sir thomas playford etsa museum

We found this through a TripAdvisor forum entry on hidden gems of Adelaide. I will have to confess here that I dragged Catherine to visit a similar museum in Lisbon that had been beautifully developed in a disused urban power station.I would describe this as half museum - dedicated to Adelaides electricity generation and transmission but including an interesting display of electrical consumer products and a grand finale display of high voltage discharge from a Tesla coil, with the other half being a place where retired employees of the old South Australian "Power Board" get together and work on projects for the museum while engaging in the sort of banter that goes hand in hand with practical technical guys who know each other well.A very important point to note is that it is only open on Tuesdays between 9 and 3:30 - as luck would have it the day I found it was a Tuesday and along we went.The guys there are a hoot - they are continually "taking the piss" out of each other and you can feel the camaraderie that this group of aging gentlemen have.The museum is fun - you are shown through by whoever is allocated to you - he may have been a manager or one of the station operators - whoever it is they will have a massive depth of knowledge of what they are showing you and there is nothing better than having something explained by an enthusiast! We had a tag team - whoever was the guru in a particular area showed you through that section. The tour includes a display of electrical consumer goods from various times, equipment from lines installation and maintenance, technical and test equipment, heavy coal and gas thermal generation and distribution gear - it ends with a spectacular Tesla coil arc discharge.The displays are meticulously maintained by experts, but the real gems are the guys themselves and the way they interact with each other and with you - I felt privileged to have been a part of it.By the way - Catherine was going to wait in the car not being particulary interested in engineering - the manager (Max I think), wouldn't hear of it and made it his mission to lure her out of the car to at least see the consumer equipment display while I looked through the power generation and test equipment buildings. It is an experience!!