River Torrens - The changing face of: Keith takes a suburban ramble in the Adelaide City region of South Australia
Just a stone's throw from the city, the big bend in the River Torrens at Saint Peters was part of the River's original course through the plains. No doubt it was well-known by the original Kaurna people long before Adelaide was even an idea in far-off Britain.
But fast forward a few centuries to European suburbia and the river's natural course proved troublesome. Back before the dams and weirs upstream, massive floods continued to gouge out the cliffs on the bend undermining the backyards of prized real estate above. The answer was simple - cut off the bend and create a billabong.
Kingsley Turner, Ecologist: "The channel was isolated in the mid 90s to alleviate flood damage to cliffs. The cliffs over here are damaged from collapsing and they were constantly bringing in loads of fill to chock it up and by cutting it off the damage has been alleviated."
What was a liability is now an asset - a peaceful park in the middle of suburbia looked after by a group of dedicated friends.
Kingsley Turner, Ecologist: "The area is being revegetated with plants that grew in the area prior to European occupation. Through European occupation we lost about 90 percent of our plants and we're slowly bringing it back to the point we're well over 100 now."
The billabong is spring-fed and bubbles through underground culverts back into the main river. But time your visit right and you'll see it also gets topped up by Second Creek after it's re-directed journey under St Peter's Street.
Local ecologist, Kingsley Turner and historian, Denise Schuman agree the park make-over is a huge improvement even if Kingsley's great uncle used to run his dairy cows along the banks. Kingsley grew up nearby and remembers wagging Sunday School as a kid to explore the old rubbish dump.
Kingsley Turner, Ecologist: "There used to be a dump around the oval. They used to drop a match in it about once every fortnight and a plume of smoke would go over the area."
Not surprisingly, the locals were not impressed - especially if they had their washing out! For Denise, the way we've changed the Torrens is an example of our urbanization of a river.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "We have a different concept of rivers and how we use our environment. Interestingly whereas the indigenous people will often work with the environment it was very much a 19th century way to impose change or to re-order and of course our environment in Australia was very different from Europe. The rivers flowed differently, the seasons were different and they couldn't quite understand why our rivers were so intermittent. They didn't actually know how to work with that so what they did was dam it, weir it, store it - which naturally effected the environment."
They exploited it too - sand mining and brick works were a familiar sight along the riverbanks. Then there was our recreation needs - the river delivered them too.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "A good example is the swing bridge over the river. It was built around the 1920s because the river was a very important recreational place. It was known as the Gilberton Baths and was quite famous for its swimming competitions, men and women who used to race up and down the river here."
You wouldn't do that now of course - but nevertheless we have tamed the river to the extent that it is a fabulous recreational asset. If you have the time or the inclination you can follow the river from way up in the north-eastern suburbs all the way to the sea.
So the next time you're going for a stroll or bike ride along the Linear Park, spare a thought for what it looked like before the first European settlers saw it. Before the suburbs rolled through - when there were no weirs or O'Bahn. The original people - the Kaurna people they saw this as a very different river."
The St Peters River Park is always open - it's part of the Torrens Linear Park. More ?'s email info@postcards-sa.com.au
St Peters River Park
Enter off: Eighth or River Street
St PetersPublished 3rd July 2011
