POINCIANA INN MOTEL
84 MITCHELL ST, DARWIN, NT 0800
PHOTOS: E FUSCALDO
84 MITCHELL ST, DARWIN, NT 0800
PHOTOS: E FUSCALDO
The Poinciana Inn Motel at 84 Mitchell Street was designed by Wilkins, Klemm & Morrison and is notable as one of the first buildings in Darwin to incorporate a hydraulic lift.
The four-storey building required vertical circulation that had rarely been needed in the city before, and when excavation for the lift well began, the contractors struck a watercourse beneath the site, an early illustration of the geotechnical unknowns that made construction in Darwin in the 1960s a genuinely exploratory undertaking.
While the ground floor has been altered over time, key modernist features including the external corridor arrangement and simple geometric lines remain evident.
The building survived Cyclone Tracy almost unscathed, losing only a small section of the single-storey restaurant roof, and was back in operation within weeks of the cyclone. It stands as an important mid-century commercial building that contributed to Darwin's evolving cityscape during the post-war expansion of tourism and road travel.
Heritage Status: Not Listed.
The four-storey building required vertical circulation that had rarely been needed in the city before, and when excavation for the lift well began, the contractors struck a watercourse beneath the site, an early illustration of the geotechnical unknowns that made construction in Darwin in the 1960s a genuinely exploratory undertaking.
While the ground floor has been altered over time, key modernist features including the external corridor arrangement and simple geometric lines remain evident.
The building survived Cyclone Tracy almost unscathed, losing only a small section of the single-storey restaurant roof, and was back in operation within weeks of the cyclone. It stands as an important mid-century commercial building that contributed to Darwin's evolving cityscape during the post-war expansion of tourism and road travel.
Heritage Status: Not Listed.