Heritage
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This landscape is likely to have supported a mixed cover of mallee box and red
mallee woodland with a large belt of native pine continuing through the Enfield
area (Kraehenbuel 1996).
The Alluvial Plains extends west from the Para Fault. The Kilburn Sand dune
system extended over 8km along the base of the Para Fault. The alluvial plain
supported extensive grasslands with scattered pockets of mallee (Kraehenbuel
1996).
Estuary Plain and Coastal Dunes supported the establishment of coastal
Posidinia sea grass meadows, dense mangrove forests and extensive samphire
marshes.
Landscapes throughout the Port Adelaide Enfield area have been significantly
modified since European settlement such as the clearing of land for
development which has lead to the isolation of small remnant patches of
vegetation still remaining today.
Construction of levees and flap gates along the Port Adelaide River estuarine
coast that exclude tidal waters has resulted in the die back of extensive stands
of mangrove forest. The physical character of the Barker Inlet estuary was
radically changed to 'reclaiming' of land previously occupied by samphire
marshes, mainly for the purposes of salt farming, in addition to the alteration of
the shorelines of the Lefevre Peninsula.
Development of the Port Adelaide Enfield area increased substantially from
1840 after the establishment of port operations. Other early settlement in the
Port Adelaide Enfield Council area included Klemzig (surveyed in 1838),
Queenstown (subdivided in 1848) and several settlements across the river from
the Port at Birkenhead, Glanville and Ethelton (1850).
Until the Second World War many of the City's suburbs remained pastures and
open land, after which post-war booms saw rapid housing construction. Today
the City is a highly developed and industrialised metropolitan locality.
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
At the time of European settlement, Aboriginal people of the Kaurna 'tribe'
inhabited the Adelaide and Port Adelaide areas. According to the 2006 Census,
the City of Port Adelaide Enfield is home to approximately 2,260 residents who
identified as being Aboriginal or Torrens Strait Islander. This equates to
approximately 2.2% of the Council's total population, a representation almost
twice that of the Adelaide metropolitan area as a whole.
The Council seeks to facilitate the recognition and ongoing preservation,
enhancement and celebration of Kaurna Cultural Heritage. In December 2010,
Council endorsed an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan titled
"
Recognising the past, acting in the present and building a better future".
The
document is available on Council’s website
