Welcome to the gateway to environmental strategies and information about the City of Holdfast Bay. Council is working to protect and enhance the environment in partnership with the community, conservation groups, industry, businesses, educational institutions, landowners, the Patawalonga Catchment Water Management Board and other affiliated groups.

The City of Holdfast Bay includes popular beaches valued by residents and visitors. We are also located at the discharge point of one of Adelaide's largest stormwater catchments and consequently our commitment to promoting sound environmental management extends well beyond our boundaries.

The City is also proud to be the home of extensive marine and terrestrial biodiversity including the Kingston Park Cliff Face Conservation Park, Gilbertson Gully, Barton Gully, Pine Gully and Minda dunes - all unique areas to the City of Holdfast Bay.

Picture: Get involved in planting native trees!

Environmental considerations form a key component of our corporate vision and decision-making processes.

Our environmental policies are developed in consultation with representatives of local residents, businesses, government and environmental organisations.

We hope you enjoy all of the natural features the region has to offer. Please take a moment to learn more about these features and experience their uniqueness first hand.

For a brief overview of the local environment, past and present, checkout The Land, The Climate and The Vegetation.

The Land

The City of Holdfast Bay includes approximately nine kilometres of the most popular beaches of Adelaide. It also includes the interface of the Patawalonga Catchment and Mount Lofty Ranges with the Gulf St. Vincent.

Prior to European settlement the Patawalonga Creek was connected to the Torrens River and Port River through a reedbed system bounded on the west by a wall of sand dunes and to the east by wetlands. It is believed that Sal Cooper, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman on board Colonel Light's vessel the Rapid, provided the origin of the name Patawalonga, which means 'boggy and bushy stretch, with fish'.

The first European settlers led by Colonel Light considered Holdfast Bay to be a great place for a colony but there was much work to be done. Unfortunately, the very geographic characteristics which first enticed settlement also signaled the opportunity for exploitation and human modification.

"Much remains to be done also by proper management of the waters that have hitherto run in natural courses, by collecting them with proper dams, and conducting them through more eligible channels. This will I am sure be one of the finest plains in the world." Colonel Light.

The first three European land owners of the reedbeds modified the land to provide opportunity for crops and grazing pursuits. One of these owners, William Gray detailed his modifications as such:

"The drains I have made have relieved all this land, and where only salt scrub grew there is now hay growing. I have about fifteen miles of drains made, which have cost me thousands of pounds. I have been at it for forty odd years".

Following these modifications to the reedbed system, were the alterations to the Patawalonga tidal estuary in the form of a dam and weir, constructed in 1886. The dam was built to keep seaweed from entering the creek; rotting then smelling, and also to provide a scouring effect when the water was released to the sea. The weir's purpose was to make it safe for small fishing craft to shelter in case of a storm. Since this time, many other water management schemes have been proposed and some carried out, such as the Barcoo seawater circulation scheme. All these structural modifications have resulted in a greatly altered ecosystem and landscape with continuing problems of flooding and pollution to this present day.

Further south of the Patawalonga, is where the plains of Adelaide, Mount Lofty Ranges and coast merge into one. It is here where the City of Holdfast Bay can demonstrate a glimpse into the pre-European landscape design. Kingston Park Cliff Face and surrounding Pine and Barton Gullies are home to a substantial number of indigenous vegetation, along with nearby Gilbertson Gully in Seacliff Park, which is also home to an outcrop of the Brighton Limestone rock dating back somewhere in the vicinity of 650-700 million years old.

Connecting these features with the north is a system of sand dunes, vastly altered with time and development encroachment and yet still a conscious reminder of the past. The Minda Dunes in North Brighton are perhaps the closest example of a pre-European dune formation in the City of Holdfast Bay.

Where once Holdfast Bay was home to rolling sand dunes, a creek lined with Kangaroo honey-myrtle (Melaleuca halmaturorum), vast lagoons fed by fresh water springs and dramatic gullies carving channels to the coast it soon became a place for settlement with commercial operations, tourist facilities and general urban design masking the original landscape.

The Climate

Holdfast Bay is part of the greater Adelaide Mediterranean climate with warm dry summers and cool wet winters. The closest weather station (Bureau of Meteorology) is located at north of the area at Adelaide Airport. Summer temperatures averaging 27°C and winter months around 15°C. As a coastal city it is subject to cool changes where temperatures can plummet from the high 30s to the low 20s in less than an hour. The City receives an average annual rainfall of 450-525mm, which increases moving south east across the Council area. The average rainfall is slightly higher than the northern metropolitan region of Adelaide due to its proximity to the Mount Lofty foothills.

The Vegetation

The vegetation of the City of Holdfast Bay today is quite different to that prior to European settlement. Former vegetation systems can be deduced from existing vegetation found in the remaining sites that support remnant indigenous vegetation and historical sources. The major ecosystems of the landscape for the region were sand dunes, estuarine and open woodlands.

The dune system would have supported grasses, sedges, groundcovers, shrubs and trees, including:

Native poa (Poa poiformis)
Spear grass (Stipa sp)
Pig face (Carpobrotus rossii)
Black anther flax lily (Dianella brevicaulis)
Ruby salt bush (Enchyleana tomentosa)
Bearded heath (Leucopogon parviflorus)
Coast daisy bush (Olearia axillaris)
Coastal boobialla (Myoporum insulare)

The estuarine environment of the Patawalonga and Sturt Rivers would have supported a range of "wetland" type species, such as Bulrush (Typha sp) and Common reed (Phragmites australis).

The open woodland would have comprised of:

Mallee box (Eucalyptus porosa)
Dryland tea tree (Melaleuca lanceolata)
Drooping sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata)
Golden wattle (Acacia pycnanthe)
Round-leaved wattle (Acacia acinacea)
Umbrella bush (Acacia ligulata)
Sticky hop-bush (Dodonea viscose)
Native apricot (Pittosporum phylliraeoides)
Quandong (Santalum acuminatum)

The local environment has been changed immensely due to human activity and the City of Holdfast Bay is committed to improving the natural and built environments, which will benefit the community and future generations. To achieve this, the City of Holdfast Bay encourages the local community to become involved and invites you to join in and take action - become an environmental volunteer and assist in protecting and enhancing our local natural assets. For further information contact the Volunteer Coordinator on 8229 9969.