Welcome

Welcome to the story of Lot50-Kanyanyapilla, L50K for short (easier to say, hey). Thanks for making a virtual visit.
There’s a fair bit to see on this site but if you have any queries or if you would like to receive email updates and newsletters please contact me: gavindmalone@gmail.com. Expect four newsletters a year: summer, autumn, winter and spring.
Cheers        Gavin

News

Traditional Owner Land Tenure at Kanyanyapilla
Karl Telfer, Senior Traditional Owner, gianed tenure in August 2021 to a 3.5 ha portion of the Kanyanyapilla heritage site alongside Gavin. Adelaide Catholic Archbishop Patrick O’Regan has made land over to Karl and his descendants for fifty years. This is an historic agreement, The Church made an announcement in its newspaper The Southern Cross, 5^th September, 2021, see: https://indd.adobe.com/view/829107fa-3ac8-45a6-8aaa-e9766f6ab98d
Karl, his family and clan will revegetate the site with the assistance of many in the region who are so supportive of Aboriginal tenure to land and their cultural, spiritual, ecological and economic regeneration. The land tenure will enable a range of cultural activities by Karl and his clan and also cultural sharing and education with the wider community.

Latest Newsletter
L50K Newsletter No. 24. Autumn-Winter 2022 now available

About L50K

Lot 50-Kanyanyapilla is a private, bi-cultural, ecological and cultural regeneration project near McLaren Vale, South Australia. A reed swamp is being rejuvenated and a grassy woodland re-established at a place that is an ancient Kaurna Meyunna campground.

The 16 ha (c.40 acres) parcel of land was acquired by Gavin Malone, artist and cultural geographer, in February 2015. When acquired the property was a mix of neglected pasture and waist-high weeds, hiding two areas of sedge along drainage lines, with almost no mid or upper canopy vegetation. The topsoil is sandy-loam and overlays a large sand deposit which was proposed to be mined. For this reason there had been minimal land management for 30 years.

L50K now features three ecosystem types; a remnant reed swamp, remnant sedge lands and the re-generating grassy woodland. The gently undulating land slopes down about 22 metres from a sandy hilltop in the north-east, 64 metres above sea level, to the Maslin Creek swamp which forms the southern boundary. The swamp area of L50K is about 4 ha (c.10 acres), a small part of the greater 55 ha Maslin Creek swamp. The balance of the L50K land, 12 ha (c.30 acres), has been cleared and used for agricultural purposes for possibly 165 years, agriculture likely commencing in the 1850s. The majority of this, along with the swamp edge, is being extensively re-vegetated. A time-lapse camera, courtesy of Timelapse Adelaide, is recording the progress once a week for ten years.

The majority of the land is a registered Aboriginal heritage site (SA Aboriginal Heritage Act), likely occupied for several thousand years. For this reason dual naming has been adopted. Cultural and archaeological research is ongoing.

A 10 year Regeneration Plan is now six years in and as of 2021 about 6,200 seedlings planted coupled with extensive weed control. The Plan adopts a bi-cultural approach, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, and recognises the cultural practices and traditions of both cultures.

L50K is located on the south-western corner of Pethick and Branson Roads, McLaren Vale, and is bordered on the west by the Victor Harbor Road. It is located in the centre of the Willunga Basin about 40 kilometres south of Adelaide. The Willunga Basin, circa 23,500 hectares (235 sq. km) in size, is prime agricultural and viticultural land.

L50K (black dot), Willunga Basin, South Australia

Six Years Old, 2021
The L50K regeneration project turned six, 15 February 2021. A quick visual review of the land follows:

2006 – August, nine years before purchase

2015 – February, soon after purchase, slashing underway

2016 – Weed control and planting underway, a wonderfully wet winter
2017 – June, 10 year time lapse camera installed

2019 – September, looking good

2021 – February, six years on, happy anniversary

About Gavin
Further information about Gavin can be found at Gavin Malone Visual Artist and Cultural Geographer.

Partners & Supporters
Thank you to the many who support L50K and in particular my main partners & supporters:

Landscape SA, Hills & Fleurieu
For helping with swamp edge regeneration in 2021.

Fox Creek Wines
For providing wines to reward volunteers and others. Nearby neighbours, we share the same creek system and biodiversity goals. Please support them.

Timelapse Adelaide
For providing two time lapse cameras to record the landscape changes over ten years. The weekly photographs will provide a valuable record of plant growth and other changes. Contact Nick Graalman from Timelapse Adelaide contact@timelapseadelaide.com about the services they provide.

Willunga Basin Links
The following groups are involved in community and conservation in the region:
Biodiversity McLaren Vale
Friends of Aldinga Scrub
Friends of Moana Sands Conservation Park
Friends of Onkaparinga Park
Friends of Willunga Basin
Willunga Basin Trail
Willunga Environment Centre

(Old) News
2021, Tim Minchin Planting Day – Short Film
Back in June 2021, Tim Minchin and his BACK tour band and crew spent a day planting at L50K as part of his carbon emissions awareness and responsibility initiative.
A short film about this has been released, see https://www.timminchin.com/greening/

2021, Another Short Film About L50K
There is a short film about L50K on the Landscape SA Hills & Fleurieu Facebook page. Posted on 22^nd April, 2021 with a preview on the 20^th, scroll down to those dates to view. And there’s another on Geoff Hayter & Tess Sapia’s Willunga Creek biodiversity regeneration, posted 15^th April, well worth watching.

2016, Water in the Swamp
In the first week of July 2016 water flowed into the swamp for the first time in a few years. 47 mm of rain fell in 24 hrs following good rains in June. Standing water lasted for several days and then in the third week more rain and more water. And overnight on the last day of the month another 20 mm fell giving the best inflow yet, and water up to 500 mm deep in places. Rainfall for July 125 mm, 55 mm above average.

Feet needed a soak

Swamp plantings get a soak, needed or not

2015, First Open Day
The first Open Day was held on Sunday 22 November, 2015. Over 150 people came along during the day to wander the land. One of the announcements on the day was the Kaurna Meyunna name for the place, Kanyanyapilla. An explanation of the name is available on the Cultural History page.
The concept of Kanyanyapilla is bigger than the land of Lot 50 and Lot 50 encompasses also the post settlement history. Bi-cultural naming, Lot 50-Kanyanyapilla, is therefore being maintained for the place and project and what better than Lot 50 to succinctly describe a relation to land subdivision and ownership from the European perspective. Either or both names can be used as appropriate.

Open Day gathering, Nov.2015