The collection of buildings at the corner of King William Street and Flinders Street were once the centre of state government affairs, housing the South Australian government and administration from the 1830s until the 1960s. The Governor,…

The former Bank of New South Wales office building is a landmark structure positioned on one of the most important intersections of the city- the corner of North Terrace and King William Street. At the time of its construction it was one of the…

The Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Co. (CML) building is one of the most iconic built landmarks of King William Street. The building’s grandeur and high quality neo-Romanesque detailings are perhaps more notable when it is revealed that it was…

For a century, this unique building was an important site of South Australia’s financial affairs. Opened in 1901, it served as the home of the Stock Exchange of Adelaide. The Stock Exchange formed in 1887 when a group of financial brokers and…

Six months after his body as discovered at Somerton Beach, the funeral of the Somerton Man took place on 14 June 1949 at West Terrace Cemetery. The service was arranged with some secrecy to ensure that the curious public would be kept away. Captain…

As the months passed in 1949, the mystery of the Somerton Man continued to captivate the South Australian public. With more questions than answers, preparations were made for his burial at West Terrace Cemetery. The Elephant and Castle Hotel, a…

One of the items found in the man’s possession was a used bus ticket from the city to Somerton Beach. Detectives assumed that the man must have caught a double-decker bus from the bus stop located across from the railway station to St Leonards (now…

Among the items that had been found on the man’s body was an unused railway ticket from the city to Henley Beach. Detectives Lionel Leane and Len Brown made enquiries at the Adelaide Railway Station in January 1949 to see if the man had left…

With no promising leads and the burial date rapidly approaching, by June 1949 it was decided that a plaster cast should be made of the body in the hope that it would help identify the man in the future. Taxidermist Paul Lawson from the South…

After the discovery of the piece of paper in the man’s trousers, Detective Brown scoured the city to find a version of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that the paper could be matched to. He visited several libraries and bookshops including Beck’s…

In the weeks and months following the discovery of the body, the identity of the man continued to elude South Australian police. Initially identified by The Advertiser newspaper as local man E.C. Johnson, the appearance of a very much alive Mr…

Although the body of a deceased man was reported to police on 1 December 1948, many had in fact seen the man lying on Somerton Beach the day before. The position of the body, propped up against the seawall with his legs crossed, had given passers-by…

This tree, in the grounds of St Marks College, Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide, was planted in the 1860s. It is in good health and a representative of early Adelaide garden tree choices. Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora, Syn. Officinalis)…

This magnificent English Oak Quercus robur known as the ‘War Memorial Oak’, is found off War Memorial Drive in the Creswell Gardens, near the Adelaide Oval. It was planted on 29 August, 1914; a mere 25 days after Britain declared war on Germany,…

The Frome Road avenue was planted in 1902 to commemorate Arbor Day and is one of the best known in Adelaide. It is a fine example of Plane trees being used for that purpose. The tall trees with their wide spreading canopies provide much appreciated…

This particular tree is in the Adelaide Botanic gardens, near the North Terrace entrance. It was planted in 1863, eight years after the founding of the gardens. In 2015 it is 152 years old, and expected to live for many more years. It was planted by…

This tree was planted by George Francis, the first Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, and listed in the Garden’s 1859 plant catalogue, produced just five years after the garden was established. This tree is the largest known cultivated…

This tree is found in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, about 50m north of the North Terrace entrance. The Native Orange Capparis mitchellii is an Australian evergreen from the Capparaceae family. Capparis is from the Latin for caper, in recognition of…

This tree is found in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, near the Main Gate on North Terrace. It is known as Sweet Bursaria, Australian Blackthorn, Mock Orange, Native Box, or SA Christmas Bush. The botanical name is Bursaria spinosa (Syn. Cyrilla…

This Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora is a very large multiple trunked specimen and is an outstanding tree in both size and appearance. It belongs to the Laurel family which includes the Bay Tree Laurus nobilis and is native to China , Japan ,…

The genus Araucaria is a small one of very interesting trees including the Norfolk Island Pine, Hoop Pine and Bunya Pine from Australia, the Monkey Puzzle from Chile and New Caledonia Pine. The latter is endemic to New Caledonia and was noted by…