Sand Sculptures | Hart’s Mill | Port Adelaide | Review | 2019

Sand Sculptures – The Jungle Book at Hart’s Mill, Port Adelaide

The Jungle Book themed Sand Sculptures are in a new location, undercover at the historic Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide. This is great news for sand sculpture lovers as this means that the sculptures are not exposed to the elements as they have been in previous years and the sculptors have been able to achieve greater detail in this year’s exhibition.

This is a really fantastic family outing which will appeal to all ages. It doesn’t matter whether you are a fan of Rudyard Kipling’s book, however, if you are, you will see that the characters and story have been brought to life brilliantly.

Although kids will probably be keen to head straight to the sculptures, we highly recommend attending a ‘meet the sculptor’ session as it gives an insight into the working lives of professional sand sculpting artists who travel the world sculpting sand for a living.  The session includes a short 15 minute video which explains the sand sculpting process and features a time lapse of the Jungle Book exhibition being created. This is quite mesmerising to watch and provides a new appreciation of sand sculpting as an amazing art form. There are some short interviews with the sand sculptors in the video who describe the challenges they face with sand sculpting, but their love for what they do is evident.

The video is followed by a short tour and Q&A time upstairs with one of the sculptors.

The view over the whole exhibition is fantastic, however, it is not until you reach the sculptures that you can truly appreciate just how amazing the sand sculptures really are.

The sand sculptures are set on platforms which can be viewed from various angles which means that you can slowly make your way around the exhibition and not miss anything. The exhibition is accessible for families with prams and people of all abilities.

For kids that may be getting restless, there are craft activities for them to do. There are also tables filled clay-type sand, the same used for the sand sculptures. Kids can use the tools provided and have a go at sculpting their own masterpiece.

The sculptures are beautifully lit which means that they appear very dramatic but you can really get up close and see all the details in the animals, the characters and the buildings.

When we visited there were also some sculptors busy at work which gave us an opportunity to watch first-hand as they perfected their creations.

Outside the Mill is an alleyway with plenty of food trucks offering a variety of food and drink including coffee, fairy floss, Greek food, hot chips, healthy food and more.

There is also a giant sandpit to play in and giant games which younger children will love to play with.

Staff are friendly and helpful, toilets are accessible in the main building and the port and playground are also just around the corner.

We highly recommend setting aside the whole day to enjoy some great family time, if you can. While you are visiting Port Adelaide, there are some great places to take the kids including the SA Maritime Museum,  the National Railway Museum and the Wonderwalls Street Art displays.

Find out more about the Sand Sculptures at Hart’s Mill here

Check out our April School Holiday Guide here: 

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

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