December 2002 Volume 83 Number 12 "serving the protectors"
Edited By John Ballantyne

On the Web for Holiday Fun

Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Format: Xbox
www.xbox.com/blinx/default.htm

Meet Blinx, an ultra-hip tabby, who is Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s Mario.

For years Blinx has worked as time-sweeper and janitor at the Time Factory where time is manufactured and managed.

His daily tasks include collecting lost time crystals before they cause glitches in time.

Things are going smoothly until a squad of hover-riding pigs – the Tom-Tom Gang – pilfers time crystals from various worlds and takes a princess hostage.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper puts players in control of Blinx as he decides to take matters into his own paws. Join Blinx on his desperate mission to recover lost time crystals, fight Time Monsters, rescue the princess and restore order to the world.

As Blinx visits various worlds, glitches in time cause no end of mayhem.

Night and day occur simultaneously, buildings are warped to the point of falling over, and things are not as they appear.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper is the world’s first “4-D” platformer, where players control the flow of time – a new feature unique to Xbox – in more than 30 fantastically twisted worlds.

Record actions, play them back and have dual characters co-operate to complete challenges. Throw the world into slow motion while moving about in real-time, fast-forward to achieve goals more quickly, or even rewind the world to gain additional opportunities at completing challenges, opening hidden areas and more.

Warrawong Earth Sanctuary
Stock Rd, Mylor, via Stirling
www.warrawong.com

Just 25 minutes’ drive from Adelaide is the multi-award winning Warrawong Earth Sanctuary, home to an astonishing range of marsupials and native birds and fish.

Tens of thousands visit Warrawong every year.

Experienced guides take you on tours (of about 90 minutes) of Warrawong’s five distinct habitats – dry forest, wetlands, grasslands, scrublands and rainforest – where you can see wallabies, kangaroos, bilbies, bettongs, bandicoots, native fish and birds in their natural settings.

Here, within the bounds of a vermin-proof fence, Australia’s native creatures can flourish without the threat of domestic and feral animals such as cats, foxes and rabbits.

Warrawong is constantly being upgraded and now covers 85 acres. It has a restaurant, craft shop, a platypus dam, three underwater observatories, and boardwalks to allow easier access to the sanctuary and to protect the habitat.

The intent of this conservation facility, explains Warrawong’s founder Dr John Wamsley, is “to give Australian animals a small piece of Australia”.

Birdwood National Motor Museum
Shannon St, Birdwood
www.history.sa.gov.au/bird/birdwood.htm

Only one hour’s drive from Adelaide is the Birdwood National Motor Museum, which boasts the southern hemisphere’s largest collection of cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles.

Here you can view over 400 vehicles dating as far back as 1900.

You can also take a stroll outside the main motor pavilion to the museum’s restoration workshop complex, where you can watch coach-builders and mechanics transform bare shells of vehicles to their former glory.

Currently exhibiting are two displays: Monaro Mania, celebrating the Holden Monaro – an icon of Australian muscle cars for 30 years; and Mota Bella, showcasing early Italian design and influence on cars since the war.

Commencing on January 6, 2003, is Stars of Speedway, displaying some of the great bikes and stories of the legends of the Australian-invented sport of Speedway.

South Australian Maritime Museum
126 Lipson St, Port Adelaide.
www.history.sa.gov.au/samm/samm.htm

A fun way to spend an afternoon is at the SA Maritime Museum. Its wonderful displays and collections of relics provide a dramatic, detailed account of South Australia’s waterborne history since 1836.

These exhibitions tell the story not only of SA’s small coastal trading vessels, but also of the ocean-going liners which brought thousands of migrants to the Great Southern Land.

Check the computerized passenger listings to check on any of your forebears and relatives who might have arrived in the 1840s, 1910s and 1950s.

Presently exhibiting (until January 27, 2003) are the relics of a splendid but ill-starred 17th century Swedish warship, the Vasa. When she was launched in 1628 before crowds of spectators, she fired a salute to Sweden’s King Gustav II Adolphus, and promptly keeled over and sank.

This special exhibition comes to SA from the Vasa Museum, Stockholm, and the National Maritime Museum, Sydney.

A short walk and climb away from the SA Maritime Museum is the South Neptune Island Lighthouse where, from the lamp-room gallery, you can enjoy a seagull’s eye view of Port Adelaide, Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges.

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