Adelaide's Park Lands background view the attachment for more interesting facts. Adelaide’s Park Lands are often celebrated as the crowning glory of our city – a lush greenbelt of carefully preserved trees and grasses, remnants of the bush that flourished before European settlement on the Torrens River. The reality is different. Firstly, when Colonel Light made his plans for Adelaide, the hills and plains had been managed by Kaurna people for countless generations; fire and hunting had shaped a grasslands that sustained their culture and way of life. Rather than ‘preserving’ the countryside around the new settlement, our European forebears slashed and burned the district until the parklands was muddy slough in winter and a parched dustbowl across the southern summers. Flocks of sheep grazed in the parks in those early days, stripping the land of grasses such as the Yam daisy which was a food of Kaurna people. Cows still pastured near the North Adelaide railway station until 1972 and the horses grazing in the north and west have been loved by generations of town children. A private menagerie (The Koala Farm) brought more exotic creatures and visitors came in to cuddle the furry marsupials, ride on the Camel cart and stare at the seals, snakes and octopuses. In early days entire Tent townships grew up on the west parklands, complete with street such as ‘Coromandel Row’ and ‘Buffalo Row’ after the ships which brought settlers here. Our fine Cemetery and Adelaide High School still service the city from the west parklands. A large reservoir in the southwest park pumped drinking water to Glenelg until well into the twentieth century. Joggers in the golf links keep an eye peeled for stray golf balls and swooping maggies but this is tame compared with the days when Adelaide Regiment of Volunteer Rifles enthusiastically fired off rounds from the extensive Rifle Range in the south parklands. A teenager of the time reportedly had his hat blown off by stray fire from the range. Playgrounds became so popular that professional playground supervisors provided ‘moral guidance’ to kids skylarking in the Glover Playground in the South parklands. Now tarzan ropes and ziplines invite to take to the treetops for our latest parklands adventurers and our parks are being pro as a ‘wilding’ place for nature play. Almost everyone has a parklands moment – a family picnic maybe, a footy win, an afterparty frolic, a furious gallop across the grass, or a drizzle. Windows User

Read about Gerda Adelaide Parkland's story The History Hub Team

Cerationia siliqua, Parklands, Adelaide Not Recorded

Topographical/cadastral map of Adelaide West Parklands and City west of King William Street. Showing block numbers, showing reticulation, streets, railways, tramways, stations and major buildings. Relief shown by contours. Approximate date due to Phillip & Hawdon streets shown on map. (Originally the entire street was named Hawdon Street but part of the street was renamed Philip Street in January 1891) (See SLSA reticulation map8315ghhd_3168_04_1913) State Library of South Australia

1916 Adelaide West Parklands reticulation map SLSA - 8315ghhd_3168_04_1916 State Library of South Australia