Adelaide might seem like a fairly innocuous city from the exterior, but beneath the surface lurks a subterranean world of secret government cabinet rooms, gold vaults and ancient lizard-people civilisations. Okay, so maybe we made up that last one, but you will be surprised to learn what historic secrets Adelaide hides beneath its streets.
Ayers House Museum is running their wildly popular Old Treasury & Tunnels Tour again this year, and while the March dates are almost gone, there are plenty of dates in April remaining. The tours take visitors underneath the old Treasury building (now the Adina boutique hotel) and into the past of South Australia’s earlier years.
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The Treasury buildings were first constructed as a one-storey affair in 1839, then demolished to make way for two and three-storey additions built between 1858 and 1907. The building was the centre of the state government’s bureaucracy right up until the 1990’s when the last government office left the building. It was then restored, while preserving as much of the heritage as possible, into the Adina we know today. There are some exciting stories from its history, too. We won’t spoil too much of the tour, but expect to hear about vaults constructed for the 1850’s gold rush bullion, and riots over beef from the 1930’s.
These tours are incredibly popular, so be sure to book your tickets as soon as possible through their ticketing page and if you miss out, chuck a like at Adelaide Tours and National Trust of South Australia’s Facebook pages to get informed about their upcoming historic tours.
Header Image: Ayers House Museum archives
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