Barossa Valley
We left the city to head up into the Adelaide Hills. It is a long ascent. Some years ago, a lorry lost control when its brakes failed. It picked up speed, crashed through the traffic lights and smashed into the petrol station causing a large fire. Several people were killed including the lorry driver. There are now a row of concrete bollards in front of the servo as petrol stations are known locally. These aren't ordinary bollards. These are half a metre thick, three metres tall and sculptured to resemble a totem pole. They could stop a road train. The authorities have also created escape lanes, locally called arrestor beds, turn offs from the main road filled with deep sand that will stop any vehicle.
Our first stop of the day was at the summit of Mount Lofty, named by Matthew Flinders in 1802. It is only 710 metres high but it is the highest point in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges. There are panoramic view of the city and the Adelaide plains to the west, and of the Picadilly Valley to the east. It is also popular with cyclists coming up the old Mount Barker Road through Eagle on the Hill and for walkers from Waterfall Gully.
There is a tower at the top, a cafe, a souvenir shop...
...and a fire tower. Fire spotters during the fire season can gaze across the countryside and see any smoke from a bushfire before somebody on the ground reports a fire.
The fire service was on duty. They were undertaking a controled burn. The aboriginals have been scuplting the landscape for millenia. But control burns are controversial. Some people support a control burn programme as it follows the knowledge of the locals and results in less intense bush fires. Others oppose intervention and say that nature should be allowed to follow its own course. But that ignores the fact that the original custodians of the land have been active for millenia and humans have been burning fossil fuels and contributing to global warming.
One of the firefighters carrying out dampening operations.
We had to take a diversion. There was a police road block and we were being directed along an alternative route. The reason given by the policeman on duty was that some one had 'run up a Stobie'. This was a local expression but luckily we had an interpreter.
Another wine tating for lunch...
...their main premises...
The fire service was on duty. They were undertaking a controled burn. The aboriginals have been scuplting the landscape for millenia. But control burns are controversial. Some people support a control burn programme as it follows the knowledge of the locals and results in less intense bush fires. Others oppose intervention and say that nature should be allowed to follow its own course. But that ignores the fact that the original custodians of the land have been active for millenia and humans have been burning fossil fuels and contributing to global warming.
One of the firefighters carrying out dampening operations.
We moved on to Hahndorf.
Pretty German village.
Unless you live in South Australia, few people will know what a Stobie is. It is South Australia's indestructible version of a power pylon. There are 650,000 of them in the state and they are found no where else. The Stobie pole was invented in 1924 by James Cyril Stobie (1895 - 1953). There was a shortage of timber in the state and a problem with white ants, termites that ate the timber despite the pole being covered in creosote.
Jams Stobie was an electrical engineer with Adelaide Electrical Co (which has morphed into SA Power Networks). He designed a pole made from two steel I-beams or train rails, held together by tie bolts and filled with concrete. It was pattented the following year and James Stobie was gicwn AUD500 for his design.
To 'run up a Stobie' means that someone has crashed into the pylon. If a car hits one, the car will be wrecked and the pole will not be undented. They are also used by artists to showcase their work and community groups to advertise events. The Stobie poles are still being made, with annual production at 4,500 a year in a plant in Adelaide. They survive floods and bush fires.
The state has an undeserved reputation for blackouts. Electricity production has moved away from coal and now concentrates on solar and wind. These are complementary asif there are clouds, it is windy. When the clouds pass and calm weather predominates, the wind drops but the sun shines.
...their main premises...
...and another wine tasting for the afternoon.
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