Today I delivered a ten-minute presentation about our virtual tours for the Intelligent Communities Forum Adelaide pitch.
Our virtual tours can be found at: https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/about-adelaide/smart-city-adelaide/virtual-tours-drones/
Here’s my narrative:
G’day ladies and gentlemen
My name is Clayton and today I’m going to take you on a quick virtual tour of Adelaide, my favourite city in the whole world.
A little disclaimer before we start – I’m operating this tour as a ‘one-man-show’; my wife often tells me that my multi-tasking capabilities are substandard, so please forgive me for any pauses as I try and work out how to do two things at once, OK?
So let’s go…
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As we fly in, we’re now on the northern fringe of the city looking towards the south.
Unlike many cities around the world, Adelaide was thoroughly planned from the outset, with the city’s streets arranged neatly into a one-mile grid system, and encircled by beautiful green park lands.
In the foreground, you can see the River Torrens – or Karawirra Pari to the indigneous Kaurna people.
The river wends its way from the beautiful Adelaide Hills in the east, to our golden beaches and the Gulf of St Vincent in the west.
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In the far distance to the south you’ll find the world-famous McLaren Vale wine region
And behind us to the north, we have yet another world-famous wine region – the Barossa Valley.
If you’re a wine lover, you’re certainly spoilt for choice in our city – it’s less than one hour by car to either region.
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On the northern side of the river is my favourite place in the whole of Adelaide – our magnificent sporting arena, the Adelaide Oval.
The Oval is famous for its test match cricket and it’s home to the city’s two professional Australian Football teams, my team, the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power. When the Crows play the Power in front of 50,000+ people in their twice-annual ‘Showdowns’, the city is at absolute fever pitch. It’s a bit like when the Red Sox play the Yankees in the Major League, or the Knicks go up against the Nets in the NBA.
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Just a short stroll down the river you’ll find the North Adelaide Golf Course, which is the closest golf course you’ll find to any Australian city.. It’s absolutely fantastic for golfing enthusiasts and it’s an easy walk for tourists staying in our city hotels.
This is the South Course’s signature hole – the 339 metre third hole . Postcard views greet the player from the tee, it’s a long par 4 with the best city backdrop in the country. Two fairway bunkers await a tee shot down the left-hand side. Once you’ve negotiated these, a solid mid to long iron will see you safely on the putting green.
I’ve had a few cracks at this hole, and I always seem to end up in those bunkers on the left hand side…but to be honest I’m resigned to the fact that my best work is done at the 19th hole, rather than on the fairways.
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Heading over our fantastic curved footbridge on the river, let’s take a quick look at our Riverbank precinct which is currently being redeveloped and promises to be the jewel in the crown of the city in the coming years.
Here you’ll find the very distinctive Festival Theatre (yes, it does look a little bit like the Sydney Opera House), there’s Elder Park, the Adelaide Casino which is currently being rebuilt, and there’s the Adelaide Convention Centre, which was Australia’s first purpose-built convention centre.
If you look hard enough in the video you’ll see the iconic Popeye passenger boats cruising along the river. These river boats have been operating since 1935 and most of us have childhood memories of catching the Popeye to the Adelaide Zoo.
LEIGH STREET / SMALL BARS
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Heading further south from the Riverbank through the Adelaide Railway Station and towards the centre of town, you’ll stumble across Adelaide’s small bar precinct.
The small bar precinct is centred on two parallel streets – Peel Street and Leigh Street. This is Leigh Street that you can see in the video
In recent years, changes to liquor licensing laws have enabled funky small bars to pop up in the city, and these are now helping to drive the night time economy of Adelaide.
If only these were here about 20 years ago when I was in my prime…that said, even us middle-aged types can enjoy what these bars have to offer.
TOWN HALL
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Now let’s head west over King William Street to the Adelaide Town Hall, the headquarters of the City of Adelaide.
A landmark heritage building, the Adelaide Town Hall is steeped in history. Its magnificent architecture and elegant interiors provide a deep insight into the cultural heritage of South Australia.
Let’s take a quick look inside the main Auditorium:
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Apart from being the local seat of government, the Adelaide Town Hall also plays host to all kinds of events including elegant dinners and civic receptions, corporate and private functions, conferences and concerts.
It has a special place in my memory, because this is where I had my wedding reception almost 20 years ago.
CENTRAL MARKET
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If you like eating food as much as I do, then you’ll want to spend plenty of time at the world-famous Adelaide Central Market….
With over 70 traders under one roof and over 9 million visitors every year, the Adelaide Central Market is one of the largest undercover fresh produce markets in the southern hemisphere – it absolutely buzzes with life and colour all year round, and it’s a favourite end-of-the-week destination for Adelaideans
The Asian fare on offer at the Central Market and in neighbouring Chinatown is absolutely fantastic – noodles, dumplings, yum cha, Korean fried chicken, Indian curries, Japanese teppanyaki – it’s truly magnificent.
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ECOCADDY
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For the next part of our tour, we’re going to jump in an Ecocaddy… Why walk when you can sit back and get one of these guys to cycle you around town?
Adelaide is a cycle friendly city – in fact, so much so that we host the internationally-renowned Tour Down Under cycle race in January each year. The Tour Down Under is the opening event of the UCI WorldTour and kicks off the international pro-cycling calendar.
EcoCaddies don’t go quite so fast as pro-cyclists, but they offer a relaxing and educational pedicab experience, hosted by knowledgeable locals who live and breathe all that the city has to offer.
And they’re environmentally-friendly too – the Ecocaddies are zero-emission vehicles with much of their body made sustainably from bamboo.
TREECLIMB
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Let’s head to our southern Park Lands and try another unique Adelaide experience…TreeClimb.
TreeClimb is Adelaide’s first inner-city, nature-based aerial adventure park, with 8 elevated tree top courses, including some really scary zip lines.
First launched in October 2018, the aim of TreeClimb is to create and nurture a unique environment that safely challenges, educates and excites thrill-seekers, nature enthusiasts and curious adventurers.
TreeClimb has proven to be an extremely popular addition to our Park Lands, particularly with children. It’s a great place to take the kids in the school holidays.
RYMILL PARK / PARKLANDS
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The last stop on our virtual tour today is Rymill Park on the eastern fringe of the Adelaide central business district. Rymill Park is just one of our many city parks.
In fact, the city of Adelaide is ringed by parks — we’re the only city in the world that can claim to be entirely enclosed within a park.
This aerial shot gives a real sense of the size of our Park Lands. This is where we spend all of our weekends – picnicking, barbecuing, cycling, walking and playing sport in these expansive green spaces.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of our tour. I hope you enjoyed taking a look around my favourite city in the whole world.
I was only allocated ten minutes to talk to you today and I’ve barely scratched the surface – there are plenty more things to look at and I encourage to jump online and search ‘Adelaide virtual tour’ to discover some more of these places at your leisure.
And once this COVID thing is over, it would be great if you got the chance to visit in person – just give me a bell, I’ll happily show you around!
All the best. Over to you Dave.