State Library of South Australia
The State Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research library in the state with a collection focus on South Australian information, general reference material for information and research purposes, it holds the "South Australiana" collection, which documents South Australia from pre-European settlement to the present day. Reference material comes in a wide range of formats from digital and electronic to film, sound recordings, photographic and microfiche. Library collections must be used on site. Customers can gain access to a large array of journals and other resources from the comfort of their own home by registering for Home Access; the State Library of South Australia: provides information and referral services for the community collects and give access to the state's documentary heritage, enhances the cultural life of the state through public programs and other lifelong learning opportunities, supports public libraries, co-operates with other agencies to enhance economic and social benefits of the state.
The origins of the State Library of South Australia are found in the South Australian Institute, established in 1856. This consolidated the work of the Mechanics Institute, founded in 1847 which had merged with the South Australian Library in 1848 creating the "Mechanics' Institute and South Australian Library", based in Peacock's Buildings, Hindley Street; however it was subsequently moved to Exchange Chambers, King William Street, by 1855 had gone into decline. The South Australian Legislative Council passed Act No. 16 which incorporated the South Australian Institute, to whose ownership the old library was transferred. This act ensured the library would be open to the public free of charge and grant funding was allocated to it; this made the library popular amongst artisans and workmen who filled it to capacity in the evenings. As new books arrived from Britain the library was expanded and soon needed new accommodation, found in North Terrace in 1860; the building now known as the Mortlock Wing was opened on 18 December 1884 as a "Public Library and Art Gallery for the colony of South Australia" with 23,000 books and a staff of three.
It had taken over 18 years to complete after the initial foundations were laid in 1866. The foundation stone was laid on 7 November 1879 by Sir William Jervois and the building was constructed by Brown and Thompson at a total cost of £43,897, opened in 1884. Supervision for the Board of Directors was undertaken by secretary Robert Kay general director and secretary of the Public Library and Art Gallery of South Australia; the building is French Renaissance in style with a mansard roof. The walls are constructed of brick with Sydney freestone facings with decorations in the darker shade of Manoora stone; the interior has two galleries, the first supported by masonry columns, the second by cast iron brackets. The balconies feature wrought iron balustrading ornamented with gold while the glass-domed roof allows the chamber to be lit with natural light. Two of the original gas "sunburner" lamps survive in the office space located on the second floor at the southern end. Restoration of the building occurred in 1985 as a Jubilee 150 project by Danvers Architects, consultant architect to the South Australian Department of Housing and Construction.
The $1.5 million project was jointly funded by the community. In honour of a substantial bequest from John Andrew Tennant Mortlock, the Libraries Board of South Australia resolved that a percentage of the South Australiana Collections would be housed in the wing and named the Mortlock Library of South Australiana in 1986. After the State Library underwent a substantial redevelopment, commencing in 2001 and reaching completion in 2004, the main chamber of the Mortlock Wing became an exhibition space providing a glimpse into the history and culture of South Australia. In August 2014 the Mortlock Wing featured in a list of the top 20 most beautiful libraries of the world, compiled by the U. S. magazine Travel + Leisure. The general reference and research material in the State Library was named the Bray Reference Library in 1987 after former SA Chief Justice, Dr John Jefferson Bray, who served on the Libraries Board of South Australia from 1944 to 1987; the State Library has a national responsibility to collect and give access to historical and contemporary South Australian information.
The South Australiana collections document South Australia from pre-white settlement to the present day, the Northern Territory to 1911. The South Australiana collection is one of the most comprehensive in the world due to legal deposit requirements for published material, through donations of unpublished material. A well known donation is the Bradman Collection of cricketing memorabilia; the York Gate Library was acquired from the estate of Stephen William Silver, of S. W. Silver and Co. a London based company who not only sold clothing and equipment suitable for emigrants to the British Colonies, but a series books providing relevant information for such emigrants. William had started to collect objects and books related to the areas to which their custom
Electorates of the Australian states and territories
A State Electoral District is an electorate within the Lower House or Legislative Assembly of Australian states and territories. Most state electoral districts send a single member to a state or territory's parliament using the preferential method of voting; the area of a state electoral district is dependent upon the Electoral Acts in the various states and vary in area between them. At present, there are 409 state electoral districts in Australia. State electoral districts do not apply to the Upper House, or Legislative Council, in those states that have one. In New South Wales and South Australia, MLCs represent the entire state, in Tasmania they represent single-member districts, in Victoria and Western Australia they represent a region formed by grouping electoral districts together. There are five electorates for the Legislative Assembly, each with five members each, making up 25 members in total. There are 93 electoral districts in New South Wales. There are 25 single-member electoral divisions in the Northern Territory, 17 former divisions.
There are 93 electoral districts in Queensland, for the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. Information about the QLD electoral districts for the 2006 elections can be obtained from the Electoral Commission of Queensland website. There are 47 single-member electoral districts in South Australia, for the South Australian House of Assembly. There are 15 electoral divisions in Tasmania for the upper house Legislative Council. In the lower house the five federal divisions are used, but electing 5 members each There are 88 electoral districts in Victoria, for the Victorian Legislative Assembly. There are 59 single-member electoral districts in Western Australia for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. 42 are in the Perth metropolitan area and 17 are in the rest of the state. Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives Local government in Australia Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
Big Lobster
The Big Lobster is a tourist attraction located in the town of Kingston SE, South Australia. Known locally as Larry the Lobster, the sculpture of a spiny lobster stands 17 metres tall, is regarded as one of the most impressive of Australia's Big Things. Designed and built by Paul Kelly for Ian Backler and Rob Moyse, it is made of steel and fibreglass and was intended to attract attention to the restaurant and visitor centre at which it is situated; the Big Lobster was opened on 15 December 1979 after six months of construction. The Big Lobster was conceived by Ian Backler. A local lobster fisherman, he formulated a plan to build a visitor centre in Kingston SE while travelling in the United States. Upon returning to Australia he formed a partnership with Rob Moyse, they engaged Ian Hannaford to develop the complex on a vacant block of land; the Big Lobster was envisioned by the developers as a means of attracting attention to the centre, the lobster was intended to "rear up" over the front of the complex.
The plans changed when local council regulations forced the lobster to be repositioned in front of the visitor centre. Paul Kelly, who had built the Big Scotsman in North Adelaide, was employed to design and build the new structure. Kelly built the lobster in Edwardstown, South Australia, the final product was transported by road to the site, where it was opened by the South Australian Premier David Tonkin on 15 December 1979. Ian Backler and Rob Moyse ran the site for 15 years until selling it in 1984; the new owners operated the complex until 1990, when it was sold to Kath Peltz. The current owners, Jenna Lawrie and Casey Sharpe, purchased the property from the Peltz' in 2007 after it had been on the market for six years, they renovated the site, making changes to the complex as well as steam cleaning the lobster, formed plans to repaint "Larry" as part of the process. Radio duo Hamish and Andy launched the charity campaign #PinchAMate in early 2016 after a local man contacted the show with concern that, due to the Lobster's weathered condition, it would not survive the winter.
The show started to collect funds for the Australian icon. However, the donations were lost after the duo bet on a horse race that they believed they had a "100% chance of winning"; the Kingston's icon was somehow restored to its original beauty. The Big Lobster is 17 metres high, 15.2 metres long and is 13.7 metres wide, with an approximate weight of 4 tonnes. The designer, Paul Kelly, modelled the structure on a lobster that he purchased and had stuffed for the purpose, built it at warehouse out of a steel frame with a fibreglass shell; the details were carved out of foam prior to the application of the fibreglass, before transporting it and having it reassembled on site. The process took six months; the visitor complex at which it was sited consisted of a restaurant, tourist area and a small theatrette. Under the current management the restaurant has been altered to provide a more open-plan space, it now incorporates the restaurant and a wine tasting area, with plans having been formulated to add accommodation and an accredited tourist centre to the venue.
Australia's big things BBC profile
Postcodes in Australia
Postcodes are used in Australia to more efficiently sort and route mail within the Australian postal system. Postcodes in Australia are placed at the end of the Australian address. Postcodes were introduced in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department and are now managed by Australia Post, are published in booklets available from post offices or online from the Australia Post website. Australian envelopes and postcards have four square boxes printed in orange at the bottom right for the postcode; these are used. Postcodes were introduced in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department to replace earlier postal sorting systems, such as Melbourne's letter and number codes and a similar system used in rural and regional New South Wales; the introduction of the postcodes coincided with the introduction of a large-scale mechanical mail sorting system in Australia, starting with the Sydney GPO. By 1968, 75% of mail was using postcodes, in the same year post office preferred-size envelopes were introduced, which came to be referred to as “standard envelopes”.
Postcode squares were introduced in June 1990 to enable Australia Post to use optical character recognition software in its mail sorting machines to automatically and more sort mail by postcodes. Australian postcodes consist of four digits, are written after the name of the city, suburb, or town, the state or territory: Mr John Smith 100 Flushcombe Road BLACKTOWN NSW 2148When writing an address by hand, a row of four boxes is pre-printed on the lower right hand corner of an envelope, the postcode may be written in the boxes. If addressing a letter from outside Australia, the postcode is recorded before'Australia'. Australian postcodes are sorting information, they are linked with one area. Due to post code rationalisation, they can be quite complex in country areas; the south-western Victoria 3221 postcode of the Geelong Mail Centre includes twenty places around Geelong with few people. This means that mail for these places is not sorted until it gets to Geelong; some postcodes cover large populations, while other postcodes have much smaller populations in urban areas.
Australian postcodes range from 0200 for the Australian National University to 9944 for Cannonvale, Queensland. Some towns and suburbs have two postcodes — one for street deliveries and another for post office boxes. For example, a street address in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta would be written like this: Mr John Smith 99 George Street PARRAMATTA NSW 2150But mail sent to a PO Box in Parramatta would be addressed: Mr John Smith PO Box 99 PARRAMATTA NSW 2124Many large businesses, government departments and other institutions receiving high volumes of mail had their own postcode as a Large Volume Receiver, e.g. the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital has the postcode 4029, the Australian National University had the postcode 0200. More postcode ranges were made available for LVRs in the 1990s. Australia Post has been progressively discontinuing the LVR programme since 2006; the first one or two numbers show the state or territory that the postcode belongs to Sometimes near the state and territory borders, Australia Post finds it easier to send mail through a nearby post office, across the border: Some of the postcodes above may cover two or more states.
For example, postcode 2620 covers both a locality in NSW as well as a locality in the ACT, postcode 0872 covers a number of localities across WA, SA, NT and QLD. Three locations straddle the NSW-Queensland border. Jervis Bay Territory, once an exclave of the ACT but now a separate territory, is geographically located on the coast of NSW, it is just south of the towns of Huskisson, with which it shares a postcode. Mail to the Jervis Bay Territory is still addressed to the ACT; the numbers used to show the state on each radio callsign in Australia are the same number as the first number for postcodes in that state, e.g. 2xx in New South Wales, 3xx in Victoria, etc. Radio callsigns pre-date postcodes in Australia by more than forty years. Australia's external territories are included in Australia Post's postcode system. While these territories do not belong to any state, they are addressed as such for mail sorting: Three scientific bases in Antarctica operated by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions share a postcode with the isolated sub-Antarctic island of Macquarie Island: Each state's capital city ends with three zeroes, while territorial capital cities end with two zeroes.
Capital city postcodes were the lowest postcodes in their state or territory range, before new ranges for LVRs and PO Boxes were made available. The last number can be changed from "0" to "1" to get the postcode for General Post Office boxes in any capital city: While the first number of a postcode shows the state or territory, the second number shows a region within the state. However, postcodes with the same second number are not always next to each other; as an example, postcodes in the range 2200–2299 are split between the southern suburbs of Sydney and the Central Coast of New South Wales. Postcodes with a second number of "0" or "1" are always located within the metropolitan area of the state's capital city. Postcodes with higher secon
Cape Jaffa, South Australia
Cape Jaffa is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the headland of Cape Jaffa on the state's south east coastline overlooking the body of water known in Australia as the Southern Ocean and by international authorities as the Great Australian Bight. It located about 245 kilometres south south-east of the Adelaide city centre and about 19 kilometres south west of the town centre of Kingston SE; the locality includes a settlement located on the north side of the headland overlooking Lacepede Bay, known as Cape Jaffa. The settlement includes a marina; the locality includes part of the Bernouilli Conservation Reserve. The Marina received development approval in January 2006; the plans allow for several stages of development. At least the first stage exists, the marina is considered to still be "under construction" in 2018; the 2016 Australian census, conducted in August 2016 reports that Cape Jaffa had a population of 54 people. Cape Jaffa is located within the federal division of Barker, the state MacKillop and the local government area of the Kingston District Council
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate or dry summer climate is characterized by rainy winters and dry summers, with less than 40 mm of precipitation for at least three summer months. While the climate receives its name from the Mediterranean Basin, these are located on the western coasts of continents, between 30 and 45 degrees north and south of the equator between oceanic climates towards the poles, semi-arid and arid climates towards the equator. In essence, due to the seasonal shift of the subtropical high-pressure belts with the apparent movement of the Sun, a Mediterranean climate is an intermediate type between these other climates, with winters warmer and drier than oceanic climates and summers imitating sunny weather in semi-arid and arid climates; the resulting vegetation of Mediterranean climates are the garrigue or maquis in the Mediterranean Basin, the chaparral in California, the fynbos in South Africa, the mallee in Australia, the matorral in Chile. Areas with this climate are where the so-called "Mediterranean trinity" of agricultural products have traditionally developed: wheat and olive.
Most large, historic cities of the Mediterranean basin lie within Mediterranean climatic zones, including Algiers, Beirut, İzmir, Marseille, Rome and Valencia. Examples of major cities with Mediterranean climates that lie outside of the historic Mediterranean basin include major examples as Adelaide, Cape Town, Dushanbe, Los Angeles, Perth, San Francisco and Victoria. Under the Köppen climate classification, "hot dry-summer" climates and "cool dry-summer" climates are referred to as "Mediterranean". Under the Köppen climate system, the first letter indicates the climate group. Temperate climates or "C" zones have an average temperature above 0 °C, but below 18 °C, in their coolest months; the second letter indicates the precipitation pattern. Köppen has defined a dry summer month as a month with less than 30 mm of precipitation and with less than one-third that of the wettest winter month. Some, use a 40 mm level; the third letter indicates the degree of summer heat: "a" represents an average temperature in the warmest month above 22 °C, while "b" indicates the average temperature in the warmest month below 22 °C.
Under the Köppen classification, dry-summer climates occur on the western sides of continents. Csb zones in the Köppen system include areas not associated with Mediterranean climates but with Oceanic climates, such as much of the Pacific Northwest, much of southern Chile, parts of west-central Argentina, parts of New Zealand. Additional highland areas in the subtropics meet Cs requirements, though they, are not associated with Mediterranean climates, as do a number of oceanic islands such as Madeira, the Juan Fernández Islands, the western part of the Canary Islands, the eastern part of the Azores. Under Trewartha's modified Köppen climate classification, the two major requirements for a Cs climate are revised. Under Trewartha's system, at least eight months must have average temperatures of 10 °C or higher, the average annual precipitation must not exceed 900 mm. Thus, under this system, many Csb zones in the Köppen system become Do, the rare Csc zones become Eo, with only the classic dry-summer to warm winter, low annual rainfall locations included in the Mediterranean type climate.
During summer, regions of Mediterranean climate are influenced by cold ocean currents which keep the weather in the region dry and pleasant. Similar to desert climates, in many Mediterranean climates there is a strong diurnal character to daily temperatures in the warm summer months due to strong heating during the day from sunlight and rapid cooling at night. In winter, Mediterranean climate zones are no longer influenced by the cold ocean currents and therefore warmer water settles near land and causes clouds to form and rainfall becomes much more likely; as a result, areas with this climate receive all of their precipitation during their winter and spring seasons, may go anywhere from 3 to 6 months during the summer without having any significant precipitation. In the lower latitudes, precipitation decreases in both the winter and summer because they are closer to the Horse latitudes, thus bringing smaller amounts of rain. Toward the polar latitudes, total moisture increases; the rainfall tends to be more evenly distributed throughout the year in Southern Europe, while in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Southern California the summer is nearly or dry.
In places where evapotranspiration is higher, steppe climates tend to prevail, but still follow the weather pattern of the Mediterranean climate. The majority of the regions with Mediterranean climates have mild winters and warm summers; however winter and summer temperatures can vary between different regions with a Mediterranean climate. For instance, in the case of winters and Los Angeles experience mild temperatures in the winter, with frost and snowfall unknown, whereas Tashkent has colder winters with annual frosts and snowfall. Or to consider summer, Athens experiences rather high temperatures in that season. In contrast, San Francisco has cool summers with daily highs around 21 °C due to
Australian rules football
Australian rules football known as Australian football, or called Aussie rules, football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval-shaped field a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval-shaped ball between behind posts. During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their bodies to move the ball; the primary methods are kicking and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled: for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch the ball from a kick are awarded possession. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when mark is paid. Players can use their whole body to obstruct opponents. Dangerous physical contact, interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties or suspension for a certain number of matches, depending on the seriousness of the infringement.
The game features frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring. The sport's origins can be traced to football matches played in Melbourne, Victoria in 1858, inspired by English public school football games. Seeking to develop a game more suited to adults and Australian conditions, the Melbourne Football Club published the first laws of Australian football in May 1859, making it the oldest of the world's major football codes. Australian football has the highest spectator attendance and television viewership of all sports in Australia, while the Australian Football League, the sport's only professional competition, is the nation's wealthiest sporting body; the AFL Grand Final, held annually at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, is the highest attended club championship event in the world. The sport is played at amateur level in many countries and in several variations, its rules are governed by the AFL Commission with the advice of the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee.
Australian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules and footy. In some regions, it is marketed as AFL after the Australian Football League. There is evidence of football being played sporadically in the Australian colonies in the first half of the 19th century. Compared to cricket and horse racing, football was viewed as a minor "amusement" at the time, while little is known about these early one-off games, it is clear they share no causal link with Australian football. In 1858, in a move that would help to shape Australian football in its formative years, "public" schools in Melbourne, Victoria began organising football games inspired by precedents at English public schools; the earliest such match, held in St Kilda on 15 June, was between Melbourne Grammar and St Kilda Grammar. On 10 July 1858, the Melbourne-based Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle published a letter by Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, calling for the formation of a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter.
Born in Australia, Wills played a nascent form of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School in England, returned to his homeland a star athlete and cricketer. His letter is regarded by many historians as giving impetus for the development of a new code of football today known as Australian football. Two weeks Wills' friend, cricketer Jerry Bryant, posted an advertisement for a scratch match at the Richmond Paddock adjoining the Melbourne Cricket Ground; this was the first of several "kickabouts" held that year involving members of the Melbourne Cricket Club, including Wills, Bryant, W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson. Trees were used as goalposts and play lasted an entire afternoon. Without an agreed upon code of laws, some players were guided by rules they had learned in the British Isles, "others by no rules at all". Another significant milestone in 1858 was a match played under experimental rules between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, held at the Richmond Paddock; this 40-a-side contest, umpired by Wills and Scotch College teacher John Macadam, began on 7 August and continued over two subsequent Saturdays, ending in a draw with each side kicking one goal.
It is commemorated with a statue outside the MCG, the two schools have competed annually since in the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, the world's oldest continuous football competition. Since the early 20th century, it has been suggested that Australian football was derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football, not codified until 1885. There is no archival evidence in favour of a Gaelic influence, the style of play shared between the two modern codes was evident in Australia long before the Irish game evolved in a similar direction. Another theory, first proposed in 1983, posits that Wills, having grown up amongst Aborigines in Victoria, may have seen or played the Aboriginal game of Marn Grook, incorporated some of its features into early Australian football; the evidence for this is only circumstantial, according to biographer Greg de Moore's research, Wills was "almost influenced by his experience at Rugby School". A loosely organised Melbourne side, captained by Wills, played against other football enthusiasts in the winter and spring of 1858.
The following year, on 14 May, the Melbourne Football Club came into being, making it one of the
