h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

the article is conservative in its estimation of the size of adelaide's city parklands. the average exent of the parklands outwards from the cbd is closer to 1km than 500 metres. this gives an encirclement of the city of parklands somewhere close to 15 square kilometres. this does not include the parklands internal to the cbd which would add perhaps another square kilometre or so of parklands again.

the parklands are not evenly distributed, so to the west of the city there is generally speaking less parks than the other points of the compass. but regardless of which perimeter of the city you start from, the minimum walking time you would spend at normal pace would be about 20 minutes before you hit suburbs.

were you to walk north, and miss the city adjunct of north adelaide, the walk would probably take you about 2 hours.

i thought this an important modification to the article because i doubt many cities in the world can claim such a vast expanse of parklands, and walking and cycling through these are marvellous. a triumph of city planning.

importantly, the parklands have immense variety. the southern parklands are essentially as the place was before settlement, excepting the occasional incursion of sporting facilities. great place to walk among the trees and native grasses that would have existed on the banks of the torrens prior to white settlement. the northern parklands starts with the cultural precinct: zoo, botanical gardens, arts centre etc and is a fine example of how white settlers were thinking with regards to re creating a european environment in a new country.

for those thinking of visiting adelaide, it is my opinion that autumn is the most beautiful time.

and while i remember, the torrens is really a lake created by locks on the river, which would otherwise be little more than a small creek or stream. the banks of this have been turned into a 'linear park' for most of its course. this is perhaps 15 kms as the crow flies and would take the better part of a day to walk. again, it is very beautiful. if added to the area of the parklands it would contribute substantially to that figure.

The distance across the parklands is a cannon. So theorectically you could fire a cannon of the type available to William Light from the House of Parliament to the Cathedral directly north of it without any damage to the Adelaide Cricket Oval. North terrace is one mile from South terrace and East Terrace is a mile from West Terrace. Well - ït was when Light planned it.

that is what we were all taught in school. in reality it is nearly exactly 1 mile from south to north terraces, but from west to east terrace it is closer to 2 miles.

the parklands continue on around the north adelaide precinct so far as fitzroy tce, increasing the extent well beyond cannonball range.