by Carla Caruso

Many environmentally-minded people make up our Association, helping to promote and protect your Park Lands. One of them is APA secretary Sandra Lindemann. Carla Caruso asked her five fast questions to discover what drives her passion.

Hi, Sandra. How long have you been an APA committee member, and what made you join?

I’ve been a member of APA for five years. I joined the committee as Secretary in March 2020. I have had a lot of experience in secretarial roles, so I thought this would enable other committee members to get on with their advocacy work. 

I am also preparing some talks about the Park Lands, which I will be presenting to some local community groups early next year.

Please tell us about your favourite park in the Adelaide Park Lands.

I love Park 6 (Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama). My friend and I often walk the circuit. I love the presence of the horses and the beautiful hills in the distance. 

What keeps you busy when you’re not undertaking committee duties?

I am writing a biography of a 20th century anthropologist called Kathleen Gough. This will be my eighth book and my sixth biography. 

I first read Kathleen Gough’s work when I was studying anthropology back in the 1980s. She is a recognised authority on matrilineal kinship and that was the topic of my honours thesis. 

She was also a radical activist who came under FBI surveillance during the anti-Vietnam War protests. A very interesting woman. 

She spent the last 20 years of her life in Canada, so I’m hoping the University of British Columbia Press might be interested in publishing her story.

My PhD thesis [in English at Flinders University] was about the ethical challenges of writing other people’s lives. 

Do you have a favourite story to tell about the Park Lands? 

The Adelaide Park Lands are filled with wonderful stories. Here is my favourite. It concerns Park 28, Palmer Gardens / Pangki Pangki:

In Palmer Gardens, there is a Victorian-era park bench with a brass plaque, celebrating the German entomologist, Albert Koebele. He was the world’s first ‘economic entomologist’.

He travelled the world looking for insects that could be imported to other countries to control pests that were damaging their crops. (This was long before we learned about the cane toad!)

Koebele came to Australia looking for something to combat the Icerya purchasi, a cottony cushion scale insect that was threatening to wipe out the entire citrus industry in California.

He discovered, in Palmer Gardens, the Australian ladybird, the vedalia beetle. 

Koebele captured hundreds of these little beetles and shipped them back to his colleagues in California. In an experiment conducted inside a tent, they placed the ladybirds on an orange tree infested with the scale insects. 

The beetles quickly multiplied and devoured the scale insects. When the scientists opened the tent, the beetles flew into the nearby trees and soon the whole orchard was free of scale insects. 

As citrus farmers learnt about these ladybirds, they began to collect them and release them into their orchards. By 1890, the scale insect was completely gone, and the Californian citrus industry was saved. 

All thanks to the little Australian ladybird that Koebele found in Palmer Gardens.

What do you consider the most pressing issue for the Park Lands? 

Raising awareness. I think it’s important that the Adelaide community feels a sense of pride and protective ownership of the Park Lands.