Adelaide - City of Stone.

Adelaide is the home of my birth, and where I spent the first 18 years of my life, before moving to Mt Gambier to train as a nurse.  I never returned to Adelaide to live again, though my parents moved to Mt Gambier for nearly 20 years, and returned to Adelaide to live.  My sister has lived in Adelaide for most of her life, though did spent time in Mt Gambier and Perth.

It is a place that I return to every year, for one or more occasions and mostly spend it with family.  We have done short trips e.g. McLaren Vale, Victor Harbour.

The description "city of churches" is often applied to Adelaide, but I would like to rename it "city of stone" - not meaning cold like stone, but to reflect the way the homes, and other buildings in (particularly) the older parts of Adelaide were made of stone.

In Broken Hill I marvelled at the old stone miners' cottages that stood the test of time, and most are still standing.  I love the way stone buildings and corrugated iron (good, old corrugated iron - not the less strong that is on the market now!) works together.

From Broken Hill and into Adelaide the availability of stone is remarkable.  Stone is freely available everywhere, and I can imagine the early settlers who would have had little choice but to use the stone, creating great masterpieces.  The stone buildings are cool in summer, and cold in winter, which is why many rooms in these places have fire places, though wood did become scarce.  In fact around Broken Hill, trees that covered the landscape were soon harvested and in many places the scenery is bereft of trees as they never grew back.

Though modern homes do not always feature the stone as old homes do, some do feature this.  Looking around it is easy to spot the older homes.  Where I am house sitting in Unley, there are many buildings of stone, including the one in which I am staying.

A short walk around the streets here - house after house was built around the late 1800's or early 1900's - of stone, and brick.  Mostly stone.

Street in Unley

I marvel at the workmanship of these houses - many built by builders using fairly basic tools - not like the modern one's builders have at their disposal in the 21st century.  It always amazes me how straight the walls are.

Like the buildings in Burra - built around the mid 1800's.  Awesome really.