For a unique Port experience don’t miss our unique Winter Solstice Feast at the Masonic Hall on Semaphore Road with a sumptuous menu, biodynamic wines and guest speakers Josie Agius, Dr Mike Bossley, Dr Paul Downton, Education Minister Jay Weatherill, Joel Catchlove, Kalyna Micenko, Bob Daly, Stuart Gifford and me — John Williams.
Auntie Josie Agius with Judith Nicholson
Whale and dolphin expert Dr Mike Bossley (left) and Dr Paul Downton
Get a reminder of our past with Josie Agius and a taste of our future with our other guest speakers and you, ranging across many topics including:
- The Christie Walk Eco Project and the big sustainability questions
- The health and wellbeing of whales, dolphins and the Port River
- Friends of the Earth and the remarkable Plains to Plate event
- Why Harts Mill should be given back to our community
- Garden cities, green walls and green roofs
- Leadership from the all-volunteer Semaphore Information Centre
[Read more …]
Harts Mill by night from Portobello
Hart’s flour mill is one of Port Adelaide’s best-known landmarks. A real visionary, Captain John Hart went from chasing whales off the South Australian coast before official settlement to Premier of the State.
Now his mill overlooks a 21st-century development along the banks of the Port River.
Born in England, Hart went to sea as a 12-year-old and in 1828 visited Hobart for the first time.
Later he was involved in collecting seal and wallaby skins and salt from Kangaroo Island and in 1839 he became a partner in a whaling venture at Encounter Bay; he bought larger ships and was involved in many trading ventures before retiring from the sea in 1846 and settling in Adelaide where he eventually entered politics.
See the mill from Portobello — finely attuned to the laid-back “permanent holiday” lifestyle of Newport Quays in Port Adelaide, this stylish café and bar makes relaxation an art.
Newport Quays residents and visitors at a function at Portobello
The suave red and white bar offers fine wines and lavish cocktails and the interior and exterior dining spaces seat you right by the river — a calm, cool place to enjoy the suitably Mediterranean menu which includes tapas, pizza, grill and seafood delicacies, many featuring the namesake Portobello mushrooms.
Followed by fine Mediterranean food
Portobello is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday and weekend breakfasts from 9.00 am.
Waterfront 1-2 Wirra Drive
Spinnaker North Building
New Port SA 5015
Phone: 8242 4444
Or visit the Portobello website
Plans for a major new development around Dock One in Port Adelaide were outlined by Newport Quays spokesman Todd Brown at a Port Adelaide Enfield Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Portobello Food Kitchen Bar at Newport Quays.
A waterfront park and a 9.5m wide promenade form the centrepiece of a $110 million Newport Quays residential development of Port Adelaide’s Dock One.
With 275 two and three storey townhouses planned, the Dock One precinct is expected to bring 500 new residents to the Port town centre.
The 3.5ha site bounded by the southern edge of Dock One and Wauwa Rd, St Vincent and Jubilee streets will become the third stage of the $2.1 billion waterfront revitalisation project when work starts later this year.
The 1923 former customs clearing house, known locally as the Radio Shack, has been quarantined from the development as negotiations continue between the developer, council and the State Government over its fate.
Newport Quays Consortium spokesman Todd Brown said the decision to build on the Port Adelaide side of the Port River reflected difficulties in sourcing finance for larger precincts and a desire to speed up revitalisation of the town centre.
“It’s been recognised there is a need for more people in the Port and this will deliver 500 to 600 new residents over a 18 month to two year period, which will be a fantastic boost for local businesses,” he said.
Read the full story from the Portside Messenger:
More development news from the Land Management Corporation
The new ANZAC flag outside Port Adelaide Town Hall; and along Commercial Road.
Two weeks ahead of ANZAC Light on the Water 2010 on Saturday April 24, 28 street flags are today flying throughout Port Adelaide — the first time for an ANZAC event.
Federal Minister for Veterans Affairs Alan Griffin and local member Mark Butler helped to secure a special grant for the flags, which will go up each year to draw public attention to the event and to ANZAC Day itself.
This year Light on the Water will commemorate all those lost at sea in World War II; 3000 candlelit cardboard lifeboats made by local school students will be floated on the Port River as a tribute to Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy, medical and rescue, waterside workers and other civilians lost at sea around the world.
The event will begin at 6.30 pm on Queens Wharf on the river side of the Fisherman’s Wharf Markets building near Birkenhead Bridge and will include performances by the SA Pipes and Drums, the Community Choir of Hope and Harmony and an RAN ceremonial unit.
The volunteer hospital ship MV Pacific Link berthed ahead of the historic vessel Failie
After committing a petty crime, Ken Mulligan’s great-great grandfather was sent to Australia in November 1818 on the sailing ship Morley which took 121 days to get here.
In Port Adelaide we found a vessel of a different kind — MV Pacific Link, a volunteer hospital ship Ken is sending on a longer voyage to Papua New Guinea via 16 Australian ports.
Ken Mulligan, organiser of the voyage to Papua New Guinea
Ken is CEO of YWAM-Marine Reach Australia which operates MV Pacific Link, now on a mission to provide clinical services, primary health care and health education in PNG.
In August 2010 the ship will sail to Cairns and Thursday Island then on to Port Moresby in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. The Australian leg of the voyage will promote PNG’s millennium development goals.
[Read more …]
Gerrard Viergever and his famous moustache
We found 66-year-old age pensioner Gerrard Viergever on the dilapidated side of St Vincent Street in the old run-down Port Town Hall Café.
One of a growing team of people in the Port who are not constantly complaining and waiting for the government or the council to resuscitate our city, he’s turning the old St Vincent Street café into a first class but inexpensive French restaurant with a special purpose licence. He simply ignores all the negative thinking about the place.
Gerrard Viergever discusses his plans for his French restaurant 'Moustache'
It’s not the first time Gerrard has created a new restaurant and he admits he’s had “some elaborate and disastrous failures.”
“I’ve been through a very dark time and I could have just sat in the corner on the pension, but I saw this run-down cafe; it was a disaster zone, but I needed shelter at a reasonable price.
[Read more …]
Ruins of original Port Misery docks
Port Adelaide was founded on January 6, 1837, when the first Harbourmaster, Captain Thomas Lipson RN, took up residence with his family on the edge of Port Creek.
The new port, known as the Port Creek Settlement, was used for shipping later that month and passengers began disembarking the next. It was little higher than the surrounding tidal flats and it could be rowed around at high tide. Larger ships had to land at Holdfast Bay until the port was charted.
The port lacked fresh water and was plagued by mosquitoes; a long way from Adelaide, it had few amenities and risked inundation at high tide.
By 1840 it was known in news reports as Port Misery, a name given it by author T. Horton James; “This is Port Adelaide! Port Misery would be a better name; for nothing in any other part of the world can surpass it in every thing that is wretched and inconvenient.”
There many today who say that of much of St Vincent Street, but don’t despair — help is on the way.
