Five fascinating facts about the Adelaide Park Lands

Posted on 23 January 2017 by admin

Think you know all there is to know about the Adelaide Park Lands? Think again! Here are five fun facts from The Adelaide Park Lands by Patricia Sumerling.

The Elder Rotunda comes from Scotland – Patricia says: While the Torrens Lake was fringed with promenades and walkways, there were few grassy places to have picnics, listen to bands or linger and chat. Sir Thomas Elder, sojourning in Scotland, read about the forthcoming opening of the lake in his most recent batch of Adelaide newspapers and noted that the corporation intended to beautify the banks of the river by laying out several acres of ground for a place of recreation and a promenade. He saw it as an opportunity to donate something worthy for the site and informed them of a ‘trifling gift’ of a rotunda bandstand, which he had shipped to Adelaide. The rotunda duly arrived from MacFarlane’s Saracen Foundry in Glasgow and was erected; its columns were painted in bronze, with the remainder picked out in grey and blue. The rotunda was officially opened on 28 November 1882, more than a year after the lake. A piece of music, the ‘Rotunda March’, composed for the event, was played by the Adelaide City Council Brass Band.
Botanic Park had its own Speakers’ Corner – Patricia says: Speakers’ Corner in Botanic Park became one of Adelaide’s most popular attractions, particularly for the ‘sensation loving public’ on Sunday afternoons. The only rule was to abstain from making personal attacks. In February 1895 a variety of speakers were on offer. Three or four individuals who had ‘the call’ took it in turns to promote the scriptures, while regulars were ‘for the most part gathered around the soldiers of the Salvation Army, who worked with unflagging energy despite the heat’. The Army was conspicuous for ‘blaring trumpets and the thumping of the drum’. Nearby speakers Stewart and Osborn ‘fired off’ slanderous statements about employers and capitalists. By 1912, Barney, a celebrated veteran preacher, had braved winter rain and summer heat for nearly 30 years to convert in a ‘divine sense’, mostly ‘young men and maidens’. Sometimes he was dressed in a long sheet decorated with antediluvian drawings.
The Park Lands had their own morality police (well, in a sense) –Patricia says: During the First World War the police force appointed its first two policewomen, Kate Cocks and Annie Ross, who began work on 1 December 1915 in time for the forthcoming summer. Kate Cocks was famous for her vigilance on the Park Lands, using her cane to separate lovers, who were often unaware of her approach. Finding lovers locked together she used her catchphrase ‘Three feet apart!’ In March 1916 courting couples came under the spotlight of the Advertiser again: ‘During the last few years it has become the fashion among people to do their courting lying down. It is now the practice for them to lie down so closely together as to appear immodest but many of them are respectable.’ Kate Cocks was not amused, commenting that the ‘police were powerless to advise couples to sit up’.
The Park Lands had their own air raid shelters during World War II – Patricia says: It is not generally known that several miles of pipe were laid and trench air raid shelters built in the city’s squares, in children’s playgrounds and on the fringes of the Park Lands and along North Terrace during the Second World War. Generally not used for the purposes for which they were intended, they existed from January 1942 to around August 1944, when they were filled in by a bulldozer from the Highways Department. The Hume cement pipes, which had been used for shelters, had a second life in drainage works and in the children’s playgrounds.
Large sections of the Park Lands were for many years ‘Cows Only’! – Patricia says: One of the most enduring images of the Park Lands until the end of the 1960s was that of the signs dotted around bearing the words ‘Cows Only’. In 1963 there were well over a thousand livestock grazing on the Park Lands. However, in 1972 the last two dozen cows in Park 27B, next to the North Adelaide Railway Station, were banished, while 60 odd horses still grazing in several parks were brought together in Park 6 off Lefevre Terrace in North Adelaide. Today the long tradition of horse agistment, begun in the 1850s, continues, creating a delightful rural character in a capital city.

To learn more about the Park Lands, click here and take a look at Patricia’s well-loved history of this area.

Streakers and the Opening of an Adelaide Icon

Posted on 20 January 2017 by admin

Robert Dickson remembers the opening of the Little Theatre at Adelaide University in Addicted to Architecture. It was obviously a ‘suitably anarchic’ affair involving a hefty number of streakers …

The Little Theatre

The Little Theatre was the great gain. It was a 120-seat thrust-stage theatre with sophisticated control facilities and a small theatre bar. Students and other University users could use the theatre and operate all the sound and lighting equipment without any paid staff being there. The theatre consultant was none other than its promoter and the Union redevelopment client representative, Ralph Middenway.

It is difficult to recall now which of us designed which part. The Little Bar, fitted in partly under the main western staircase, was nicely intimate, a tiny version of the Union Hall Cellar. With 120 patrons, it was a bit crowded, but they could always spill out into the Cloisters. The Little Theatre was to be finished early for the 1974 Adelaide Festival, twelve months before completion of the remainder of the complex.

The opening by the Vice-Chancellor was a suitably anarchic theatrical occasion. ‘Streakers’ punctuated his opening address. But the Vice-Chancellor took it in his stride. Cued by audience reaction as each bare figure raced across the stage behind his back, he paused a little, awaiting audience response to fade, then continued, as though the interruptions were scheduled to accentuate his message. It was an appropriately professional performance.

A newspaper review of Adelaide theatres by Shirley Stott Despoja featured a photograph of the Little Theatre, with the comments, ‘Only the Elder Hall lower level, and the Little Theatre combine a naturally comfortable seating position with excellent visibility and acoustics wherever you may sit’.

Read more about the Little Theatre and Dickson’s other famous buildings here.

The history of cycling in Adelaide

Posted on 13 January 2017 by admin

There’s been a lot of talk about cycling in Adelaide recently. The Tour Down Under opens tomorrow, and recently the City Council has devoted a lot of time to installing and ripping up bike pathways all over the city! But it’s not like this is a new thing for us. Adelaidians have been mad-keen cyclists for yonks, as Denis Molyneux investigates in Time for Play, his history of recreation and leisure in SA. Check out the pics —

The bicycle evolved through three phases – the Velocipede, the high wheel Ordinary and finally, the Safety bicycle. The velocipede, or ‘boneshaker’, accommodated a rider sitting astride two wheels, who propelled the machine first with one foot and then the other. The later versions of the machine had pedals on the front wheel. There do not appear to have been many owners of the velocipede in South Australia, although there were enthusiasts riding the machine in the Kapunda area in the early 1870s.

Velocipede [SLSA B7964]

The heavy and cumbersome velocipede was replaced in the late 1870s by the high wheel, or ordinary. Its design, with the big wheel standing 52–54 inches (130–135 cm) high and pedalled from a central position immediately above the wheel, was a challenge to the strength, balance and athleticism of a male rider. For those who met these requirements and could afford the cost of the machines, the ordinary became a vehicle for racing or touring, but of limited use in daily transportation, not least because of its size. Its cost meant that owners were drawn predominantly from the middle classes.

The touring side of cycling clubs carried a strong middle class social element. ‘Handle Bar’, the cycling correspondent of the Register, writing in his weekly column – Wheelmarks – in May 1892 observed:

Six to thirteen miles generally constitute the distance of Club runs on Saturday afternoons in this colony, and within that area some very pretty places can be visited. What is more enjoyable than a spin before tea to Tea Tree Gully, Thorndon Park, or Belair? Should hill climbing be objected to, Glenelg or Brighton are pleasant places to visit on the wheel. Not only is the exercise healthful and enjoyable, but the scenery is beautiful, and an appetite is generally secured which only cyclists can boast of possessing. I advise all unattached wheelmen to accompany the clubs to some of their favourite rendezvous, and it need scarcely be added an advantageous afternoon will result.

A ladies cycle race at Mount Gambier, c. 1900.
The gentlemen are present to help the ladies. [SLSA B46443]

Reports of individual club runs generally included some reference to the state of the road surfaces for the benefit of other cyclists, although as one columnist observed:

when the pneumatic tire [sic] comes into general use, and it is rapidly replacing others, rough roads will have little effect …

The year’s runs for the South Australian and North Adelaide Clubs reporting in 1892 were for the former, 37 excursions totalling 688 miles and the latter, 34 at 802 miles.

The Clubs that emerged in the late 1870s and through the 1880s, with their emphasis on touring rides, where members often wore uniforms, and gathered to socialise in club rooms, would have proved exclusive to those few working class cyclists who were able to purchase the ordinary machine.

Uniformed Club Riders on ‘Ordinary’ bicycles, 1880. [SLSA B7805]

The bicycle continued to evolve through the 1880s, with experimentation in mechanical design, culminating in the Safety version. The safety model included several innovative features, notably a diamond shaped tubular steel frame linking two similar size wheels, the ball bearing, a chain driving the rear wheel and tangentially-spoked wheels. All added safety for the rider – hence the name; moreover, it was lighter in weight and proved to be strong, durable, reliable and capable of operating with minimum maintenance.

The invention of the pneumatic tyre proved to be a further significant milestone. Patented in Britain in 1888, the inflated tyre, after initial suspicion among many hardened cyclists, was the major feature that led to the safety bicycle developing a market that swept the world, including the Australian colonies. The safety bicycle, equipped with pneumatic tyres, was particularly well-suited to Australian conditions ‘where the terrain and long distances and climate seemed to be waiting for the Dunlop invention.’ It was faster, more comfortable and easier to propel. In addition:

Australian men were more likely to buy a bicycle, partly because they earned higher wages. Furthermore, they could ride a bicycle the whole year round in most climatic regions of their land.

The Safety bicycle’s potential was soon noted in South Australia. The cyclist on the energy efficient machine proved to be two or three times as fast as a pedestrian or horse or camel. One did not have to be young and athletic to ride the safety bicycle; the model was attractive to young and old riders alike. With the arrival of the ‘step through’ version, the safety model rapidly became popular with women and softened some of the criticism directed against their cycling. It was to prove highly significant in women’s social liberation in the closing years of the century.

The well patronised North Adelaide Ladies Cycling Club, c. 1900. [SLSA B9188]

To read more of this fascinating history, please click here.

What to do if your baby won’t stop crying

Posted on 9 January 2017 by admin

Sarah Blunden and Angie Willcocks’s The Sensible Sleep Solution is a refreshing take on helping mum and bub through those first few months. Blunden and Willcocks’s tips for getting a restless baby to sleep are moderate, tested and easy to put in place. Here, they give some advice on what to do if your baby won’t stop crying – and stress the importance of taking care of yourself as a parent, too! Also, ever wondered what colic actually is? Read on …

If your baby’s crying persists for days or weeks and there seems to be nothing you can do to soothe her, try the following:

+ Organise for your baby to be checked (again?) by a health professional with an interest in children, such as a GP, paediatrician, early childhood nurse, or allied health professional. If you don’t agree with something someone says or something does not seem right for you and your family you may want to get another opinion.

+ Speak with other parents about what might be going on.

+ Ask for some support from family, friends or professionals (or all three). Tell them, ‘My baby cries a lot for no apparent reason, no matter what I do, and I could use some help at the moment.’

+ Get some help with household chores. (See Part 3, Taking care of yourself.)

+ Take a break from your baby by organising someone to look after her for a while.

+ Think ahead – this baby will not always be a crying baby. Before long she will be starting school!

It is important to note that, while all parents are likely to find a constantly crying baby difficult, those with certain temperaments will find a crying baby especially difficult to cope with. Those:

+ who are used to pleasing others and making others happy, who hate upsetting people or ‘letting people down’

+ who have difficulties putting up with strong or negative feelings (in themselves or other people)

+ who like to be organised and are used to having a fair degree of control over their lives (who now find that they can’t control this situation no matter how hard they try).

If any – or all – of these sorts of personalities sound like you, and you have a baby who cries a lot, it is especially important that you find supportive people to help you through this challenging time, either with practical help, or by listening to you talk about the difficulties you are facing.

Why would your baby cry a lot?

+ Temperament (see more about this on p. 25).

+ Persistent hunger (not getting enough milk for example). If you are worried that your baby is not getting enough milk and may be hungry please consult your doctor or early childhood nurse for advice.

+ Illness, pain, or discomfort.

+ Colic (see below for more information).

What is colic?

Colic sounds like a medical diagnosis that may explain what is wrong with a baby, but in fact it is a descriptive term referring to any baby who cries excessively for no apparent reason. Excessive crying is defined by the 3-rule: crying for at least three hours per day, three days a week for a period of longer than three weeks.

Colic usually starts around six weeks of age and stops at about three to four months (although it can continue for longer in some babies) and occurs in about one in five babies. All babies seem to grow out of colic by the six-month mark.

There are many theories around why babies are ‘colicky’: gas or wind in the bowel, discomfort due to particular foods the breastfeeding mother has eaten, food allergies or intolerances, and/or pain and discomfort from other sources. There are a number of products available based on these theories, including special dummies and bottles which claim to minimise the intake of air and medicines that claim to relieve the discomfort of trapped wind. Some midwives stress the importance of getting rid of wind after a feed in ‘colicky babies’ and others are of the opinion that excess feeding (as in short, frequent feeds) may contribute to tummy pains and an unsettled baby. If you have been trying frequent feeds as a way to calm your baby and it doesn’t seem to be working you may want to wait at least two and a half hours between feeds by using other calming techniques in between.

Talk to your GP or early childhood nurse if you would like more information.

To read more, you can find out about The Sensible Sleep Solution here. Please note, this title is also available as an ebook here.

The beginnings of an apple orchard

Posted on 2 January 2017 by admin

Sally van Gent’s Clay Gully is one of those rare books: a delightful read that transports without exaggerating. In these first few pages, she describes the process of finding the house and their decision to grow an apple orchard. All accompanied by Sally’s lovely illustrations. The perfect book to read for anyone planning a big life change in 2017 …

After several months of fruitless searching around Bendigo in central Victoria, the agent calls to tell us he has found our perfect home. Apparently the house is in the middle of ten acres of bush and farmland. Right away I know we can’t afford a property like that. The agent insists I at least drive past the place.

He tells me, ‘If you wait a bit the price will come down. I’ve heard the owners are about to go bankrupt.’

How would you like to pay this man to sell your house, I wonder.

Out of curiosity I drive down the winding dirt road. To the left are green paddocks where a horse is grazing. On the other side there is forest, all the way down the hill. At the bottom, where there is a wide curve in the road, I spot the house through the gum trees. It stands in the centre of a lightly treed paddock and to the side is open bush land. The agent persuades us to have a look inside. The house, though adequate, is unimpressive. It has a dingy seventies-style kitchen and worse, there is ghastly brown and cream shag-pile carpet almost everywhere. I look at the view through the living-room window and I don’t care.

It’s been a wet spring and water cascades over the paddocks, draining from the bush higher up the hill. The agent sends us off to walk around the property unaccompanied as he doesn’t want to get his feet soaked. Above the house the gum trees lean out over two dams. Up here the rich soil of the paddocks gives way to stony ground, and a patchwork of wildflowers grows between the grey, lichen-coated boulders.

Three months later we receive another call from the agent. ‘The owners have gone broke, are you still interested in the house?’

Yes, definitely.

I walk into the back garden the first morning after we have moved in and confront a scene straight from the classic Hitchcock horror movie, The Birds. Along the top of the fence a row of strange, black birds with hooked beaks stare down at me through glowing red eyes. They don’t attempt to fly away when I move towards them. Instead they begin to rock back and forth in unison, all the time letting out weird, breathy whistles. When they finally fly off I see they have white wing feathers.

Beside the house there’s a large shed with an earth floor where the previous owners conducted their business of making concrete garden ornaments. A giraffe with a broken neck sits near the side gate and on the back verandah there’s a whole farmyard of concrete chickens, ducks and small animals. My mother, who lives in a nearby retirement village, suggests the elderly people there might like them. Soon the animals have all found new homes and one old man, who’s been a farmer all his life, is absolutely delighted to have chickens and ducks in his backyard again.

At night a dozen large spiders with red-striped legs construct huge webs across the verandah. They catch a multitude of tiny moths, attracted by the kitchen light. These same moths provide a welcome dinner for two small frogs lying in wait on the window. The front of the property is divided by a broad irrigation channel, used to flood the paddocks in the days when they were part of a dairy farm. Contemplating the grassy, treeless area farthest from the house, we discuss its possible uses.

In this, our first year at Clay Gully, our dams fill with water in the spring and thunderstorms replenish them in the summer. Good rains are predicted for next year offering us the opportunity to establish an agricultural enterprise. I think of goats and chickens but my husband, Nick, vetoes all my suggestions. He knows only too well that I can’t kill anything and is already anticipating the vet bills involved in keeping alive aging hens, well past their egg-laying days.

A lover of good wine, his thoughts turn naturally to planting a vineyard, but I can see problems with this suggestion. Not having the necessary knowledge or equipment to process the grapes ourselves, we would be dependent on large wineries to take our fruit and set the price. Instead I think of the beautiful apples my grandfather grew in England – Bramley’s Seedling, Lord Lambourne and Red Astrachan. There must be a market for these delicious, forgotten varieties. My grandfather grew them without artificial fertilisers or pesticides. We decide to follow the long path leading to full organic certification of the orchard.

It’s necessary to have a third dam dug in front of the house and to purchase additional rural water. The contractor isn’t pleased with me when I insist on having an island in the middle of the dam. It makes his job more difficult but I know it’ll look beautiful and will be a refuge for water birds.

Then we discover Badgers Keep, a wonderful heritage apple nursery with over 500 different cultivars. With so many to choose from, I spend many hours poring over their descriptions. One apple we should definitely grow is the Bramley’s Seedling. The population of the UK eats millions of Bramleys every year and I’m convinced that once Australians try them they will love them too. The variety has stood the test of time. The original tree, growing in a garden in Nottinghamshire, is still bearing fruit after 200 years.

Next I select Autumn Pearmain, striped and perfumed, and grown since the late 1500s. Then there is the Orleans Reinette, yellow, sweet and nutty, and the soft and juicy Beauty of Bath. My husband Nick, being Dutch, has his own favourite apple much loved on the continent. This is the Belle de Boskoop, sometimes known as Goudreinet. It has a strong flavour making it excellent for cooking. If left longer on the tree it turns into a fragrant, soft-pink dessert apple. We order the Bramley’s Seedling and Belle de Boskoop and by the time we’ve selected enough cultivars for their pollination, we have twenty-four different varieties. In all there will be 300 trees.

Click here to read more, and keep an eye out for Sally’s next book, The Navy-blue Suitcase.

How to Roast Scrub Turkey

Posted on 24 December 2016 by admin

Christmas is tomorrow, which means food prep is in full swing. Is anyone planning on having roast scrub turkey on the day? Find out more from Barbara Santich’s discussion of fauna-eating practices in Bold Palates …

There wasn’t any hesitation in accepting wild duck and other game birds in the same way as kangaroo—indeed, wild birds often took the place of scarce domesticated poultry. In 1794 John Macarthur employed a game shooter with a team of dogs at his property, Elizabeth Farm, supplying wild ducks and kangaroos for the dinner table; ‘averaging one week with another’, he wrote, ‘these dogs do not kill less than three hundred pounds weight’. Knopwood regularly shot quail, pigeons and ducks in Tasmania. The intrepid Lady Franklin, wife of the governor of Tasmania, gladly ate a variety of local fauna on her travels overland from Port Philip Bay to Sydney in 1839, while Katherine Kirkland relished native fowl as a change from the monotony of mutton. Mrs Maclurcan, manager of the Criterion hotel in Townsville at the end of the 19th century, similarly considered native fowl as substitutes for European species. In her 1898 cookbook, Mrs Maclurcan’s Cookery Book: A Collection of Practical Recipes, Specially Suitable for Australia, she gave a recipe for roast scrub turkey—‘a small bird, not much larger than a wild duck, with a breast like a pheasant and flesh as white. I have often served it as pheasant and people have not known the difference’.

The Bennetts, a brand new Christmas drink

Posted on 22 December 2016 by admin

The weather reports are in and it’s going to be a stinking hot Christmas right across Australia, with SA copping the worst of it. But never fear! Our wonderful new author Helen Bennetts has the perfect Christmas day solution. Introducing the Bennetts,* a brand new cocktail that’s a mix of almond granita and prosecco. Intrigued? We were serving them at the launch of Helen’s book Willunga Almonds and everyone was raving!

First you’ll need almond granita, and the recipe is provided in Willunga Almonds:

Serves 4

Mix 4 cups of almond milk [WP: Helen provides a recipe to make your own, but store bought works fine too] with cup of sugar until sugar dissolves. Either put mixture in an ice-cream maker and freeze or put in the freezer, removing every 20 minutes or so to stir and break up crystals.

Once the granita is ready, put two tablespoons of granita in a glass then top up with prosecco (we suggest Coriole prosecco, of course). Be careful, it will fizz up. And voilà, the Bennetts is served. Cool, refreshing, and perfect to get you through another hot Aussie Christmas.

Cheers!

For Helen’s almond granita and more fabulous almond recipes and stories, pick up your copy of Willunga Almonds here.

If you’re still hoping to grab a copy of this or any of our other titles before Christmas, our Mile End store will be open from 9 am to 5 pm today and tomorrow, and from 10 am to 4 pm on Christmas Eve. If you can’t make it to our shop, please check all good bookstores.

Thank you all for your support this Christmas season!

*Wakefield tested and approved.

The many forms of Christmas

Posted on 19 December 2016 by admin

Here’s a wonderful little view of the many forms of Christmas from Margaret Merrilees’s Fables Queer and Familiar, complete with illustrations by Chia Moan. Every little vignette in this novel is equal parts touching and hilarious. Read on and you’ll see what I mean …

Mr Stretton, Victoria’s Reception teacher, has reached that pinnacle of school life – the end-of-year concert. Traditionally Reception and Year One open the show with a segment based around the manger.

Since his first year of teaching, Mr Stretton has become used to parental contributions. These generally peak at the time of the concert. This year he has done his best to satisfy everyone.

He stands in the wings on one side of the stage and sends the kids across in small groups. They are received on the other side by Year Seven recruits who where hired after running the best background check services on them. Downstage, close enough for Mr Stretton to prompt them, sit three children with a pile of signs to hold up.

The first group crosses the stage banging clap sticks together. KAURNA LAND reads the sign, in wobbly letters. WE RESPECT THE ELDERS AND TRADITIONAL OWNERS.

The audience claps.

The second group is chosen from among the most responsible five-year-olds. Their leader carries a multi-branched Hanukkah menorah. As a result of much discussion, it is unlit. Her companions carry lighted candles in paper cups. Mr Stretton clutches a fire extinguisher, but the children reach the other side without disaster. He wipes his brow.

The third group, in turbans and robes, is announced by two signs. One is a tinsel crescent moon, and the other says MECCA under a large arrow.

The fourth group consists of Mary and Joseph with a swaddled doll and a donkey. TO BETHLEHEM reads the sign. Victoria is the back half of the donkey. Her spirit is bitter. Like everyone else in the class she had passionately wanted to carry a Hanukkah candle.

The audience claps. They like it. So cute, so all-embracing.

But there is more. Fingers crossed, Mr Stretton sends out his fifth group. A donkey, a swaddled doll, but this time, instead of Mary and Joseph, there are two Marys.

The audience is silent, and then there is muted applause, accompanied by some muttering.

At present Mr Stretton is a single man, but he dreams of family, a particular sort of family. He had hoped for a sixth group tonight. Two Josephs with baby. Sadly he tucks his dream away again. The school community is obviously not yet ready.

Marie Symes, who works in the office, slumps in her seat. Mr Stretton has done it again. She can see tomorrow disappearing in a flood of phone calls. They’ll be equally divided, she predicts, between those parents who deplore fire risk and those who deplore gay parenthood.

During the interval Dr Singh approaches Mr Stretton. They have met before. Dr Singh has a little boy starting in Mr Stretton’s class next year.

‘Great work,’ Dr Singh says with enthusiasm. ‘I liked the procession very much.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I did feel that there was a certain Mosaic bias,’ Dr Singh continues. ‘Judaeo-Christian-Islamic. Perhaps next year you could include …’

Mr Stretton squares his shoulders. What is life without a challenge?

To read more or buy the book, click here.

The Ultimate Wakefield Press Christmas Gift Guide

Posted on 15 December 2016 by admin

Alright, let’s keep this snappy. You guys need gift ideas, and we’ve got a book for every possible need.* So welcome to the patented Ultimate Wakefield Press Christmas Gift Guide.**

For adventure-packed holiday reading, try the Steve West thrillers, centring around an ex-AFL star geologist with a heart of gold. Start with Prohibited Zone, set around the Woomera Detention Centre, then move on Ecstasy Lake, which is about a literal goldmine in the middle of the desert.

For fiction fans, Cassie Flanagan Willanski’s Here Where We Live has been making waves online and is a big awards contender. Every single reader has loved this short story collection. Or go for our Miles Franklin longlisted bestseller The Hands, by Stephen Orr. This story of a family surviving on a drought-stricken cattle farm is beautiful, heart-breaking, but not without hope.

For art lovers, The Art of Science is proving to be a winner over the holiday season. Showcasing the art (and history) of Nicolas Baudin’s expedition to Australia at beginning of the 19th century, these illustrations will make you see familiar animals with entirely new eyes. Or there’s always Dogs in Australian Art. Got a relative who loves dogs or Aussie art? Present: sorted.

For the foodie in your life, and especially the locavores, you have to have a look at Helen Bennetts’s newly released Willunga Almonds, which recounts the history of this humble nut in Australia alongside mouthwatering but easy recipes. Or there’s the CWA’s Calendar of Cakes, which will see you covered for cake recipes throughout 2017.

For the biography buff, you can’t go past Red Professor, the biography of Fred Rose. Shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Awards, and the catalyst of a lot of ‘were they/weren’t they’ conversations about possible Communist Party members in Australia, the press are saying that this one’s set to be a classic. Or pick up a copy of An Unsentimental Bloke, the National Biography Award-winning account of the life of the great writer C.J. Dennis.

For gardeners, Trevor Nottle’s Endless Pleasure is the ultimate compendium of garden collectables, showcasing weird and wonderful types of secateurs, hoes, spades – even tyre swans and man traps. Or get back to basics with Lolo Houbein’s One Magic Square. No one else has managed to make it so easy for so many people to grow their own food.

There are so so many more possibilities, and for the actual Ultimate Wakefield Press Gift Guide you should go to our website. Still, if you can’t find what you’re looking for here, send us a line with your beloved’s Christmas gift requirements, and we’ll send you some suggestions.

Just another Christmas service from the Wakefield team!

* Not actually every possible need. Just some needs. Or maybe needs that you didn’t realise you had. Look, I’m trying to get at the fact that we don’t have highly specialised books about, say, how to fly helicopters. You should probably get training for that though, really.

** Not actually patented. Ain’t no one got the money for that.

The Only Christmas Cake Recipe You’ll Need

Posted on 9 December 2016 by admin

For a reliable Christmas Cake that will please everyone, the South Australian Country Women’s Association have you covered. Actually, they have you covered for any type of cake you could possibly think of (in their Calendar of Cakes) but it’s Christmas so let’s just stick to the Christmas cake for the moment. Plenty of time to try all the rest in the new year!

Preparation time: 40 minutes and soaking time

Cooking time: 2.5 hours and half an hour with oven off

Serves: 60

Equipment: 2 x 23 cm round or square cake tins, or 1 large cake (28 cm round) and 2 smaller cakes (1 x 16 cm round and 1 x 13 cm round)

Ingredients

450 g currants
450 g sultanas
450 g raisins
1 tablespoon glacé ginger, chopped
1/2 cup (125 mL) brandy or port
450 g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons golden syrup
9 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 heaped cup plain flour
1 heaped cup self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1.5 cups blanched almonds, to garnish

Method

Place dried fruit and brandy together in a large non-metallic mixing bowl, stirring to combine. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced) and lightly grease 2 x 23 cm cake tins or 28 cm, 16 cm and 13 cm round tins and line with a double thickness of baking paper.

Place softened butter, sugar, allspice, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg and golden syrup together in a large mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, beat the mixture until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Gradually add the soaked fruit, flours and salt to the butter mixture, stirring gently with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Spoon mixture into prepared cake tins and smooth the tops. Decorate the cakes with blanched almonds and place tins in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 140°C (120°C fan-forced) for 1.5 hours for small cakes, 2.5 hours for 23 cm cakes and 3 hours for 28 cm cake or until a skewer comes out of the centre of each cake clean.

Turn the oven off and leave large cakes to cool in the oven for a further 30 minutes. For the smaller cakes, remove from oven and cover with foil to cool for 30 minutes. Leave cakes to cool in tins. Remove cooled cakes from tins and peel off baking paper. Wrap in clean baking paper and foil, and keep in airtight containers until ready to eat.

Gorgeous cake pic by Jacqui Way