Australia Tourist AttractionsAbout Adelaide
Named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the city was created in 1836 as the capital of a British province in Australia that was freely settled. The city was designed and the location chosen by Colonel William Light, in an area close to the River Torrens. The area was inhabited originally by the Kaurna people. The design that Light created was a grid layout, with large public spaces and wide boulevards, and was surrounded completely by parkland. The city of Adelaide has also been called "The City of Churches", as in it's early days it was shaped by a commitment to civil liberties and religious freedom. Adelaide is the government seat in South Australia, and the site of many financial and governmental institutions, mostly in it's city centre.
Adelaide Geography
Adelaide is situated on the eastern shores of Gulf St Vincent and is a coastal city, laying between the Gulf and the Mount Lofty Ranges, it runs about 20 kilometres inland from the gulf to the low-lying foothills, but sprawls down the coast for over 100 kilometres. Before British settlement, most of Adelaide was bushland, with some marshlands and swamps around the coast. Most of the vegetation that was originally there has been cleared out and what is left is predominantly in Belair National Park and Celland Conservation Park. For Adelaide's domestic requirements of water, it relies on the Happy Valley Reservoir and the Mount Bold Reservoir.
Economy of Adelaide
The largest employment sector in South Australia is social assistance and health care, with a total of almost 13% of the state annual average employment. Retail trade is a close second with a total of 12% of the workforce and manufacturing is third. Adelaide makes almost half of the cars that are produced in Australia and a large portion of the high-tech electronics industry. The employment rate for the 466,829 people who are employed in Adelaide is 62.3% for full-time and 35.1% part-time. The median housing prices in Adelaide are less than those in Sydney and Melbourne, although between 2001-2010 the average cost of housing in Adelaide has tripled.
Adelaide Culture and Sport
Adelaide was established as a British province and has an English culture with additional influences from other parts of Europe, including Germany. Following WWII, there was a substantial settlement of Dutch, Greek, Polish. British, Italian and other European settlers in Adelaide, and after the Vietname was Adelaide saw an increase of immigrants of Indo-Chinese origin. The art scene in Adelaide was strong in the 1960s and 1970s and they are the home of the popular Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Fringe Festival. The most popular sports in Adelaide are soccer, cricket, Australian rules football, netball and basketball, and is home to two Australian Football teams and has it's own local football league. There is a strong culture in Adelaide of drawing large crowds for major sporting events.
Adelaide History
Before being settled by the British, the area of Adelaide was inhabited by the Kaurna people. South Australia was claimed as a British colony officially on December 28, 1836, near The Old Gum Tree, and that date is celebrated in South Australia as Proclamation Day. Established as a planned colony of free immigrants, based in ideas of Edward Gibbon Wakefield about freedom from religious persecution and the enjoyment of civil liberties, which involved the government surveying and selling the land as high rates so as to keep class structure intact. Due to this beginning, Adelaide does not have the same history of convict settlement that many other cities in Australia have, such as Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart.
Adelaide News, Classifieds and Coupons
dealzoo.com.au/adelaide
www.bargainsmarter.com/coupons-bargains/adelaide
www.adelaidenow.com.au/
www.onlinenewspapers.com/australi.htm
adelaide.gumtree.com.au/
adelaide.craigslist.com.au/
Adelaide Weather
Adelaide is the driest of all the capital cities in Australia, and is a semi-arid climate influence on it's Mediterranean climate because of the dryness. In the summer months the rainfall is infrequent and light and there is a reliable amount of rainfall in the winter, and sometimes hail in the winter, but snowfall is rare.
Climate data for Adelaide (Kent Town, 1977-2010) |
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Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
Average high °C (°F) |
29.2 |
29.4 |
26.4 |
22.6 |
19.0 |
16.1 |
15.3 |
16.7 |
19.0 |
21.8 |
25.1 |
27.0 |
22.3 |
Average low °C (°F) |
17.0 |
17.2 |
15.2 |
12.4 |
10.2 |
8.1 |
7.5 |
8.2 |
9.7 |
11.4 |
14.0 |
15.5 |
12.2 |
Rainfall mm (inches) |
19.3 |
12.4 |
24.9 |
40.9 |
60.0 |
79.7 |
75.8 |
66.7 |
60.3 |
44.3 |
31.7 |
28.0 |
542.3 |
Avg. rainy days |
2.8 |
2.0 |
3.4 |
5.4 |
9.0 |
11.1 |
12.0 |
11.7 |
9.3 |
6.8 |
4.8 |
4.4 |
82.7 |
Sunshine hours |
325.5 |
285.3 |
269.7 |
216 |
167.4 |
138 |
148.8 |
189.1 |
204 |
257.3 |
273 |
294.5 |
2,768.6 |
Source: Bureau of Meteorology |
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