Rob goes Green!

  Adelaide, Australia
Sunday, January 14, 2007

The final part of the Oz leg took in South Australia - Adelaide, the surrounding  wineries and finally Kangaroo Island, to see, well, kangaroo's.......

Adelaide is often described as the most English of Australian cities - knowing the Aussies, I'm not sure if this is a compliment or not, but in any case it's certainly a nice little place. However, although we didn't get too much of a chance to look round, it seems to lacks the charm and scenery of Perth and the overall excitement of Sydney.

After a day in town, my parents and I headed of for a tour of some wineries around here - the Clare and Barossa Valley's and the Riverlands. One of the things I've learnt is how old the Aussie wine industry actually is - although we've only really had their wines in the UK for the past 20 years or so, many of the vineyards have been going since the turn of the 20th Century and some for longer than that.  The Jacob's Creek vineyard

The creek was dry......

 

was actually planted by Lutheran German immigrants in the 1870's. One of the benefits of having a Dad in the wine trade was it gave us the chance to see behind the scenes at some of the wineries and meet the winemakers to understand a bit about their wine and the way they want to make it. The most interesting comment came from the guy at the Barossa Valley Estate winery who's wine philosophy is based on the premise that wine should be drunk as an accompaniment to a meal and as such should never overpower the food - the selection of wines he gave us to sample proved his point, and if you're looking for an understated red, with a hint of raspberry, blueberry's, with a soupcon of..................etc etc. Anyway, go and try his Shiraz - rather good. Additionally if you can find any sparkling shiraz (yup, that's right, a sparkling red!!) from this area, it's worth a go, if only to try something a bit different.

However, the most interesting place we visited was a winery called Banrock Station - now this is a place with a difference, where wine is secondary and ecological management of the area is of primary importance. Situated in the Riverlands area, the estate lies next to the Murray river and comprises an enormous tract of wetland swamps

Banrock Station

. However over the years, changes to the river flow, incorrect planting and sheep farming had devastated the natural ecology of the area. Most of the natural flora and fauna had been forced out and the area had been left pretty bare and barren. About eight years ago, the decision was made to redevelop the wetlands to their original state and to try and encourage the return of  the native wildlife. Eight years on, their success is obvious and Tony, the guy who runs the estate, showed us around with a huge amount of deserved pride. If you have a chance look them up on the web and see what they're doing and also buy a bottle of their wine, as the profits are ploughed back into the ecological regeneration, as well as other schemes around the world, including the Eden project back home. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not necessarily recommending the wine, but at about £4 a bottle, it does the job!

Driving between the wine areas also gave a small indication of the life in the outback - although we were never that far from Adelaide, perhaps 200 miles at most, the large distances between tiny little villages and the sense of isolation gave me an inkling of how tough life must be for the population.

Our final port of call was Kangaroo Island, named in honour of the enormous Kangaroo

You can't see me....

population on the island. It's also the only place in Australia where they have too many Koala's and are currently undertaking a sterilisation programme to reduce their numbers. The island is a great place, and amongst the highlights are two seal colonies, and some  natural rock formations, subtly called, Remarkable Rocks!  Of course it's also cool to see kangaroo's, koala's and other species in the wild, rather than parks and zoos', even if the koala is a lazy git, difficult to spot in the high branches and basically asleep for most of it's life!

Koala

Australia is often portrayed as a land of great ecological integrity - a place where the government has taken the decision to act in the in the interests of the planet and resist the great demands of technology and business. Yet, during this part of the trip, I've had he chance to meet and talk to people actually involved in ecology projects and their frustration with government and their limited work is obvious. Be it the planting of the wrong type of corps, such as cotton which makes huge demands on water reserves, or the continued deforestation of vast areas of natural habitat, it is obvious that Australia is not the ecological haven that it's portrayed as. On one of our trips, the guide was explaining some of the fundamental problems, with crops being planted that bring the water table up and then effectively kill the land by leaving a saline base that makes the land completely unfertile.

Now, what's this I hear you all cry - Rob the great polluter has suddenly gone green?? Well, not entirely - but during the past month in Oz I have seen and understood things that have made me realise how precarious the natural world is. In Cairns, for example, it was explained how the cutting down of Mangrove swaps has led to an explosion in the population of Box jellyfish, which makes the seas unswimmbale in, and the infamous Crown of Thorns starfish which is killing large tracts of reef. Both of these creatures' natural predator is the sea turtle, who lay their eggs in the swamps. With the swamps being destroyed, the turtle population has dwindled and the jellyfish and starfish population's have exploded - simple but deadly. Yet, this is just one example of how one action leads to consequences that we can't fathom - how much more is going on that we haven't yet recognised? If one thing comes from this trip for me it will be a greater understanding of the world around.

But enough of the green lecture - I'm now off to New Zealand and bid Australia goodbye with a heavy heart - it's been a great month here, even if the cricket's been crap. It's been nice to see friends and fun to spend time with my parents. But now back on the solo road again!

Rob