Over the years, Port Adelaide has had a thriving transport history, from cargo ships, to the busy road and rail networks. So in my opinion it would be fairly obvious that the Maritime and Railway museums would be located in Port Adelaide. Yet surprisingly there is another museum in Port Adelaide that is just as impressive. Ourworldinreview recently made our way into Port Adelaide to visit this incredible place. Welcome to the South Australian Aviation Museum.
Located right next door to the National Railway Museum the South Australian Aviation Museum is tucked away in a hidden aircraft hangar. Make sure you take care, as the entry into the museum grounds is easily missed.
Don’t miss the entrance sign into the museum grounds
From the outside, the museum looks like a vacant shed with the only indicator being a small sign above the front door.
Once you enter the hangar you are greeted by the friendly volunteers who man the service desk. The front office also acts as a shop and has various model airplane kits stocked on the shelves. This is quite fitting for those adults and children inspired by the aircraft they are about to discover.
I must admit I was unsure what to expect in the museum. Would there be a couple of small planes or some scale models with information plaques? Hence, when you enter the main hangar you can’t help but be impressed with the full sized aircraft available for your viewing.
Inside the Aviation Museum. It’s so clean.
The first thing you notice is the hangar is spotless. There is a good variety of planes on display, from the F-111 fighter jet to the World War II Spitfire. The museum also has a helicopter used in the Vietnam War and other incredible aircraft’s that have done some extraordinary flights around the world.
F-111World War II Spitfire
South Australia’s Aviation Museum provides some good educational information for its visitors about the aircraft and other aviation matters. Visitors also have the ability to climb aboard a few aircraft to check out the cockpits and the flight controls. So many buttons and levers!
Looking inside the cockpit
In conclusion the South Australian Aviation Museum is a good way to spend a couple of hours. I would recommend combining a visit to both the National Railway Museum and the Aviation Museum in a day trip. Therefore, grab the children and head down to the Aviation Museum and tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Additional Information for the Aviation Museum
66 Lipson Street, Port Adelaide SA 5015
Ph: (08) 8240 1230
Website: www.saam.org.au
Trading Hours
Daily 10:30am – 04:30pm except Christmas
Accommodation is available around the Port Adelaide area
I’ve lived in the City of Adelaide nearly all of my life. And the majority of that time has been around the Port Adelaide area. Port Adelaide was once a thriving centre of commerce for international and domestic cargoes arriving to Adelaide by sea. It used to bustle everyday with stevedores discharging and loading the berthed vessels and sailors frequenting the numerous bars. Today Port Adelaide has a quieter atmosphere. Gone are the flood of ships and the mass of sailors, and many of those popular old stores and bars have long closed. However, tourists are still making their way into the Port to see its established history. Port Adelaide has a multitude of attractions available for visitors, from museums, cruises and guided tours. We decide to head into Port Adelaide to visit some of these popular attractions starting with the National Railway Museum.
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is open daily from 10am and is mainly run by a dedicated team of community volunteers. Entrance to the museum is through the main souvenir shop. The shop is stocked with a good amount of memorabilia for you and your children to remember the wonderful day.
Souvenir Shop and Museum Entrance
Once through the shop you can make your way over to the main exhibition. Make sure you stop at the level crossing and look out for the passing train. The museum runs a small train ride which does two full circuits of the museum grounds. So be careful, and keep an eye on little children. The museum staff is happy to advise when the next train ride will run, so your family doesn’t miss out.
Watch out for passing trains!Take a ride around the museum on Ken
The main pavilion is quite a sight, with all the well maintained trains and carriages lined up. Visitors can immerse themselves in the exhibits by entering the opened passenger carriages or climbing into the drivers cabins. The patrons can see the changes in standards between the different travel classes. From the luxury cabins of first class to the seated compartments of second class. They also have the ability to look at the service trains which brought goods to Australia’s remote communities. These trains contained grocery stores, butchers, banks and a Post office, to name a few. It is amazing what goods and services these trains provided to the people of rural Australia.
Train 409 in the main pavilion of the National Railway Museum
The museum has various station displays, from re-creations of the station masters office to the communications office and old signalling stations. Furthermore, they have historic memorabilia of the old Adelaide train station before its development. The old ticketing desk and departure board brought back memories of days long past when my grandmother used to take us into the city for some school holiday adventures.
Old Adelaide Station Departure Board
A stroll out into the museum yards shows us more trains ready to be refurbished. The museum also has some disused advertising freight wagons like the old West End beer wagon, and the TNT transport wagon.
West End Beer Wagon
If you keep following the footpath around, you will find yourself at another large pavilion with a range of commercial trains from different eras. Here you will find some engines that have done some incredible journeys lugging coal, iron ore and other commodities along Australia’s vast rail network.
Train 4 to Iron Knob
The National Railway Museum is a great day out, the restored trains look fantastic and children will love climbing in and out of the carriages and engines. There are some educational and interactive screens available, but some need to be repaired as they don’t all work. The train ride is quite nice but a little short, so you may need to do a couple of trips to appease the children. Alternatively, the museum also runs the longer train ride along the foreshore at Semaphore, which is a good option.
Semaphore foreshore train ride
I recommend combining the National Railway Museum and the Aviation Museum since they are very close to each other and well worth the visit. Therefore while you’re visiting tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
I have travelled to the Gold Coast in Queensland many times. Most of the trips have been for my kids to participate in competitions for their various sports, but we have always stayed on or had time for some tourist activities. In November during our visit, we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for the first time. Here are my thoughts.
The Gold Coast is synonymous with a few things in Australia – sun, surf, theme parks! After spending some time on the beach, most people that come here immediately fill their days with the thrills of the theme parks. Sure, we have done that too in the past, but really themes parks are not our thing, so we were looking for something else to do for a day.
We had got as far as the carpark a few years ago. There was a short time between other commitments that we wanted to fill in and we had membership at the Adelaide Zoo. The membership gave us reciprocal entry rights at other zoos around Australia. Unfortunately Currumbin isn’t one of them, and for such a short visit the admission price was just not worth it.
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary houses Australian native animals. Pretty much any you can think of will be here. The sanctuary is huge, with lots of shady trees. This is perfect to keep the hot Queensland sun off while visiting.
Shady walkways to protect from the heat
The first thing we noticed about Currumbin was that it was BIG! No small cages here. There are also some big spaces between the displays. Luckily there is also a little tram to jump on to get from area to area if you prefer. We initially chose to walk rather than get on the tram. The gates had just opened when we arrived. The walk was peaceful and felt like it was just us and the trees.
Birds in the aviary
After passing through an aviary, we came to a kids playground area. There were many things to climb on and play with. All had an educational twist to them, with games and challenges. There was a huge spiders web and a gecko wall for climbing on and dinosaur bones buried in the sandpit. As I sat down on the crocodile below a motion-sensored speaker started telling me about the huge reptiles! I was not expecting it and it made me jump so much I nearly fell off the crocodile!
Entrance to the playground – big kids allowed too!Luckily that crocodile is not real
Currumbin has an extensive list of wildlife shows and displays that occur throughout the day. There are various animal displays, shearing displays, and cultural displays. We happened to wander past as the Free Flight Bird Show was on and we watched for about 15 minutes as birds flew over our heads. At least, they were mostly just over our heads. They were so close we could feel the wind as they went past, and occasionally got a wing in the head as well. I think we picked the cheap seats 🙂
Free flight bird showThe pelican got lunch too
After the bird show we got swept along with the crowd to the reptile show. Here we got up and cosy with some lizards and snakes. Or at least as close as I like to get. Yes, they let them loose, including a couple a big venomous snakes! I was too busy paying attention to them staying on their own side of the barrier though to remember exactly what sort of snakes they were.
A snake – no further info matters!
After each of the shows there were opportunities to have photos taken with the animals involved. There was another dedicated area we saw that also had various animals during the day for visitors to get up and close with and have photos too.
One of the most interesting parts of Currumbin for me was the animal hospital. I loved how they had glass walls so you could stay and watch actual procedures taking place. There was nothing happening as I was there. The vets had just woken up a koala. Next there was a turtle about to go in to get his shell mended. I was too busy watching, and didn’t even think about taking a photo!
Tasmanian devil hiding in the undergrowthEchidnaGalah and friendThat crocodile is nearly as big as the fake one I’m sitting on!Nap time
We meandered through to bush visiting some more animals along the way, and soon came to a huge open area where kangaroos roamed freely. We bought a small cup of food and then hand fed a kangaroo or two. They weren’t all that interested though – I think many others before us had also fed them. The kangaroos happily played in the shade while we patted them.
Kangaroo feeding areaPatting the kangaroo
While we were enjoying walking around, we couldn’t leave without a tram ride, so we hopped on the tram thinking we would do a whole loop and then again walk back from where we were. Unfortunately the tram didn’t do a full loop, so in the end we got off back near the entrance/exit.
The tram. Each one had a different engine.
We had been looking forward to this moment all day! Now was when we were going to hold a koala! Until now, I had never done this, but there was no lineup, and the others I was with REALLY wanted to do it. I thought the koalas would be quite solid and heavy, but really they weren’t. The one we held was soft, but those claws gripping on to me meant business. I would not like to be on their receiving end if the koala got angry.
I got to hold a koala!Bailey did too!
Overall this was a really enjoyable few hours. Being Australian, I have seen all of these animals many times over and interacted with some of them at nearly every zoo. It is quite common to be able to feed kangaroos almost everywhere! Still, it was fun. Our visit was entertaining throughout and I did not feel bored or tired of walking. The highlight was holding the koala.
After a long week you just want to recharge your batteries, let down your hair and have a bit of fun. With so many interesting places to go in South Australia the Ourworldinreview team packed up the car and headed for the quiet beach town of Victor Harbor. To be honest with you, I’m not really into adventure sports, but I was extremely keen to try out quad biking at Waitpinga Farm.
Looking back to Victor Harbor township from the foreshore
Victor Harbor is located approximately 83 kilometres south of Adelaide’s CBD. It is a pleasant drive, so I recommend hiring your vehicle here and doing the lovely scenic drive. Waitpinga Farm is about 15 kilometres from the main street of Victor Harbor and is situated at 1161 Waitpinga Road, Waitpinga, South Australia. With mobile phones having GPS, we found it easy to let Siri guide us there.
Waitpinga Farm Quad Bike Adventures caters for people from 12 years of age. To give this a go you don’t have to be an experienced bike rider. I have ridden a quad bike once before so I definitely wouldn’t call myself a quad bike expert. Waitpinga Farm offers two quad biking experiences, the Scenic Quad tour and the Adventure Quad Tour. The Scenic tour runs for an hour and takes in the surroundings of Waitpinga Farm from the Southern Ocean to popular Waitpinga Beach. This tour is available at $70AUD per person. Our team opted for the 1.5hour Adventure Tour, priced at $90AUD per person. This tour takes in all Waitpinga Farm has to offer, from grassy plains, winding sandy tracks and water crossings.
Quad Bike Park and Front Office
Upon arriving at the farm we popped into the office for registration, bike familiarisation, equipment fitting and the all important safety briefing. Our guide for the day was Terry and his assistance and information throughout the adventure was welcomed by all. Terry was very clear that the quad bike has become the most dangerous piece of farming equipment in use today. This is because if they are not ridden correctly they have the tendency to roll over. After going through the safety instructions participants then have the chance to ride around a practice track. Here the guides can give tips and ascertain the riders ability. If you are unsure about Quad bikes, this is the best time to ask for advice as they will make sure you are feeling comfortable before you hit the open expanse.
The practice track, you need safely combat these ramps.
Once through the practice track Terry guides us through fences and gates to the main farm area. He allows us to open up the accelerator to a comfortable fast speed and guides us through creeks, winding sandy areas, inclines and descents. At certain points throughout the tour Terry would pull us over and discuss the native fauna living on the farm and speak about the history of the farmstead. This is a good time to take those breathtaking photos and learn about Waitpinga Farm.
The view towards Waitpinga BeachTerry showing us what native animals are on the farm.
The tour took us to all parts of the farm and was an incredibly enjoyable experience. I would not hesitate to recommend doing this quad biking tour. We unfortunately had a mechanical failure with Josie’s bike running out of petrol. Terry’s quick response to get back to the quad bike park to pick up a new one was done very efficiently and the tour was extended to accommodate this lost time. A perfect tour is good, but the true measure of a great service is the way issues are dealt with. In this case, it could not be faulted.
Overall the Waitpinga Farm Quad Bike Adventures was great fun. Make your way down to Victor Harbor and visit this beautiful part of South Australia. Stay a night in Victor Harbor, stop in at Waitpinga Farm, do a quad tour and tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Most importantly make sure you follow all directions from the experienced guides and ride within your capabilities. That way you should have an awesome and a safe time.
Tour Information
You can book your Waitpinga Farm Quad Bike Adventure via their website here.
Various accommodation is available at Victor Harbor or Encounter Bay. Book you stay here.
Quad park at the old homesteadA babbling brookLook I’m trying to look serious on that red quad bike
Everyone travels differently! Some people take their time and explore the cities they are in. Others want to try and fit as much as they can into the time they have. Some relax around pools and some shop until they drop. Yet one thing everyone has to do, is eat.
On our holidays, we try to see as much of a city as we can without wasting valuable time. Therefore, if we want to learn about a city fast we try to take a city tour. One of the best ways to do that is to take a food tour. We’ve taken tours in many cities, but I have never taken a tour in my own city. The people at foodi.com.au offer various food tours in the five major cities of Australia. We decided to experience our home town and try out the Night Food Safari in Adelaide for AUD$59pp.
The Night Food Safari’s are held every Saturday and bookings can be made at the website. The food tours commence at 4:15pm from Haigh’s Chocolates on the corner of King William Road and Rundle Mall. As a side note, make sure you try Haigh’s Chocolates before the tour. The chocolate has a smooth texture that melts in your mouth with a deliciously sweet flavour.
Haigh’s Chocolates, the food tours meeting place.
We meet our guide for the night, Anita, and discover the other participants in the tour all happen to be from Adelaide with the same idea of exploring our home city. Anita gives us a brief introduction and explanation about the night and advises that drink purchases are not included in the tour price.
Our first food stop is a small Vietnamese street food store called Sit Lo. Sit Lo is located at 30 Bank Street Adelaide, just off of Hindley street and the interior is nicely decorated with a couple of long tables in the middle of the store and small tables along the wall.
Sit Lo’s nicely decorated wall
Sit Lo serve classic Vietnamese street food at a reasonable price, evident by the popularity from the local university students sitting at the tables. We sample some of the delicious fresh Bao buns, which are sweet steamed buns filled with either chicken, pork, or shrimp. We are also given some lotus flower chips that are richly flavoured and consumed pretty quickly by the group. Anita explains a bit about the restaurant and the owners, then guides us on to the next stop.
Those delicious Bao buns, ready to be consumedLotus Flower chips
It isn’t to long until we reach our next destination, Spanish inspired La Rambla Tapas Bar situated at 28 Peel St Adelaide. Once again Anita gave us a brief explanation of the areas history before we enter. La Rambla’s dimly lit room exudes a warmth with some light mood music playing in the background. The nice selection of wines, encourages us to indulge in a glass of red, sit down at a long table and start to enjoy the company of people we are with.
La Rambla Tapas Bar
Our three dishes at La Rambla consists of their Jamón Serrano a 15 month aged ham that is a lot like Italian prosciutto with a cured salt flavour and slightly chewy texture.
Jamón Serrano
The second dish brought the table was their Patatas Bravas, golden fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and aioli. The potatoes are nicely cooked and spicy tomato sauce and aioli gives it that additional flavour combination that makes it more than plain roasted potatoes.
Patatas Bravas
The third dish delivered out was their Albondigas de Cordero. This dish is La Rambla’s Spanish spiced lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce base. The meatballs were quite large but not plain, proving that the right balance of spices were incorporated into the meatball mixture. The tomato sauce was a nice accompaniment to the dish to give it that extra moisture to stop the meatballs drying out.
Albondigas de Cordero
Soon after we complete the dishes we are off again to our next food stop of Indian cuisine. Naya is owned by renowned Australian celebrity chef Ragimi Dey, who is there to greet us and talk about her new restaurant. Naya, at 2/24 Waymouth Street Adelaide, is a small thin L shaped store, with limited seating. The menu features infused Indian dishes. On this occasion Ragini Dey produces a Chicken Tikka Pakora and chard salad, which although quite small was extremely tasty and well worth coming back for.
Naya at 2/24 Waymouth Street AdelaideChicken Tikka Pakora with chard salad
After our fly by stay at Naya we are off again to our next stop, this time it’s French cuisine. Not to far down the street from Naya we stop at Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar at 12 Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Upon entry we are greeted by a charming room full of character. The group settle around some small tables and the bar ready to try some fresh French cuisine. More wine is ordered and the offering tonight is Escargot au gratin. Surprisingly of the 14 people attending the tour only a handful of us try the beautifully presented Escargot. The circular dish presented has large meat portions and the cheese gratin on top combines well to make it superb. Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar is definitely another restaurant to add to our list of places to come back to.
Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar
After we complete our wines, its time to head to our final stop for tonight and everyone’s favourite, a dessert bar. So Anita takes us on a little journey towards the east end of the city to French inspired Le Carpe Diem. Le Carpe Diem is a French creperie cafe located at 230-232 Grenfell Street Adelaide which serves sweet or savoury crepes. Here we are spoilt with various sweet and savoury crepes which we devour quickly. Once completed our three and a half hour Night Food Safari is finished.
Le Carpe Diem
The Verdict
The Night Food Safari was an excellent way of getting to know a bit about the city of Adelaide. All of the places we visited were new to us and opened our eyes to cuisine options on offer. Overall for AUD$59pp the food tour provided everyone with enough food to be satisfied. So there was no running off to a fast food outlet for a late snack. It could get costly if you decide to keep buying glasses of wine at every stop. If you are on a travelling budget, then take it easy and consume water or soft drinks. If you’re not then the option is yours, but drink wisely.
Overall I recommend doing a food tour if you have limited time in a city. Before you come to one of Australia’s major cities look up foodi.com.au and see what tours they have on offer. If you decide on booking a tour, tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
It’s not everyday you get the chance to step onboard a Navy vessel, so if you get the opportunity, take your family and friends and have a look around. That’s what happened this week. The Australian Navy had an open day to visit the HMAS Adelaide at the passenger terminal in Outer Harbor, South Australia.
Now, I’ve worked in the maritime industry for the past 24 years, so I’m not inexperienced when it comes to going onboard ships. The opportunity of meeting the crew, walking along decks and stepping inside the accommodation areas of these vessels is a weekly occurrence. Those large merchant vessels have nothing on the excitement and intrigue you get from stepping on a navy ship, with all that cool defence force gear.
The interest that the HMAS Adelaide generated publicly was evident very early, with queuing occurring on the road, and in through the security checkpoints of the small passenger terminal. Upon arrival you can tell that the Port of Adelaide passenger terminal is a seasonal passenger port. The inside of the terminal is relatively stark, with no terminal shops or café for visitors and a couple of promotional stalls to advertise the state. The security is the same as an airport, remove belts, jackets and everything out of your pockets, walk through the metal detector and hope the sirens don’t sound.
Once through the security checkpoint you make your way up the gangway and onto the entry deck, straight through a metal reinforced door and down some steep steps to the medical bay. This medical bay is very impressive, it’s fully stocked and wanting for nothing. There’s an emergency area, two surgical rooms, an intensive care ward, pharmacy, and just about every other machine a modern hospital would want to have. I’m sure a few doctors in our suburban hospitals would like access to some of this equipment.
As you walk along the decks you notice straight away that everything is spotless. The floors, the ceiling, the walls and even the sewage pipes running along the decks are squeaky clean.
We walk towards the stern of the ship and out the rear access hatch and out onto the sterns mooring area and right in front of you are the mounted Typhoon stabilised weapon systems. From there we enter the main hangar where we have the navy band greet us with some music. As we walk along the long deck you notice two large Australian flags attached to the walls and a couple of visitor stations set up with firefighting and personal protective equipment, with helpful crew interacting with the many visitors, especially the children. The hangar also has a couple of other pieces of equipment that the crew use whilst on assignment, like zodiac motorboats, excavation equipment in case they have to build or clear something and other military vehicles.
Again we walk through another hatch way and climb some more stairs and enter the accommodation areas. The HMAS Adelaide has a crew of 400 and can accommodate another 1000 military personnel during conflicts. The mess rooms are large and service the crew around the clock, with fresh food and a selection of dishes from a buffet style setting. Continuing along the corridor you notice the many recreation rooms and gyms and realise they have just about all the luxuries you could ever want. Since they protect our shores and are away from their families for months at a time who can deny them that bit of comfort.
Whilst walking down corridors there is crew stationed at various places on the ship giving out brief points and to stop us from making a wrong turn and getting lost, we climb up more steps and appear on the flight deck. Just like a mini aircraft carrier that you see in the movies, the flight deck is just a big landing strip.
We head back into the control bridge and head back downstairs to a huge cargo hold, now this is just like a roll on, roll off vessel, with a large port-side ramp and rear doors that can lower and flood the berthing compartment to allow the four landing craft to exit if required. We are told the vessel has six landing craft, four stored onboard and two held in Sydney for maintenance and testing. From here we walk out through a hatchway and head towards the exit, we say our goodbyes to the crew and get a couple of photos as we leave.
Now, if I had the opportunity to visit a navy ship when I was young, I may have been inspired to join up. Where else do you get to travel the world in relative comfort, and serve your nation doing so? So for all of you still trying to find a career, maybe the defence force is for you!
Finally thank you to the Australian Royal Navy for opening up your impressive vessel for the community to enjoy, and thank you to the Flinders Ports Group for giving us access to the passenger terminal.
Overall, I would highly recommend getting out and visiting a naval vessel, and the Australian Navy does give the community limited chances to visit. So visit their website at (http://www.navy.gov.au) to see when their next open day will be and book your spot or join up for a life long career.
Our world is an amazing place, so go out there and enjoy it!
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