Phil Salter – Can’t See For Looking

Phil Salter’s “Can’t See For Looking” is a song about Adelaide’s river Torrens and how it has been denigrated since 28 December 1836 when Adelaide city was founded. The singer is sympathetic to and hypothesises about how the Kaurna people, the original inhabitants and traditional owners of the Adelaide Plains, past and present, might feel about the current state of the river.

The song say’s: “I can’t believe your grief, I can’t believer the stolen beauty, the river was deep, it’s banks were steep” and quotes Adelaide’s founder Colonel Light’s comment “Much might be made of this little stream”.

The river supported the Kaurna people’s survival needs but after European settlement changes were made to streams that fed into the river, native vegetation was removed, riverbanks eroded, and the water became polluted.