Vibrant street art of Port Adelaide in South Australia

Located 14 kilometres north of the city centre is a suburb of Adelaide coated in colourful murals. Discover the best places to see street art in Port Adelaide and start planning your visit.

Australia’s urban art game is strong.

And while Melbourne has long been considered the street art capital of the country, these days it has competition.

Not only from other big cities – even small towns (like Benalla in Victoria) are getting in on the action.

And while Adelaide itself has a vibrant urban art scene, the outer suburb of Port Adelaide (around 14 kilometres from the city’s CBD) is worth making a trip to, for its art alone.

This is thanks to the biennial Wonderwalls Port Adelaide festival, that sees local, Australian and international street artists descend upon Port Adelaide, to paint colourful, vibrant and sometimes quite bizarre art on the port town’s walls.

Here’s a few pieces you can expect to see during your time in this area. I recommend downloading the Visit Port Adelaide app, which has a map and markers for works around the city, to help with your self-guided street art tour.

And discover what you can get up to with 3 days in Adelaide.

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Port Adelaide street art

Artists: Vans the Omega & Morris Green (2021)

This mural is of AFL team Port Adelaide’s captain Travis Boak, commemorating his 300th game in the league.

You’ll find it at the corner of Mundy St and Nile St.

Artists: Scott Rathman, Jake Holmes (2019)

The work on the left is by Arrernte man Scott Rathman. Mural on the right is by Jake Holmes. These are located behind Hart’s Mill.

This hoarding generally gets covered with new art each festival.

Artists: Various

There’s a bunch of works on the hoarding near the Port Adelaide lighthouse. The Seinfeld-related work is by local artists Tiff & Jade.

Artists: PichiAvo (2020)

Pichi and Avo are street artists that hail from Valencia in Spain. You’ll find this vibrant mural just off McLaren Parade.

Artist: Vesod (2020)

This piece is by Italian artist Vesod, another one of the murals on McLaren Parade.

Artist: Natalia Rak (2017)

Rendition of a mermaid by Polish artist Natalia Rak. You’ll find it at 8 Karatta Dock.

Artist: Jasmine Crisp (2020)

‘Family Port-rait’ by Jasmine Crisp is on the corner of Menpes St and Lipson St.

Crisp also created the big and beautiful mural of singer Sia Fuller as part of Adelaide’s City of Music Laneways Trail.

Artist: Amanda Lynn (2017)

American artist Amanda Lynn has painted this mural on the back of a building on Timpson Place.

Artists: Etam Cru (2015)

A mural from the first Wonderwalls festival way back in 2015, by Polish duo Etam Cru.

You can’t miss it – it’s up the end of St Vincent Street, one of the main street of Port Adelaide.

There’s a work around the other side of the building by Askew One & Elliott Francis Stewart.

Artist: Masika 126 (2015)

This mural by Masika 126 is just off Divett Street.

Looks like a tribute to legendary naturalist David Attenborough.

Artists: Phat1 & Lady Diva (2020)

This is one of my favourites, ‘Bird Life’ by Charles and Janine Williams aka Phat1 & Lady Diva from Aotearoa (New Zealand).

They specialise in birds from Aoteroa (which has some truly fabulous bird life).

Their street art in Port Adelaide is of Australian native birds – a male and female Superb Fairy wren.

Artist: Claire Foxton (2017)

This mural by Australian artist Claire Foxton is at 1 Marryatt St, next to Ladder St Vincent Street, which provides accommodation and support for young people at risk of homelessness.

Apparently the portrait is of a young woman who used to live there.

Artist: What 82 (2020)

Sadly not quite the right time of day to be photographing this vibrant piece by What 82.

It’s on the side of the Newmarket Hotel on Marryatt St.

Artist: Smug One (2015)

A work done in Australian-born Scotland-based artist Smug One’s trademark photorealistic style.

This is round the back of the ‘Red Lime Shack’ on Robe Street.

Artist: Scott Marsh (2020)

Here is Australian satirical street artist Scott Marsh’s politically charged piece.

This is ‘inspired’ by ten years of inaction on climate change in Australia.

You’ll find it corner of Cannon Street and Ship Street.

Artist: MIMI (2017)

This intriguing work by Australian artist MIMI is on Quebec Street.

Artist: Sat One (2019)

Across the street you’ll find this piece by German artist Sat One.

Artist: DEMSKY (2020)

This super trippy work is by Spanish artist DEMSKY, right off Quebec Mall.

Artists: Various

Head to Port Adelaide Basketball Stadium off St Vincent Street to see quite of few of Port Adelaide’s street art pieces, by artists such as Telmo Miel, Zedr and Jake Logos.

Artist: 10TKL (2019)

Local artist 10TKL has a thing with squids. This mural is on the side of the Maritime Union of Australia building on the corner of Hare St and St Vincent Street.

Wonderwalls will return to Port Adelaide 4 March, 2023. If you’re keen to see street artists at work, put it in your diary.

However, it’s worth travelling out to Port Adelaide any time of the year, to check out its unique arts scene.

How to get to Port Adelaide

If you’re staying in Adelaide’s CBD (Central Business District), you can catch the train out to Port Adelaide.

Just head to Adelaide Train Station and get the one going towards Outer Harbour. It’s about a twenty minute journey.

Tickets can be bought at the train station. If you’re using public transport a fair bit, it might be worth buying a metroCARD. However, the plastic cards themselves cost $5.

It’s only $5.50 to buy a one-ticket or $11.20 for a day trip MetroTicket, so you’ll have to work out whether it’s worth the saving (and worth noting that on Adelaide’s trams, you can use your debit or credit card to tap on and off for a $4 trip, negating the need for a metroCARD on this type of transport.

If you abhor public transport, you can get to Port Adelaide via taxi or Uber, which will be between $30-40.

What else can you do in Port Adelaide?

While in Port Adelaide, I wanted to see the Ships Graveyard – where old ships were purposely wrecked into the Port River 100+ years ago.

So, I jumped on a Shipwreck Graveyard Cruise, which is a lot of fun and very informative. If you’re lucky, you may also see the wild dolphins living in Port River.

After or during your tour of Port Adelaide’s street art, pop into Pirate Life Brewery for drinks and a feed. There’s plenty of urban art on display here too.

So that’s Port Adelaide – certainly worth a day trip.

What do you think of the street art in Port Adelaide? Would you visit?

This post on street art in Port Adelaide is current as of November 2022. Perth is another Australian city with a very underrated street art scene.

If you love urban art, you might also be interested in reading about:

• Melbourne’s street art: a guide to the city’s colourful laneways
• The OG Silo Art Trail in Victoria
• The North East Silo Art Trail in Victoria
• The painted sheep of Northampton WA

For more on Australia, see my Australia Travel Guide.

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