Padraig
Re the two close hills for the use of the par-threes.
I recall one of Tom Doak's answers to discussion about possible architectural styles. I had noted that there are times when MacKenzie gets a degree of congestion in his routing. The hub-and-spoke style that MacKenzie often uses, with holes and tees adjacent to each other (think of Valley Club and these par 3's and the adjacent par 4's, think of CPC and the #3, #6, #9 and #11 green complex, think of Alwoodley #6, #13, and #7, #14 greens) are examples of this.
Tom's comment was that MacKenzie endeavoured to use the best features available as much as possible.
When I look at his re-routing at Royal Adelaide, the most congestion occurs because the greens are located near the best sites. Again, think of #3 green to #4 tee-shot to #6 green/#7 hole to #12 hole to #8 tee to #11 green (the crater). Even the congestion of #15 green and the line of play on #18 tee-shot is due to the great feature selected for #15 green.
David, I may post some more Valley Club photos later tonight. There are a number of back bunkers, not as severely flashed up as some at Pasa and Cypress Point, but similar to others. I have a couple of close-up photos showing the proximity of the bunker to the putting surface. Some are very adjacent to the green edge with short grass all the way, others are a bit further away (more like Augusta #13) perhaps with some long grass intervening (IIRC).
James B