Adelaide

Between Frome Road and Kintore Avenue, a whole block of North Terrace is occupied by the University of Adelaide, and the art gallery, museum and state library. The University of Adelaide, the city’s oldest, was established in 1874 and began to admit women right from its founding – another example of South Australia’s advanced social thinking. The grounds are pleasant to stroll through: along North Terrace are Bonython Hall, built in 1936 in a vaguely medieval style, and Elder Hall, an early twentieth-century Gothic-Florentine design now occupied by the Conservatorium of Music (concerts Fri 1.10pm during term-time; $7; t08/8303 5925, wwww.music.adelaide.edu.au).

Overbearing Victorian busts of the upright founders of Adelaide line the strip between Bonython Hall and Kintore Avenue until you reach the Art Gallery of South Australia, established in 1881 (daily 10am–5pm; daily guided tours 11am & 2pm; lunchtime talks on exhibits Tues 12.45pm; free; t08/8207 7000, wwww.artgallery.sa.gov.au). The gallery has an impressive collection of Aboriginal art, including many non-traditional works with overtly political content; major works by the Western Desert school of Aboriginal artists are on permanent display in Gallery 7. There’s a fine selection of colonial art, too, and it’s interesting to trace the development of Australian art from its European-inspired beginnings up to the point where the influence of the local light, colours and landscape begin to take over. The collection of twentieth-century Australian art includes works by Sidney Nolan, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington-Smith. There’s also a large collection of twentieth-century British art, including paintings by Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister). The gallery has an excellent bookshop and coffee shop too.

Next to the art gallery, a huge whale skeleton guards the foyer of the South Australian Museum (daily 10am–5pm; tours Mon–Fri 11am, Sat & Sun 2pm & 3pm; free; wwww.samuseum.sa.gov.au). The museum’s east wing houses the engrossing Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, home to the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal artefacts. Amongst the exhibits are a 10,000-year-old boomerang and the Yanardilyi (Cockatoo Creek) Jukurrpa, a huge painting by a collection of artists from across the continent recalling four important Dreaming stories.

The west wing focuses on natural history and geology, including an extensive collection of minerals from around the world. There’s also a permanent exhibition on local geologist Sir Douglas Mawson (1882–1958), who was commissioned by the museum to explore much of Australia in the early 1900s and who undertook the historic Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911. Some of the animals he brought back from this expedition are still on display, along with others from around Australia. The fossil gallery includes a skeleton of Diprotodon, the largest marsupial ever to walk the earth, plus the Normandy Nugget (at the east wing entrance on the ground floor), the second-largest gold nugget in the world, weighing 26kg. For those wishing to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the museum’s treasures, the Science Centre (Mon–Fri 10am–4pm) holds the museum archives (booking essential: t08/8207 7500) as well as the entire Douglas Mawson Collection.

Around the corner at 82 Kintore Ave is the Migration Museum (Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat & Sun 1–5pm; free; wwww.history.sa.gov.au), which takes you on a journey from port to settlement in the company of South Australia’s settlers, through innovative, interactive displays and reconstructions – the “White Australia Walk” has a push-button questionnaire to allow you to see if you would have been allowed to immigrate under the guidelines of the White Australia policy, which was in force from 1901 to 1958.

The Torrens River meanders between central Adelaide and North Adelaide, surrounded by parklands. Between Parliament House and the river is the Festival Centre, two geometric constructions of concrete, steel and smoked glass, in a concrete arena scattered with abstract 1970s civic sculpture. The main auditorium, the Festival Theatre (wwww.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au), has one of the largest stages in the southern hemisphere, hosting opera, ballet and various concerts. The smaller Playhouse Theatre is the drama theatre, while the Space Theatre is used for a range of experimental performances. A short walk across Elder Park is the river, with its stunning fountain and black swans. Popeye Cruises leave from here for the zoo (Mon–Fri 11am–3pm hourly, Sat & Sun 11am–5pm every 20min; more frequent during holidays; $8 one-way from Elder Park or $4 on the shorter run from the zoo, $12 return; t08/8295 4747). You can also rent paddleboats ($12/30min). Nearby, the green shed at Jolley’s Boathouse, across King William Road, is an Adelaide institution, housing a popular restaurant (see North Adelaide, Norwood and Unley) and cheaper kiosk, both with river views.

The most pleasant way to get to Adelaide Zoo, whose main entrance is on Frome Road (daily 9.30am–5pm; free 30min guided walks every half hour between 9.45am and 3.30pm; $28.50, children $16; call t08/8267 3255 for feeding times and keeper talks, wwww.adelaidezoo.com.au), is to follow the river, either by boat (see Adelaide’s arts festivals) or on foot, a fifteen-minute stroll. Alternatively, walk from the Botanic Gardens through Botanic Park, entering through the children’s zoo entrance on Plane Tree Drive, or take bus #271 or #273 from Currie Street. Opened in 1883, the country’s second-oldest zoo (after Melbourne’s) is full of century-old European and native trees, and well-preserved Victorian architecture, including the Elephant House, built in 1900 in the style of an Indian temple. The zoo is best known for its extensive collection of native birds, and more recently for its impressive panda enclosure – the only one in the southern hemisphere. The Panda and Friends tour incorporates private panda viewing and conservation information with a guided tour of the zoo (Wed–Sun 8.30am; 3hr 30min; $130, bookings essential).

The city’s main thoroughfare, King William Street, is lined with imposing civic buildings and always crowded with traffic. Look out for the Edmund Wright House at no. 59, whose elaborate Renaissance-style facade is one of Adelaide’s most flamboyant. On the other side of the street a couple of blocks south, the Town Hall (1866) is another of Edmund Wright’s Italianate designs. The General Post Office, on the corner of Franklin Street, is yet another portentous Victorian edifice, this time with a central clock tower: look inside at the main hall with its decorative roof lantern framed by opaque skylights. Opposite, on the corner of Flinders Street, the Old Treasury Building retains its beautiful facade, although it now houses apartments.

Halfway down King William Street lies pleasant Victoria Square, a favourite Aboriginal meeting place and home to the Catholic Cathedral of St Francis Xavier (1856) and the imposing Supreme Court, on the corner of Gouger Street. Just to the west, the covered Central Market (Tues 7am–5.30pm, Wed & Thurs 9am–5.30pm, Fri 7am–9pm, Sat 7am–3pm) has been a well-loved feature of Adelaide for over a hundred years. Here you can find delectable fresh produce in a riot of stalls and lively banter, as well as heaps of shops and cafés, and, adjoining the market, a superb Asian food hall with sushi and noodle bars. Nearby Gouger and Grote streets also have a fantastic array of options for a meal, drink or coffee – all particularly busy on Friday evenings.

The most popular and easily accessible of the city’s beaches is Glenelg, 11km southwest of the city. Travel here by tram from Victoria Square (25min), or take bus #167 or #168 from Currie or Grenfell streets or the #J1 bus from the airport. Glenelg was the site of the landing of Governor John Hindmarsh and the first colonists on Holdfast Bay; the Old Gum Tree where he read the proclamation establishing the government of the colony still stands on McFarlane Street, and there’s a re-enactment here every year on Proclamation Day (Dec 28).

Holidaymakers have been parading along Glenelg’s seaside promenade for over 160 years and Glenelg still has the atmosphere of a busy holiday town, even in off season. Jetty Road, the main drag, is crowded with casual places to eat (for the obligatory seaside fish and chips, try the Bay Fish Shop at no. 27 or the award-winning The Oyster Shop at no. 40, probably one of the few takeaways to serve beer and wine), while Marina Pier (wwww.marinapier.com.au) at the northern end of Holdfast Promenade is home to a dozen bars, cafés and seaside restaurants, such as Sammy’s. There’s lots of accommodation, bookable at the Glenelg Visitor Information Centre on Marina Pier (Mon–Fri 9.30am–5pm, Sat 10am–3.30pm, Sun 10am–2pm; t08/8294 5833, wwww.glenelgsa.com.au), which also arranges tours and rental cars, and offers self-guided walking trail brochures and internet access. The tram terminates at Moseley Square, dominated by the Glenelg Town Hall and clock tower. At the opposite corner, the imposing seafront Stamford Grand Hotel is crowded with drinkers on Sunday, when Glenelg is at its most vibrant. From Moseley Square, the old jetty juts out into the bay, and in summer the beach is crowded with people swimming; it’s a popular windsurfing spot year-round.

Glenelg Town Hall is home to the Bay Discovery Centre (daily 10am–3pm; by donation; t08/8179 9508, wwww.baydiscovery.com.au), a wonderful social history museum documenting stories of life by the sea through the use of multimedia and archival images, and covering everything from old seaside amusements from the 1930s to changing beach fashions. Beach volleyball, jogging and cycling are popular activities in Glenelg, with a bike track south of the square. Hostels rent or loan bikes.

South of Glenelg, Brighton has an old-fashioned, sleepy air, dominated by the stone Arch of Remembrance, flanked by palm trees, which stands in front of the long jetty. Running inland from the beach, Jetty Road has a string of appealing one- and two-storey buildings shaded with awnings that contain an assortment of art, craft and secondhand stores, and two popular alfresco cafés: A Cafe Etc and Horta’s. Brighton can be reached by train from Adelaide (25min) or bus #265 from Victoria Square. For beaches further south, For more information, see The Fleurieu Peninsula.