Glenelg Goes Glam! Keith Conlon visits Glenelg in the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia
On a perfect summer’s day by the sea, it’s easy to see Glenelg as all about a swim, a sip on something cold and fish and chips - in a sailing ship on the Patawalonga, for example. The Buffalo replica is a reminder, however, of the Bay’s special place in our history. The Kaurna aboriginal people helped the first Europeans drag their belongings and set up camp in the sand hills here, and more than 150 years on it was the Jetty Road end that lured their descendants back for a day at the Bay. Now, though, the “Pat” is back!
The spectacular events are all happening again on the water, and overlooking it day-trippers and seaside holiday-makers have a new honey pot to attract them. If you want to live in the Holdfast Shores apartment blocks, you’ll need a lazy ¾ million dollars if you want to swing the cat, and a top floor pad will set you back a couple of million. You might want to chuck in another three hundred grand for a marina mooring and a cruiser to park there. It’s a little Riviera. Of course, you can also take a stroll round for absolutely nothing, or splash out and charter your dream boat for a day.
We joined Su-Baroo for a ride and to take in the new look between the Patawalonga and the jetty. I asked skipper Bob Barreau what his passengers thought of it.
“Look at it - magnificent!” he enthused. “We’ve come out from the marina behind “Holdy-Shores” there, and now the new hotel spreads along towards Magic Mountain. That will be replaced - has to be - and then there’s the Town Hall. That’s gotta stay”.
And it will. The debate is now on about how to look after the lifesaving club, where an open green link to Colley Reserve will come through, and how an apartment set might fit. A new entertainment area will wrap round the beautiful bluestone town hall to go through to the tram terminus and busy Moseley Square. Watch this space in 2004.
Back on terra firma in our new Mini-Majorca, we took footage of families and young groups on the seaward side - taking the recently constructed pathway’s name literally. It’s called “The Holdfast Promenade”. Their stroll took them past the new Ramada Plaza Pier Hotel that reaches right to the gleaming ribbon of sand and the briny. As a result, their breakfast view is straight out of an exotic island brochure. We’re all welcome at “The Rocks” restaurant. Dinner as the sun goes down over the Gulf sounds good, too. The ground floor informal Mediterranean and Asian cafes have the same stunning outlook, and on the deck of the Pier One bar you can do your Cote d’Azur thing.
We caught up with the hotel manager, David Brill, out on the sand, and he told us they’d opened without fanfare just before Christmas, and yet it’s been a hectic holiday period. Of the 175 suites, about 70 are lived in by their independent owners, and the rest are managed as a hotel.
“We have quite a few international guests because of our Ramada branding, but lots of families from the northern and southern suburbs come in for a holiday at the Bay,” David said.
Enjoying this new face of Glenelg, they may have come across the way the Marina area has fixed an old anomaly. The Anzac tradition is as strong as ever, yet at this end of Anzac Highway there has never been a Glenelg War Memorial - until now. In the walkway entrance that leads to Anzac Plaza and the cafes and shops, there’s a sculpture place that invites us to think about the enormous human cost of war. Artist Anton Hart has engraved six single words into six boulders, and the rocks immediately took one Normandy invasion veteran right back to the beaches. He recalled moving forward inch by inch under fire, and the rocks were his precious protection.
Around the marina and along the Promenade there are several public artworks. They are designed to mystify, intrigue and amuse, so watch out for what the artists call “cultural flotsam and jetsam”.
The hotel - the in crowd are calling it simply “The Pier” - is now linked to the Marina Pier run of cafes overlooking the marina by an elegant arched footbridge. It leads to an intercontinental array of menus. All this concrete and clay is not without its critics, but come down on a nice weekend and you’ll be joining thousands of people voting with their feet. They don’t just drop in and plonk themselves down for a quick coffee either…they promenade! And watch each other doing it. Perhaps even the ghost of the good Colonel himself glides along below the Light’s Landing apartments to revisit his first footfall in these parts and keep an eye on what’s new at the Bay.
There are more encouraging signs on your perambulations too. They point to and explain key heritage sites on a walking tour that takes in this twenty-first century scene. In front of the Holdfast Shores apartments, for instance, a marker tells us we’re close to the landing site and first flagstaff of the 1836 European arrivals. Out in the water, there were great wooden public baths constructed - for segregated and respectable swimming.
The Proclamation Trail brochure from the Bay Discovery Centre will help guide your next promenade at Glenelg.
Details
Ramada Plaza Pier Hotel
16 Holdfast Promenade
Glenelg, South Australia, 5045
Phone: (08) 8350 6688
Toll free: 1800 251 259
Web: www.ramadainternational.comProclamation Trail Brochures
Bay Discovery Centre
Glenelg Town Hall
Moseley Square
Glenelg, South Australia, 5045
Phone: 8179 9500
