The Changing Face of Semaphore Road (Part 1... Semaphore Road Apothecary vs Semaphore Veterinary Surgery)

We are relative newcomers to Semaphore. The Kaurna people have been here for some 40,000 years. The Europeans who built the above building started arriving in the 1830s. We, your trusty blog authors, have only been here since 2016.

The building you see above, is at 111/113 Semaphore Road, and according to one newspaper story, was built in 1846. That would make it one of the oldest European structures in all of South Australia. Other accounts peg it as having been built in the 1870s. According to what we've read, it housed a school, and an apothecary.

In the picture below, you can still see the "ghost sign" from the original apothecary.

Unfortunately, this building is slated for demolition. It is hard to believe that the people who run South Australia (mostly European descendants), would care so little for their history and heritage. But that's South Australia for you. If a gum tree can be replaced by a pokie machine, let's do it! Anyways, the proposed replacement for this irreplaceable part of South Australian history, is a god-awful, ugly, cheap, modern, dog surgery.

In a perfect world, either the local council, the state government, or a local billionaire, would've stepped up when this place was sold, and made sure it was preserved for all time. Instead its "gone to the dogs"... literally!