page_title: Port Adelaide
section_title: 1840 – Finalisation of Wharf locations
hierarchical_section_title: Port Adelaide / History / 1840 – Finalisation of Wharf locations
caption_attribution_description: English: Excavation of the Port Dock at Port Adelaide, 1879.
context_page_description: Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately 14 kilometres northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the city of Adelaide. Port Adelaide played an important role in the formative decades of Adelaide and South Australia, with the port being early Adelaide's main supply and information link to the rest of the world.
context_section_description: The port's initial location was intended to be temporary. The location for a proper port was chosen by Governor George Gawler, between the original settlement and the Governor's preferred location at the junction of the North Arm and the Port River. One reason for the chosen site was Gawler's instructions on leaving England to limit expenditure; the North Arm site would have required more transport infrastructure and reclamation work. Gawler awarded a tender allowing the South Australian Company to construct a private wharf, again partly to limit government expenditure. Along with the wharf they were to construct a warehouse and roadway. The roadway was to be a 100 feet (30 m) wide and run from the port to dry land, a distance of approximately 1 mile (1.6 km). This first wharf was built near the end of the modern Commercial Road.
  The wharf, known as McLaren Wharf, was finished in 1840 and named after David McLaren, company manager of the South Australian Company. McLaren Wharf was 336 feet (102 m) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) deep at low tide. Contrary to usual practice, it was allowed to be built at the low water mark, which made construction simpler. The wharf, warehouse and road were opened by Governor Gawler in October 1840. The opening procession from the old port to the new included over 1,000 people; then the largest assembly of colonists to date. The procession included 600 horsemen and 450 vehicles, almost all of the colony's wheeled transportation. At the opening a parcel was ceremonially landed from the barque Guiana. Upon opening, the port could accommodate vessels up to 530 long tons (539 t). In May 1841 John Hill became the original holder of the land grant for all the land south of St Vincent Street, reaching to Tam O'Shanter Creek (later the Port Canal), comprising 134 acres and known as Section 2112. Much of this land was a tidal mangrove swamp, being reclaimed by successive owners over many decades.
  During reclamation work, the ground level was raised by approximately 9 feet (3 m), with mud and silt from dredging work. Early houses had their ground floors below the now raised ground level; some had steps built down from road level. The Port Admiral Hotel's original ground floor now forms part of its basement. The last major reclamation was of the Glanville Reserve in 1892.
caption: Excavation of the Port Dock at Port Adelaide, 1879
exif: {}