Lovers locked from the city to head beachside instead as Glenelg Jetty offered up as romantic hot spot
GLENELG Jetty will become a haven for romantics from around the globe if a local councillor gets her way and permanent love locks — facing the chop in the city — are welcomed at the popular beach site, instead.
West & Beaches
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A PLACE close to the heart of many South Australians could soon have a lock on its reputation as a top spot to get engaged.
A Holdfast Bay councillor wants the Glenelg jetty to be known as the new place for people to declare their love, after the City Council moved to investigate whether to remove “love locks” on the University of Adelaide Footbridge.
At next week’s Holdfast Bay meeting, Cr Amanda Wilson will call for a report into how courting couples could be encouraged to the Bay, and if the jetty could withstand the weight of hundreds of padlocks.
“We could turn Glenelg into an area where people in the state go to declare their love and get proposed to,” Cr Wilson said.
“It’s a perfect place for lovers to declare their love for each other — it’s so romantic.”
The trend to attach locks on the Torrens footbridge and throw away the key imitates a similar tradition on other bridges across the globe, including the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris.
The Paris city council removed 45 tonnes of padlocks from the Pont des Arts last year. It followed a section of the structure collapsing in 2014, under the weight of the locks.
Cr Wilson wants Holdfast Bay to place a love heart-shaped sculpture it bought as part of the Brighton Jetty Classic Sculptures Exhibition, at the foreshore end of the jetty.
Cr Wilson hoped couples would get engaged, attach a lock to the jetty, take a photo of themselves with the sculpture — called My Big Red Heart — and then go out for a drink and dinner nearby.
Michael Forte, 31, of Greenacres, proposed to his now-wife Carla Forte, 30, on the Glenelg jetty in 2013.
Despite it being a busy place on a sunny day, Mrs Forte said it felt like they were the only two there.
“It was surreal,” Mrs Forte said.
“It’s a sentimental place for us because it was where we had one of our first dates.
“It was really cool because people were clapping and cheering.”
Michael and Carla were married in May and are due to have a baby in August.
They went to Paris on their honeymoon and placed a lock on the famous bridge over the Seine.
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