohibited and pets are not allowed. The mangroves, saltmarsh and adjacent lagoons form a habitat for over 200 bird species with the mangroves being part of a nursery area for most of the commercial and recreational fish species of Gulf St Vincent. The 2005 Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Act established a sanctuary for the Bottlenose dolphin
s that live in the inlet and adjacent Port River
. The sanctuary's northern extent is the boat channel and dolphins can sometimes be seen at high tide in the tidal creeks passing under the boardwalk.
Adelaide had an extensive tram system
, beginning as horse trams in 1878, moving to electric trams in 1909 and reduced in 1958 to a single tram line
which runs from Adelaide's Central Business District to Glenelg
. Built on the site of the 1902 school, the Tramway museum showcases trams and trolleybus
es that were either used or built in Adelaide. The museum is operated by the Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc, a non-profit volunteer organisation accredited with the History Trust of South Australia and dedicated to preserving and restoring Adelaide’s former transport vehicles. The museum houses over 30 electric trams, horse trams
and electric trolley buses many of which are restored and operational. Visitors can ride the electric trams along 2 km of purpose built track that runs between the museum and the adventure playground.
Work commenced in 1958 with the arrival of donated vehicles, the first of which was an old trolley bus from the Municipal Tramways Trust
, and the museum was opened in 1967 as a static display. Workshops were built to enable the restoration of the old trams to operating condition and, in 2001 a large additional museum building was completed so as to house the increasing number of donated trams.
ICI, then operator of the salt lagoons, donated land for the tramway to run down the side of the main St Kilda road between the museum and the sea with funding obtained from the State Unemployment Relief Scheme. The tramway opened for trials in 1973 and was officially opened in 1974 by Harry Bowey, mayor of Salisbury, and Frank Kneebone, Minister
for Lands, to coincide with St Kilda's centenary.
The tram used in the opening ceremonies and now housed at the museum was Adelaide's first electric tram which had its trial run on 30 November 1908 and first operated in 1909. The museum's collection continues to expand with Adelaide tram 104 the latest acquisition. After spending 48 years as a shack on the Yorke Peninsula
it will be stored, and possibly restored, at the museum on behalf of the Sydney tramway museum
.
The mangroves found around the margins of the Barker Inlet consist of a single species, Avicennia marina
var resinifera. In the upper intertidal zone mangroves are reduced in size landwards and give way to a variety of Samphire species, including Beaded Glasswort (Tecticornia flabelliformis) and Blackseed Glasswort(Tecticornia pergranulata
) as well as saltbush on the saltflats of the supratidal zone. Nitre bush
grows on the highest parts of the seawall and the abundant summer fruits provide a food source for birds.
Fauna
St Kilda is part of a nursery area for many of the commercially important fish and crustaceans in South Australian including King George whiting
, western king prawn
s and blue swimmer crabs
. Brown snakes
and skink
s in dense bushes along the top of the embankments.
Each year in late summer thousands of black swans
and ducks descend on the area as the inland waterways they inhabit dry up. Waterbirds such as pelican
s, cormorant
s, oyster catchers
and tern
s are common often year round. Egret
s, Ibis
, heron
s and spoonbill
s feed on the seagrass and fairy wrens
, chats
, fantail
s and thornbills
feed on insects and plants amongst the samphire. Each September stint
s and sandpipers
arrive from the Northern Hemisphere
in a spectacular display. With the abundance of birdlife the area attracts birds of prey with swamp harrier
s, collared sparrowhawks
, black-shouldered kites
, kestrel
s and little falcons
are all seen in the skies over St Kilda.
The salt lagoons, mangroves and samphire wetlands are recognised as important areas for migratory birds by their coverage under the China-Australia
and Japan-Australia
migratory bird agreements. The agreements are treaties
created to for the protection of the birds and their environment.
St Kilda is a flat, low lying suburb mostly less than 2 metres above sea level, dominated by the salt lagoons managed by Cheetham Salt, and the treatment ponds of SA Water
's nearby Bolivar sewage works. The lagoons, ponds and surrounding land are fenced off and generally closed to the public.
Transport
St Kilda road is the only access road and connects to Port Wakefield road
at Waterloo Corner
. St Kilda can be driven to from Salisbury
in approximately 10 minutes and from Adelaide's CBD in 30 minutes. There are no scheduled bus
services with the nearest public transport the Transadelaide
900 bus route which passes along Port Wakefield road, 2 kilometers outside the suburb's boundary.
Weather
Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate
with St Kilda being slightly hotter and dryer than the Adelaide average
. Daytime temperatures can be expected to exceed 40 °C on 4 days of the year but conversely nighttime temperature is expected to drop below 0 °C on 1 day.
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
that is home to an award-winning adventure playground
Playground
A playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors...
, tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
museum, mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forest walk and an abundance of birdlife. St Kilda has only a small number of houses and a 2006 population of 246. There is a single connecting road to the rest of Adelaide which, where the road enters the suburb's residential area, is surrounded by salt crystallisation lagoons
Salt evaporation pond
Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested...
used in the manufacture of soda ash
Sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate , Na2CO3 is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. Sodium carbonate is domestically well-known for its everyday use as a water softener. It can be extracted from the...
.
The inhabited section of the suburb occupies less than 100 hectares along the seafront, with the remainder used for salt lagoons and also settlement ponds of nearby Bolivar
Bolivar, South Australia
Bolivar is an outer northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Salisbury.-History:The suburb was established in 1956, and was named after the General Bolivar Hotel...
sewage treatment
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
works.
What was originally a seaside town was named by John Harvey, the founder of nearby Salisbury
Salisbury, South Australia
Salisbury is a northern suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the seat of the City of Salisbury, and in the South Australian Legislative Assembly electoral district of Ramsay and the Australian House of Representatives divisions of Wakefield and Port Adelaide...
, as it reminded him of St Kilda
St Kilda, Scotland
St Kilda is an isolated archipelago west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom and three other islands , were also used for...
in the Outer Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
of Scotland with its similar abundance of birdlife. St Kilda is an internationally recognised bird watching
Birdwatching
Birdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are...
area with over 100 species of birds feeding in and around the mudflat
Mudflat
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...
s, salt Lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s, mangroves and seagrass
Seagrass
Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...
beds.
History
The suburb was originally three low lying islandIsland
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s that were covered in shell grit and saltbush
Atriplex
Atriplex is a plant genus of 100-200 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache . The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments...
and surrounded by mangrove and samphire swamps. Fishermen had established huts on the islands by 1865 and by 1873 there were 13 huts and a boathouse
Boathouse
A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats...
recorded when the area was surveyed by Thomas Evans. By the 1890s people were visiting the islands attracted to the supposed curative properties of the mangrove mud, using the beach for bathing and fishing for crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s.
St Kilda was proclaimed a town on 31 July 1893 with sales of the first allotments made on the same day. In 1886 it became part of the Munno Para West District Council area, moving to the district of Salisbury on 1 July 1933 along with most of the Munno Para West area. The islands were extensively modified after floods in 1948 and 1957 which cut off St Kilda from the rest of Adelaide. Salisbury council began building up the area, expanding seawalls and reclaiming additional land by dumping of earth spoil.
The St Kilda Hotel, built out of limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
from east of Elizabeth
Elizabeth, South Australia
Elizabeth is a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Playford.-History:Elizabeth was established in 1955 as part of a planned satellite town by the South Australian Housing Trust on rural land between the older towns of Salisbury and...
, opened in 1898 with Matthias Lucas as the first publican
Publican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
and remains the suburbs only hotel. A school opened in October 1902, where the tram museum is now sited, admitting students in November of the same year, . The school was closed from 1917 to 1924 and finally closed permanently in 1949 with students moving to Salisbury North
Salisbury North, South Australia
Salisbury North is a suburb located in the City of Salisbury, Adelaide, South Australia.Salisbury Adams Road Post Office opened on 22 November 1965 and was renamed Salisbury North Whites Road in 1968.-References:...
Primary School and the building eventually being used at Virginia
Virginia, South Australia
Virginia is a suburb on the rural outskirts of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Port Wakefield Road, the main highway taking traffic to the north of Adelaide, passes through the area. Market gardening is the main activity there.-References:...
primary school. In 1924 a telegraph office opened in Shell Street and, due to the suburb of St Kilda
St Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
having the same name, the post office service requested that the name be changed. Over some local objections the name was changed to Moilong (a Kaurna word for Where the tide comes in) but this was reversed after local protests. Moilong Telegraph Office opened in 1924, was upgraded to a post office in 1945, renamed Saint Kilda in 1965 and closed in 1974.
St Kilda's population has never been large with 50 non-permanent residents counted in the 1901 census, 68 (including 20 permanent) in 1911, 30 total residents in 1933, 80 in 2002 and increasing to 246 by 2006.
Adventure Playground
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s along the seafront and is one of South Australia's best known. The playground has a constructed shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
, wooden castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
, huge slides, a spiral slide inside a hill, flying foxes
Flying fox (cablecar)
A flying fox is a small cable car, often propelled by gravity, and used as an item of children's play equipment and more rarely for other purposes. The term flying fox is Australian English and New Zealand English. In other countries, it can be called a zip-line. Similar toys are known as death...
and numerous other pieces of play equipment, with South Australian children naming it in 2002 as the best adventure park in the state.
The park was conceived by the Lions club of Salisbury
Lions Clubs International
Lions Clubs International is a secular service organization with over 44,500 clubs and more than 1,368,683 members in 191 countries around the world founded by Melvin Jones Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States, the organization aims to meet the needs of communities on a local and...
and funded through club fundraising activities, council matching funding and government employment schemes providing free labour. It was opened by Salisbury mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Ron White on 24 October 1982 and has had recent upgrades to the park, including a shaded set of equipment shaped like a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
for younger children, and the building of a small maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
.
Boat Club and marina
St Kilda has an extensive marinaMarina
A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....
with floating moorings for over 80 boats, two boat ramps and a sheltered channel out into the Barker Inlet
Barker Inlet
The Barker Inlet is a tidal inlet of the Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide, South Australia, named after Captain Collet Barker who first sighted it in 1831. It contains one of the southernmost mangrove forests in the world, a dolphin sanctuary, seagrass meadows and is an important fish and shellfish...
, part of Gulf St Vincent. Recently expanded the marina now has hard stands for boats and some slipping facilities.
The boat club, founded as the "St Kilda Boatowners Association Incorporated" in 1964, after permission was gained from the council and landowners to develop St Kilda tidal creek as the area lacked boat launching facilities. The creek was straightened and deepened repeatedly, originally by hand, and a causeway extended out to sea to protect the channel. A new clubhouse was opened by MP
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...
Lynn Arnold
Lynn Arnold
Lynn Maurice Ferguson Arnold, AO , former Australian politician, was the Labor Premier of South Australia between 4 September 1992 and 14 December 1993....
in 1980 and the latest boat ramp in 2002 by the mayor of Salisbury Tony Zappia
Tony Zappia
Antonio "Tony" Zappia is the Australian Labor Party representative for the electoral division of Makin in north-eastern Adelaide, South Australia in the 2007 federal election...
.
Saltwater lagoons
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
(ICI) began construction of the Solar Evaporation Lagoons in 1935 using up to 600 workers to dig out the lagoons by hand and then expanded them mechanically after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The lagoons stretch in a broken chain from Dry Creek
Dry Creek, South Australia
Dry Creek is a mostly industrial suburb located north of Adelaide, containing significant wetlands and a substantial area devoted to salt crystallization pans, managed by Cheltenham Salt Limited....
to Port Gawler alongside the Barker Inlet, and are approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) north–south by 3 kilometres (2 mi) east–west. The lagoons are filled in spring and salt normally harvested in autumn when it is piped as saturated brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
solution to Osborne
Osborne, South Australia
Osborne is a north-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 19 km from the CBD, in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. It is on the LeFevre Peninsula, adjacent to Outer Harbor, Taperoo and North Haven...
on the Le Fevre peninsula
Le Fevre Peninsula
The Lefevre Peninsula lies approximately 15 kilometres northwest of the centre of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It is a narrow sand spit of about 30 square kilometres running north from its connection to the mainland....
, and used by Penrice Soda Products in the only soda ash production facility in Australia. The lagoons proliferate with bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
life and have been recognised as a bird sanctuary
Animal sanctuary
An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and be protected for the rest of their lives. Unlike animal shelters, sanctuaries do not seek to place animals with individuals or groups, instead maintaining each animal until his or her natural death...
due to their status as an important breeding and feeding area for species from as far away as Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. As of 2006 the Lagoons are operated by Cheetham Salt Limited with 600,000 tonnes of salt used by Penrice in creating soda ash via the solvay process
Solvay process
The Solvay process, also referred to as the ammonia-soda process, is the major industrial process for the production of soda ash . The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by Ernest Solvay during the 1860s...
.
Mangrove trail and interpretative centre
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forest bordering Barker Inlet
Barker Inlet
The Barker Inlet is a tidal inlet of the Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide, South Australia, named after Captain Collet Barker who first sighted it in 1831. It contains one of the southernmost mangrove forests in the world, a dolphin sanctuary, seagrass meadows and is an important fish and shellfish...
, part of the largest tidal estuary of Gulf St Vincent. Late in the 19th Century embankments were constructed through the mangroves in an effort to reclaim land for pasturing. With the construction of the banks of the adjacent saltfields maintenance of the embankments ceased and the mangroves began to reclaim them. One of these embankments is used as the beginning of a boardwalk through the mangroves which forms a 1.7 km loop through the samphire saltmarsh flats and mangroves reaching the border between the ocean and forest.
The boardwalk was constructed in 1984 by the City of Salisbury to encourage appreciation of the mangrove's ecological importance. On 29 April 1995, South Australian Premier
Premiers of South Australia
Before the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberals dominated government from 1893 to 1905 with Labor support, with the conservatives mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of...
Dean Brown
Dean Brown
Dean Craig Brown, AO was the Liberal Premier of South Australia between 14 December 1993 and 28 November 1996, and Deputy Premier of South Australia between 22 October 2001 and 5 March 2002 to Rob Kerin.-Political career:...
and federal MP
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
Chris Schacht
Chris Schacht
Christopher Cleland Schacht is a former Australian politician and member of the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party . He was born in Melbourne and educated at the University of Adelaide and Wattle Park Teachers College.Schacht's political career started as a state party official...
opened the award-winning St Kilda Interpretative Centre at the entrance to the boardwalk which showcases the flora, fauna and processes within the mangrove forest. Since 1997 the mangrove trail has been privately managed, hosting school visits as well as casual visitors.
The boardwalk is within the barker inlet aquatic reserve, where the taking of crabs shellfish and plants is prohibited and pets are not allowed. The mangroves, saltmarsh and adjacent lagoons form a habitat for over 200 bird species with the mangroves being part of a nursery area for most of the commercial and recreational fish species of Gulf St Vincent. The 2005 Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Act established a sanctuary for the Bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
s that live in the inlet and adjacent Port River
Port River
The Port River is the western branch of the largest tidal estuary on the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent. It extends inland through the historic Inner Harbour of Port Adelaide, to the constructed salt-water West Lakes in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia...
. The sanctuary's northern extent is the boat channel and dolphins can sometimes be seen at high tide in the tidal creeks passing under the boardwalk.
Tramway museum
Trams in Adelaide
Until 1958, Trams in Adelaide formed a network spanning most of suburban Adelaide, with a history dating back to 1878. Adelaide ran horse trams from 1878 to 1914 and electric trams from 1909, but has primarily relied on buses for public transport since 1958...
, beginning as horse trams in 1878, moving to electric trams in 1909 and reduced in 1958 to a single tram line
Tramway track
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. Grooved rails are often used in order to make street running feasible...
which runs from Adelaide's Central Business District to Glenelg
Glenelg Tram
The Glenelg Tram is a route from the centre of Adelaide, South Australia to the beach-side suburb of Glenelg. It is Adelaide's only remaining tramway, running at approximately 15-minute intervals, and is part of the integrated Adelaide Metro public transport network...
. Built on the site of the 1902 school, the Tramway museum showcases trams and trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es that were either used or built in Adelaide. The museum is operated by the Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc, a non-profit volunteer organisation accredited with the History Trust of South Australia and dedicated to preserving and restoring Adelaide’s former transport vehicles. The museum houses over 30 electric trams, horse trams
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
and electric trolley buses many of which are restored and operational. Visitors can ride the electric trams along 2 km of purpose built track that runs between the museum and the adventure playground.
Work commenced in 1958 with the arrival of donated vehicles, the first of which was an old trolley bus from the Municipal Tramways Trust
Municipal Tramways Trust
The Municipal Tramways Trust was established in 1907 to operate Adelaide's street tram network. The MTT ceased to exist in 1975 upon the establishment of the State Transport Authority Bus and Tram Division.-History:...
, and the museum was opened in 1967 as a static display. Workshops were built to enable the restoration of the old trams to operating condition and, in 2001 a large additional museum building was completed so as to house the increasing number of donated trams.
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
for Lands, to coincide with St Kilda's centenary.
The tram used in the opening ceremonies and now housed at the museum was Adelaide's first electric tram which had its trial run on 30 November 1908 and first operated in 1909. The museum's collection continues to expand with Adelaide tram 104 the latest acquisition. After spending 48 years as a shack on the Yorke Peninsula
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located north-west and west of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. It has geographic coordinates of...
it will be stored, and possibly restored, at the museum on behalf of the Sydney tramway museum
Sydney Tramway Museum
The Sydney Tramway Museum is an operating tramway museum, located in Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Sydney Tramway Museum is the trading name of the South Pacific Electric Railway ....
.
Flora and fauna
FloraThe mangroves found around the margins of the Barker Inlet consist of a single species, Avicennia marina
Avicennia marina
Avicennia marina, commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae...
var resinifera. In the upper intertidal zone mangroves are reduced in size landwards and give way to a variety of Samphire species, including Beaded Glasswort (Tecticornia flabelliformis) and Blackseed Glasswort(Tecticornia pergranulata
Tecticornia pergranulata
Tecticornia pergranulata is a succulent halophyte plant species in the Amaranthaceae family, native to Australia...
) as well as saltbush on the saltflats of the supratidal zone. Nitre bush
Nitraria billardierei
Nitraria billardierei is a perennial salt tolerant shrub. It is often found in saline areas or areas that have been overgrazed. Nitre Bush flowers mainly in spring with small ovoid or oblong fruit that are purple, red or golden...
grows on the highest parts of the seawall and the abundant summer fruits provide a food source for birds.
Fauna
St Kilda is part of a nursery area for many of the commercially important fish and crustaceans in South Australian including King George whiting
King George whiting
The King George whiting, Sillaginodes punctatus , is a coastal marine fish of the smelt-whitings family Sillaginidae. The King George whiting is endemic to Australia, inhabiting the south coast of the country from Jurien Bay, Western Australia to Botany Bay, New South Wales in the east...
, western king prawn
Melicertus
Melicertus is a genus of "king" prawns, comprising eight species:*Melicertus canaliculatus *Melicertus hathor Burkenroad, 1959*Melicertus kerathurus *Melicertus latisulcatus...
s and blue swimmer crabs
Portunus pelagicus
Portunus pelagicus, also known as the flower crab, blue crab, blue swimmer crab, blue manna crab or sand crab, is a large crab found in the intertidal estuaries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Middle-Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The name "flower crab" is used in east Asian...
. Brown snakes
Pseudonaja
Pseudonaja is a genus of venomous elapid snakes native to Australia. Members are known commonly as brown snakes and are considered to be one of the most dangerous snakes in the country; even young snakes are capable of delivering a fatal envenomation to a human.- Species :* Dugite or Spotted...
and skink
Skink
Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...
s in dense bushes along the top of the embankments.
Each year in late summer thousands of black swans
Black Swan
The Black Swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic...
and ducks descend on the area as the inland waterways they inhabit dry up. Waterbirds such as pelican
Australian Pelican
The Australian Pelican is a large water bird, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant to New Zealand.-Taxonomy:...
s, cormorant
Cormorant
The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...
s, oyster catchers
Oystercatcher
The oystercatchers are a group of waders; they form the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia...
and tern
Tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...
s are common often year round. Egret
Egret
An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
s, Ibis
Ibis
The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae....
, heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s and spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...
s feed on the seagrass and fairy wrens
Maluridae
The Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens of the Northern Hemisphere...
, chats
Chat (bird)
Chats are a group of small Old World insectivorous birds formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered Old World flycatchers....
, fantail
Fantail
Fantails are small insectivorous birds of southern Asia and Australasia belonging to the genus Rhipidura in the family Rhipiduridae...
s and thornbills
Acanthiza
Acanthiza is a genus of passeriform birds, mostly found in Australia but with one species restricted to New Guinea. These birds are commonly known as thornbills. They are not closely related to species in the hummingbird genus Chalcostigma which are also called thornbills.They are found...
feed on insects and plants amongst the samphire. Each September stint
Stint
A stint is one of several very small waders in the paraphyletic "Calidris" assemblage - often separated in Erolia -, which in North America are known as peeps...
s and sandpipers
Actitis
Actitis is a small genus of waders, comprising just two very similar bird species:* Common Sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos, of Eurasia* Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularia of North America...
arrive from the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
in a spectacular display. With the abundance of birdlife the area attracts birds of prey with swamp harrier
Swamp Harrier
The Swamp Harrier also known as the Marsh Harrier, Australasian Harrier, Kāhu, Swamp-hawk or New Zealand Hawk is a large, slim bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.-Description:...
s, collared sparrowhawks
Collared Sparrowhawk
The Collared Sparrowhawk is a small, slim bird of prey in the family Accipitridae found in Australia, and New Guinea and nearby smaller islands.- Description :...
, black-shouldered kites
Black-shouldered Kite
The Black-shouldered Kite or Australian Black-shouldered Kite is a small raptor found in open habitat throughout Australia and resembles similar species found in Eurasia and North America, which have in the past also been named as Black-shouldered Kites...
, kestrel
Kestrel
The name kestrel, is given to several different members of the falcon genus, Falco. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour which is to hover at a height of around over open country and swoop down on prey, usually small mammals, lizards or large insects...
s and little falcons
Australian Hobby
The Australian Hobby or Little Falcon is a falcon found mainly in Australia. It is also a winter migrant to Indonesia and New Guinea...
are all seen in the skies over St Kilda.
The salt lagoons, mangroves and samphire wetlands are recognised as important areas for migratory birds by their coverage under the China-Australia
China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement
The China–Australia Migratory Bird Agreement is a treaty between Australia and China to minimise harm to the major areas used by migratory birds which migrate between the two countries. Towra Point Nature Reserve plays a role in the agreement, being an area in Australia used by migratory birds...
and Japan-Australia
Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement
The Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement is a treaty between Australia and Japan to minimise harm to the major areas used by birds which migrate between the two countries. Towra Point Nature Reserve plays a role in the agreement, being an area in Australia used by migratory birds...
migratory bird agreements. The agreements are treaties
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...
created to for the protection of the birds and their environment.
Geography
SA Water
SA Water was established by the proclamation of the South Australian Water Corporation Act 1994 on 1 July 1995. Its predecessor was known as Engineering and Water Supply Department . E&WS evolved from the Waterworks and Drainage Commission, which was established in 1856...
's nearby Bolivar sewage works. The lagoons, ponds and surrounding land are fenced off and generally closed to the public.
Transport
St Kilda road is the only access road and connects to Port Wakefield road
Port Wakefield Road
Port Wakefield Road is an important Australian highway. It connects Adelaide, the South Australian capital, to the Yorke Peninsula, Port Augusta, northern and western South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It is designated National Highway A1 and a part of the National Highway...
at Waterloo Corner
Waterloo Corner, South Australia
Waterloo Corner is a rural/urban suburb approximately 22 kilometres north of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Most of the land is used for agricultural purposes, including wheat, olives, grapes and tomatoes. Port Wakefield Road, and thus a lot of heavy freight, traverses the...
. St Kilda can be driven to from Salisbury
Salisbury, South Australia
Salisbury is a northern suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the seat of the City of Salisbury, and in the South Australian Legislative Assembly electoral district of Ramsay and the Australian House of Representatives divisions of Wakefield and Port Adelaide...
in approximately 10 minutes and from Adelaide's CBD in 30 minutes. There are no scheduled bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
services with the nearest public transport the Transadelaide
TransAdelaide
TransAdelaide was a publicly owned corporation which provided suburban train and tram services in Adelaide, South Australia, under contract to the Government of South Australia....
900 bus route which passes along Port Wakefield road, 2 kilometers outside the suburb's boundary.
Weather
Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
with St Kilda being slightly hotter and dryer than the Adelaide average
Climate of Adelaide
Adelaide has a hot Mediterranean climate , which generally means mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Of all the Australian capital cities, Adelaide is the driest. Rainfall is unreliable, light and infrequent throughout summer...
. Daytime temperatures can be expected to exceed 40 °C on 4 days of the year but conversely nighttime temperature is expected to drop below 0 °C on 1 day.