On Saturday delegates can choose one of the following four field trips, which are included in your full registration. Please ensure you have selected a fieldtrip as part of your registration, so you don’t miss out on a seat on your preferred tour. Buses will pick up conference delegates from a designated location in the city at 20 minute intervals from 7:45am for the trade fair and breakfast. All buses for the field trips will leave from Adelaide Gaol at 10:00am sharp and will return to the city by 5:00pm. Lunch is inclusive and several conference paper presentations will be presented during each of the trips.
1. Adelaide City
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Perhaps more than most other Australian capital cities, Adelaide City retains an extensive collection of significant and well-loved European heritage fabric. This may be due to unique historic conditions or the wonderful separating device of the City ‘Square Mile’ and North Adelaide from the rest of metropolis by a wide ‘green belt’ of parklands. Adelaide City was a completely planned city, a product of the South Australia Company, proudly convict free and abundant in opportunity.
The tour will visit historic West Terrace cemetery and its new award winning interpretive trail, the Dutch ‘Moderne’ style Adelaide (Boys) High School and its sensitive new additions by bus then lunch at the evocative and quirky space of the 1840s Queens & Royal Theatre. After lunch we will travel to the newly refurbished National Heritage listed Parliament House and Legislative Council buildings on North Tce for an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ guided tour and presentation.
Later a guided walking tour along Adelaide’s premier ‘cultural boulevard’, featuring historic Government House, National War Memorial, Institute building, State Library, SA Museum, Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide University and University of South Australia landmark buildings lined up for your enjoyment, arriving for drinks at Ayers House, Adelaide’s most historic mansion right in the city. There we will marvel at the unequalled decorative paint finishes with paper presentations and drinks to finish the day.
2. Old Adelaide Gaol
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At the Old Adelaide Gaol we will be offering a unique opportunity to get close to Traditional Trades in action, within a historically stimulating site. The Gaol closed in 1988, but is now a Government owned and managed museum open to the public. The site is still in its largely unrestored state , managed through volunteer assistance. The Gaol was erected by 1841 and is a panopticon in plan, complete with castellated stone guard towers, a ‘working’ gallows and outer walls topped with loose bricks to foil escapes!
By special arrangement FABRIC Conference delegates will have exclusive access to Old Adelaide Gaol for the day. On show will be traditional trades such as blacksmithing, slate and lead working, stone ‘bankering’ or carving, traditional timber repairs scarfing and splicing, ‘breathable’ paints, various coating and treatment systems as well as working with lime mortars and pointing. As the site has an intriguing archaeological dig site inside one of the old buildings, we will also have a presentation by Dr. Keryn Walshe. A gourmet packed lunch will be provided on site.
Later in the day we will travel to Ayers House on North Terrace where Dr Donald Ellesmore will discuss the ongoing conservation of the historic mansion’s extensive suite of magnificent decorative paint finish interiors.
3. Mount Lofty Ranges
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The Mount Lofty Ranges district spans the world-renowned food, wine and tourism regions of the Barossa Valley, the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula. The district is significant as the first area of agricultural expansion beyond 1830s Adelaide and its planned Benthamite ideals. The manicured cultural landscape is exceptional and is a mix of vineyards, horticulture, dairy farms and colonial settlements of distinctive character. Towns such as Hahndorf, Lobethal and Bethany reflect the planned Silesian German settlements of the 1840-50s. Stirling and Aldgate were established as the summer retreats of the wealthy of 1890s Adelaide. The landscapes of the Piccadilly and Onkaparinga valleys are picturesque reminders of the importance of food production and dairy farming since settlement.
The tour will examine the proposed World Heritage Cultural Landscape bid for the region – a bid that is enthusiastically supported by the local communities of the Hills. The influence of geology will be explored at the historic Willunga roof slate quarry and surrounding farmscape. The cultural heritage values of the hills will be highlighted at Hahndorf and Sir Hans Heysen’s nearby historic home and studio “the Cedars.” Lunch will be served in the field. In the afternoon the tour will travel via the Lenswood Fruit Co-op, an integral part of the working agricultural landscape, to the former Vice-Regal 1880 summer residence at Marble Hill, Ashton, burnt to the ground by a bushfire in the 1950s and now being rebuilt and adapted to the needs of dedicated new owners.
4. Port Adelaide
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Typical of the issues facing many post-industrial port cities, Port Adelaide’s fortunes have been many and varied. With the increase in containerisation, offshore manufacturing and processing, and the use of larger vessels leaving the inner harbour a shadow of its former active self, questions about how the place will develop persist. The conference tour takes a look at the current state of the place, with presenters providing context on its past, together with possibilities for its future.
Following the failed major urban regeneration project, a re-thinking of the approach to redevelopment has invoked a different methodology. The tour will look at remnants of the ambitious regeneration programme based on high-density housing and a flat-site approach, in contrast with the early fabric of the place.
At the same time there will be a look at ongoing efforts to find a middle ground in the areas waiting to be renewed. A walk around some of the inner harbour, with visits to the newly adapted, former Hart’s Mills site, the Maritime Museum, the City of Adelaide clipper ship, and the State Heritage Area. It will provide a glimpse of the issues and tensions between community, government, private investment, and landscape and fabric, in port city place-making. Illustrated conference papers will be presented in the Weyman’s Room at the Maritime Museum. Delegates will enjoy lunch at the British Hotel.