Within our theme we will be celebrating three extraordinary aspects of our wonderful state of South Australia:
Adelaide as a National Park City
The international National Park City Foundation awarded Adelaide National Park City status in 2021. This made Adelaide the first city in Australia and second in the world (after London) to receive the honour.
Adelaide becoming a National Park City is the beginning of a journey to improve city life through everyday actions to enjoy connecting with nature and each other.
Why Adelaide?
Adelaide has been consistently rated as one of the world’s most liveable cities, with amazing food and wine, clean coastlines, beautiful hills, iconic wildlife, as well as national and conservation parks, and local reserves.
Our nature is special and unique, and we already have 30% green space, and diverse wildlife from 1,080 native plant species and 281 native species of birds to 60 native fish species and 47 native mammal species, plus more than 58 species of reptiles.
We also have a community with a love of nature. We know that 95% of Adelaide residents only need to travel around 400 metres to connect with an open, green area.
South Australia as the centre of Australia’s space industry
Home to the Australian Space Agency and over 100 space-related organisations, South Australia is the undisputed national centre of Australia’s space industry.
The Agency is the centrepiece of Adelaide’s new innovation neighbourhood, Lot Fourteen. Lot Fourteen is Australia’s first creation and innovation hub, and is being designed and curated for future thinkers, researchers, entrepreneurs and seasoned business leaders to search and discover together.
Lot Fourteen houses a fascinating mix of some of the world’s fastest growing industries, such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, robotics, defence and space technologies, media and creative industries and more.
South Australia as a great outdoor museum!
South Australia’s Flinders Ranges has been nominated for UNESCO world heritage status.
Home to significant fossil deposits, the region was dubbed “one great outdoor museum” by 20th century explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson.
550 million years in the making, the fossils of Nilpena are the world’s single greatest record of the Ediacaran era, delivering insights into the origins of first animal life on our planet.
“There are places that have parts of the story, and there are places with phenomenal fossils, but the Flinders has this complete packaging that is really accessible. We can go back in time and see how life unfolded. The record is unparalleled,” (Professor and palaeontologist Prof Mary Droser from the University of Southern California.)