One of the central aspects of Adelaide for me is the Adelaide parklands that surround, and stand in contrast to, the grid of the CBD on all its sides. Though we live in a townhouse in the lawyer precinct of the CBD near the Central Market, we are just two blocks away from the southern parklands that contain Veale Gardens (Walyo Yerta).
We frequent them daily because it is where we habitually walk our standard poodles in the morning and the evening. I don't know much of the history of the parklands but from lived experience we have a good sense of the environmental health and the life--animal and human-- of the parklands from its multiple use.
Most of those parklands have been retained over the last 170 years, whereas most other cities have suffered significantly greater alienation of their parklands over the same period. At long last the south western corner, which had been a barren wasteland with a few trees is being extensively replanted. It---Minno Wirra--- is beginning to become an urban forest.
The parklands are a site of resistance as there is strong and widespread public support against various attempts to encroach on them-- alienate the land---and to develop them. South Australians see them as fundamental to the character and ambience of the city.
The temporary or transient aboriginal camps remind you that Adelaide, as a post colonial settler society, is built on the land of the displaced Kaurna people and is haunted by the dead, both black and white.
The different sections of the parkland have recently been given their original aboriginal names by the Adelaide City Council as part of the reconicliation process. The area continues to be a contemporary meeting place for some Aboriginal people.