by Carla Caruso
The start of winter has provided lovely weather for ducks in Adelaide. And the city’s parks haven’t missed out on a soaking.
Parts of the Southern Park Lands were underwater on Monday after the CBD copped 43mm of rain – around 60 per cent of the average June rainfall.
The deluge saw some of Greenhill Road, south of the Park Lands, closed off to traffic due to flooding.
Flooding in the Southern Park Lands impacted the traffic. Photo: Ted Jennings.
A family plays in the rain near the bike jumps in Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20). Photo: Ted Jennings.
Elsewhere, the new $13 million, 3.2ha wetlands in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) were also put to the test. The wetlands are primarily intended as a flood migitation measure to protect near-city southern suburbs such as Goodwood, Wayville and Unley.
Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project director Peta Mantzarapis told The Advertiser (**subscriber link**) that the wetlands had performed the role they’d been designed for, capturing and holding large volumes of stormwater before controlling its release. Within 24 hours, water levels had returned to normal.
Here are more soggy Park Lands pics captured by park-lovers around the city this month.
RAIN PICS AROUND THE PARKS
APA president Shane Sody captured a straw-necked ibis (below) among more common white ibises soaking up the rain in Peppermint Park / Wita Wirra (Park 18).
As well, he snapped a cyclist heading south, towards Greenhill Road, through rain-drenched Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19).
Park 18 visitor Sue Lewis was also pleased to see the spot “transformed by flooding rains”, as below. “The park has become a lake.”
When we posted some of her pics on social media, Instagrammer ‘Sir Binkalot’ commented: “Anecdotally, this part of the park floods like this several times a year, every year, for the last five-plus years I have been riding past. The trees look like they don’t mind it!”
Meanwhile, park-goer Kim Woods, as follows, “captured these pictures on a meandering walk around the seasonal swamp, or lake, at [G.S. Kingston Park] Wirrarninthi (Park 23) on June 7. This is on a beautiful loop walk, where you forget you are 500m from the CBD.”
APA’s Park 23 ambassador Ted Jennings snapped the below shots of the new wetlands and flood mitigation “in action” in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16). “The city needs to grow but grow smart,” he said. And eco-wise it’s becoming. Great to see.
We’re always looking to share great pics of Your Adelaide Park Lands online. Upload photos on social media, using the hashtag #adelaideparklands, for us to repost – or email them to secretary@adelaide-parklands.asn.au.
