Urbex – Page 8 of 46 – Awesome Adelaide

April 6, 2018

Urban Exploring: Hall Of The Dead Tunnel

It was last summer. There was a warm breeze blowing in from the north and the stars were shining brightly in the sky above. Excel and I had just spent a few hours on Black Roof admiring our beautiful city. We’d been here many times before and the views never staled. Adelaide, although not a huge city, is one the most livable cities on the planet, a place I call home, and a place bustling with historical things to see and do.

The night was still young. We came down from the quiet tranquility of our elevated location onto the turbulent streets below. The smell of automobile fumes and fast-food consumed our senses as we flâneured around the city aimlessly. It’s something that I love doing; just walking around the streets admiring some of the older buildings. But this time something on the ground caught my eye. The circular stormwater lid, flush with the pavement, seemed older than normal, as if it were cast 100 years ago.

We casually popped the lid at a quiet moment to investigate further…

By torchlight we could see an underground room flooded with ground water. I looked up at Excel and he immediately knew what my facial expression meant: we were going in and the next 3 hours were booked out solid!

Climbing down into the hidden room wasn’t easy. A protruding wooden block and nearby rusty metal bearer helped with footholds. Managing to get down inside, I slipped into the murky unpleasant-smelling stale water. As I made my way across the room, floating debris in the water circled around me like leaves in a storm. I could see what looked like a tunnel at the furthest end of the room.

Having concluded the un-lit chamber was ‘safe’, I indicated to Excel to come down.

The tunnel was lined with decaying red brick. Several older bunker-style glass domed lights were attached to the wall connected by 1920’s-style conduits bearing the name “G & G“. That in itself gave an indication of how old the tunnel was. Further along the tunnel, a secret panel accessed part of a basement of a building. The ceiling was made of concrete while its base comprised of mud and rock.

We spent a few hours inside taking photos and admiring its features before finishing up just before the break of dawn. We climbed out and I levered the stormwater lid into place to once again hide the entrance to the tunnel below.

It continues to amaze me that just below the streets of Adelaide lies a hidden world of mystery. Places that hardly anyone gets to see. I think we’ve only scratched the surface and Adelaide has more hidden beauty and decay awaiting the curious explorer who chooses to unlock the mysteries of her past.

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February 18, 2018

Urban Exploring: The Port Admiral Hotel

The History

The building was built by Robert Sanders in 1849 (making her 169 years old), who named his hotel “Railway Hotel” assuming his pub would be conveniently located at the end of a proposed new horse-drawn train route down Port Road from Adelaide.

The Railway Hotel, Port Adelaide c.1850.

The horse-drawn railway line was postponed and when gold was discovered in Victoria the local workforce substantially disappeared to try its luck in the eastern colony.

In March 1851, Charles Calton took over the hotel and renamed it the “Port Admiral Family Hotel” having previously operated the “Royal Admiral” hotel in the city of Adelaide.

When the railway to Port Adelaide finally opened in 1856, the Port Admiral was ideally situated between the railway station and the wharf area; and it was on the busiest intersection in the Port. It attracted large crowds and was continually used for community meetings and special events.

Often the basement would be used as a makeshift morgue when the town morgue was full to capacity with bodies.

Rumour has it that a ghost, dressed in the apparel of the 1880’s, makes a regular appearance from time to time.

The Port Adelaide Heritage Precinct

Port Adelaide was declared a State Heritage Area in 1982 because of its extensive collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture. The precinct contains the most substantial and continuous grouping of commercial and administrative colonial buildings in South Australia.

The Port Admiral, being one of those buildings, is the oldest building in Port Adelaide, and the eighth oldest in South Australia.

Abandoned and Derelict

In 2006, the Port Admiral Hotel fell into disrepair and languished abandoned and derelict for the next decade.

The Makeover

It would have been no small undertaking to take on a project of restoring a building such as this one. Availability of building materials, heritage, building rules, regulations, time and budget would have all been a factor throughout its restoration.

But late last year, after two years of renovation, the historic hotel was re-opened.

And what a makeover it was! In just a few short years, the building was transformed from derelict to modern and functional. No easy feat. Well done to all those involved.

The restoration project is proof that older buildings can be restored to their former glory with a little time, dedication and perseverance.

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December 16, 2017

Urban Exploring: The HMS Buffalo Ship / Family Restaurant

THE ORIGINAL HMS BUFFALO

The original HMS Buffalo was originally named the Hindostan and was built on the Hooghly river near Calcutta, India in 1813. She was launched on January 4th, 1813, weighing 600-ton measuring 120ft with a beam of 33ft 10in. After her maiden voyage to Britain, the builders brokered the sale for the Hindostan to the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. She was re-named the HMS Buffalo and refitted as a small warship and mounted with Sixteen 24-pound cannons and two 9-pound long guns.

During her first twenty-five years she was busily engaged in a variety of sea-going duties; among them a merchant ship, store ship, quarantine vessel, troop carrier, colonizing flag ship, and convict transport.

In 1814 she sailed to Bermuda carrying spars, cables, and sails. She delivered ships’ sails to Halifax and Nova Scotia. During 1814-16, she freighted equipment and provisions such as hawsers, bellows, mallets, buoys, handspikes, shovels, paint, anchors, wedges, vinegar and the like to West Indian British colonies, Halifax, Gibraltar and Malta.

In 1831 she was made available to the British Customs Department for use as a quarantine vessel. The highly infectious disease cholera had spread from India to Europe. The Buffalo was placed on station near Stangate Creek at the mouth of the Thames, as a barrier against the spread of the fatal disease from ship to shore. The authorities were uncertain how the disease was transmitted, and as a precaution The Buffalo and other ships were used for the “airing” of imported merchandise from infected areas.

Early in 1833, The Buffalo was first used as a convict ship and transported one hundred seventy-nine female convicts and twenty-five children to the New South Wales penal settlement.

By the beginning of the 19th century, England’s forests were all but gone. When the English first made contact with the Maori of New Zealand, they noticed giant 80-150ft straight trees, known by the Maori name kauri, growing in the North Island forests. The Buffalo was dispatched to the Bay of Islands for a cargo of kauri beams and planks.

By mid-19th century, the continent of Australia was increasingly being seen not just as a penal colony for Britain’s criminal population, but as a place worthy of settlement. To bring the continent under the banner of the British colonial lands, British Parliament passed an Act in 1834 for the establishment of the Province of South Australia.

Governor John Hindmarsh disembarks from Buffalo - Holdfast Bay, SA 28th Dec. 1836. — Governor John Hindmarsh disembarks from Buffalo – Holdfast Bay, SA 28th Dec. 1836.

Following a 5 month voyage, The Buffalo sailed into St. Vincent’s Gulf and anchored in the harbour of Holdfast Bay. After the finalisation of a small habitable settlement, Captain John Hindmarsh stepped ashore with 173 British settlers and proclaimed South Australia as a British colony and assumed the Governorship of the colony on 28 December 1836 at the Old Gum Tree in Glenelg.

With the settlement of South Australia safely underway, The Buffalo sailed to Sydney where she underwent a thorough overhaul and re-rigging and resumed her mission to New Zealand for timber.

Over the next four years, she ferried convicts to Australia, continuing on to New Zealand and returning to England with timber.

Aside from The Buffalo’s standing order to secure more of the exotic New Zealand pine, orders were given for her to perform military duty along the way. In June 1839, she carried nearly three hundred troops to Quebec as reinforcements for the British forces dealing with the Rebellions of 1837.

The Buffalo left Quebec, continuing to Australia ferrying convicts, then sailing onto New Zealand for timber.

On July 28th 1840, while anchored in Mercury Bay, New Zealand, and waiting for another cargo of timber to be loaded, disaster struck. After being caught in gale-force winds, during the night her anchor chain broke and she began to drift. At 6.30am she lost her rudder. It was now clear that her crew could not save her. The captain steered her onto the beach where she broke apart. The Buffalo now lies here beneath about 200m of water.

Adelaide’s Buffalo Replica

The HMS Buffalo helped create communities across the world, and is famous in South Australia for transporting its original 176 colonists, including South Australia’s first Governor, Captain John Hindmarsh. As a tribute, an exact replica of the Buffalo was built on the Patawalonga River in the beachside suburb of Glenelg, just outside of Adelaide.

Since its construction in 1982, she has operated as a museum, hospitality training center, and a family restaurant. Visitors could explore the ship and visit the museum that was located on the upper deck. In 2013 crippling maintenance costs forced her to close her doors and she’s sat disused ever since. Will she now become wrecked on the shoreline just like the original?