Episode 809 – Adelaide: A Bit of Music & A Walk to the Market

Adelaide’s Fringe Festival started yesterday, and while we didn’t attend any of the hundreds of quirky events offered around the city, we did get tickets to one of the music events being held last night.

Cal Williams Jr. and his UK Blues footwear.

The event reminded is of our house concerts: a small venue with an audience of just 20 people.

Before we even got there, though, we experienced a bit of iconic Australian music: a busker playing a didgeridoo!

After the Fringe performance we stayed at the Gilbert Street Hotel for dinner, where I ate my first ever kangaroo steak. It was surprisingly like bison: very lean, very tender, and not at all gamey. It was served with sweet potato, red cabbage, beetroot puree, and toasted nuts – the kinds of accompaniments I’d expect with venison – and was delicious.

On our last day here we did what we should have done first: go to the market! We’ll put that earlier on our Melbourne itinerary, when we’re staying just a 10 minute walk from the Victoria Market.

But back to today.

Having no real plan other than reaching the market before it closed at 3 p.m., we lollygagged our way along King William Street between Rundle Mall and Victoria Square and admired the 19th century architecture and statues that line much of that street.

I was particularly enchanted by the fact that this narrow facade had been completely integrated into a large modern building.

We popped inside City Hall’s foyer where we learned a bit of the history of the city’s Coat of Arms.

Also inside City Hall the only statue we’ve seen of the Queen after whom the city was named.

The plaque beside the statue reads: QUEEN ADELAIDE 1792 – 1849 AFTER WHOM THE CITY WAS NAMED WAS BORN IN GERMANY ON 13TH AUGUST 1792 THE ELDEST CHILD OF THE DUKE OF SAXE-MEININGEN. IN 1818 SHE MARRIED THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, THIRD SON OF GEORGE II, WHO SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE IN 1830 AS KING WILLIAM IV AND REIGNED UNTIL 1837. QUEEN ADELAIDE DIED ON 2ND DECEMBER, 1849

The former Treasury Building (below) was built in stages from 1839 to 1907, The centre section completed in 1860 is now a bar and restaurant. The remainder, which at its zenith in the 1860s held around 327,000 ounces of gold, is now home to Adina Apartment Hotels.

When I read today that it had been redeveloped and restored by an award-winning interior architecture team, it made me wish I’d splurged on staying there, even though we’ve been very happy with our space at Miller Apartments.

Across from the former Treasury, the historic Post Office with its impressive Victoria Tower.

Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral, a Gothic Revival building in the Early English style. The foundation stone was laid in 1856; the building dedicated in 1858.

Beside the cathedral a beautiful statue that nonetheless elicited some very mixed emotions because of everything I’ve read about Catholic orphanages and maternity homes.

Mary MacKillop was Australia’s first saint, founder of
the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor. In 1871 she was temporarily excommunicated for “insubordination” related to her uncovering and reporting clergy child sex abuse. After that excommunication was lifted, she went back to establishing schools. She was canonised in 2010. Several schools in Australia bear her name.

Of course, Victoria Square featured a statue of Queen Victoria.

There was a beer party cart parked directly in front of her statue for a while. I imagined that she would not have been amused.

After all that dawdling, we finally made it to the market, and a scrummy lunch of fresh hot sausage rolls.

Some rosewater Turkish delight just might have been purchased for afternoon tea…

Before heading back to our digs, we detoured toward more music: the Adelaide Chinese New Year Street Party tents, where song and dance were being presented.