World City Guide

Mini Guide of Adelaide

City Overview

For as long as anyone can remember, Adelaide has been nicknamed ‘The City of Churches’. Though the catchphrase plays on one aspect of this genteel city, there is far more to the South Australian capital than church spires, cricket, and cucumber sandwiches. For one thing, unhurried Adelaide (with its obvious English leanings) houses both some wonderful museums, and residents who really know their wines.

Adelaide was settled by the British in 1836 and named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the wife of King William IV. From the start the city was planned, rather than allowed to grow haphazardly. The Surveyor-General of the colony of South Australia, Colonel William Light, was given the task of finding a site for the colony’s capital. The Torrens River meant a good water supply, and the fertile land on either bank was fertile and well drained. The river would separate the city of Adelaide itself from North Adelaide, while parkland would surround the settlements, and be created along the riverbanks.

Migrants were carefully screened before being allowed to sail for South Australia. Unlike elsewhere in Australia, where convicts made up a large percentage of the population, anyone with a criminal record was barred.

Many of the British settlers decided to recreate old England, while others were keen to leave aspects of their former lives behind. Many were Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and Unitarians, who suffered unfavourable conditions back home because their beliefs conflicted with those of the Church of England. The result was an unusual number of churches dotted around the city.
Adelaide sidles up to an inlet of the Southern Ocean, and onto some of Australia’s most important winery regions. It’s also terribly close to some of the most forbidding countryside in the world – namely the Nullarbor Plain and the Great Victorian Desert. Hence the high temperatures and dusty air you might encounter in summer.

Generally though, Adelaide is a green and pleasant place, sporting plenty of parks, a delightful river, and a city centre laid-out in a grid with airy squares. The official town centre is Victoria Square, while the happening eat streets are Hindley Street, Gouger Street, and Rundle Street (the latter running into the shopping strip of Rundle Mall). North Terrace, which is lined with galleries and museums and leads to the Botanic Gardens, borders the city to the north. Meanwhile, just north of the city heart, on the banks of the River Torrens, is the Riverside Precinct, the home of the Festival Centre and its performing arts.

Getting There By Air

Adelaide Airport (ADL)
Tel: (08) 8308 9211.
Website: www.aal.com.au

Located just 6km (4 miles) west of the city centre, Adelaide Airport is South Australia’s largest airport.

Qantas (tel: (02) 9691 3636 or 131 313, Australia only; website: www.qantas.com.au), flies into Adelaide. So too do Cathay Pacific, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Approximate flying time from London is 22 hours. Discount airlines Jetstar (tel: (03) 8341 4901 or 131 538, in Australia only; website: www.jetstar.com.au) and Virgin Blue (tel: (07) 3295 2296 or 13 6789 in Australia only; website: www.virginblue.com.au) both fly between Adelaide and other state capitals.

Airport facilities include ATMs, bureaux de change, left luggage, restaurants, bars, shops and car hire (Avis, Budget, Hertz and Thrifty).

The Skylink Bus (tel: (08) 8332 0528; website: www.skylinkadelaide.com) runs between the airport and city centre every 30 minutes on weekdays, and every hour (on the half-hour) on weekends and public holidays. The trip takes around 15 minutes. Taxis are also available.

Getting There By Water

Getting There By Road

Adelaide is linked with Sydney by the M5, Hume Highway, and Sturt Highways (trip time: around 20 hours); Melbourne by the Great Ocean Road and Prices Highway (trip time: around 8 hours); Perth by the Great Eastern and Princes Highway (trip time: around 34 hours); and Alice Springs by the Stuart Highway (trip time: around 17 hours).

The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) (tel: 13 11 11, in Australia only; website: www.raa.net) provides emergency roadside assistance.

The central bus station is located at 101 Franklin Street (tel: (08) 8415 5533). Greyhound Australia (tel: (07) 4690 9950, or 13 14 99, in Australia only; website: www.greyhound.com.au) runs buses between Adelaide and all other state capitals and major towns. The trip time from Melbourne is around 11 hours; from Sydney around 25 hours; and from Alice Springs around 21 hours.

Getting There By Rail

The main railway station, the Keswick Interstate Rail Passenger Terminal, is located 2km (1.25 miles) west of the city centre. TransAdelaide (tel: (08) 8218 2362; website: www.transadelaide.com.au) offers rail services across the state.

The Indian Pacific runs from Sydney to Adelaide (trip time: 28 hours) and from Adelaide to Perth (trip time: 36 hours). The Ghan runs from Adelaide to Alice Springs (trip time: 20 hours), and onto Darwin (trip time: 24 hours). The Overland runs between Adelaide and Melbourne (trip time: 12 hours). Contact Great Southern Railways (tel: (08) 8213 4592, or 13 21 47, in Australia only; website: www.gsr.com.au) for information on these trains.

Getting Around

Public Transport
Adelaide Metro (tel: (08) 8210 1000, infoline; website: www.adelaidemetro.com.au) coordinates the city’s public buses, trains and trams. The website provides routes, timetable and fare information. Their InfoCentre is located on the corner of King William and Currie Streets.

You can buy single bus tickets and Daytrip tickets from the InfoCentre, staffed railway stations, bus depots, post offices displaying Metroticket signage, on board buses and trams, and from ticket vending machines on trains. Train ticket vending machines only accept coins. Ten-trip multitrip tickets are available at the above places, apart from onboard buses, trains and trams. You must validate your ticket in the machine on board.

Two free buses, the City Loop-99C and the Bee Line-99B, regularly roam the city. The City Loop service takes you around the city, stopping off at several of the attractions. The Bee Line takes you through the centre of the city via North Terrace, King William Street and Victoria Square, stopping at Rundle Mall, the Town Hall and the Central Markets. Routes are well signposted.
The Glenelg Tram runs between Victoria Street and the beachside suburb of Glenelg. The journey takes 30 minutes.

Taxis
The main taxi companies are the Adelaide Independent Taxi Service (tel: 132 211); Suburban Taxi (tel: 131 008); and the Yellow Cab Co. (tel:132 227; website: www.yellowcabgroup.com.au).

Car Hire
Car hire companies include Avis (tel: (08) 8410 5727, website: www.avis.com); Budget (tel: (08) 8223 1400; website: www.budget.com.au); Hertz (tel: (08) 8231 2856, website: www.hertz.com); and Thrifty (tel: (08) 8211 8788; www.thriftysa.com.au). www.drivenow.com.au is a good website to check for specials with all companies.

Bicycle Hire
Hire bicycles at Linear Park Bicycle Hire (tel: (08) 8223 6271), located on King William Road, in Elder Park (by the Torrens Lake).

Business

Sightseeing

Sightseeing Overview
Adelaide is an easy city to walk around, so the only time you’ll really need to take public transport is if you want to visit Port Adelaide, North Adelaide, or take the tram to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. If you fancy a stroll away from the city centre, then head into one of Adelaide’s many parks, the Botanic Gardens, or the track besides the River Torrens. Some of Adelaide’s museums are among the best in the country, and it’s definitely worth spending a few hours in at least one of them. If pressed for time, don’t miss the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery at the South Australian Museum – it offers fascinating insights into the culture of the indigenous population.

Apart from the places listed below, you might also want to visit Adelaide Zoo, on Frome Road (tel: (08) 8267 3255; website: www.adelaidezoo.com.au). The zoo features lots of Australian favourites as well as exotics from overseas.

Tourist Information
The South Australian Visitor & Travel Centre
18 King William Street
Tel: (08) 8303 2033 or 1800 655 276, in Australia only.
Website: www.southaustralia.com

This is the main tourist information centre in Adelaide: it has plenty of maps, offers travel advice, and can make bookings. There’s also an information booth on the corner of Rundle Mall & King William Street.

The Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre is at 66 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide (tel: (08) 8405 6560) and the Glenelg Visitor Information Centre is on the foreshore (tel: (08) 8294 5833).

Adelaide City Guides, dressed in green, rove the city centre around Rundle Mall.

Key Attractions

Art Gallery of South Australia
Adelaide’s most important art gallery features some major Australian paintings, including contemporary art, as well as tapestry, ceramics, and touring exhibitions.

North Terrace
Tel: (08) 8207 7000.
Website: www.artgallery.sa.gov.au

The Migration Museum
An intimate museum that tells the tale of early Australia, including South Australia’s convict history, as well as subsequent waves of immigration.

82 Kintore Avenue
Tel: (08) 8207 7580.
Website: www.history.sa.gov.au/migration/about.htm

South Australian Maritime Museum
This fascinating museum celebrates South Australia’s maritime history with permanent displays of figureheads, model ships, nautical instruments, artworks, a lighthouse, and two ships you can clamber over.

126 Lipson Street, Port Adelaide
Tel: (08) 8207 6255.
Website: www.history.sa.gov.au/maritime/about_samm.htm

South Australian Museum
Come here for good butterfly and mineral displays as well as a fabulous collection of Aboriginal utensils, spears, tools, bush medicines and foods, and old photographs.

North Terrace
Tel: (08) 8207 7500.
Website: www.samuseum.sa.gov.au

National Aboriginal Cultural Institute - Tandanya
There are plenty of Aboriginal works of art on display here, some from very remote communities. Other exhibits, and tours, give an insight into Aboriginal culture, while a shop gives you the chance to take some art back home.

253 Grenfell Street
Tel: (08) 8244 3200.
Website: www.tandanya.com.au

Further Distractions

Adelaide Botanic Garden
Nice avenues of trees, duck ponds, a rose garden, palm house and a dome full of rainforest trees makes this refreshing garden good for a stroll.

North Terrace
Tel: (08) 8222 9311.
Website: www.environment.sa.gov.au/botanicgardens/adelaide.html

National Railway Museum
The historic Goods Shed Platform located on the site of the old Port Adelaide Railway Station houses one of the best undercover collections of rolling stock and railway memorabilia in Australia, including some 20 engines. Entrance includes a train ride.

Lipton Street, North Adelaide
Tel: (08) 8341 1690.

Tours of the City

Adelaide is a pleasant city for walking and one way to experience it is with Tourabout Adelaide (tel: (08) 8333 1111; website: www.touraboutadelaide.com.au) on a Discover Adelaide’s Heritage Guided Walk. A company guide will show you around the galleries, museums and hidden-away treasures on North Terrace, the restored shopping arcades on Rundle Mall, the heritage buildings in and around Victoria Square, and the colourful Central Market.

Adelaide Sightseeing (tel: (08) 8231 4144; website: www.adelaidesightseeing.com.au) offers a three-hour morning coach tour of the city, including visits to Haigh's Chocolate Factory and the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Meanwhile, Grayline Tours (tel: 1300 858 687, in Australia only; website: www.grayline.com.au), also run a similar tour, as well as extended options to visit the nearby Adelaide Hills, or the German-influenced Hahndorf.

The Adelaide Explorer Bus (tel: (08) 8293 2966; website: www.adelaideexplorer.com.au) stops at 26 sights around the city on a hop-on, hop-off basis. The loop of the city takes around three hours. Adelaide's Top Food And Wine Tours (tel: (08) 8263 0265; website: www.topfoodandwinetours.com.au) focuses entirely on Central Market, offering both dawn and mid-morning tours of the stalls.

Excursions

The Adelaide Hills, 25-minutes by car from the city centre, offers historic villages, orchards, vineyards, winding roads and wildlife parks. German-inspired Hahndorf offers plenty of arts and craft shops. Cleland Wildlife Park (tel: (08) 8339 2444; website: www.cleland.sa.gov.au) is home to a range of Australian native animals. Contact the Adelaide Hills Visitor Information Centre (tel: (08) 8388 1185; website: www.visitadelaidehills.com.au) for more information.

Located approximately 45km (28 miles) northeast of Adelaide, the Barossa Valley is one of Australia’s most well-regarded wine regions. Many of the 50 or so wineries offer cellar-door tastings. Historic villages have a strong Germanic influence. Contact the Barossa Wine and Visitor Information Centre (tel: (08) 8563 0600; website: www.barossa-region.org) for further information.

Sport

Shopping

Adelaide offers plenty of opportunity for shoppers in the city centre. The pedestrian-only thoroughfare, Rundle Mall, is Adelaide’s largest shopping precinct, with over 500 shops. The Central Market (tel: (08) 8203 7494), between Gouger and Grote streets, is the largest produce market in the southern hemisphere.

Adelaide is the centre of the world’s opal industry – a hub for stones mined in the South Australian desert towns of Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie. Harlequin Opal (tel: (08) 8212 7577; website: www.harlequinopal.com.au) is located at 5 Hindley Street. The store has many opals for sale.

South Australia also produces most of Australia’s wine, and some of the best is available for you to try and buy at East End Cellars, at 22-26 Vardon Avenue (tel: (08) 8232 5300).

General city shopping hours are Monday to Thursday 0900-1730, Friday 0900-2100, Saturday 0900-1700, and Sunday 1100-1700.

Culture

Adelaide is a very cultured city – maybe helped by the fact that it was the only state capital settled by English free settlers rather than down-at-heel convicts.

The city’s main performing arts hall is the Adelaide Festival Centre, King William Road (tel: (08) 8216 8600; website: www.afct.org.au). Here you’ll find four auditoriums, the 2,000-seat Festival Theatre (home to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), the 620-seat Playhouse, the 629-seat Dunstan Playhouse, and the 400-seat The Space Theatre. An outdoor amphitheatre, used for jazz, rock concerts and country music concerts, seats another 600 people. Also part of the centre is Her Majesty’s Theatre, located in the city itself, at 58 Grote Street, opposite the Central Market.

Another respected performing arts venue is The Arts Theatre, at 53 Angas Street (tel: (08) 8221 5644; website: www.theartstheatre.com.au). The Adelaide Repertory Festival puts on comedy features here, and it’s also the home of the Metropolitan Music Theatre Company, which presents two comedy productions annually.

Movie-lovers should head to Adelaide City Cinema, 128 Hindley Street (tel: (08) 8231 5961; website: www.greaterunion.com.au). The cinema shows 10 films at any one time.

Nightlife

For such a relatively small city, with a reputation for being quiet and sleepy too, Adelaide has a surprisingly vibrant nightlife. If you want a choice but don’t want to stagger too far then cruise along Rundle Street in the city centre. If you drink beer, ask for a ‘schooner’. It’s the same size as a ‘midi’ in New South Wales, which makes it about half the size of a New South Wales schooner.

Bars: A stroll down Rundle Street will lead you through many pub doorways. One of the best is The Austral, at 205 Rundle Street, a popular watering hole which features an outdoor seating area and bands and DJs on weekends. Another Adelaide favourite is the Belgium Beer Café, 27-29 Ebenezer Place, one of a chain of Belgium-style drinking holes that relishes dark wood, mussels, chips with mayonnaise, and great beer – including a recipe developed by Trapiste monks. Also highly recommended is The Port Dock Brewery Hotel, 10 Todd Street, North Adelaide, known for its classy wood-and-bare-brick interior, as well as its tasty seafood pub grub and the five beers brewed on site.

Clubs: The city’s largest venue after the Adelaide Entertainment Centre is a multi-level Heaven Nightclub, at 7 West Terrace, an event complex clogged with bodies, bars, and several dance and chill out rooms. Meanwhile, Adelaide's leading underground music venue, The Cargo Club, at 213 Hindley Street, attracts dance-club DJs and music acts from all over the country and overseas too. More seasoned is Waves, in the Hyatt Hotel, an establishment nightclub that attracts well-at-heel guests and townies to its mix of dance and retro sounds.

Live Music: Unlike Sydney where ‘the Pokies’ (or one-armed bandits), have led to a dash for cash and the subsequent closing of music venues, Adelaide is still a big supporter of local bands. The icon in the music scene is The Exeter, at 246 Rundle Street, an old-style classic with a beer garden out back and bands playing throughout the week. Another of the city’s leading live music venues is the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, at 59 Port Road, Hindmarsh, which hosts bands and singers almost nightly, and provides gourmet pizzas and pub grub too. The there’s the Crown & Sceptre Hotel, at 308 King William Street, a landmark with a stage that looks out into a beer garden, and a hip, up-market crowd with a liking for funky music and DJs.

City Statistics

Location: South Australia, Australia.
Country dialling code: 61.
Time zone: GMT + 9.30 (GMT + 10.30 from last Sunday in October to last Sunday in March).
Electricity: 220-240 volts AC, 50Hz; flat three-pin plugs.
Average January temp: 29°C (84°F).
Average July temp: 15°C (59°F).
Annual rainfall: 585 mm (23 inches).

Special Events

Adelaide Bank Festival of the Arts, first two weeks in Mar (biannual: next 2006) (website: www.adelaidefestival.net.au), one of the country’s biggest festivals, featuring theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literature, film and large-scale outdoor events, throughout the city
Womadelaide Festival, mid-Mar (website: www.womadelaide.com.au), Australian and international singers and bands from 60 countries, turn up to this huge outdoor music festival annually, Botanic Park
Clipsal 500, mid-Mar (website: www.clipsal500.com.au), major V8 car-racing festival through the city streets, including air displays and concerts over four days, throughout the city
Royal Adelaide Show, early Sep (website: www.adelaideshow.com.au), carnival rides, handicraft, cookery, and a wide variety of champion livestock and animals, Royal Adelaide Showground
Tasting Australia, last week in Oct (biannual: next in 2005 and 2007) (website: www.tasting-australia.com.au), food products, wines and beers – this is the country’s premier gourmet experience, throughout the city

Cost of Living

1 Australian Dollar (A$1) = £0.43; US$0.76; C$0.88; ¬0.63
Currency conversion rates as of October 2005