by David Winderlich
The names assigned to each one of the Parks within your Adelaide Park Lands are intended to convey not just a geographical location, but also prompt you to dive into a Park’s fascinating story.
This Park (below) in your southern Park Lands, like many other Parks, has a number, and a name in each of two languages.
Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19) is bounded by Glen Osmond Road, Unley Road, Greenhill Road, Hutt Road and South Terrace.
The name “Pelzer Park” was assigned in 2017, in honour of August Pelzer, who was the Head Gardener of the City of Adelaide from 1899 to 1932.
Mr Pelzer has left his mark all over your Adelaide Park Lands, but some of the views he expressed more than a century ago, seem somewhat odd today.
In his role as Head Gardener, he confidently predicted that "gum trees about the plains of Adelaide will, in time to come, be trees of the past."
August Pelzer (1862-1934)
Mr Pelzer thought that eucalypts would not "submit to cultivation and civilisation." His assessment of the character of gum trees was correct. They are gloriously, untidily unsubmissive and uncivilised.
August Pelzer favoured the "gardenesque style" which emphasized the individual form of plants, displayed without obstruction, with diverse and scattered plantings, winding paths, and island flower beds.
This “gardenesque” style was part of a nineteenth century philosophy that saw gardens as “works of art” and not to be mistaken for “wild nature”.
Pelzer Park features two diagonal pathways, connecting Greenhill Road with South Terrace.
This one, pictured below, was planted out in 1919, just after World War One, with an avenue of English Elm trees on each side of the path, possibly as a memorial planting to soldiers.
Diagonal avenue running north-west to south-east through Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19)
Few of the elms remain, but the pathway is still lined with trees of other species.
In the early 1900s Pelzer also erected five “rustic” bridges in this Park, crossing a watercourse or drainage channel. These bridges have been replaced in recent years with sturdier ones, such as this:
Kaurna name: “Pityarilla”
Pityarilla means “marshmallow root place”, part of Adelaide’s dual naming policy which seeks to honour the city’s indigenous heritage.
The edible marshmallow root or “pityarra” was traditionally harvested along the ephemeral waterways of the Adelaide plains. These roots were dug with kudnarto (digging sticks), eaten raw when young, or roasted in earth ovens when mature.
The South Park Lands Creek, which runs through Park 19, is not a natural watercourse but is a man-made drainage channel, constructed in 1917. It was widened and rehabilitated a century later to improve biodiversity and reduce the risk of downstream flooding in Unley, Wayville and Goodwood.
Nevertheless, in the days before European settlement the area (now drained by this man-made stream) would have sustained marshy ecosystems, or what back in the day might have been called a “swamp”.
Once we drained swamps and marshes. Now we restore and celebrate and rebadge them, recovering previously-lost biodiversity, covering their banks with restored native vegetation, “wild nature”.
August Pelzer probably would not have approved.
The most prominent Kaurna cultural feature in Park 19 is the Kardi Munta (Emu Net) sculpture, installed in 2020. It includes a “yarning circle” and a symbolic emu net structure that reflects traditional Kaurna hunting practices.
The Adelaide Park Lands Association conducts regular Guided Walks through selected Parks within your Adelaide Park Lands. Book for coming Guided Walks here.
Or you can take a self-guided tour at any time, using one of our online Trail Guides, such as the one that covers the two adjacent Parks: 18 and 19, on either side of Glen Osmond Road:
See our Trail Guide here.
The author of this article, David Winderlich, is the Executive Officer of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and the Park Guardian for Parks 18 and 19.
You can become a Park Guardian for part of the Adelaide Park Lands. See our volunteer page.
