Pooraka sits about twelve kilometres north of the city, and two things in it drive most of what I see from this postcode.
The South Australian Produce Market. Twenty-two hectares of wholesale fresh produce, and the working pattern that goes with it: very early starts, repetitive lifting, pallets, crates, cold storage, and a job that does not pause because your back is sore. The SA Farmers Market runs on the same site on Sundays from six in the morning.
Market work is one of the hardest jobs on a lower back that exists, and it has a specific problem: the load is high, repetitive and unavoidable. You cannot simply do less of it. That means the rehab has to raise capacity rather than reduce demand, because demand is fixed by the job. It also means the plan has to be built around your actual shifts. I do a fair bit of WorkCover and return-to-work rehab, and the version that works is the one that ends with you able to do the real job, not a lighter version of it.
Lindblom Park. Home of the Pooraka Sporting Club, with grounds for football, soccer and netball, plus cricket nets, tennis courts and a half court. Dry Creek runs through the park, and the Dry Creek River Trail carries on for about fourteen kilometres.
Between the club and the trail, Pooraka sends me the other half of its injuries: hamstrings and knees from the field sports, and lower-leg overload from the trail.
About eleven minutes down Main North Road and across.
