Multimillion-dollar upgrade of Adelaide Uni’s North Tce campus unveiled
Tearing down historic fences, adding new gardens and recognising indigenous heritage – a multimillion-dollar makeover of Adelaide Uni will make it more inviting to the public.
Tertiary
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The grounds of Adelaide University will be opened up to the Riverbank and better connected to Lot Fourteen and Adelaide Botanic High in a multimillion-dollar makeover.
A 70m section of the city campus’s historic fence will be torn down along Victoria Drive in front of the Barr Smith Lawns and the cloisters.
The lawns will be extended by removing on-campus parking spaces in order to create a broad, landscaped entrance.
The historic Mitchell Gates on Victoria Drive, opposite the University Footbridge, will be returned to their original 1933 location on Frome Rd.
The gates will become both a grand entrance to the maths lawn, framing the vista to the Barr Smith Library, and the campus’s formal connection to Lot Fourteen across Frome Rd.
Another, shorter section of the fence will be removed near the Mawson Building at the corner of Frome Rd and Victoria Drive, opposite Adelaide Botanic High.
The Advertiser in March revealed Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen’s desire to remove fencing as a sign of the uni’s intent to welcome the public and make it a hub of community activity. At the time, he also flagged an east-west heritage walk showcasing the uni’s history, and a north-south walk devoted to Kaurna heritage, including a “learning circle”.
New images and details on the learning circle show it will be an indigenous ceremonial and meeting space, with a fire pit, seating and shade, to recognise Kaurna culture and spiritual connection with Karrawirra Pari (Red Gum Forest River, or the River Torrens).
Designed in consultation with Kaurna cultural advisers, the shelter will have a welcome banner reading “Kaurna miyurna warra marni naa pudni, Kaurna yartanna”, meaning “Kaurna people say it’s good you all come to Kaurna country”.
A geology garden will be created next to the Mawson Building to celebrate the discipline’s ’s role in SA’s economic development. There will also be more shaded areas, path upgrades and planting of native SA plants and flowering trees.
Professor Alan Peters, head of the uni’s architecture school, said the project would make the campus “a more attractive and welcoming place”, adding to the completed upgrade of the cloisters and new UniBar.
Some parts of the makeover will be finished in time for the Fringe and Festival season.
The campus fence was originally erected around Victoria Square in 1883, then moved to the uni in 1933.
SA Heritage has approved its partial removal. A new home will be found for those sections.
