Urbex – Page 26 of 46 – Awesome Adelaide

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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February 8, 2015

Urban Exploring: The Apostles Tunnel

We had a number of failed missions last year to find this tunnel. Information about its location was scarce. A much needed tip-off directed our search to a new, nearby area and in early November we found it. Elated we marked it on our maps for future visits.

The Apostles Tunnel was rock-blasted back in the 1920’s. Its purpose was to hold a large water main which transferred water from an up-stream reservoir down to the higher levels of suburban Adelaide. It became redundant with the commissioning of the Anstey Hill Water Treatment Plant in 1991 and the pipe was removed leaving large concrete supports that now line the tunnel.

No longer in use, The Apostles Tunnel lays forgotten within the side of a mountain. Off the beaten track, we take you underground so you too can see inside this dark and evasive tunnel…