| South
Australian Maritime Museum Surrounded
by the magnificent buildings and streetscapes which led to much of central Port
Adelaide becoming the State's first listed heritage area, the South
Australian Maritime Museum was developed as a major commemorative project
for the 1986 State sesquicentenary.
The museum's opening by Prime Minister
Bob Hawke in December of that year came nine months after Her Majesty the Queen
Elizabeth opened the old Port Lighthouse.
Today the museum and the Lighthouse
which dominates the nearby Civic Square are part of a comprehensive historical
complex which is justly acclaimed as one of the best of its kind in the world.
Lipson Street is home to the museum's main gallery, the magnificent Bond
Stores, built in 1850. Lipson Street also boasts the Weman Building (originally
a sail makers and ships chandlery) , a marvellous two-story bank building built
in 1888 (now the museum's administrative centre) and the Lipson Street Cafe.
The
Lighthouse provides a panoramic view of Port Adelaide, Adelaide and the Mount
Lofty Ranges. It first guided shipping at the mouth of the Port River in 1869
before being moved to South Neptune Island in 1901. It was retrieved, restored
and re-sited as the centre-piece of Port Adelaide's Civic Square in 1986.
An
integral part of the South Australian Maritime Museum is its floating collection
which comprises three vessels: the tug Yelta the State's last working steam tug,
the launch Archie Badenoch built for military use in the 1940s, and the MV Nelcebee,
assembled in Port Adelaide in 1883, the third oldest vessel in the Lloyd's Register.
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