OUR HERITAGE AT RISK - SOUTH AUSTRALIA - 2008

Place: Port Adelaide Boatyards inc Searles Boatyard, A MacFarlane & Sons, Central Slipping Company, Jenkins Street, Port Adelaide.

Threat: Destruction and complete loss of heritage values 

Photo - National Trust of Australia (SA)

Significance:

Port Adelaide is South Australia’s oldest and most significant port. Boatbuilding has been carried out in the vicinity of Jenkins Street for over 170 years. Technological change has made most of Port Adelaide’s maritime industries redundant and 52 hectares of waterfront land are being redeveloped for high density housing. The three surviving boatyards are traditional industries which are central to the identity and history of the port. They are living heritage where the vanishing skill of wooden boat building is still practised using historic tools and instruments in a place where boats have been built since the European settlement of South Australia.

Perplexingly, the SA Heritage Council recently determined that the boatyards could not be considered of State Heritage significance because the Heritage Places Act did not allow use to be considered in determining significance and if the yards ceased to be used for building boats the structures alone did not meet their criteria for listing.

Threat:

The Land Management Corporation, an agency of the South Australian government has given the boat builders notice to quit the premises by 30^th June, 2008. It is understood the boatyards will then be demolished, although the developers have no plans approved for the site and, it is understood, do not intend redeveloping the land for another five years.

Action Required:

A group of eminent Australians including yachtsman Sir James Hardy, architect Professor Philip Cox and conservationist Jack Mundey have written to the Premier Mike Rann requesting that the boatyards be given another year of operation so that their significance can be properly assessed and design concepts developed to allow them to be incorporated into the development masterplan in a creative, enlightened and vibrant way.

Photo - National Trust of Australia (SA)