Historic Shed 26 at Fletcher’s Slip saved — for now

The historic Shed 26 at Fletcher’s Slip in Port Adelaide has been given a lifeline after the developer backflipped on its plan to demolish it immediately.

The historic Shed 26 at Fletcher’s Slip in Port Adelaide — which was slated to be demolished for housing — could be saved after the developer backflipped on the plan.

Development firm Cedar Woods last week said it would meet with the National Trust and SA Heritage Council to investigate how it could retain the shed in its housing estate.

It followed a concerted public campaign to save the sawtooth boatshed — the last of its kind left on the banks of the Port River — which culminated in the Heritage Council awarding it interim state heritage listing last month.

In a letter to local activist Dave Kirner, Cedar Woods development director Mark Pivovaroff said due to “community interest” in the shed, it would “consider potential ways to retain the shed and discuss if there’s a viable way to fund the shed’s retention”.

The firm had previously asserted it would not be possible to keep the shed without $8.5 million in State Government funding to remediate the building.

The sawtooth shed at Port Adelaide which was set to be demolished. Picture: AAP Image/ Brenton Edwards

Mr Kirner welcomed the change of tack from Cedar Woods.

“It’s important that the heritage features of the waterfront are retained including preserving and restoring Shed 26,” Mr Kirner said.

“Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings needs to be supported by the State Government and local council and the project developer.”

Former Port of Adelaide National Trust chair Tony Kearney said it was “great” Cedar Woods had begun communicating with the community and was in the process of organising a meeting with the developer.

He expected it would happen after the company had spoken to the National Trust and Heritage Council.

“I suspect they’re just wanting to find out what the process is and why it was provisionally listed and that’s fair enough,” Mr Kearney said.

“They’ve said they will look at the possibility (of retaining the shed) … but at the end of the day they might say it’s not viable.

“We’re going to maintain our push for it to be adaptively reused in whatever way it can be.”

Tony Kearney, former chair Port of Adelaide National Trust, with protesters at the sawtooth shed at Port Adelaide in November last year. Picture: AAP Image/ Brenton Edwards

Cedar Woods chief operating officer Patrick Archer said the firm had taken the community response “seriously” and was happy to meet with any group that had ideas to retain the shed.

“It’s a lot of money to retain, but there is community interest so it would be remiss of us to not give it another go,” Mr Archer said.

“I thought we had investigated the possibility fairly thoroughly but we’re happy to revisit that and if anyone else has ideas, we’re open to the possibility.”

However, he could not guarantee a solution would be found and would not be drawn on whether Cedar Woods would be willing to fund the remediation itself.

Shed 26 was one of many boatsheds that once stood in the Glaville Dockyards, owned by the government’s Harbours Board.

It is one of the last remaining artefacts of the working harbour.

Cedar Woods intends to build about 500 homes — a mix of two- and three-storey townhouses and low-rise apartments — alongside public parks in a major transformation of the site aimed at young families and couples.