UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
WALK IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF HISTORY
From bush to beach, South Australia’s unique experiences attract thousands of visitors each year – but there’s more to our top tourist attractions than you might think
South Australia is rich in beauty spots and world-famous for its food and wine. But the state is more than that, boasting many natural and scientific wonders that can be found nowhere else on Earth. We’ve picked a few that could add a sense of wonder to a truly memorable trip.
The Oodnadatta Track
Stretching more than 600km in the northeast of South Australia, the Oodnadatta Track runs from Marree in the south-east to Marla in the north-west and is one of the Outback’s most iconic trips.
The track connects a series of “mound springs”, which look like little volcanoes in the desert, bubbling water up from the Artesian Basin. For hundreds of thousands of years these springs have provided life-giving water, first to Aboriginal people who used the track as a trading route, and later to explorers and pastoralists. The mound springs are also unique islands of biodiversity.
“At last count – and it might’ve gone up – there are 50 species that are found only in these mound springs,” says Flinders University Professor Mike Lee, who is also senior researcher (palaeontology) at the South Australian Museum. “And many of them are unique to a single mound spring because they have stayed isolated for so long. There’s snails and shrimps only found in this one habitat literally the size of a swimming pool.”
And, of course, the springs are fantastic for bird watchers. “Every bird within hundreds of square miles, if that’s the only water, boom, they’re going to go there,” Prof Lee says. “You’ll get all rare water birds as well as land birds side-by-side, which you wouldn’t under normal circumstances, because they’re all spread out.”
Naracoorte Caves
Located in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia, Naracoorte Caves National Park is the state’s only World Heritage-listed site. Its underground network of limestone caves contain vast bone deposits that preserve “time capsules” of the past half a million years.
Here you can see everything from the giant kangaroos and marsupials that roamed the Australian bush until their demise around 45,000 years ago, to giant lizards and an extinct five-metre snake. In all there are about 20 species of these giant animals scientists call megafauna, including the 2500kg Diprotodon, whose closest surviving relatives include wombats and the koala.
“Sediment deposits accumulated undisturbed over hundreds of thousands of years and contain the remains of thousands of animals,” says palaeontologist Dr Liz Reed from the South Australian Museum. “Naracoorte caves developed around about a million years ago, forming entrances to the surface over thousands of years which became receptacles to build these archives of sands and animal remains. So they’ve faithfully recorded the past for us in these underground libraries.”
For scientists like Reed this unique experience provides research possibilities to address today’s problems. “Because these animals aren’t so far removed from modern times as dinosaurs, we are essentially studying modern Australian fauna with some extinct animals among them,” she says. “They are really relevant to tackling questions about climate change, extinctions, and patterns of animal response to habitat change – those sorts of pressing questions.”
Emu Bay
Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island to the south of Adelaide is prized by holiday-makers for its beautiful beach and four-and-a-half kilometres of clean white sand. But to scientists it represents vital evidence of the development of life on Earth.
The shale there has preserved minute details of early animals – both those with and those without skeletons. Because of the unique conditions, Emu Bay fossils preserve not only body outlines but also gut contents, appendages and even eyes in a quality that looks almost alive.
The animals lived there during a period called the Cambrian, which began about 512 million years ago – a unique snapshot of one moment in development of life on Earth. “We now see that most of the animals here fall into some of the groups we know today,” says palaeontologist associate professor Diego Garcia-Bellido. “But there’s also some forms that don’t fit into any of those groups. That’s one of the attractive things about the Cambrian. We’re looking at fauna that are so early in animal evolution that some of its members did not belong in any of the classes that we see today.”
The landscape would’ve looked very different too. At the time, there was only life in the oceans and none on land. Kangaroo Island would not have existed and the area would have been shallow water, slowly being filled with erosion from the continent behind it.
We know that it was loosely connected to the ocean – what is now the Great Australian Bight – because scientists see some animals that have come into the basin. “At the time, when there are no plants, any intensive rain would have produced a lot of sediment run-off into this shallow basin,” Garcia-Bellido says. “We think that Emu Bay could have been at about 40 to 60m deep.”
Adelaide’s mining heritage
Most Australians probably don’t realise that an Adelaide suburb was the birthplace of the country’s mining industry.
The first mines were at Glen Osmond, where prospectors discovered silver and lead in 1841.
The first gold mine commenced at Montacute in the Adelaide Hills in 1846 – five years before the discovery of gold in the eastern states and only 10 years after the South Australian colony was founded. The surrounding area is now a conservation park with walking tracks and hikes.
“The colony was struggling financially and the government was very happy for people to look for deposits, to help add some money to the coffers,” says Ben McHenry, South Australian Museum senior collections manager for earth sciences.
The early days of mining were also a golden age for eccentric characters. One of the best-known was Johannes Menge, “the father of South Australian mineralogy”. Born in Germany, he arrived in the colony in 1837 to work for the South Australian Company as a geologist. But the irascible Menge soon parted ways with the government and headed north to what is the Barossa Valley which he believed would be rich in gold. He ended up living as a hermit in a cave, which is still there on the banks of Jacob’s Creek.
Coober Pedy
A trip to Coober Pedy is a journey back in time 100 million years to a landscape that was once the bottom of a giant inland sea teeming with life, including giant marine reptiles. The extraordinary geological history of the region preserved this life in Coober Pedy’s most famous export – turning the bones of ancient creatures into glittering fiery opal.
It works this way. Opals form as water runs down through the earth, it picks up silicon dioxide from sandstone, and fills cracks in the rock. When the water evaporates, it leaves behind the silica gem – a rock opal. But when the water fills the space left behind by a decomposing animal, the opal forms to fill the space like a giant natural mould.
South Australia is known as the opal capital of the world – 80 per cent of global output comes from here. Not only is Coober Pedy worth a trip for the opal and opalised fossils, but also to experience the unique lifestyle of the miners who live underground to escape the searing summer heat in this Outback town.
Flinders Ranges
The Flinders Ranges is the jewel in the crown of South Australia’s Outback experience and rich in scientific and anthropological artefacts. In many places the earth here has been twisted on its side, meaning we can see the geological ages laid out before us horizontally.
Driving along the Brachina Gorge geological trail, for example, you pass through 130 million years of history and geological events that led up to the origins of marine animals in the oceans of the world.
Here visitors can see the specific site marking the beginning of the Ediacaran period – the first new geological period to be named anywhere on Earth for more 100 years, and the only one based on Australian geological evidence.
Fossils from this period, which ranged from 635 to 541 million years ago, show organisms that although very successful at the time, did not survive to the next geological period, the Cambrian. They still are a mysterious link to the very beginnings of complex life on Earth.
LOT FOURTEEN
A WHOLE LOT OF TALENT
Some of the brightest minds are collecting at South Australia’s exciting new innovation precinct in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD
William Abbott
DTEX Systems graduate counter insider-threat intelligence engineer
After a year of working at DTEX Systems in the heart of Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen innovation precinct, young mathematician and bright spark William Abbott, 21, is in his element. He found his full-time role with DTEX after taking up an internship with the cyber intelligence company in his final year of advanced mathematical sciences at The University of Adelaide.
“I always thought I was OK at maths, which helps,” Abbott says. “When I got to university, I decided to just do what I liked and hopefully follow my passion and see where it ended. Cyber security was probably one of the last places I thought I would go.”
At DTEX he found many ways to apply the mathematical theory he had learned to real-world problems, helping customers detect insider cyber security threats and manage large company computer networks through behaviour profiling.
“The team I’m working with is so open to questions,” he says. “I ask a lot of questions and they are always able to answer or point me to someone who can. If I bring something I think will work – an idea – they give me actual feedback to improve it.”
At Lot Fourteen, Abbott can bounce his ideas off other bright minds working across the precinct. “It’s a good ecosystem of sharing where, if we have lunch, we can sit down and talk and be open about ideas. It fosters a lot of creativity,” he says. Meanwhile’ he is just focused on bringing his best ideas to the company and “giving back as much as my skills can allow”.
Alex Priest
Inovor Technologies aerospace engineer
Alex Priest believed he would have to leave South Australia, and even Australia, to find a career in aerospace engineering. “I didn’t think it was going to be a possibility but now it very much is, it’s pretty awesome,” he says. Priest, 25, began working for space technology company Inovor Technologies, based at Lot Fourteen, about two and a half years ago, after impressing CEO Dr Matthew Tetlow during an honours project at The University of Adelaide.
“As a kid I was always interested in science fiction (and) space-related things,” he says. “At school, aerospace engineering was one of the things I saw I could do. I picked that quite early and just stuck with it.”
At Inovor, he gets to do mechanical designs for satellites, mission design and systems engineering. He is also doing work that began with his honours project, using simple ground-based cameras to monitor large satellites in very distant orbits, 36,000km above the Earth.
“When I first started, there were only about 10 people working here – they mentored me and helped me a lot,” Priest says. “But, over the last year and a half, we’ve really expanded and we are up to 40 people now.”
Lot Fourteen is proving a perfect environment for his work. “We get to interact and work on different projects with people – we’ve been working with Neumann Space, who are next door to us, and there’s Myriota,” he adds. “Having more people with differing experiences to work off, all in the same space together, is quite unique and exciting.”
Madison O’Brien
Teamgage customer success analyst
After four months with work culture specialists Teamgage, Madison O’Brien, 22, is convinced the Stone & Chalk start-up hub environment at Lot Fourteen is the right place for her.
“Start-ups are a dynamic, fast-evolving environment in which to work,” she says of the Lot Fourteen-based business powered by FIXE, the Future Industries eXchange for Entrepreneurship. “If there’s someone who wants to grow professionally, working in a start-up is absolutely the place for you.”
O’Brien, who studied a Bachelor of Business specialising in HR management at Flinders University, is an analyst who helps assemble feedback from customers’ employees. “I get to help thousands of employees make sure their voices are heard about how they are feeling, particularly as a result of COVID-19,” she says.
By applying artificial intelligence programs to the feedback, O’Brien can present insights learned and key strategies to help clients improve their organisations.
O’Brien, who is also studying for a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, focused on HR after discovering that people, on average, spend 90,000 hours at work during their lifetime: “That’s a lot of time,” she says.
“Part of choosing HR was to have an influence on that, to make a difference to the way people experience work – wanting people to wake up and jump out of bed because they enjoy going to work.”
She finds Lot Fourteen an inspiring place to work. “It is, at its core, a community of like-minded individuals, people who want to see a change in the world,” she says. “We chose … to do something we believe in. It’s great because people here are the most talented in their fields.”
LOT FOURTEEN
HI-TECH PRECINCT REACHING HEIGHTS OF SUCCESS
More and more tenants are taking up residency at Adelaide's Lot Fourteen
Lot Fourteen – hi-tech innovation precinct and home to the space industry in South Australia – is bursting at the seams with new tenants and undertakings as the final pieces of infrastructure for the project begin falling into place. The precinct, on the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site at the corner of North Terrace and Frome Road, is already the base for 869 knowledge workers, with that number expected to reach 6000 when physical redevelopment finishes in 2028. It is home to SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, the Australian Space Agency, the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, and the Defence and Space Landing Pad, with a total of 37 established companies and organisations. And 44 start-ups are hosted at the Stone & Chalk hub, which is powered by the Future Industries eXchange for Entrepreneurship.
Work has been completed on the refurbishment of four heritage buildings on site plus the Sheridan Kiosk, already serving coffee and food to hungry workers. Work on the final heritage property, the Bice Building, is underway with strong interest from new tenants.
All of this means the precinct is becoming an ever-increasing magnet for new businesses and investment, creating hi-tech and related jobs for workers now and into the future. About 29 per cent of businesses on site are involved in the artificial intelligence and machine learning sector, while 24 per cent are in space and defence.
“It’s been pretty exciting: there just doesn’t seem to have been any stalling in the momentum that’s been built up at Lot Fourteen,” Di Dixon, state project lead Lot Fourteen, says. “We’ve seen an ongoing interest (and) companies starting up there are now looking at scaling up and potentially moving to other areas. It’s also the attraction of new businesses, creating high-value career opportunities and jobs in sectors in which SA has a global reputation and strengths.”
The focus is on hi-tech industries including cyber security, defence, space, and creative industries. Recently, Leonardo, a global top-10 player in aerospace, defence and security, moved to Lot Fourteen to work with SmartSat CRC and join the space ecosystem around the Australian Space Agency. “Because we have this base of research, intellect and sector strengths, other international companies are coming in,” Dixon says. “Leonardo is looking at how they can use that local expertise to develop new and competitive business opportunities.
“There is also LGM, a French engineering company which has come to the Landing Pad. They created five positions over the last year and are looking to build up to 20 to 25 around SA in the next three-to-five years. Companies can see the value proposition for themselves and it’s just going from strength to strength.”
AIML already has 120 researchers on-board, half of them PhD students at The University of Adelaide. One of the large infrastructure projects on site – the Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre – will become the centrepiece of the precinct. The 16-storey building will be a centre for fostering the next generation of businesses and jobs, all focused on defence, space and technology, and construction will start in the second quarter of 2021.
The ground and first floor of the building will be developed as an Innovation Hub to facilitate further investment and co-operation between companies, universities and researchers. It will offer event and meeting spaces, flexible workspaces, and shared and dedicated laboratories and is supported by up to $20 million from the Australian Government through the Adelaide City Deal. “We see that as the place everyone across Lot Fourteen will come to for events, to hang out and where that organic collaboration will happen with the mixing of disciplines,” Dixon says. “It will have high levels of security and future proofing so it’s attractive to global partners.”
The Lot Fourteen portion of the Adelaide City Deal, supported by the State and Federal Governments, totals $551 million and it will also support the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre and the International Centre for Food Hospitality and Tourism Studies to be built at the precinct. The former is being developed in partnership with Aboriginal people to tell the stories of the world’s oldest living cultures using the latest technologies. “We are looking at work potentially starting on site later next year and for an opening in 2025,” Dixon says.
The new cafe is already the place to get a morning coffee, healthy lunch or a drink after work with friends at Lot Fourteen. Led by manager Brett Hicks-Maitland and executive chef Sam Worrall-Thompson, the watering hole is part of the North Terrace interface, inviting the public to visit and take part in what is happening at the precinct.
Anyone can walk through the precinct and the public will be encouraged to visit Lot Fourteen attractions, including the Australian Space Discovery Centre, when it opens in the first half of next year. “We are also proposing to create a large central park, which will be available to the public and members of the Lot Fourteen precinct, offering open lawns, shady trees, playing areas for social sports, and water features, plus a central plaza to link the EIC to the heritage buildings and create a meeting place and venue for small events,” Dixon says.
So, the work continues as the Lot Fourteen team looks to the present and the long term, ensuring a pipeline of new companies, investment and job creation for coming decades.
