Sarkology Travels

To many Melbournians St Kilda is an inner city beachside playground that is famous for its beach, amusement park, baths, jetty, and the Esplanade Hotel (among other things). However, while the name St Kilda still brings images of the Melbourne suburb (including the Espy):

there is another St Kilda I have always associated that name with, a St Kilda located a mere 20 kms from the Adelaide CBD.

Like its Melbournian cousin, St Kilda also has a kiosk:

However it is not at the end of the jetty

and a marina:

There even seems to be a few yachts here

As my dad once said, in Australia a town is not a town unless there is a pub (and he was referring to St Kilda when he said that).

Unfortunately I don’t believe this is a live band venue

They even have a tram that runs every half hour on Sundays and Public Holidays (though they are restored trams from the St Kilda Tramway Museum).

However, the major draw card for this part of Adelaide has to be the adventure playground (so it even has an amusement park – however this one is free). I came here not only as a kid, but also as an adult, though unfortunately the playground was been made ‘safer’ so that the parents of injured children are less likely to be able to sue to council. Despite that, many of the attractions still remain such as the maze:

Though this is a lot different to the one I used to run around inside

The volcano:

Those slides get really hot

Though they have since closed off the slide that spirals down the inside, which is a real shame because, once again, they seem to kill off all the really fun things.

They also have a pirate ship:

At least they haven’t killed this

However, the one piece of equipment that I can never forget is the medieval castle, which is just up the hill from the pirate ship to create a really cool combination.

The rear of the castle

The front of the castle

The castle has everything, including three slides, two flying foxes, lots of ladders to climb, and even secret tunnels underneath that allow you to escape in the event of a siege (there is even one that heads in the direction of the pirate ship, however since the ship has a massive hole in the hull I don’t think it is going anywhere).

However, if you are planning on coming down here for a swim in the ocean I do have a little bad news for you – the beach of non-existent. When the tide is in the water comes right up to the sea wall, and when it goes out, it goes a long way out and there is an awful lot of mud between the sea wall and the water, so, unlike Melbourne’s St Kilda, this one is not a place to escape to on a hot day for a swim at the beach.

I don’t think anybody is going to be swimming here

However, what they do have is a mangrove trail, however I’ve unfortunately never wandered through there, and when I came down here recently to visit the tram museum by the time we got around to visiting the mangrove swamp we were told that we only had 20 minutes to walk around the marina and then go for a wander through there.

Despite the lack of a beach, this place, if only for the adventure playground, has provided us (and many others) with hours of enjoyment through our lives.