Home of the first overseas telegram now a five-star hotel

Adelaide’s 150-year-old grand GPO building, once a busy communications hub connecting the city with the world via the Overland Telegraph line, is open again as the five-star Marriott Hotel, a first for the group in South Australia.

On the corner of King William and Franklin streets and set back from the GPO’s original facade and Victoria Tower (the GPO’s prominent timepiece installed in 1876), the new 14-storey cube-like hotel behind the building has 285 soundproof rooms including 11 suites overlooking leafy Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga or the city skyline.

The hotel is perfectly positioned on the corner of King William and Franklin streets.

Overseen by Adelaide-based Baukultur architects, local materials used include Adelaide Hills sandstone and the colour palette – reflected through furniture, art and carpet – references the state’s world-class wines and the lifecycle of a grapevine.

The Overland Telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin was completed in 1872 and linking it with the Java-to-Darwin submarine telegraph cable made it “the greatest engineering feat carried out in 19th century Australia,” according to the National Museum of Australia.

The 18-metre swimming pool.

It reduced Australia’s communication time with Europe from months to hours and marked the beginning of the end of the country’s isolation from the rest of the world.

Stories of the GPO are celebrated by a collection of multimedia artworks in guestrooms and in the lounge lobby, a wall sculpture by Karl Meyer and Warren Pickering – tempus edax rerum (time, devourer of all things) – is inspired by the curves of the pneumatic tubes that once carried urgent messages under the city’s streets.

Nods to South Australian heritage in the hotel foyer.

Executive chef Alexandre Katsman heads up the 126-seater Penny Blue restaurant featuring local favourites Coffin Bay oysters, Spencer Gulf prawns and Gawler River quail.

While the city has a reputation for being “15 minutes from anywhere” the hotel’s location is especially ideal for visitors who converge on the state for Mad March, its various festivals and sporting events such as the AFL’s Gather Round.

Rooms and suites are soundproof.

Within walking distance of Adelaide Oval, Rundle Street, Central Markets and Her Majesty’s Theatre guests can catch the tram from the hotel’s doorstep along North Terrace to the city, or south to Glenelg Beach.

A bonus for scorching summer days which the city is known for, is the undercover and invisible from the street 18-metre swimming pool.

Wi-Fi is free at the hotel of course, no telegram required.

See marriott.com