Bolivar is an outer northern

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It is located in the City of Salisbury.

History

''Bolivar'' was a

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

built in 1826 in Monmouth by shipbuilder William Lambert. Measuring 108 feet 6 inches in length, 28 feet 2 inches in beam, and 19 feet 10 inches in depth, the vessel had a tonnage of 386, and was registered in London under the ownership of Fenwick. One of the notable voyages of ''Bolivar'' occurred in 1849-1850 under the command of Captain William Murray. The ship departed from London and Plymouth on Thursday, 4 October 1849, bound for Port Adelaide. After nearly four months at sea, ''Bolivar'' arrived at its destination on Monday, 28 January 1850. This journey was part of a series of voyages that connected the United Kingdom to Australia, facilitating the transportation of passengers and goods during the mid-19th century. ''Bolivar'' had previously completed other significant journeys, including a voyage to Hobart Town in 1846. Over its years of service, the ship played a role in the maritime history of the United Kingdom and Australia. The suburb was established in 1956, and was named after the ''General Bolivar Hotel'', which had been built by Walter Walpole, a settler who had arrived in South Australia in 1850 on ''Bolivar''. According to Ronald Praite, Bolivar, South Australia, took its name from the old General Bolivar Hotel, taken from the sailing ship ''Bolivar'' that may have been named after

Simon Bolivar Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

, a Venezuelan soldier who led the revolutions against Spanish rule and liberated several South American countries from the Spanish empire. Simon Bolivar was also known as the Liberator. The Bolivar Post Office in the then rural area opened on 1 July 1905 and closed in 1930. On 13 & 17 March 1910, the first flights in Australia were carried out in Bolivar. The aircraft in operation resembled the Bleriot monoplane that Bleriot famously flew during the historic 1909 crossing from France to England, marking a significant milestone in aviation history.''Salisbury, South Australia, A history of town and district'', By H. John. Lewis, 1980, pp.201-2. On 27 June 1967, a historical plaque and mosaic was strategically placed in a prominent location by the City of Salisbury on the corner of Victoria Dr and Port Wakefield Rd, carefully chosen to commemorate the significant event that occurred on 13 March 1910, known as the Wittber hop.

Geography

Bolivar lies beside

Barker Inlet The Barker Inlet is a tidal inlet of the Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide, South Australia, named after Captain Collet Barker who first sighted it in 1831. It contains one of the southernmost mangrove forests in the world, a dolphin sanctuary, ...

and is bounded on the south by the

Little Para River The Little Para River is a seasonal creek running across the Adelaide Plains in the Australian state of South Australia, whose catchment fills reservoirs that supply some of the water needs of Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Course and features ...

and on the east by

Port Wakefield Road Port Wakefield Highway (and its southern section as Port Wakefield Road) is an important South Australian highway, connecting Adelaide to the Yorke Peninsula, Port Augusta, northern and western South Australia, the Northern Territory and Wester ...

Demographics

The 2006 Census by the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

counted 119 persons in Bolivar on census night. Of these, 63.9% were male and 36.1% were female. The majority of residents (69.7%) are of Australian birth, with an additional 13.4% claiming

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

as their country of birth. The age distribution of Bolivar residents is skewed towards an older population compared to the greater Australian population: 94.1% of residents were over 25 years in 2006, compared to the Australian average of 66.5%.

Facilities and attractions

Waste water treatment plant

The suburb is best known as the location of the Bolivar Waste Water Treatment Plant. Bolivar is the largest of three SA Water sewage treatment plants in metropolitan Adelaide and the largest in South Australia. It produces recycled water which is provided to farmers on the

Adelaide Plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast ( Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of A ...

near

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Methane is collected and used to generate electricity. Bolivar produces 35,000 tonnes of

biosolids Biosolids are solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process and used as fertilizer. In the past, it was common for farmers to use animal manure to improve their soil fertility. In the 1920s, the farming community began also to us ...

which have been supplied to farmers since the 1960s. Bolivar processes 60% of metropolitan Adelaide's raw sewage. The

biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...

produced in the treatment process is used to generate 85% of the facility's annual electricity requirements. Twenty-five gigawatt-hours of electricity is generated by the natural gas-powered reciprocating engines each year. It treats 135 million litres of water per day. Water from the northwestern suburbs is treated separately as it tends to be more saline and not suitable for reuse in irrigation. Waste water that is not used for irrigation of market gardens or reticulation at Mawson Lakes is discharged via an open outfall channel 11 km long near St Kilda at the northern end of the

. Water to be reused passes through an additional Dissolved Air Flotation and Filtration (DAFF) plant commissioned in 1999, and Mawson Lakes reticulated water also receives additional chlorination. The High Salinity Waste Water Treatment Plant is on the Bolivar site, but otherwise a separate facility that replaced a facility at

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

in 2005. There is a dedicated pumped trunk sewer delivering the raw sewage from the former site to Bolivar. it is 17 km long with a diameter of 900mm. Bolivar's treated wastewater contains

pollutant A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effect, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

s that enter the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

estuary. In 2018-19 the most significant pollutants discharged to the marine environment were (by mass):

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

(320 tonnes),

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

(81 tonnes),

fluoride Fluoride (). According to this source, is a possible pronunciation in British English. is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic, Monatomic ion, monatomic Ion#Anions and cations, anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula (also written ), whose ...

(26 tonnes),

boron Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...

(19 tonnes),

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

(12 tonnes) and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

(2.2 tonnes). The

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultur ...

has a dedicated facility adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant that is used for the preparation of large specimens, such as whale skeletons.

Parks

The southern boundary of the suburb runs along the

and includes greenspace and a shared path along the river.

Transportation

Rail

The Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line had a station named Bolivar, which was north of where the

Northern Expressway Northern Expressway (also known as the Fatchen Northern Expressway) is a 21 kilometre long controlled-access highway in Adelaide, South Australia. Since March 2020, the North–South Motorway continues west of Port Wakefield Highway and interse ...

now crosses the railway (and several kilometres from Bolivar). There is still a crossing loop in the vicinity.

Roads

Bolivar is serviced by

, part of the National Highway, and the North–South Motorway, Adelaide's under construction major north–south road route.

Air

On 13 March 1910 during taxiing test by Mr. Wittber the plane (a Bleriot monoplane) became unexpectedly airborne in a hop caused by a gust of wind known as the Wittber hop, four days later Frederic Custance made Australia's first monoplane flight on 17 March 1910 in a paddock at Bolivar, South Australia. In the depicted scene, the City of Salisbury celebrates its heritage with a plaque and mosaic commemorating the Wittber Hop, highlighting the achievements of Australia's first pioneering flights.

References

External links

* {{City of Salisbury suburbs Suburbs of Adelaide Populated places established in 1956