TheRamblingWombat Port Adelaide

Port Admiral Hotel and Coach House

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The hotels and drinking establishments covered in my heritage pub trail (crawl) review all had one thing in common. They were in operation and awaited your business.

I am delighted to report that the Port Admiral Hotel which closed in 2006 and has lain derelict ever since has been renovated and it opened for business again in November 2017. It should certainly be added to your trail (or, as the case may be, crawl). Lest you wonder, my attached pictures of the hotel are in its pre-renovated state! Continue reading “Port Admiral Hotel and Coach House” →

TheRamblingWombat Port Adelaide

Not Really a Boer War Memorial

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While classified as a Boer War Memorial by the tourist authorities this is not actually a memorial. Rather it is a plaque on the wharf adjacent to the Port Adelaide Lighthouse, maarking the point from which the first contingent of South Australian Infantry boarded the PS Yatala, for subsequent transfer to the troopship Medic, as they set out for South Africa on 31 October 1899. The plaque was placed here in 1999 to commemorate the commencement of the Boer War one hundred years earlier in 1899. Continue reading “Not Really a Boer War Memorial” →

TheRamblingWombat Port Adelaide

Poverty Corner

37Come back with me 100 years, if you will.

As you may have picked up from others of my reviews, Port Adelaide was, by the end of the 19 century and into the 20th century a thriving Port and many people were making lots of money – but not everyone.

Work at sea and within the port was hard, the hours were long, working conditions were seldom good and the pay was poor. This was especially so for unskilled labourers. Trade unions were only in their infancy in the late 1800s and social security payments were unheard of. Continue reading “Poverty Corner” →

TheRamblingWombat Port Adelaide

Workers Memorial

25Port Adelaide has, since the 1830s when Colonel William Light, the first Surveyor-General of the Colony of South Australia and designer of Adelaide, decided that it and Adelaide should be distinct separate entities, always been a blue collar or working class area. The gentry resided in Adelaide. This division, by and large, remains to this day.

Outside socialist countries one rarely comes across grand or tasteful monuments or memorials to the working classes. It was thus somewhat of a surprise when I came across this memorial and determined that it was to the working man (and indeed woman). Continue reading “Workers Memorial” →