Health . The
Burnside War Memorial Hospital is the only
community hospital in Burnside. Otto Georg Ludwig van Rieben offered his Attunga property for use as a community hospital free of charge in 1944. The council had first suggested building a community hospital in August 1943 as part of its Post-War Reconstruction and Development Committee; it was to cost no more than 100,000 pounds and be a memorial to honour Burnside's war dead. In April 1949 the first conversion of van Rieben's home was complete and the hospital was caring for 21 patients. The hospital closed for a month in 1956 and when it reopened was given its present name: The Burnside War Memorial Hospital. The hospital is not-for-profit and reinvests all surplus into upgrading facilities, equipment and services. The
Queen Victoria Hospital on the corner of Fullarton Road and Grant Avenue in
Rose Park opened in 1902 with a grant of 2,550 pounds. It was originally known as "The Queen's Home" as it opened on the birth day of
Queen Victoria, (24 May). It was renamed in 1939 to the "Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital" and under the
Hospital Benefits Act of 1946 became a
public hospital. It operated until 1995 when it was amalgamated with the
Women's and Children's Hospital and the original building was sold and converted into apartments. Over 250,000 South Australians began their lives at the hospital.
Transport The area was originally served by horse-drawn buses and trolleys but it was electric trams and trolley buses that led to the development of Burnside as a suburban residential area. Burnside is located at a transport crossroads for national freight movements. Freight traffic from
Victoria diverges down
Glen Osmond and
Portrush Roads upon entering the metropolitan area via the
South Eastern Freeway (formerly
Mount Barker Road). Both roads carry an almost equal amount of freight traffic, Glen Osmond leads to
Adelaide Airport and
Outer Harbor while Portrush Road connects to the northern industrial suburbs, the state's north,
Western Australia and the
Northern Territory. In addition, they act as major commuter arteries for the
Adelaide Hills and form the eastern part of Adelaide's outer bypass route. The current South Eastern Freeway was completed in 1999 and Portrush Road saw an extensive upgrade throughout 2003–2004. Other major commuter roads include
Kensington, Magill and
Greenhill Roads, which run east–west. Glynburn and Fullarton Roads provide secondary north–south corridors, the former runs close to the foothills and alleviates congestion on Portrush while the latter forms part of Adelaide's inner bypass route. Maintenance of the extensive road network is a
State Government responsibility; the
federal government provides funding for nationally important
AusLink routes. Council provides recommendations to projects and participates in the upkeep of the curbs, frontage, footpaths and minor signage. Burnside residents rely overwhelmingly on cars as a means to travel to work; 64.3% drive their own vehicle and 5.6% are a regular passenger in one. 5.8% use public transport, in the form of
Adelaide Metro buses, for their commute; 1.2%
bicycle and 2.3% walk. Non-vehicular travel is on the rise, with usage higher than the Adelaide average and an increase in persons doing so between 1996 and 2001. 38% of Burnside households own one vehicle, 26.8% own two and 12.3% own three vehicles or more. Burnside and suburbs east of the city were served by an excellent tramway system that was shut down in the 1950s. With the advent of widespread automobile travel in the mid-20th century there was a tendency for motorists to use local roads in suburbs adjacent to the
CBD for their commute home. 'Rat trails' of cars sneaked through narrow side-streets, presenting traffic bottlenecks. This was a particular problem for some western Burnside suburbs because of their location. Various traffic control methods were put in place (closing streets, speed bumps, lowered
speed limits,
roundabouts) to counter these problems; this forced the re-routing of traffic onto major thoroughfares.
Utilities Burnside is connected to the Adelaide water, power and gas mains. Until recently, many of the foothills suburbs did not have access to sewage systems and used septic tanks. This had been rectified in the last decade in a partnership between
SA Water and the Burnside Council.
SA Power Networks is the Electricity Distributor, with approximately 10 retailers. Burnside derives its electricity via the Adelaide grid from a gas-fired plant at
Torrens Island. Burnside's water supply is gained from the Adelaide area reservoirs:
Mount Bold,
Happy Valley, Myponga, Millbrook, Hope Valley, Little Para and South Para. Further water demands result in the pumping of water from the
River Murray. The provider of water services is by the government-owned SA Water. In early times, Burnside's creeks contributed to Adelaide's water supply. With enlarged
market gardens upstream in the
Adelaide Hills the water level and quality dropped and this was no longer feasible. Council maintenance services are located at the Council Depot on Glynburn Road in the suburb of
Burnside. ==References==