Bundaleer Weekend: Jamestown in the Mid North Region of South Australia

Hidden amidst the sprawling farmland of the State's mid-north, there's a small slice of South Australian history... the pretty little town of Jamestown. With its charming collection of buildings and incredibly wide main street - 3 chains wide in fact, the length of 3 cricket pitches, Jamestown straddles the Belalic Creek. The picnic ground is in the shadows of giant redgums planted by the town's first Mayor, Doctor John Cockburn who went on to become Premier of South Australia and a strong supporter of Federation. But Jamestown is famous for something else too.

"While strolling through the park one day...in a moment my poor heart was stole away."

The nationally acclaimed Barber Shop Quartet - just a taste of more than 200 musicians, dancers, singers, poets and performers who'll converge on nearby Bundaleer Forest next weekend for an autumn weekend of celebrations and country hospitality.

And what a setting. The yellows, golds and reds of the oaks and elms put on an annual show too good to miss. The Bundaleer Forest, like nearby Jamestown has its place in history too - it's Australia's oldest plantation forest.

“Some of these oaks, ashes, elms and sycamores and so on come from back when it started, 1876, like this one that's fallen over could've been from then. The pioneer foresters were looking for a timber that they could grow commercially, successfully in South Australia. eventually they settled on a Californian tree, Pinus Radiata which is our main softwood timber these Days”.

While today's machines make light work of the thinning process, other parts of the forest, where the timber industry pioneers experimented with their plantings have been preserved.

So too, have places like the Conservator's Hut. It was built by a canny Scot, John Ednie Brown, South Australia's first Conservator of Forests - a true greenie, he was a 19th century Trees for Life supporter.

Next weekend, John Brown's legacy, the Bundaleer Forest will become a giant stage for performances by the likes of Yvonne Kenny, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Australian String Quartet, the Borderers - the list goes on.

"You fill up my senses like a night in the forest."

The natural amphitheatre of the picnic ground makes an ideal venue - as does the rest of the forest.

It all begins in Jamestown on Friday afternoon and continues throughout the entire weekend. For more information contact the Bundaleer Weekend Event Office at the Belalie Art gallery in Jamestown

Bundaleer Weekend, 22-23 Mar 2003, Details (08) 8664 0455.