We discovered the Bowden Bird Walk totally by accident when we went to visit a brewery in the Bowden area. We were walking around the suburb digesting our lunch ahead of the brewery visit when we came across a Stobie Pole with a bird painted on it.

If you are not from South Australia then you may not know about the Stobie Pole – a power line pole design that was invented in SA to use instead of wooden poles (because the local timber was not suitable for making poles). Stobie Poles are special because they have a flat concrete surface on each side which is ideal for painting or covering in tiles. For this reason, many Stobie Poles across South Australia have been decorated with some kind of artwork.

The Bowden Bird Walk is one such collection of poles which have been decorated with bird mosaics to form a ‘self-guided art trail’ around the suburb of Bowden. The pole that we were admiring in Bowden wasn’t actually part of the official Bowden Bird Walk – it had been painted by a person living in a nearby house. But when the owner of the house saw us taking a photo of it, he came over and told us about the actual Bowden Bird Walk – which was just around the corner.

We promptly headed over to the walk area and spent a pleasant 40 minutes or so walking around and looking at all the Stobie Pole bird mosaics – which were created by a group of local volunteers.