Glenelg Jetty Exhibit: In the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia

Inside the Discovery Centre at Glenelg the old black and white vision takes you back to the days when The Bay was all the rage. Many promenaded up and down what was then a much more impressive landmark the Bay Jetty.

In fact the original jetty was about twice the length of today's and at the end stood the famous Tea Rooms - a local meeting place and one-time home to a young bloke named Bill Western. He's a bit older now but his recollections are just as sharp:

“Right at the end there was a three storey kiosk. My mother and father, my brother and me lived there from nineteen thirty one to nineteen forty two. It was fun living at the end of a jetty as a kid… but it's a disaster when you hear your mother crying one day because they haven't got enough money to pay the rent. That teaches you a big lesson about money.”

And Bill learnt plenty more during the Depression. But there were the occasional bumper days - like the State's Centenary - when the weather was right and the crowds flocked to the Bay to buy what Bill was selling - Ginger Beer.

“Threepence a handle and on December the 28th 1936 I took eighteen pounds in threepences that day on my own. It was good fun.”

As a kid that wasn't the only way Bill made a threepence or two. Inside the Bay Discovery Centre there's an array of parfait spoons uncovered by Bill on his regular dives to collect what guests had thrown from the Team Rooms.

“During calm weather and on a nice clear day you could see on the bottom. There were spoons, cups, saucers. People just throw them over. So I used to dive down and get them.”

But in 1940's a storm destroyed much of the old bay jetty including the Sea Aquarium and the Tea Rooms and for decades, what had been thrown off the jetty remained at the bottom until two major dives. The first was in the seventies and the last in 2000 when a group of divers scoured the bottom and came up with a bit more than Bill's Parfait spoons.

The underwater spies uncovered plenty including jewelry, bullets, medals and ginger beer bottles - probably a few that Bill sold on that big day in ‘36. They also found Cyril Smith's Athletics medal from 1921. The dive site proved to be a major underwater archaeological site. Terry Drew says it was a time capsule on the bottom of Gulf Saint Vincent of life on the old bay jetty prior to its being pulled down in the forties.

“It's a history of the way people used the Glenelg Jetty from the 1840s to 1948. It was a great place to go. People would come down for the day and walk along the Jetty and go to the tea rooms at the end of the Jetty. All in all it was THE PLACE to go in Glenelg.”

And so too is the new jetty today but for look back at its past head into the Bay Discovery Centre on Mosley Square. It's open daily and is free. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au