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The North Arm Powder Magazine near
The North Arm Powder Magazine near Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
, South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, was from 1858 to 1906 a secure storage facility for dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...
and gelignite
Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpe ...
used in the construction, mining and quarrying industries.''Explosives storage in Magazine Creek, Port Adelaide district, 1857-1906.'' Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no. 35, 2007.
Location
Themagazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
was in Gillman near Port Adelaide at the North Arm of the Port River only 9 metres away from the North Arm Bridge subsequently constructed on the North Arm Road. The explosives were stored in the wooden, slate-roofed magazine building and in two dynamite hulks moored in Magazine Creek. One of them was a retired iron dredger, built about 1852; the other was a former lighter
A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or c ...
. They were seen as a risk, if they were to explode, because they were close to new bridge and developing residential areas.
Buildings
TheSouth Australian Government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
constructed the magazine in 1858 as a lightweight structure on wooden poles due to its location at the tidal creek. Only later, this became best practice to mitigate secondary damage from an explosion by descending débris.
As the magazine was encroached by housing, only a decade after its commissioning proposals were made for its abandonment. However, it was not taken out of service until more than three decades later, in 1906, when its contents were transferred to the new Dry Creek explosives depot
The Dry Creek explosives depot was a secure storage facility at Dry Creek, near Port Adelaide, from 1904 to 1995, serving the construction, mining and quarrying industries of South Australia and the mines of Broken Hill in New South Wales. o ...
. The building was demolished in 1916. Subsequently, land reclamation has occurred and no visible evidence remains.
References