Adelaide

When the early colonists arrived and began building Adelaide they used stone. What they had in mind was to build a solid, dignified city. It was to be a civilised and calm place, with a manner that no other state capital in the country could match.

The solidity goes further than architecture, for Adelaide was once regarded as a city of wowsers (read: puritan spoilsports) and was renowned chiefly for its disproportionately large number of churches. These days the churches are outnumbered by pubs and nightclubs.

There is no denying that the city has a superb setting - the centre is surrounded by green parkland, and the metropolitan area is bound by the hills of the Mt Lofty Ranges and the waters of the Gulf St Vincent. Nearby is the Barossa Valley wine region.