Port Adelaide

“ All along the line of route—at every station on the railway—crowds of people pressed forward to welcome home the great explorer. Wherever he passed, everything and everybody wore a holiday aspect; flags were flying, bands were playing, “See the conquering Hero comes,” where but a week before the honoured remains of the late Victorian explorers, Burke and Wills, had been carried in solemn procession to Port Adelaide en route for Melbourne.
When at last Stuart reached his adopted city, Adelaide gave itself up to the wildest intoxication of joy ”

“ Forlorn in spirit, I went to Port Adelaide. A lady and gentleman whom I knew had taken the management of a new club there. I thought if I could get a place till I could find a ship that would take me away, I would be glad to do anything till then. Life seemed no worse than at other times. ”

“ From this road the views were even more charming than those which we had previously admired; for beneath us lay a complete panorama of Adelaide and its suburbs, covering part of the rich plain at the foot of the opposite blue hills, and skirted by the north arm of the Port river. The little horses went well, and, although the road was rough and in many places steep, trotted merrily on until we reached the pier at Glenelg. ”

“ The chief industries are the manufacture of woollen, earthenware and iron goods, brewing, starch-making, flour-milling and soap-boiling. Adelaide is also the central share market of Australia, for West Australian goldmines, for the silver-mines at Broken Hill, and for the coppermines at Wallaroo, Burra Burra and Moonta; while Port Adelaide, on the neighbouring shore of St Vincent Gulf, ranks as the third in the Commonwealth. Adelaide is the terminus of an extensive railway system, the main line of which runs through Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Rockhampton. ”

“ It was in the middle of January, the height of the Australian summer, that the Sabrina came in sight of Kangaroo Island, and in a little while was running along the coast, the range of hills which form a background to the city of Adelaide being visible in the distance. And now all heads, and tongues, and hands were busy, for in a few hours, if the tide should serve for their passing the bar, they would be safe in Port Adelaide.
“Well, Jacob; my lad,” said Captain Merryweather to the cabin-boy, as he stood looking rather sadly and dreamily at the land, “you don’t look very bright. ”

“ Port Adelaide, a bar harbour, is about nine miles from Glenelg, and situate on the eastern bank of a large creek, penetrating the mangrove swamp by which the shore of the Gulf is thereabouts fringed. This creek is from ten to eleven miles in length. Its course for about two miles after you cross the bar is nearly east and west, but at that distance it turns to the south, and runs parallel to the coast ”

“ When you get along again, you notice that the railway to Port Adelaide runs along the street without any fence whatever to prevent people from driving or walking on to the line. Fatalities of course are common, and excite little notice; bolting horses and consequent accidents are of almost daily occurrence, and the local residents get quite to enjoy being pitched out of their buggies. Life here cannot be dull, while it lasts. Passengers are lucky if they reach Adelaide within [Pg 150] an hour and a half of leaving the steamer, the distance being about ten miles. ”

“ Although some of the bays and harbours I have described in running along its coast, are not so good as might be desired, yet it is evident that, as a maritime country, South Australia is particularly favoured, not only in having anchorage of the safest description, but also in possessing two or three known harbours, capable of containing ships in any number or any size, and as safe and capacious as any in the world. Looking indeed at Port Adelaide, one cannot but admire its appropriate and convenient position. ”

“ The captain, the doctor, and the matron were pleased, as there was a home found for me before I left the ship, and such a dear home it proved to be.
The married people and the single men went off first, with such of the young women as had friends to receive them. The next day we were brought to Adelaide, where a few of the single girls had gone. We were all on deck next morning in good time. There was no railway from Port Adelaide to the Semaphore then, so everything was left in its place. All were making preparations to leave, with hearts full of gratitude to the captain. ”

“ Parts of the route might prove to be almost impracticable after a dry season, but as far as our information went, the worst country would be met with, not in the far interior but somewhere between Port Augusta and a point a little north of Lake Eyre.
Mr. Fetherston, Jack, and I, left Port Adelaide for Port Augusta the first week in November in a slow little steamer that took near a week on the passage; and we had to stay nearly another week at Port Augusta before the overland party arrived. ”

“ There are five principal roads leading from Adelaide; three into the interior, and two to the coast. Of the three first, one leads to the north, through Gawler Town, one as the Great Eastern Road leads to Mount Barker and the Murray, and the third running southwards, crosses the range to Encounter Bay. Of the roads leading to the coast, the one goes to the Port, the other to Glenelg. ”

“ Partly owing to the separation of the port from the 1 city, partly owing to the slower and more even growth of South Australia, Adelaide seems quieter and less crowded than Melbourne or Sydney, and its inhabitants consider it to be the model capital of Eastern Australia. ”

“ Our sending to Adelaide had, however, obtained for us the valuable services of the WATERWITCH to assist us in tracing round the desert line of coast to the north-west, and had enabled us to procure a larger and more varied supply of stores, than we could possibly have brought up from Port Lincoln in a single dray. We were now amply furnished with conveniences of every kind; and both men and horses were in good plight and ready to enter upon the task before them. ”

“ This company obtained the right to construct a harbour. It was called the Largs Bay Company. It built a first-class up-to-date hotel on the foreshore, constructed a fine jetty, and a railway leading into Port Adelaide, with the view of diverting the landing of the passengers from the old Semaphore Government jetty to Largs Bay. All this will probably be of little interest to you, except that it supplies a reason for the influences that were brought to bear on the Government to construct No. 2 Fort. If the outer harbour was to be constructed, its protection was necessary. ”

“ A′delaar, the name of honour given to Cort Sivertsen, a famous Norse seaman, who rendered distinguished naval services to Denmark and to Venice against the Turks (1622-1675) .
Adelaide (133) , the capital of S. Australia, on the river Torrens, which flows through it into St. Vincent Gulf, 7 m. SE. of Port Adelaide; a handsome city, with a cathedral, fine public buildings, a university, and an extensive botanical garden; it is the great emporium for S. Australia; exports wool, wine, wheat, and copper ore.
Adelaide, eldest daughter of Louis XV. of France (1732-1806) . ”

“ The Adelaide sailed on the 16th of July, with every prospect of fine weather. The same evening, an American sealing schooner anchored near us, on her way to Staten Land. She had entered the Straits by Cutler and Smyth Channels, and in forty-eight hours arrived at Port Famine. ”

“ Before starting on this journey, however, the unhappy voyager has much to go through. In this respect Adelaide compares badly with Melbourne and Sydney. Sydney harbours the largest steamers in the centre of the city; Melbourne allows [Pg 149] them to come to the back door—at Port Melbourne; while Adelaide compels them to stay outside in the middle of the road, or roadstead, and a very rough roadstead it is. When the weather is at all fresh, the landing is positively dangerous. ”

“ Our life in Adelaide loading for home was enjoyable. There were many vessels in port also bound home, and there was a certain amount of camaraderie among the various ships’ apprentices, but it seemed to me there was always a certain number of them who walked about thanking their Creator that they were not as other men were. ”

“ We remained a night in Port Famine, and again set out in the Adelaide to survey some of the western parts of the Strait. {126}Bad weather forced us into Port San Antonio; of which Cordova gives so favourable an account, that we were surprised to find it small and inconvenient, even for the Adelaide.
He describes the port to be a mile and a half long, and three quarters of a mile broad: we found the length a mile and a quarter, and the mean breadth scarcely a quarter of a mile. It possesses no one advantage that is not common to almost every other harbour and cove in the Strait ”

“ It is evident, therefore, that the Adelaide or Port Lincoln natives could not have come along either the eastern or western coasts, and retained customs that are there quite unknown, neither could they have come across the country inland, in the direction of the Darling, for the ceremonies alluded to are equally unknown there. They must then have crossed almost directly from the north-western coast, towards the south-eastern extremity of the great Australian Bight. And from them the Adelaide natives would appear to be a branch or offset. ”

“ The great delay caused by my having been obliged to send over from Port Lincoln to Adelaide for supplies, had thrown us very late in the season; the summer was rapidly advancing, the weather even now, being frequently intensely hot, whilst the grass was gradually drying up and losing its nourishment. ”

“ The only considerable population at present is on the coast strip from Adelaide to Port Augusta, and on the back of the plateau, never more than a hundred miles from the coast.
As we follow the railway northwards from Adelaide 17 we shall find that agriculture decreases with the decreasing rainfall; in place of crops we see cattle and sheep. Here is a typical station only a hundred miles 18 north of Adelaide, where the sheep seem to be in full possession. The further north we go the thinner is the settlement ”

“ Vincent, round and to the N. and E. of which the bulk of the population is gathered in a region not much larger than Scotland; is the chief wheat-growing colony, and other important industries are mining (chiefly copper) , sheep-rearing, and wine-making; chief exports, wool, wheat, and copper; the railway and telegraph systems are well developed, the Overland Telegraph Line (1973 m.) stretching across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin being a marvel of engineering enterprise. Adelaide is the capital. ”

“ A railroad would be sure to attract a large amount of traffic even at present. As, however, the Port of Adelaide only admits vessels of moderate draught, large ships must discharge part of their cargo outside, or at Holdfast Roads; between which place and Adelaide a railroad might also be carried without any difficulty, there being a complete level the whole way. ”

“ There is one attraction to visit that port which the traveller from the Old World will appreciate, after his experience of the fleecing dues and charges at Adelaide, Melbourne, and other Australian ports, in which officials all but tear the clothes off the visitor's back to tax them. ”

“ Once in the year, on the Queen's birthday, a few blankets are distributed to some of the Aborigines at Adelaide, Moorunde, Encounter Bay, and Port Lincoln, amounting in all to about 300. Four natives are also provisioned by the Government as attaches to the police force at different out-stations, and are in many respects very useful. ”

“ For eight years the author had been resident in Australia, during which he had visited many of the located parts of New South Wales, Port Phillip, South Australia, Western Australia, and Van Diemen's Land. In the years 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840 he had conducted expeditions across from Liverpool Plains in New South Wales to the county of Murray, from Sydney to Port Phillip, from Port Phillip to Adelaide, and from King George's Sound to Swan River, besides undertaking several explorations towards the interior, both from Port Lincoln and from Adelaide. ”

“ I had now travelled all the three sides of the triangle, and had obtained extensive views from various heights along each of these lines of route; I had crossed from Port Lincoln to Streaky Bay, from Streaky Bay to the head of Spencer's Gulf, and from the head of Spencer's Gulf down to Port Lincoln again. In the course of these journeys, I had spared no toil nor exertion, to make my examination as complete and as useful as possible, though my labours were not rewarded by commensurate success. The great mass of the peninsula is barren, arid, and worthless ”

“ Upon walking round the shores of Fowler's Bay, I found them literally strewed in all directions with the bones and carcases of whales, which had been taken here by the American ship I saw at Port Lincoln, and had been washed on shore by the waves. To judge from the great number of these remains, of which very many were easily recognisable as being those of distinct animals, the American must have had a most fortunate and successful season. ”