Page 347 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

SOUTH A USTR ALIA  345

AdelAide And

the southeAst

The Southeast is a region rich with pine forests, wineries
and a spectacular coastline. The state capital, Adelaide,
is a vibrant city, whose surrounding hills abound with
vineyards from the Barossa to McLaren Vale. To the east,
the great Murray River meanders from the Victoria border
down to the Southern Ocean. Just off the Fleurieu Peninsula
lies Kangaroo Island, a haven for wildlife.
Home to Aborigines for more than of motor vehicles and household
50,000 years, this region was settled by appliances. Adelaide still has a focus
Europeans in 1836 when Governor John on high technology.
Hindmarsh proclaimed the area a British South Australia has always had a
colony. William Light, the Surveyor General, tradition of tolerance. Many of the first
chose the site of the city of Adelaide. settlers were non-conformists from Great
The settlement was based on a theory Britain seeking a more open society.
of free colonization funded solely by land Other early migrants included Lutherans
sales, and no convicts were transported escaping persecution in Germany. They
here. Elegant Adelaide was carefully settled in Hahndorf and the Barossa,
planned by Colonel Light: its ordered where they established a wine industry.
grid pattern, centred on pretty squares With high rainfall and irrigated by
and gardens, is surrounded by parkland. the Murray River, the region is the most
Wealth from agriculture and mining paid fertile in the state. The coastline includes
for many of Adelaide’s fine Victorian the Fleurieu Peninsula and the beautiful
buildings. In the mid-20th century, Coorong National Park. Offshore,
the city established a significant Kangaroo Island has stunning scenery
manufacturing industry, in particular and bountiful native wildlife.

Port and sherry casks at a winery in the Barossa
Evening falls on the vineyards of the Barossa