Well, I did mention in the previous post that I had taken a lot of photos... and true to my word, here's the 2nd instalment of my great photographic adventure. Right at the outset, I should remind everyone that I'm most certainly not a photographer. Not a real one at any rate. I like to dabble, and I don't take my photography seriously enough to even be a hobby. Though it's a good pretense of one.
Now I haven't really got that many photos to show what Adelaide is really like, so perhaps as a photowalk session I sort of failed. Adelaide's often been described as a Big Country Town... with a population of over a million people, it's a very BIG town at that. Unlike Melbourne however, we don't really have the characteristic alleyways - so Adelaide never really comes across as having a secret-face. Rather, our secrets are all about the people that live here....
Adelaide established an Arts culture since the 60's at least, and was known (perhaps still is, but with a slight twist of irony) as belonging to the Festival State.
Now everywhere in Australia has it's festivals, so we've largely lost the self-image of a bastion of the richer cultural heart of Australia. I suspect Melbourne and Sydney might have suggested we never had it in the first place...
North Terrace is the homeland of the Arts, with the Library, the Museum and of course the Art Gallery all lined up along a beautiful Boulevard...
Alongside that the two university campuses of the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia (Flinders University has a small satellite campus nearby as well)
And of course seats of learning are almost always sat on by Men of Learning.... how 'old fashioned'... but it goes with Adelaide's intrinsically conservative mind-set. It's also far from the modern day reality with girls consistently out-performing boys in school. But then still finding that they earn less. Life, apparently, wasn't meant to be easy - or fair.
And one of the bulwarks of the old establishment in Adelaide is the Freemason's Lodge on North Terrace... which was first erected in 1884, and then rebuilt (in it's current form) in 1924. The truly remarkable aspect to the whole thing however was that the organisation of the Freemasons in South Australia was first established in 1834... the State was proclaimed in 1836! The State and the city of Adelaide is intimately linked with the Freemasonry movement... one of the city's many sort-of-secrets.
One might say that Adelaide was built on the foundations of Freemasonry.... then again, as an aside, 10 out of the first 20 Prime Minister's of Australia were Freemasons.... The Adelaide streets bear witness to the role of Freemasonry in Adelaide with Wakefield, Morphett, Gilbert, Gouger, O'Connell, King William, Flinders, Tynte all based on powerful Masons at the start of the South Australian colony.
So whilst the city was founded on the designs and plans of Col. William Light, it's way of life can perhaps be symbolised by this mysterious society of well-to-do gentlemen.
Enough of the Freemasons... there is photographing to do... and not everything has to have deep historical significance.
And yet... the history, is often reflected in even the most ordinary of things from today...
Autumn's last leaves float gentle on the turbulent waters.
Anyone for a jump in a puddle?... If only my son were there....
Frome Road - from a different point of view (and I wasn't even drunk, officer)...
Adelaide has it's fair share of sculpture, if you look for it...
And who can go past the quaintly beautiful (if somewhat artificial) Torrens River cum Lake.... and isn't that weather looking up for us all. G+ Power!
Stay tuned for my next instalment soon....
No comments:
Post a Comment