Then and now: Aerial photos show SA landmarks nearly 100 years on

A dream of replicating near century-old aerial imagery of our state has delivered a unique perspective on SA’s landmarks. See the side-by-side images here.

Flying enthusiasts Paul Dare and Denis Parslow have replicated aerial photos taken of SA landmarks.

At face value, it sounds like a simple task.

Their goal was to fly over various South Australian landmarks to replicate aerial photos taken nearly a century earlier.

It was a concept flying enthusiasts Paul Dare and Denis Parslow hatched over a casual conversation nearly 10 years ago.

The friends were intrigued by an historic collection of images of Adelaide and its surrounds taken by prominent South Australian aerial photographer Douglas Darian Smith in the 1920s and 1930s.

So they set up an advisory board to select the best images to replicate, then jumped into Mr Dare’s four-seater, single engine Piper Warrior and took to the skies.

That was in 2016. It soon dawned on them that this wasn’t going to be a quick process.

“We quickly realised this is going to be a lot harder than we thought,” Dr Dare said.

“Just trying to get the aircraft in the right place, get the photograph just right and mixing that with good weather conditions, the right time of year, air traffic control and also the challenge of just getting a good photograph.

“So it became a very long project. We did a lot of flying and took a lot of photos that we were very pretty with.”

Dr Dare and pilot and photographer and Mr Parslow his “project manager” sitting next to him, the duo took pictures of about 100 Adelaide and regional SA landmarks.

Each shot involved a complicated operation of lining up the plane with a landmark below, pointing a camera through a tiny open window and then hoping they got the shot.

They only had a few seconds to get each image, and if it didn’t work the first time, they often needed to negotiate with traffic control for permission to repeat the procedure.

In the process of comparing their images with that of Darian Smith, they gained a unique perspective of how South Australia has changed over the years, especially in suburbs such as Edwardstown, Glenelg and West Lakes.

“One of the photos that shows the biggest difference is a photograph of Edwardstown that was taken in the 1920s, when it was basically vineyards and market gardens and you can see the city of Adelaide in the distance,” Dr Dare said.

“But it’s basically all farming. But the picture now – it’s all houses and factories. There’s very little green space. It’s a huge difference.

“We really got to appreciate the fact that Adelaide was a city on its own and Glenelg was a town on its own, Henley Beach was a town on its own.

“Another one that stands out was West Lakes. The early picture of West Lakes is of a swampy marshland and the modern picture is a 2000-metre rowing course, modern housing and a shopping centre.”

Though most of the landmarks are near Adelaide, Dr Dare and Mr Parslow ventured as far as Robe, Victor Harbor, Goolwa, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Renmark to replicate the photos of their predecessor.

And now, seven years after they took their first photo, the duo has released a book South Australia from Above, which also includes a biography of Darian Smith written by his granddaughter Kate Darian-Smith, a history professor at the University of Tasmania.

South Australia from Above will be available in bookstores in December but is available to order from Wakefield Press for $79.95.