Abandoned Building – Page 18 of 30

March 13, 2015

Urban Exploring: Puzzle Park

No site about exploring around Adelaide is quite complete without a visit to our states favourite amusement park — Puzzle Park. With the on-site caretaker absent, we seized the opportunity to take a sneak-peek inside.

Two Murray Bridge entrepreneurs opened Puzzle Park in 1985 and for 22 years was one of the state’s best-loved family attractions, winning a swag of tourism awards.

Mounting public liability costs forced its closure in 2007 and for the last several years it has sat decaying. The ball-pit no longer contains any balls. The giant slide too rusty to use. The merry-go-round stripped of its seats.

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February 22, 2015

Urban Exploring: Under Fort Largs

In 1870, Britain withdrew military assistance to its colonies, however there was concern that attacks might be made on Adelaide in order to disrupt shipping. Fort Largs was constructed in 1882-84 as one of a set of forts designed to protect the Semaphore anchorage, the harbour entrance and maritime activities of South Australia against perceived threats from foreign invaders.

The other fort, Fort Glanville, had been built 5 years earlier, south of Fort Largs. A third fort, planned for Glenelg, was never built but the three sites were linked by the construction of Military Road. Now you know why Military Road extends all the way from Glenelg to Fort Largs!

Under Fort Largs lies a network of small tunnels and chambers. Either side of each Armstrong Gun [Figure 1: a, b], tunnels carried artillery shells into large circular chambers [Figure 1: 11, 21]. Within each chamber sat a large carousel on which shells were stored for later retrieval. Manual cranks [Figure 1: 4, 7] within the sub-structure under Fort Largs lifted the shells up to the base of the Armstrong Guns ready for firing.

Figure 1: Fort Largs Underground Plans (Photo courtesy of David Walsh)

Today Fort Largs survives in near its original state. For external photos of Fort Largs see our previous post or check out the amazing photographs by sedge808 and Andrew Dempster!

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January 14, 2015

Urban Exploring: Metro Meats

After opening in the early 1950’s, Metro Meats grew to be one of the most successful slaughterhouses in South Australia. Part of its success was attributed to a landmark court battle between itself and the state government where it won the right to export meat overseas; effectively ending the monopoly held by the MEAB Gepps Cross abattoir. Consequently, Metro Meats was able to build a substantial export market penetrating into the United States and China.

Metro became a household name and a major buyer of livestock at saleyards throughout South Australia. It was sold in the 1980s to Chinese interests after which it made steady losses and eventually closed in the late 1990’s.

It now sits in ruin slowly being transformed by its new owner. You can still see the remains of the livestock walkway, the killing floor and the cold rooms. But for how long???…