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Published on 16 September 2024

Award-winning Onkaparinga

This spring, our regular column celebrates local winners in sport, art, heritage, environment, food and wine.

On the winners’ podium

Judo athlete Hannah Bradbury placed fifth in both the Hong Kong and Macau Junior Asia Cups held in August.

Hannah, representing Australia for the first time, was selected after recent successes including two bronze medals at the National Championships in the Gold Coast.

She’s not the only one from her Reynella East judo club, Kazoku Judokan, to meet with success. At the Nationals, ten club athletes represented South Australia, coming away with four gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals.

The judo champs are joined on the winners’ podium by the Tatachilla Lutheran College open boys’ basketball team, who won the School Sport SA shield for division 2.

Also on the podium is the South Adelaide women’s AFL team. In a close match, the team won the SANFLW grand final to take out the flag for the third time in six years.

From frog to photography prince

A photo of a puffy, grit-covered frog by local student Arlo Wallace has been shortlisted in the Junior category of the Nature Photographer of the Year competition.

Arlo, from McLaren Vale Primary School, took the close-up of Sudell’s frog in South Australia’s Boolcoomatta Reserve when he was assisting with research on the impact of destocking on wildlife recovery.

Sudell’s frog is a medium-sized, burrowing frog and has brown and tan patches, a white belly and amber eyes.

Arlo’s photo Burrowing Beauty can be seen alongside the full collection of shortlisted entries at the South Australian Museum.

A hero of history

Willunga resident Faye Lush is a hero of history – recording and archiving it, that is.

Faye won a runners-up award in the 2024 Bernadette Bean Records Management Service Excellence Award.

She was recognised for more than 40 years of volunteer work at the research library, historical archives and heritage collection of the Willunga Branch of the National Trust of South Australia.

She was particularly commended for adopting digital and modern technology to improve the reach and usability of the collection.

Eating it up

Maxwell Restaurant in McLaren Flat has been named South Australia’s Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveller.

The win adds to the restaurant’s other recent successes: Three Chef Hats in the 2024 Australian Good Food Guide Awards and Best Regional Restaurant in South Australia in the delicious.100.

Not to be outdone, CJ’s Bakery continued its winning streak with first prize for its white block loaf and third for its sausage rolls at the 2024 Royal Adelaide Show.

Already this year the Christies Beach bakery has accrued national and state plaudits for its jam donuts, ciabatta loaves, and prawn and sweet chilli pies.

Making the environment the winner

A project to map urban heat and tree canopy across metropolitan Adelaide won the regional industry Environment and Sustainability Award at the 2024 Geospatial Excellence Awards.

To date, the study has found a small increase of tree canopy since 2018, with canopy now covering 17 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide and 20 per cent of the Onkaparinga region.

The Urban Heat and Tree Canopy Mapping Project is run by Green Adelaide and the Department for Environment and Water, with local government partners including the City of Onkaparinga.

The 2024 SA Climate Leaders Awards recognised two initiatives with local links.

A study analysing trees across greater Adelaide and identifying their vulnerability to a changing climate, diseases and pests won the Research Award. The Future Trees Climate and Biosecurity Vulnerability Benchmarking Study used data from 20 councils, including the City of Onkaparinga.

Biodiversity McLaren Vale won the Business and Industry – Community Award for its efforts in rehabilitating native landscapes and waterways and increasing indigenous biodiversity in McLaren Vale.

Earlier this year Biodiversity McLaren Vale won the Australian Community Partnerships Landcare Award at the 2024 SA Landcare Awards.

The sweet taste of victory

Beresford Estate’s Emblem Fiano 2023 has been named the premier Fiano across the globe after earning a 95-point gold medal at the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards.

The McLaren Flat winery has previously won national and international recognition for its Beresford Classic Shiraz 2019 and its Limited Release Shiraz 2015, as well as Best Accommodation award in the South Australian 2023 Best of Wine Tourism Awards.

Two local wines won accolades in the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Awards: Thistledown Wines’ took out the 2025 Grenache and Blends of the Year for its This Charming Man Single Vineyard Clarendon Grenache 2023 and MMAD Vineyard’s Blewitt Springs Chenin Blanc 2022 gained a high score in the other wines and blends category.