South Australia Museum, Central Market

I spent this afternoon in Adelaide visiting the South Australia Museum and Adelaide’s Central Market.

But before I get into that, a word about Adelaide’s river, the River Torrens. I walked by a small portion of it on the way from the Adelaide Zoo, which I visited this morning, to the South Australia Museum this afternoon.

Unlike the Brisbane River, which is wide, central to that city’s core, and put to work by the people of Brisbane, the River Torrens is peripheral to Adelaide’s central business district, relatively small, and, as far as I could tell, primarily just scenic, not a working river. I didn’t see any boats on it. Then again, I saw only a very short piece of it and I didn’t stay long.

That having been said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with just scenic. Nothing whatsoever. And the portion of the River Torrens I saw scores well on that measure. I may try to explore the river a bit more another day.

South Australia Museum

Adelaide is the capital of Australia’s state of South Australia. So it makes sense that it would have the South Australia Museum.

I was a bit apprehensive about going. I was less than greatly impressed with Queensland’s Queensland Museum in Brisbane when I went the other day. I worried that South Australia wouldn’t do any better. I needn’t have worried.

True, the South Australia Museum doesn’t have a brilliant butterfly collection. Or any butterfly collection at all that I could see. So the Queensland Museum wins that point.

The South Australia Museum does have a giant squid exhibit, but it’s just a model and some text. And they positioned the model such that the eye wasn’t visible. They don’t have a formerly living specimen positioned such that its mammoth eye freaks out visitors. So that’s another point for the Queensland Museum.

But those are the only points Queensland wins against South Australia in the state museum games. (I’m the scorekeeper. My decisions as to points scored are final.)

The South Australia Museum is bigger and its mandate is much broader.

Sure, the museum has plenty of space devoted to South Australia. For example, there’s a large exhibit on local Aboriginal culture. Artifacts include fishing gear, small boats, implements, spears, shields, boomerangs, and more.

(Whenever I say “and more” you’d be safe to assume that I do indeed remember that there was more, but what constituted that additional material no longer forms a cog in my working memory.

There is also an exhibit on large prehistoric fauna of South Australia.

The museum displays a large and impressive collection of minerals, most, or maybe all, of which came from South Australia. And what is on display is only a fraction of the museum’s collection. A sign says that the museum owns 25,000 minerals.

The same section also displays several meteorites found in South Australia. Unless I missed it, the signage doesn’t say, but I suspect that too is only a fraction of the museum’s collection.

A sign by the display says that, recognizing the scientific importance of meteorites, the government of South Australia passed a law in 1980 declaring that all meteorites found anywhere in South Australia after that belong to the South Australia Museum.

If I understand the law, even if you are standing on your property in South Australia and a meteorite was to crash-land smack dab in the middle of your forehead, your heirs couldn’t legally keep it. So try to avoid that.

In one exhibit space, I forget which one, hangs a space suit with NASA patches. It was worn by the first Australian, a South Australian, to travel into space.

Damn. I wish I’d taken a picture of the sign. I can’t remember his name. You can probably Google it if you’re interested. I’m not going to do everything for you.

Beyond those South Australian-focused displays, there is also a room that provides a timeline of life on Earth in general, not just in South Australia.

Another room is devoted to mammals of the world. Display cases segregated by geographic region hold stuffed specimens (taxidermy or large plush toys, I’m not sure which) of mammals. The North American display contains, among others, such majestic beasts as a beaver and a raccoon.

Another area presents Pacific culture beyond just Australia, including a model of a New Guinea dwelling, among other items.

And there is a room devoted to Antarctica.

There’s also an ancient Egypt room with mummies and sarcophagi, among other artifacts.

Overall, I quite liked the South Australia Museum.

Central Market

I topped off this afternoon by visiting Adelaide’s Central Market. It’s a very vibrant, indoor market.

Central Market leans heavily toward fruits and vegetables, but there are also bakers, butchers, fishmongers, nut sellers, spice sellers, prepared food purveyors with goods to eat there or take away (with some tables for those who want to eat there), and more.

The central market is attached to a small core with other buildings attached to the core. I don’t know if those other buildings are technically part of Central Market or if they’re considered to be apart from it. Whatever, they included a food court, an Asian supermarket, and a space for tchotchke vendors.

About that Asian supermarket, I stumbled on Adelaide’s chinatown, or at least one of them if there are more than one, beside the Central Market.

In the Central Market, I came to realize that, before today, I had no idea if kangaroos have predators (if I thought about it, I’d have assumed they did) and, if so, what those predators are. It turns out they do have at least one predator, humans. One of the butchers in the market sells both eggs and meats. But the only type of meat he sells is kangaroo.

He offers many different cuts of kangaroo, along with kangaroo sausage and jerky.

It never occurred to me that anyone would eat those cute, hoppy guys.

I asked the butcher what kangaroo tastes like. He said it’s like a cross between beef and lamb, but more gamey and with a stronger taste. I didn’t think to ask if the kangaroos are farmed or caught in the wild.

And with that, it was time to call it a day.

Aside

Hydrant Booster

I’ve seen a number of this sort of sign around. Whenever I do, I scan the area to see if there’s anyone I can ask when the cheerleader will show up with his or her pompoms to cheer on the fire hydrant.

I haven’t seen any of the fire hydrant boosters yet. I hope I do. I imagine it’s quite a spectacle.