Sensational-Adelaide.com

It's all happening at the Port...
I visited Port Adelaide on the weekend, joining many others in checking out the City of Adelaide clipper ship hull, which had received a lot of media attention during the week. It is currently resting on a barge at Port Dock One.

ABC News:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-03/h ... ya/5233636

It's a great sight. Bigger and in better condition than I had imagined! Great tourism potential, if $$ are forthcoming for further restoration and interpretation. Another attraction alongside a rejuvenated Hart's Mill and Maritime Museum and the grand old buildings and warehouses of the Port.

On the weekend, the Port was lively. There was a car club display, with band playing, buskers on the wharf, adding to the atmosphere, and dolphin cruise operators at work. One future highlight being advertised was the arrival of the cruise ship, Queen Mary 2 on Monday March 10.

More on the cruise season.
Biggest ship arrives for South Australia's biggest cruise season
http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/ ... se-season/

The largest cruise ship, Voyager of the Seas', operating in Australian waters will arrive in Adelaide tomorrow (Wednesday) bringing 5000 passengers and crew. Known as a ‘floating hotel’, the Voyager of the Seas ...
... measuring 311m long and weighing 138,000 tonnes, ... has 15 decks, 10 pools and 14 bars, pubs and lounges.

Minister for Tourism Leon Bignell said the passengers would visit Adelaide, the Barossa, Adelaide Hills and Glenelg, bringing a significant economic boost to the State.
“Cruise ships are a rapidly growing industry for South Australia, with this summer being our biggest yet."

“Tomorrow’s visit is one of 29 cruise ship visits to South Australian ports over the 2013/14 season, bringing 67,000 passengers and crew and contributing an estimated $14.5 million to the State’s economy.”

The number of cruise ships visiting South Australia is expected to grow even further, with 36 visits already scheduled for the 2014/15 season, bringing more than 97,000 passengers and crew.
“This means our goal to attract 30 ships and $11 million in passenger expenditure by 2014 has already been exceeded and we are well on our way to our 2020 goal of attracting 43 ships and $17 million,” Mr Bignell said.

The Voyager of the Seas is the first of the three largest ships operating in Australian waters to visit Adelaide this summer, with Celebrity Solstice arriving on Sunday February 16 and the Queen Mary 2 on Monday March 10.

It is the third time the Voyager of the Seas has visited Adelaide, after two trips last season. The mega-liner will visit again this year, on Sunday March 23.

The Voyager of the Seas is expected to arrive at the Port Adelaide Passenger Terminal at 6.30am tomorrow, and will spend 11 hours in port, departing at 6.00pm.

http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/ ... se-season/
One impediment....
The forecast maximum temperature for tomorrow has now been adjusted - to 43°C. Seriously hot!

Interesting report on why Port Adelaide rejuvenation should be a vital priority for the new state government...
In particular, differing views expressed by state politicians, Chapman (has not read the Port Adelaide Precinct Plan) and Close.
And the Semaphore Mainstreet spokesperson pushing for the Liberals to support a tram line down Semaphore Rd.

MAJOR projects to rejuvenate Port Adelaide must be prioritised by whichever party forms government, local business and political leaders say.

Consultation on the Port Adelaide Precinct Plan and a rezoning plan for the area closed (Tuesday, March 18).
A public consultation meeting about the rezoning, which would allow for buildings up to five storeys around the inner harbor, the wool stores and shopping centres is planned for April 8.

Liberal planning spokeswoman Vickie Chapman would not comment on the Port Adelaide Precinct Plan, which also sets out a vision for new parks around the inner harbour and a ferry service on the Port River.
“I haven’t even read it yet,” Ms Chapman said.

“(I don’t know) whether this one is any good or has better options.

“The only thing we’ve seen as a glossy document from the premier and a promise to move Incitec Pivot from the Port, which my grandchildren might not even see.”

...

Semaphore Mainstreet Association acting chair Gail Rogers wanted the Liberals to commit to a tramline down Semaphore Rd to the foreshore.
“This will absolutely help tourism and I believe a tram is the way to go,” Ms Rogers said.

Port Adelaide MP Susan Close said a Liberal government would be “terrible” for the rejuvenation of the Port.
“The government coming in and cutting projects would have a negative impact on the revitalisation of the Port,” Dr Close said.

Ms Chapman said a Liberal government would continue with all projects already started by the current regime.

Herald Sun. Original report via Portside Messenger:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/nation ... 6859883588

I hope the Port River Precinct Plan, albeit with amendments after public consultation, and the re-zoning as per plan, gets the go ahead.

There are many magnificent buildings in the Port which can be restored and re-purposed.
Revitalizing the magnificent Port is way overdue!

From Adelaide Now

Art to light up Port landmark Hart’s Mill to mark the launch of new markets

Images will be projected onto Hart’s Mill this weekend, to mark the start of markets in the precinct. Source: Supplied


HART’S Mill will stand out like a beacon along the Port River this weekend when colourful images are projected on to its 1855-fascade.

The artwork will celebrate the opening of new markets along the docks.

Wild at Hart Fresh Food Market will open this Sunday (May 11) and attract stallholders from as far as Gawler and the Barossa and Clare valleys.

TELL US BELOW: What do you think the Hart’s Mill buildings should be used for in future?

There will also be cooking demonstrations from celebrity chef Callum Hann.

A free 25-minute animation and sound show by SA production company Illuminart, titled Hart’s Mill Reanimated, will be beamed on to the mill and played continuously from sunset to 10pm this Friday and Saturday night to celebrate the opening.

Illuminart director Cindi Drennan said about 25 artists, volunteers and musicians had worked on the lighting show.

“Port Adelaide is a great spot for illuminated artwork because it is dark at night and there’s not a lot of light pollution from buildings and traffic,” Ms Drennan said.

“And Hart’s Mill being opened up is ideal, the building becomes part of the story of the show.”

Adelaide’s food truck festival Fork in Road will also stop by on Saturday from midday to 9pm and there will be live music, face painting and a petting zoo on both days.

The area around the mill had been vacant since the 1980s but the State Government has spent about $1 million on works, including the new market area, a playground and a lawn with shaded barbecue areas.

The Wild at Hart markets will be held every Sunday, 9am-1pm.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 6910173566

I had a look at the 'City of Adelaide' at the Port today.

I was disappointed to hear that the custodians of various tourism assets at the Port still can't get their heads around the idea of working together towards a common goal of making Port Adelaide a decent tourist attraction.

The problem is that the City of Adelaide ship people consider the SA Maritime Museum their deadly competition, and vice versa. Kevin Jones, the director of the initially innovative Maritime Museum has fought the City of Adelaide ship project every step of the way. He is worried that the ship will take government funding from his museum, and that if successful, the ship would steal his customers.

Similarly, the 'ship people' want nothing go do with the Maritime Museum, or with the historic inner Port precinct at the heart of which the Maritime Museum sits.

The ship people identify more with Semaphore, and don't even mark the inner Port historic precinct or Maritime Museum on their maps. In fact, the ship's promoters want to build their own reproduction historic port precinct, never mind the real one just across the river. Suck it up, Kevin Jones!

This is from the city of Adelaide web site:

"Fletcher's Slip, with the world's oldest clipper ship City of Adelaide as the star attraction, would make an excellent outdoor/indoor exhibit, and maritime educational and activity centre. We plan to bring the City of Adelaide back to Port Adelaide and establish the clipper as part of such an outdoor Seaport Village, desirably alongside other Adelaide maritime treasures such as the ketch Falie and tug-lighter Nelcebee. The heritage Fletchers Slip is a potential site for such a Seaport Village. The surviving bilge-stone buildings of Fletcher's Slip form a cloistered courtyard around the head of the slip.

A Seaport Village is an experiential education tourist destination where a colonial seaport is recreated so that the visitor can step back in time. It offers ‘sense of place’ and ‘sense of time’ attributes, together with ‘clamber over’, ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ activities. The cloistered heritage courtyard of Fletcher's Slip offers an excellent 'step back in time' venue. The Seaport Village concept is much like the Mystic Seaport - "The Museum of America and the Sea" in Connecticut, USA. In the Australian context, it is much like Sovereign Hill at Ballarat - but focussed on the marine trades instead of the gold trades."

"'The cloistered heritage courtyard' of Fletcher's Slip is code for the fact that the area is completely surrounded by buildings or a massive 12 metre tilt-slab wall. The entire tourist attraction off the make-believe Seaport Village would have to exist out of sight behind the wall and buildings - but what a commercial advantage that will give!

The near invisibility, say the ship's promoters, will give the ship and Seaport Village a huge advantage as a tourist attraction, with none of the terrible problems the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, has being so visible. People will be so much more willing, say the promoters, to buy tickets for an attraction they can't see. The public are put off buying tickets to visit the Cutty Sark, they allege, because they can see its 'vast scale' from public places. The Cutty Sark would raise more revenue, say the City of Adelaide promoters, if visitors had to be 'enticed into a cloistered environment' to see any of it.

They must be joking, you'd think, but it's all there on the City of Adelaide website.

http://cityofadelaide.org.au/the-projec ... -slip.html

I bet the Cutty Sark's tragic visibility and unfortunate 'vast scale' has not put off any of the City of Adelaide team from visiting the restored tea clipper.

'Lionel', from the City of Adelaide team, told me that the City of Adelaide ship was a private project managed by six directors, who wanted nothing to do with the government.

A great start.

I've worked on the Gloucester Docks tourism area in the UK, for the Gloucester City Council architect's office, and I've worked at Mystic Seaport in the US. I have also managed the Rundle Street East End traders association. In each of these places, the idea of different attractions working together was paramount, whether they were buildings and boats, pubs, restaurants and shops or whatever.

The Gloucester Docks and Mystic Seaport succeeded admirably with government help and goodwill, and by cooperating with other nearby attractions. Rundle Street works best when the traders see themselves as parts of a whole.

I suggest that the City of Adelaide ship project will work a lot better if it is planned and operated together with the other attractions in the area, not jealously separated from other venues etc which are considered to be 'competition'.

The real competition for the City of Adelaide ship, and the Maritime Museum, is not each other, but the Barossa Valley, the Fleurieu Peninsula, the North Tce cultural precinct etc. For the Maritime Museum and the ship to pretend the other doesn't exist because one might take funding or visitors from the other is blind, stupid and I reckon, commercially suicidal.

Check out this location map from the City of Adelaide website. Location of the Maritime Museum? The Port Adelaide historic precinct? Not a mention. Incredibly, to the City of Adelaide ship promoters, those entities are 'the enemy', with the ship promoters hoping to build their own, fake 'historic seaport village' at the Fletcher's Slip site while they refuse to acknowledge the real historic port a few hundred metres away. The ship promoters even go to great lengths to tie the ship to Semaphore Road and Fort Glanville!



??? Is there anyone involved here with any expertise in tourism? It seems unlikely. And as for TourismSA, they gave up considering the Port a tourist draw decades ago, dolphins and wrecks aside.

I innocently suggested to 'Lionel' that it might be a great thing if the former dock at the river end of Commercial Road were re-excavated and the ship placed in there,wet or dry, as a centrepiece to the historic Port, with the restored Customs House on one side, maybe as apartments and tourist accommodation, and pubs and cafés on the other side, with people able to walk around and on the ship. His response was that the ship was going to Fletcher's Dock, well outside the Port Adelaide historic precinct and that was that.

I asked 'Why isolate it from the Port's other historic tourism attractions?'. Lionel reiterated that the directors had made their decision, that I was being negative, and told me, not very politely, to go away.

It seems that the six directors of the private City of Adelaide venture and the very long serving director of the Maritime Museum, Kevin Jones, are as bad as each other in their refusal to recognise reality. They are each prepared to sacrifice the future of their 'baby' rather than work with each other.

'We will never have anything to do with them (the state's Maritime Museum),' say the City of Adelaide people, and 'The ship is our competition,' says the Maritime Museum.

Until they fix that little problem, and get a few people on board each venture who have some common sense, the futures they fondly imagine for themselves will never happen, I suggest.

Bluntly, the management of the Maritime Museum and the City of Adelaide ship need to be working with each other, not against each other.

I was thinking they build a museum similar to the Vasa Museet in Stockholm, Sweden. It's a museum built around the ship that's full of artifacts from the ship and from 17th century Sweden.

http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/

Of course when she was raised in 1961 they had the helping hand of the ship being full of artifacts (and human remains) to put in the museum. She was only missing her bronze cannons that were salvaged not long after she went down on her maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbour.

Well, well.

Have a good look at the websites for the Swedish National Maritime Museum and the Vasa Museum. They promote each other! This is from the Swedish National Maritime Museum website (the Maritime Museum is not co-located with the Vasa Museum):

The National Maritime Museum - Learn more about humankind’s efforts to master the sea and the impact of merchant shipping on society, as well as pirates of the past and present and about life onboard. You will find a playroom and a creative workshop for children, as well as a restaurant with a fantastic view. Take the opportunity to discover the museum’s floating museum ships and boat collection near the Vasa Museum—open during the summer.

What's more, visibility seems a priority for the Vasa ship, unlike the 'cloistered environment', ie 'hidden from view behind a 12 metre wall', a situation which the City of Adelaide promoters seem convinced will 'entice' visitors to the relatively remote location to pay up in order to see the ship.

This is from the Vasa Museum website:

The Vasa Museum has become a natural part of Stockholm’s skyline. Its masts rising high above Djurgården have become a beacon guiding curious tourists and Stockholmers alike.

And... the Vasa itself is only metres from several other historic museum ships, attractions which the City of Adelaide managers would surely consider to be commercial opponents, to be ignored and starved of visitors at all costs.

For the record, I think that the arrival of the City of Adelaide in Port Adelaide - sorry, at the top of the 'Semaphore Tourist District' - is a fantastic opportunity to make something good happen, at last, in the Port.

But I have little faith in the present management of the ship or the Maritime Museum to allow that to happen. The council and government seem content to sit back after flipping a few dollars to the basically broke 'arts community' of the Port. There's a big difference between a feel-good light show on the side of of the old mill that Kevin Foley tried so hard to demolish and actually assisting the whole state to capitalise on and develop the tourism potential of what is still one of the world's most intact and attractive old-time urban ports.

Perhaps the problem on the government side is that for its part, it has entrusted the future development of the Port to RenewalSA, the new trading name of the very same Land Management Corporation which made such a mess of the failed Newport Quays development in the Port a few years ago.

Regardless of that bad influence, I cannot think of a better way of ensuring that what's left of the City of Adelaide will gently rot away like the ill-fated Annie Watt ketch than to leave an ideal basis for the future of tourism in the Port to a group which has very litle support from the very people and bodies - notably the Maritime Museum, but including the SA Touriem Commission, the National Trust and so on - whose support you'd think would be essential for a venture such as this.

Here's a constructive alternative suggestion - scrape out a metre or so of the former dock at the north end of Commercial Road (ie the T junction between Commercial Road and St Vincent Street). Plonk the ship in there, in the most visible location in the Port where the community, in fact the whoel state, can say 'That's OUR ship'. The presence of the ship and the people it brings will revitalise the adjacent landowners. Get as many people working on it as you can - work for the dole, apprentices, volunteers, sea scouts, prisoners on day release - whatever. Get an area inside the ship presentable as soon as possible for functions and use it! (This tactic saved the arse of the SS Great Britain resotation in the UK). Get on side the Maritime Museum and the other players.

With no cooperation and with the ship hidden off-location at Fletcher's Slip the project will lose momentum and die.

Sounds like the what the SACA/SANFL used to be like until common sense (and dollars) prevailed.

Sadly, I think you're right.

Unless all the parties in the Port get their act together, the good work years ago of the Bannon government in the historic Port will be wasted as the renovated buildings continue to run down, and the opportunity presented by the City of Adelaide ship will dwindle as the ship itself continues to rot, while piecemeal development continues here and there as land is made available.

We're now into yet another 'plan for the Port', but the rules of the game remain the same. I suggest what is needed is a changer for that game - perhaps some serious tax breaks for appropriate development in the inner port. That might jolt RenewalSA, the major land owners, the council and the government into rethinking their standard mindsets of short term profit into something approaching planning for the future.

Endless public consultations, markets and face-painting afternoons might have a touchy feely appeal to dreamers, but suitable, large scale investment in the future of the place is what is needed. That shouldn't include yet more Newport Quays apartments around a Port that is dead on land and in the water.

A successful example with which I'm familiar is the adaptive restoration of the Gloucester Docks on the River Severn in Gloucestershire. The first thing they created among the old brick buildings was a pub, then public amenities including attractive walkways connecting the various proposed elements of the project to each other, to existing draws such as Gloucester Cathedral and vitally, to car parking. Then came offices, and finally, driven by the activity and demand created by the efforts up to that point, dwellings for sale.

The Port and Gloucester aren't exactly analogous, but are close enough to wonder why, with all our combined planning expertise, we virtually gave the last attempt at a wholistic project to speculative residential builders.

This time, we seem to be tolerating disorder and dysfunction which will most likely result in further opportunistic residential development of whatever land can be found among the decaying old buildings. Hardly a recipe for success.

Just to confirm...

Today I spoke to the Maritime Museum, a business development manager at SA Tourism commission, and a director of the City of Adelaide clipper ship organisation.

The Maritime Museum stressed that it had nothing to do with the ship project, knows nothing about it and could only advise me to look for information on the web.

The SATC business development manager confirmed that SATC had no involvement in the project.

A director of the ship organisation was emphatic that it had nothing to do with the Maritime Museum or the government.

Meanwhile the ship's website is well out of date. It's still looking for donations to bring the ship here. The ship arrived here on 3rd February.

"We need your help to raise $750,000 to bring home the City of Adelaide Clipper Ship from London to her new home in historic Port Adelaide.

We're offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a 'virtual' ticket on the City of Adelaide Clipper Ship's final voyage home. You can donate to become a member of the crew, a passenger or a stowaway or you can send home some cargo."


I'm very much in favour of the project of restoring this ship as a centrepiece to a historical maritime precinct in Port Adelaide. There are numerous successful examples of such precincts around Australia and the world - everyone likes old sailing ships.

But the absolute refusal to cooperate between the state's Maritime Museum, which means the History Trust and government funding, and the ship managers, is not a good omen for the project. The business development manager of TourismSA advised that they have no formal interest in the project either. The website being out of date is not a major issue, but it could indicate a lack of manpower, expertise, time or funds which may be the result of the management's trenchant go it alone policy.

On the ground, this translates into illogical ideas such as the desire of the ship management to build their own fake 'seaport village' around the ship at Fletcher's Slip. Meanwhile, on the south side of the river where the real historical buildings are, vacancy rates are around 30%. Go figure.

With the resistance to criticism and determination to go it alone I have found when talking to the ship project managers, I'm really not sure that they have built the foundation they need to succeed. It's one thing to provide free drinks and photo ops at a dockside party, as the organisation did at a bash for the ship's 150th birthday on 17th May; it's another thing to get the logical, valuable partners, and just as importantly, the community, involved in what will be a long and expensive undertaking. This is not a time for the ship's managers to jealously guard their baby from all and sundry. They need all the help that they can get, I suggest.

stumpjumper wrote:The business development manager of TourismSA advised that they have no formal interest in the project either.

You know why? because TourismSA showing an interest will trigger $$$ handout requests...

Don't get me wrong - I'm on your side SJ. The govt (maybe TourismSA or RenewSA?) could readily catalyse cohesive action with very few $$$ - bring these disparate groups together. Calmly explain that not opting in = being left out. Bang heads if needed. Influencing skills 101.

PFJ or JPF? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE

Very appropriate - Labor Right, Labor Left; Liberal Right, Liberal Left.. GHG? (Good Honest Government) - that bloke over there, all by himself.

Outside & inside the sealed Port Admiral Hotel (courtesy of Steele & Associates)

Beginning of the spark towards the long awaited rejuvenation of the Port?
Port Adelaide should benefit from this planned relocation of some state PS jobs, the spinoff from increased spending in the local economy, job opportunities and associated businesses and the message it gives to the local community.

The item also mentions tendering for 'new office buildings on a 7500 sq m block in Port Adelaide'.

State Government agencies relocated to Port Adelaide

RELOCATING State Government agencies from the city to Port Adelaide over the next three years will drive the district’s rejuvenation and boost jobs and improve business sentiment in the process, community leaders say.

... up to 40 staff from the Primary Industries and Regions SA fisheries and aqua culture division, based at Grenfell St in the city, will be relocated to the Port. The staff, along with employees from National Resources Management board, will form a marine and waste hub along the Port River at a yet to be revealed site.

DPTI
... said in a statement the move forms part of a greater plan to relocate more than 250 government employees from city bases to Port Adelaide by 2017.

The statement also said the reason behind the relocation of some agencies was to spark rejuvenation of the area and help locals get jobs, boost retail spending and attract new businesses.

Read more:
The Australian Hub - News.
http://adelaidehub.blogspot.com.au/2014 ... ed-to.html

sorry I just see it as an awful waste on money, and really will only benefit land owners.

if they are going to de-centralise things they should be moving them to regional areas in attempt to grow capacity there.

I am wondering if the Port Adelaide Football Club could help out in a small way by having some sort "Discover the Port" day using a meet and greet with the players as an inducement. A small gesture (that would cost next to nothing) that could benefit the heart and origins of their football club.
Also if the Power make the AFL Grand Final how about making the Docks Area/ Diamond Corner a gigantic fan site with outdoor large screens showing the game, with all the pubs and businesses in the area open ready to make some money and raising the profile of the area. Please take note SA Government/Renewal SA/Port Adelaide Enfield Council........