Some background

Adelaide Airport is located approximately 6 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD.

With the suburbs of Brooklyn Park and West Richmond under the approach path to the main runway.

Approach lighting directs aircraft towards runway 23.

Airservices Australia – YPAD Aerodrome Chart

But the airport land ends just a short distance away from the runway threshold.

So the approaching lighting continues beyond the airport fence.

On the hunt for approaching lighting

The first set of approach lights are found at the corner of Morley and Trennery Street, on a piece of land fenced off from the public but outside the airport perimeter fence.

Turn 180 degrees, and you’ll find a another gantry holding approach lights, this time just sitting beside the nature strip.

Heading along Trennery Street, you’ll find a set of lights wedged between two houses.

A few doors down is an short fence on an empty block of land, and a set of runway lights at the rear.

Around the block on Ralph Street, there is a set of lights in a backyard.

And another on the block next door, which no longer has a house on it.

Next door the runway light is in the front yard.

Down the street is another gantry just chilling on the nature strip.

And few houses along I found the last set of runway lights – on a double block of land with a short fence preventing public access.

All lit up at night, they look like this.

Photo by Airport Electrical

So who owns the land?

The Adelaide Airport master plan details current and future aircraft approach lighting situation.

Aircraft approach lighting is operated and maintained by Adelaide Airport Limited (AAL). The approach lighting is located at the ends of the Adelaide Airport runways, extending into residential areas at West Richmond for Runway 23 where such lighting is generally held under easement or by ownership of specific allotments.

The long-term continuity of this lighting in the vicinity of the current sites is aligned with aviation services at Adelaide Airport. It is possible that such lighting will be replaced with more efficient systems within the next 20 years.

AAL has purchased freehold land outside of the airport site to ensure the long-term protection of the runway approach lighting corridor. Additional land will be secured as it becomes available. The freehold land is not subject to the airport lease arrangements or Airports Act regulatory framework.

The parcels of freehold land are indicated on the master plan map.

And include:

• the three parcels I’ve already identified on Trennery Street and Ralph Street,
• one parcel on Lyons Street which is empty,
• and a parcel on Britton Street which adjoins the airport.

The most recent acquisition appears to be 17 Ralph Street – older Google Street View imagery shows the runway lights in a backyard, not an empty block. The property was sold in June 2017 for $325,000.

Another hut

In between houses on Press Road in Brooklyn Park I found another aviation related building – an Airservices Australia equipment hut.

Located around 1000 metres from the end of Adelaide Airport runway 23, I suspect it houses the instrument landing system (ILS) ‘Middle Marker’ beacon transmitter.

More lights on Marion Road

Over on Reddit someone mentioned that the high voltage power lines along Marion Road also have aircraft warning lights atop them.

A total of 10 power poles have them – stretching from Brooklyn Avenue in the north to Knight Street in the south – seen here with a Qantas 737 flying overhead.

And another lucky Google Street View catch

Back in September 2019 the Google Street View car was driving down Lyons Street in Brooklyn park where it captured something interesting in the sky.

A plane on final approach

A Jetstar A320 to be precise.

Coming in over the the houses.

And in to Adelaide Airport.

A technical footnote

The Airservices Australia Aerodrome Chart lists the following approach lighting at Adelaide Airport.

Runway 05: HIRL MIRL
Runway 23: HIRL MIRL HIAL – CAT 1 HSL
Runway 12: MIRL
Runway 30: MIRL

Notes:
– HIAL non-standard 4 bar system
– HIAL CAT 1 aligned with ILS GP

Translated into something resembling English.

HIRL: High Intensity Runway Lights
MIRL: Medium Intensity Runway Lights
HIAL: High Intensity Approach Lighting System
HSL: Hold Short Lights

And ILS GP:

Instrument Landing System Glide Path

Sources

• Adelaide Airport charts, Airservices Australia
• Adelaide Airport master plan

Further reading

• Adelaide Airport: a brief overview of its history by the West Torrens Historical Society
• Planespotting in Adelaide at Weekend Notes
• Adelaide Airport at spottersguide.net

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Tourist stuff

I headed down to Glenelg on the tram.

Wondered about the ‘Polities’ signs everywhere.

Headed to the beach at Grange.

Wandered along Rundle Mall.

And visited Victoria Square.

Suburban trains

I rode Adelaide’s since retired ‘Jumbo’ railcars.

And the diesel version of Melbourne’s Comeng railcars.

Finding a six carriage consist, featuring 12 driving cabs.

And passengers riding up front beside the train driver.

I walked along the coast at Marino to capture some trains by the sea.

And stopped off at the bizarre Emerson Crossing – where the intersection of South Road and Cross Road meets the Seaford railway line at a level crossing, with the South Road Overpass passing over it all.

A run down network

I found decrepit stations like the single track terminus of Tonsley.

And the narrow platforms at Keswick.

The line up to Belair was single track, with a handful of toy-like crossing loops along the way.

And instead of automatic pedestrian gates at level crossings, illuminated ‘Caution more than one train’ warning signs were installed at passive crossings.

But there were signs of new life – the extension of suburban trains to Seaford was underway, alongside the electrification of the network.

The Gawler line was also being rebuilt.

But electrification of the line was postponed in 2013, but eventually restarted in 2019 – but has seen many delays since.

Tourist trains

I headed down to Victor Harbor to ride the Steamranger tourist railway.

Taking a trip along the cost to Goolwa and back.

I also stumbled upon the Indian Pacific headed north out of North Adelaide.

And The Ghan almost at the end of a three day journey from Darwin.

At Keswick I found the empty Great Southern Rail terminal.

Carriages for the Indian Pacific being shunted through the train wash.

And spare carriages stabled in the sidings.

Freight trains

West of Adelaide I found a massive ‘double stack’ freight train headed for Perth.

But freight trains towards Melbourne were more constrained – having to pass over the suburban tracks on the level at Goodwood Junction – grade separated in 2014 at a cost of $110 million.

And again at Torrens Junction – grade separated in 2018 at a cost of $238 million.

And buses

A trip to Adelaide isn’t complete without a ride on the O-Bahn Busway.

Buses running along concrete tracks.

Steered along by two small guide wheels.

Buses stop at three bus stations between the Adelaide CBD and Tea Tree Plaza.

‘Sump busters‘ used to prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering the busway.

Another odd feature is the double ended busway recovery truck nicknamed ‘Dumbo’.

Specially designed to enter the O-Bahn track from either direction, and tow away a broken down bus.

Power stations

Don’t you go hunting down power stations when you go on holiday?

I went past the massive 1,280 MW gas fired power station at Torrens Island.

The 58MW Port Stanvac Power Station, made up of 36 diesel generators.

And the 20 MW peaking Lonsdale Power Station, with just 18 diesel generators.

A one way freeway?

A reversible one way freeway sounds bizarre, but Adelaide used to have one – the Southern Expressway between Bedford Park and Old Noarlunga. The three lane road was setup for traffic in either direction.

Changing direction twice a day.

On and off ramps opening and closing based on the current direction of travel.

Indicated by rotating prism signs at interchanges.

With warnings signs to ensure motorists didn’t drive down the wrong way.

Opened in 1997, work on upgrading the freeway to two way operation commenced in 2011, and was completed in 2014.

And ghosts of the past

Adelaide would have to go down as a graveyard of Australian manufacturing.

Home of the former Mitsubishi engine plant at Lonsdale – closed in 2005

The Mitsubishi vehicle assembly plant at Tonsley Park, closed in 2008.

And Mobil’s mothballed Port Stanvac Refinery – demolished in 2014.

But Adelaide also had an abandoned shopping centre – the top floors of the Myer Centre.

And an abandoned international airport terminal.

Replaced by a combined domestic and international terminal in 2005.

But time to fly home

The ‘real’ Adelaide Airport was rather nice.

Big windows looking out over the city.

And a view of aircraft on the apron.

So farewell to Adelaide circa 2011.

I ended up returning in 2015 and 2019 – but travelling on The Overland instead.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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In the old days

Timber tramways would transport freshly cut logs to sawmills deep in the forest.

Museums Victoria image MM 5821

With the sawn timber then being loaded onto main line trains for transport to the construction industry.

Photo by Weston Langford

But by World War II the timber tramways were gone: replaced by road transport, and supplying a network of town based sawmills established following the 1939 Black Friday bushfires.

Enter woodchips

In the 1960s the timber industry switched from sawlogs to clearfell logging for export woodchips.

Initially this traffic was by road, but in 1999 newly privatised freight operator Freight Australia started to move this traffic to rail.

Logs were loaded onto flat wagons at Bairnsdale and Wodonga.

Hauled by train to Geelong.

Where they were unloaded at the Midway woodchip plant and sent through the chipper.

To be loaded by conveyor into ships.

Bound for Japanese paper mills.

These log trains continued running until 2009, when the Black Saturday bushfires burnt out the source of the logs.

And now containers

In the 2000s another way of moving timber by rail emerged – sawlogs stuffed inside standard ISO containers, ready to be exported by sea.

Logs are delivered to the rail terminal by truck and then stockpiled.

The loader grabs a claw full of logs, and loads them into a cradle.

Once the cradle is full, it is placed in front of an empty 40 foot container.

A specially fitted loader then pushes the logs into the container.

Them the forklift takes the empty log cradle away for reloading.

And so the process repeats.

Current containerised log rail services include:

• Bathurst to Port Botany, NSW: 175,000 tonnes/year by Pacific National
• Goulburn to Port Botany, NSW: 100,000 tonnes/year by Crawford Freightlines
• Werris Creek to Port Botany, NSW: 230,000 tonnes/year by Crawford Freightlines
• Bordertown and Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal, SA: Bowmans Rail

Footnote: log wagons

Moving logs by container on standard flat wagons is a lot more flexible than constructing dedicated log wagons, which Freight Australia discovered when trying to expand their fleet.

Freight Australia found a new emerging market in transporting plantation logs and to capitalise, the Sale to Bairnsdale line had to be reopened. For the log business to expand, wagons that could carry logs were in urgent demand.

In order to satisfy this demand, older disused container flats, open wagons and louvre vans were all identified as having the potential to be converted into log wagons by having their sides and canopies removed. Further checks were undertaken to determine the suitability of each wagon to support the load where the stanchion cradles were to be attached.

The container flats and the open wagons proved straight forward, however, the VLEX louvre van design had to be analysed as its canopy needed to be fully removed. The analysis revealed, as with many of the original PTC wagons, that the center sill on the vans actually took 95+ % of the load.

The cradle frames for the logs were then designed so that they could be huck bolted onto the various wagon classes, this allowed for easy replacement if damaged and the ability to convert these wagons back to container flats if the need arose.

Flexibility and the ability to convert wagons readily for any commodity was a bonus for these wagons however, unlike previous log wagons built, these wagons were not fitted with bulkheads. To fit bulkheads to these wagons would mean excessive extra costs, shorten their effective carrying load length and reduce their flexibility. To enable these wagons to be accredited for operation in Victoria, Freight Australia had to demonstrate the safe securing of the logs namely in the longitudinal direction without bulkheads being fitted.

The ROA Manual of Engineering Standards and Practices requires an overall load sustaining minimum capacity in the longitudinal direction equal to the gravity force of the load multiplied by 4. i.e. survive a 4G de-acceleration. Freight Australia demonstrated the safety of these wagons, loaded with logs and why bulkheads were not required by: –

• Carrying out impact trials of Log wagons to determine the load movements at speeds between 8kph to 15kph. These dramatic test could not replicate 4G as to do so would have meant destroying a wagon however, it did demonstrate the controlled way the load shifted. The mass of the logs tied down and jammed between the stanchions and the friction between the logs meant the log movements were contained within the outline diagram and none of the logs broke away from their total mass;

• Modelling the forces and the loads required to move the loaded logs between the stanchions and calculating the sufficiency of the log restraining systems;

• Reviewing other Log Transporters and their practices. This included the American Railroads, who are governed by the AAR guidelines, and more importantly our competitors in the road industry who follow the Department of Transport Guidelines. Both operations aren’t required to operate their vehicles with bulkheads.

Further reading

• Shipping and handling costs for Australia’s wood product exports

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Victorian police harass SA motorists for not displaying vehicle registration stickers

David Nankervis
Sunday Mail (SA)
September 22, 2012

South Australian motorists are being fined by Victorian police for not displaying registration stickers – despite the labels being abolished more than a year ago.

Concerns that hundreds of Adelaide fans who drove to Melbourne for yesterday’s AFL preliminary final would be targeted by Victorian officers ignorant of SA’s rego laws prompted an appeal on Friday by Public Sector Minister Michael O’Brien to Victorian Police Minister Paul Ryan.

“The South Australian Government would appreciate a reminder being issued by Victoria Police command to officers of the legal situation and their ability to verify registration by entering licence plate details into the electronic database,” Mr O’Brien wrote on Friday.

Yesterday, he said some Victorian police were “causing aggravation and inconvenience for SA motorists” who are not breaking the law: “There is no offence committed and Victorian police should damn well know that and there’s no excuse so it’s a case of harassment.”

Independent State MPs John Darley said he knew of two motorists who were fined in the past four weeks. “I understand they had to get confirmation from motor registration that their cars were registered and send that to Victoria Police to have the fines withdrawn,” Mr Darley said.

Stawell police acting sergeant Mark Stevens admitted yesterday there had been an “anomaly” where SA motorists had been fined after the law change. “We had a statewide email go out (approximately two months ago) saying SA motorists were not required to have a sticker,” he said yesterday.

However ignorance of interstate laws isn’t a one way street, if this fifty year old newspaper article is anything to go by:

Warning on registration labels

The Age
Jan 23, 1963

South Australian police are prohibiting Victorian motorises from crossing the border if their vehicles do not bear current registration labels.

This warning was given by the Mildura RACV representative (Mr K. Wright). He said it was not sufficient for motorists to prove they had sent fees to the Motor Registration Branch.

He said an Irymple man who had paid his registration and third party fees to the RACV for forwarding had been stopped at the border near Renmark recently. Mr. Wright said police would not let him proceed even through he had the RACV receipt to prove that he had paid his registration.

This man had to return to Mildura and pay for interim registration. He would then have to wait six months for a refund of the second outlay.

Mr. Wright said hundreds of Victorians would be crossing the border this week to go to the fourth Test, which behinds on Friday. Unless the registration labels on their vehicles were current they would not be allowed to cross the border he warned.

A case of the boot on the other foot?

Recognising vehicle registrations between Australian states has a long history – the Victorian Motor Car Act 1932 describes a convoluted process for motorists to follow on crossing the border:

The Visitor

72. The driver of a motor car registered in another State of the Commonwealth shall on entering Victoria present such motor car at the nearest practicable police station and produce to the member of the Police Force in charge thereof the current certificate of registration of such motor car and the licence of such driver, and shall lodge with such member of the Police Force an application in the form or to the effect of the form contained in the Fifteenth Schedule hereto for a permit to use such motor car in Victoria.

If such member of the Police Force is satisfied that the motor car will be in Victoria temporarily only and that it will not,be used for the carriage of passengers for hire or goods for hire or in the course of trade whilst in the said State, he may issue to the said driver or owner a permit in the form of the Fifteenth Schedule hereto for the use of such motor car in Victoria for a period not exceeding two months or for such shorter period for which the permit is required : Provided that in each case such motor car is registered in such other State for the period covered by the permit.

Thankfully in the years since, the process for motorists crossing state borders has been simplified – the Victorian Road Safety (Vehicles) Regulations 2009 detail the reciprocal arrangements between states:

Exemption for vehicles temporarily in Victoria

131. Exemption for vehicles temporarily in Victoria

A vehicle is exempt from the requirement to be registered if-

(a) the vehicle is in Victoria temporarily; and

(b) the vehicle is-

(i) registered in another State, a Territory or a foreign country; or

(ii) permitted to be used in accordance with a law in force in another
State or a Territory relating to the use of unregistered vehicles
(including a law relating to trade plates); and

(c) the vehicle is carrying, conspicuously displayed in the required way
and condition, all number plates and labels that it is at that time
required to carry-

(i) for a vehicle registered outside Victoria, in the State, Territory or
country in which it is registered under the law of that State,
Territory or country; or

(ii) for an unregistered vehicle permitted to be used in another State or a
Territory, in that State or Territory under the law of that State or
Territory; and

(d) for an unregistered vehicle permitted to be used in another State or a
Territory, the vehicle is being used in accordance with any conditions
of any permit or other authority that apply in that State or
Territory, to the extent they are capable of being applied to the use
of the vehicle outside that State or Territory.

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