South Australia Trip - Glenelg

This was the day we had set aside to go to the seaside, Glenelg, in the morning and we were thinking of driving up to the Adelaide Hills wine region at Mount Lofty in the afternoon. We had made an early start and after refusing to pay $28AUS/person for bacon and eggs at the hotel restaurant for our breakfast we found a little cafe in the railway station underground arcade where we got a full breakfast of eggs, toast, tea and coffee for a total of $18AUS. A good start.

Glenelg - its a palindrome! It was named after Lord Glenelg, a member of British Cabinet and Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.

Glenelg is also a popular beach-side suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Located on the shore of Holdfast Bay in Gulf St Vincent, it has become a popular tourist destination due to its beach and many attractions, home to several hotels and dozens of restaurants. Established in 1836, it is the oldest European settlement on mainland South Australia (the oldest being Kingscote on Kangaroo Island), with the proclamation of the colony of South Australia.

Prior to the 1836 European settlement of South Australia, Glenelg and the rest of the Adelaide Plains was home to the Kaurna group of Indigenous Australians. They knew the area as "Pattawilya" and the local river as "Pattawilyangga", now named the Patawalonga River. The first British settlers set sail for South Australia in 1836. Several locations for the settlement were considered, such as Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay. The Adelaide plains were chosen by Colonel William Light, and Governor John Hindmarsh proclaimed the province of South Australia at the site of The Old Gum Tree in Glenelg North on 28 December 1836.

Glenelg has been a popular spot for recreation and leisure for much of its history. Atlantic Tower was built in Glenelg in the late 1970s and was Adelaide's tallest residential building at the time. The fourteen-story tower featured a revolving restaurant on its top floor, and was part of a larger development plan that never eventuated. Many other high-rise buildings exist in Glenelg, including the fifteen-story Stamford Grand hotel on Moseley Square, built in 1990, and the twelve-story Liberty Towers, built in 2004.

It was an easy drive out to Glenelg and we had heaps of time to have a good walk around and look at the many sites. We also had Fish and Chips for lunch at a Boardwalk Cafe.

Here are some selected photos of Glenelg - truly a gem of a place but I suspect very expensive to have a holiday there and in peak seasons it would be jammed packed with visitors as its only a short tram ride out from Adelaide with trams arriving and departing every few minutes.

The Beach ‘Fun House’

and

Avenue of Pines

Stamford Hotel

Beach Hostel Accommodation

The Glenelg Pier, above, and below

Settlement Memorial

Looking back across the pier

Walking the pier - a favourite past time,

as well as fishing from the pier

We had heaps of time to spare, so after a tasty lunch of fish 'n' chips from a cafe on the boardwalk we decided that we would head for Victor Harbour in the afternoon instead of Mount Lofty. We had been recommended to make that trip as it was one of the tourist vistas of the region and as we were so close it made more sense than back-tracking across Adelaide to the Adelaide Hills.