Port Adelaide is a sea port city and the historic maritime heart of South Australia. It's home to fascinating museums, bustling markets, historic buildings and more.
Port Adelaide's ornate former bank and office buildings, humble warehouses and bond stores, and wharves and hotels tell the vivid story of colonial maritime life. You'll find the South Australian Maritime Museum there, celebrating stories from settlement to today in its collections and exhibitions. The Port is also home to the National Railway Museum, South Australian Aviation Museum and the Seahorse Farm.
The mangroves, estuarine waters and wetlands form an aquatic reserve and are richly endowed with birds and marine life, including a substantial colony of much-loved Bottlenose Dolphins. The Ships Graveyards is a rare and unusual heritage collection: more than 40 ships dating from 1850s have been abandoned here over the years, as local waters were generally too shallow for scuttling.
Must See and Do:
. Meet the dolphins on a cruise or kayak tour of the mangroves
. Visit the museums, walk the wharves and see the tall ship One and All, which offers trips into the gulf
. Walk the Port or Semaphore on a self-guided tour or with one of the Port's volunteer guides
. Ride the carousel and the steam train at Semaphore
. Explore the bustling Sunday markets
Port Adelaide is only 14 kilometres, or 20 minutes drive, west of Adelaide.
A short drive from Port Adelaide is the charming seaside suburb of Semaphore, its name reflecting its vital communications role in the 19th century. The tower on the hill was an official signal station where signalmen relayed information to about all ships in the gulf. Semaphore retains a nostalgic beachside holiday atmosphere, with a charming foreshore with an old carousel and a steam train that runs a 2km route along the coast.
