A Conference in Adelaide - October 2009

Image Credits:  ANZUIAG

Not The Way to Do Business

A few weeks ago I took the Sealink from Cape Jervis in South Australia to Kangaroo Island.  Most of the passengers came from Europe, were all snugged up for the sea crossing and had an inherent interest for the outdoors, wildlife and adventure. Visitors on the Sealink can either drive in their own vehicles or join group tours operted by Sealink itself.  Some stay overnight or longer on Kangaroo Island, others take the fully packed and time tight day tour on a circuit round the isle.

I joined the one day coach tour operated by Sealink itself. The lunchtime caterers for a sit down meal were friendly and food served was within our expectations for that kind of location.  Around 1200 people currently populate Kangaroo Island, which has no industries but lots of land, wind and native or introduced animals.  Human tourists can watch animals roaming mostly free in the habitat rather than in cages or fenced off areas. My best experience on the island was the effective and friendly interaction provided by the so-called wild bird demonstration in a clearing in the bush.  The birds are not truly free, but seemed happy and well fed.

Time was already running short for one day trippers who chose the Sealink tour package and yet it was wasted in two significant ways.

Takeway food was not pre-packaged and made available on board to coach passengers as part of the ticket price. Why have a group of fifty people queuing and huddling in one small cafe with passing rain falling outside? It induces unnecessary tension on both the cafe providers and customers who were obviously in a hurry. This was especially critical in the hour before the Sealink ferry was scheduled to go back to the mainland in the evening.

Many felt the effects of unnecesary petty bureaucracy in requring the Sealink coach driver issue small laminated cards to disembarking or arriving passengers (for both the ferry and mainland bus services).  These are customers who have already fully paid in advance and confirmed as valid clients of the tour service.  Why not have the necessary passes issued to them when they pay upfront? It turned out that our coach driver even ran out of the laminated cards for the full busload of passengers in our coach.

Eco-tourism has to be balanced with not treating the group tour passengers in a condescending way. Some passengers of my Sealink coach tour realised that they had to make their way to the Adelaide central bus depot by themselves in the wee dawn hours, whilst others had the privilege of being picked up from their hotels. This was a very  un-Australian way of doing things - you must treat all customers in the same manner if they are charged at the same ticket price.

In addition, going forward, the variety of the one day tour program could be reviewed and made more flexible, instead of having to drive through all of the major circuit road around Kangaroo Island.  There was a lack of time allowed for passengers to relax in any one outdoor spot,  when they could otherwise stroll freely with a better schedule and itinerary.

This Sealink, in another State and part of Australia, brought back some memories of my experience on the Spirit of Tasmania that operates from Port Melbourne in Victoria to Davenport in Tasmania.   The Spirit, even on Boxing Day evening, lacked festive fervour, closed its food and drink facilties early like a dour convent head and a couple of individual staff on board did not welcome passengers even in the most basic way.  Even before dawn, cabin passengers had their doors knocked and told matter of factly to vacate their rooms fast for cleaning. Most things were done from the perspective and comfort of the staff and not so much of the passengers.  I think of my other sea crossings in Greece, Japan and the English Channel - and recall them with fondness.

Both Australian carriage operations mentioned above are monopolies and run in relatively remote parts of the world.  Could this be linked to the potentially lack of business on both operations?

Passing Thoughts Around Adelaide

The cuckoo clocks in Harndorf village looked like they just belonged there. From miniature setups to those that reminded me of grandfather clocks, the wood was resonant of the Black Forest, its ambience and tales of its shady corners. Imported from the northern climes, they have settled in the Antipodes. It was fascinating how a German community recreated a previous but well loved lifestyle and tradition on a new land. In so doing, they contribute to the richness of their chosen abode and weave a new tapestry on to an ancient land.

On that Saturday morning, I was recommended to get lunch at a shop calling itself Belly Pot, and the lamb version I chose did not disappoint - chunky, wholesome and full of flavour. The outlet was not cozy in setting, but what mattered was what it produced. I wondered about the name of the business, but realised that the pies they made were indeed belly pot sized.

The cured spicy pork salami at A Taste of Harndorf was of Spanish inspiration, peppered with spice and deeply ingrained with less streaky whorls. Dark on the outside, but when sliced, its inner brightness was matched by an intense taste and aromatic give away. I thought of the Cantonese lap cheong, Italian sausages and Amercian hotdogs, but obviously this salami was so different.

June from Port Macquarie was very careful about what she ingested whilst on tour, but she was open to sipping and sampling the honey mead wine at this Italian inspired boutique wine producer at Chateau Dorrien. Transparent but aromatic, it did pack a little punch, especially when it was heated up before consumption. To my amazement, the spicy mead tasted more mild on the lips. Really old songs played from the stereo but they did add to the atmosphere, especially when this was the third stop in wine tasting and contrasted so much with the commercial feel of the Chateau Yaldara. We were all gald that Meg was driving and not us.

A cyclist had knocked into a stationarily parked car just in front of the house handcrafting Haighs chocolates.We had just come out of the former residence of the Haigh family, but they left long ago, even if the fireplace was still intact when you passed by the entrance. In this age and time, this South Australian business still made chocolates by hand. The legend goes that a grandson of the business founding Haigh was asked to teach the English language to a traveller from Switzerland, and in exchange, the young European showed him how to make chocolates. The visitor was from the Lindt family. The rest is history.

In the Matthew Flinders National Park, koalas and kangaroos co-existed, the former high up on gum tree branches and the former hopping occasionally on the open grass. The island was called Kangaroo, so it was natural that we expected to see them, but as the evening progressed into passing showers and a turn up of the ocean winds, they could have gone into hidden shelter. The kangaroos are native to this island, but surprisingly the koalas were introduced from mainland Australia.

In The Barossa

The Lifestyle, South Australia October 2009


Contraption and Natural at Grant Burge Showroom


Arrival from Faraway - German Immigration to South Australia


Entrance to the Chateau Dorrien


Misty Memory of a Family Settling On a New Land

Around Adelaide

Vineyard Budlings in the Southern Spring outside the Chateau Dorien, Barossa Valley SA


Charming Village only an hour north of Adelaide CBD, SA


The View along a Forest Walk in the Mount Lofty Ranges, SA


Nursery wall display in Harndorf, Adelaide Hills, SA


The outdoor passion atop the Mount Lofty lookout point, SA


Trellis of mulberries over courtyard at Grant Burge, Barossa Valley SA

Impressions from Adelaide

It was just both fascinating and relaxing just to stroll along the several lanes leading to Rundle Street Mall. I was more than delightfully surprised. There were gems of shops, heritage stones, oases of bushes and flowery gardens and the straightness of good surveyed planning from days past. One lane brings me to the South Australian Art Gallery, another takes me to the main thoroughfare of King William Street and yet one more hides a well stocked lolly shop.

Adelaide always has a special place in my heart. The historical connections between my hometown of Georgetown, Penang and this outpost of hope and order surrounded by the dry South Australia landscape may seem unlikely. Yet, a series of remarkable events led to this unbreakable bond between a tropical island and a very well planned city. Captain Francis Light and his son Colonel William Light have each carved out their unique individual marks in this part of the world.

The question of water supplies in Adelaide posed a different ball game compared to the rain forests in South-east Asia. Stone buildings look so solid and charming in Adelaide, and yet they are there to face up to the harsh reality faced by settlers when there was a lack of tree wood. The tradition of Britannia still run strong like the rich veins of Cooper Pedy, unlike on Penang Island where other traditions have taken over. The presence of the imposing Catholic Cathedral near Victoria Square in the city centre of Adelaide acknowledges the influence of Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary who left a trail of influence from Goa to Nagasaki, but now has an Adelaide landmark run in the Italian way.

The trams still operate in Adelaide, where rides are free in the heart of the city and the conductor proceeds to issue tickets only outside this free zone. It was still nippy on the Thursday evening of 8 October in Adelaide CBD, where the office rush hour can be relatively tame and I can still ask a friendly face from the commuter crowds as to how to pay for a tram ride to Glenelg Beach. Some outsiders I think unfairly view Adelaide as a large country town, for to me, it is more than that - it is the heart and soul of central Australia, with a can-do attitude and fighting spirit shaped by the harshness of its hinterland. When I want to remember with respect the history of this land before the relative recent arrival of immigrants from the west just over 230 years ago, I can walk inside the fascinating world of the South Australia Museum at North Terrace, and this institution houses the largest collection of indigenous cultural artifacts in Australia.

The tenth of October, and I come across another surprising delight, a rather creative parade of post adolescents and young twenty somethings stumbling along the night quarter of Hindley Street. They were all splattered in make-believe paint blood, rather carefully pasted or splashed over their jeans, fake wedding gowns, faces, hair and shoes. The males carried toy sickles, knives and choppers. The females held black roses. The revellers on the balcony of the Woolshed Pub urged this motley crowd on and uniformed police officers casually accompanied this crowd at the back of this moving sensation.

More lasting fashion impressions are the almost synchronised pixie-like hairstyles of Adelaide youngsters - they remind me of the characters in my Merlin story book of long ago - and the wide sunglasses worn by most. I also recall with fondness the fascinating mechanical bull inside a nightclub, and how ready and flexible its riders - mostly male - were.

The sea perch Thai red curry at Red Rock was better than I anticipated, and I salute the early and long hours of business at the Boulevard cafe on Hindley Street, reliable for customers and hard work for their staff. The pulse of Adelaide can also be measured in its Central Markets and the surrounding Gouger Street precincts, with an upmarket Italian restaurant, an outstanding Argentinian grill and a whole host of choice across various ethnic food.

If one experience were to stand out on my recent sojourn to Adelaide, picture this. A helmeted RSPCA guy and his husky attract the attention of passer-bys in the centre of Rundle Street Mall, alive as it should be on a Friday evening, instead of being closed like in some other Australian capital cities. It is still school holidays. The groups of families merge with relieved office workers and all together, everyone literally walks into the sunset, for the east-west grid of the mall ensures that the setting sun shines into our faces. Hence those really big sunshades worn by Adelaide residents.