Glenelg jetty suffers a series of jettisoned dreams hit by disasters, with biggest in 1948; ambitious 2016 concept
Phases of Glenelg jetty. Top right: A 19th Century image by Richard Minchin of the jetty with its lighthouse. At left: The 1948 hurricane washed away the jetty leaving its kiosk and aquarium isolated and unsafe. Middle right: The smaller jetty opened in 1969. Bottom right: Woods Bagot's 2016 concept for a 400 metres jetty including a boutique hotel and terminals for ferries and yachts.
Glenelg jetty, at Adelaide’s seaside point of first European settlement in 1836, was blighted by dashed dreams and disasters.
The jetty at Glenelg was opened in 1859 after many years of petitions to the South Australian government. It was South Australia's first screw-pile jetty and was 1250 feet or 381 metres long. The original plans for the jetty called for a T head with hopes that it would make Glenelg a major port in the province. That dream never eventuated and the T head wasn’t built because of the difficulties of screwing the piles and a load of iron work for the jetty lost overboard on the voyage from England.
A wooden lighthouse was added to the end of the jetty in 187 but was destroyed by fire two years later. It was replaced with an iron lighthouse. P & O mail ships used the jetty briefly between 1874 and 1888 before moving to the anchorage at Largs Bay until Outer Harbor was opened in 1908.
As the dream of a shipping terminal faded, the jetty at Glenelg assumed a new role as a for holiday makers. A large kiosk and tearooms were built at the end in 1907 on an L head and, in 1929, an aquarium was added. In April 1948, Glenelg was hit by a hurricane and the jetty was washed away. This only left the kiosk and aquarium that were unsafe and had to be demolished. A new much reduced jetty of just 215 metres was opened in 1969.
An ambitious new plan for Glenelg jetty was born in 2016 out of study to study to help revitalise Glenelg and the City of Holdfast by attracting new visitors, including cruise ship passengers Born out of a study to help revitalise Glenelg and the City of Holdfast Bay, by attracting new visitors, including cruise ship passengers. A redeveloped jetty idea came innovative collaboration with multidisciplinary consultancy Mott MacDonald and the City of Holdfast Bay.
Global architectural firm Woods Bagot devised a concept for a 15- metres wide and 400 metres long public jetty. It had a large public event space at the jetty entrance and an enclosed pavilion space will be at the jetty’s end. The project also envisaged a boutique hotel, a centre for marine excellence, and terminals for catamaran ferries, private luxury yachts, and seaplanes.
