Potential Sites for a Seaport Village in Port Adelaide
The Port Adelaide Maritime Coporation have offered a site to store the 'City of Adelaide' should the clipper need to arrive in South Australia ahead of the final display site being prepared. With a portfolio of over 500 acres there are multiple temporary storage possibilities, particularly in and around the new TechPort shipbuilding precinct around ASC (formerly known as the Australian Submarine Corporation) at Osborne. (The ASC Shiplift can just be seen projecting out into the water in the aerial picture titled "Port River North" below.)
For a permanent display home for the 'City of Adelaide', five different locations have been indentified in the Port Adelaide region. These are shown on the images below and all have different merits which are discussed after the images. The five potential locations are:
-
Dock One
-
Mutton Cove
-
Torrens Island Quarantine Station
Relative Merits of Sites
The following table provides a subjective assessment of the relative merits of each of the five potential sites. A rating of "5" represents the highest merit and a rating of "0" represents the lowest merit. No weighting has been applied to any of the characteristics after summing the totals.
|
Fletcher's Slip |
Cruickshank Corner |
Dock One |
Mutton Cove |
Quarantine Station |
|
| Presence & Visual Appeal |
4 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Accessability / Public Transport |
5 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
| Promote & Preserve Heritage |
5 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Existing Infrastructure |
5 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Celebrate the Waterfront |
5 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
| Tourist Appeal |
4 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
| People Friendly |
5 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| Encumberances |
2 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
|
Total |
35/40 |
35/40 |
25/40 |
7/40 |
7/40 |
Cruickshank's Corner and Fletcher's Slip represent excellent locations for a seaport village to display the City of Adelaide and other smaller historic vessels in Port Adelaide.
The previous owner of Fletcher's Slip, Jaan Lindsaar, was very supportive of the City of Adelaide project and had offered a pepper-corn rental for the the clipper to be permanently displayed at Fletcher's Slip. However, with the proposed Newport Quays residential development, the heritage Fletcher Slip site was ear-marked for housing leaving only Cruickshank's Corner as a viable location for a Seaport Village.
In a surprise development in late 2011, the new South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, announced that the Newport Quays development had been cancelled. There is speculation around Port Adelaide that, as a consequence, this might mean that Fletcher's Slip is again a contender for a seaport village to display the old ships.
