Prior to
European settlement Port Adelaide was covered with
mangrove swamps and tidal mud flats, and lay next to a narrow creek. At this time, it was inhabited by the
Kaurna people, who occupied the
Adelaide Plains, the
Barossa Valley, the western side of the
Fleurieu Peninsula, and northwards past
Snowtown. The Kaurna people called the Port Adelaide area 'Yertabulti', and the whole estuarine area of the
Port River. The entrance to this creek, the Port River, was first reported by Europeans in 1831. It was explored by Europeans when Captain Henry Jones entered in 1834. The creek's main
channel was then fed by numerous smaller creeks, and was deep. The navigable channel was narrow and the creek soon faded into swamps and sandhills. At low tide the channel was surrounded by mudbanks. Dry and solid land ended near present-day
Alberton. After initial trepidation, he reported to the
Colonisation Commissioners that the location was a suitable harbour. By this time it had acquired the name "the port creek". Light's choice of separating the port and
city of Adelaide was strongly opposed by a few merchants, a newspaper and Governor
John Hindmarsh. This opposition was largely based on the distance between them. The division of power in the colony meant that the final decision was Light's alone. He kept Adelaide and the port separate principally due to the lack of fresh water at the port.
1837: Port Creek Settlement The effective foundation day of Port Adelaide was 6 January 1837. On this day the first
harbourmaster, Captain
Thomas Lipson (Royal Navy), took up residence with his family on the edge of Port Creek. The new port was used for shipping later that month, and passengers began disembarking the next. At this point the site was known as
The Port Creek Settlement. When founded, the port's land was just higher than the surrounding tidal flats; at
high tide the port could be rowed around. At first the river was not used for larger ships. They had to land at
Holdfast Bay until the port was charted. This early port was plagued by
mosquitoes, was a comparative long distance from Adelaide, had few amenities and had a risk of inundation when the tide was very high. By 1840 it had acquired the name "Port Misery"; the name was widely used in news reports. It was first coined in a book credited to T. Horton James, probably a pseudonym, and comes from a line stating: ,
Port Adelaide, 1846,
State Library of South Australia The original drawings of Adelaide City Plan by Light show that he envisaged a canal (sea communication) between Port Adelaide and the City of Adelaide. The canal was not built; it would have required a massive investment that was not available at the time. A plan of a proposed "Grand Junction Canal" between Adelaide and the North Arm, by engineer
Edward Snell was produced in 1851, with an exhibition of his "A Bird's Eye View of the Country Between Adelaide and the North Arm", showing the proposed canal. By early 1838, large vessels could only get as far as the end of Gawler Reach (near the current
Birkenhead Bridge). Arrivals had to use smaller boats, traverse the mangrove swamps at low tide and climb sandhills to reach the road to Adelaide. A
canal for the loading of sailing ships was constructed in 1838, and town acreages nearby
surveyed and sold. By the years end deficiencies of the canal were clear. The canal was dry for most of the day and cargo movement very slow. Seagoing ships had to stop some distance from the settlement due to the mudbanks. Cargo and passengers covered the remaining distance in ships' boats. All had to traverse 2–300 m of swamps after landing to reach sandhills, and eventually the road to Adelaide. The new port's first maritime casualty was the migrant ship ''Tam O'Shanter'' that ran aground on the outer sand bar. Later a small waterway in the port was named after the ship; the waterway later became the Port Adelaide Canal.
1840–1860: Finalisation of wharf locations 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 wide and run from the port to dry land, a distance of approximately . 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 long and deep at low tide. Contrary to usual practice, it was allowed to be built at the low water mark, which made construction simpler. At the opening a parcel was ceremonially landed from the
barque Guiana. Upon opening, the port could accommodate vessels up to . 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 , with mud and silt from
dredging work. By the mid-1840s, with increasing trade, the wharves proved insufficient and some more private wharves were constructed.
1860–1970: Port Adelaide's heyday In 1874 the Port Adelaide Institute began construction of its new headquarters which opened to much fanfare two years later providing the organisation a place to house a library and provide a reading room, museum, lecture hall and classrooms for the area.
Gas street lighting was erected by the local council in 1881. The town received its first electric lighting in January 1889, lit with the colony's first town supply from a powerhouse in Nile Street. By 1876 it was estimated that there were 5,000 living in 500 houses. More measured figures were 3,013 residents recorded in the 1881 census and 5005—living in approximately 1000 houses—recorded in the 1891 census. By 1911 the port was the State's second largest city and had a population over half that of Adelaide city. Beginning in the 1880s a strong Scandinavian community lived in Port Adelaide largely due to their affiliation with sea-faring trades. In 1883 the Port Adelaide Caledonian Society was founded and continues to this day. In the 1880s during Christmas Chinese lanterns were hung around Port Adelaide. A significant part of Port Adelaide’s early 20th-century industrial base was fertiliser and chemicals. In 1882
Robert Burns Cuming founded the
Adelaide Chemical Works at
New Thebarton, which expanded production of sulphuric acid and superphosphate and, in 1900, established a second plant at Port Adelaide. Bulk phosphate rock consignments began arriving in 1901, supporting larger-scale manufacture for South Australian wheat and pastoral districts. In 1904 the enterprise was registered as the Adelaide Chemical and Fertilizer Company Limited by 1917 output was reported at around 45,000 tons per year. The Port Adelaide operations later formed part of mergers and rationalisations in the fertiliser trade during the mid-20th century, including linkages to
Cuming Smith. During the rest of the 1800s harbour facilities expanded and the town grew. It gained an impressive range of commercial and institutional buildings. Many have survived, resulting in Port Adelaide having one of the best concentrations of
colonial buildings in South Australia. Their significance was recognised in May 1982, when a sizeable part of the town centre was declared a State Heritage Area. The construction of the
Outer Harbor took place at the beginning of the 20th century, accommodating larger ships and reducing the time needed to sail up the Port River to the inner harbour. In the 1920s and 1930s the first wharf was removed or disappeared and the Port Adelaide wharves underwent a significant reconstruction programme, changing the face of the inner harbour's waterfront.
1970–2010: Economic slowdown The introduction of
containerisation in the 1960s had a major impact on the Port, changing cargo handling methods and significantly reducing the size of the local workforce. Compounding the effect of a declining workforce on business activity, competition for shoppers arrived in the form of regional shopping centres. Up until the 1960s the Port had been second only to Adelaide as a shopping and commercial precinct. The opening of shopping centres in nearby suburbs led to a general decline in retail turnover. Activity in the suburb has declined significantly from its heyday, leaving parts empty and derelict. Historic buildings were closed and sometimes
vandalised, shops in the main streets were left empty and boarded up. Redevelopment of the waterfront was first publicly discussed in 1975. Over the following years, plans and costs were proposed and discussed but most lapsed without action. By 2002, the "Newport Quays" consortium was the government's preferred bidder for a $1.2 billion project to cover of underused land. The development was unveiled in 2003 and land sales began two years later. This development was stated to be worth $1.5 billion and would comprise 2000 homes, construction of which would create 4000 jobs. In 2004 Premier Mike Rann announced that a dolphin sanctuary would be established in the Port River and Barker Inlet covering 118 square kilometres, the first "urban" dolphin sanctuary in the world. In 2005 the
Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Act was enacted. By 2006 Newport Quays was being criticised for its poor planning for a residential development, criticism that continued with each stage of the project. By early 2007, two stages of the now $2 billion development were under construction, or nearing completion, and the third's plans submitted; The plans included provision for a 100-berth
marina and one building built over the water. By 2008 reports showed the resale value of some properties in the developments were under the initial cost. The local council estimated that less than half of finished properties were occupied. In October 2009 it was named, by the
National Trust of Australia, as one of the country's most at risk heritage sites. A lack of people living in, and travelling to, Port Adelaide is seen as the major cause of this decline.
2010 – present: Port Adelaide renaissance . In February 2010 Premier Mike Rann opened the $400 million Techport naval construction hub at
Osborne (next to the
Australian Submarine Corporation's facility) to underpin the development of the Navy's $8 billion
Air Warfare Destroyer program and other naval construction projects. Techport features the largest ship lift in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2015–16 Quest Hotel Consortium built a $25 million apartment building on the corner of McLaren Wharf and the Birkenhead Bridge. cost $45m to build and opened in 2019.In 2016 it was announced that Starfish Developments and Cedar Woods had won tenders to develop 23ha of vacant waterfront land in the inner Port Adelaide harbour with total investment exceeding $1 billion. The development was later renamed Fletcher's Slip after a nearby historic landmark. In 2016 the Federal Government announced that DCNS had won the tender to build 12 submarines for the Royal Australian Navy in a $50 billion deal, with construction taking place in Port Adelaide. In 2017 developer EPC Pacific began construction of a $38 million office tower on Nelson Street in Port Adelaide that will house public servants. In 2021 this building was purchased by Centuria for $63 million. In 2017 the Port Admiral Hotel was reopened after a $1m redevelopment. It is one of the oldest buildings in Port Adelaide built in 1849. In 2017 Daniella Guevera from
Mexico City opened La Popular Taqueria in Port Adelaide. In 2018, Pirate Life Breweries announced it would be relocating in Port Adelaide into a $15m refurbished warehouse. In 2018,
Precision Group began the redevelopment of the Port Canal Shopping Centre as
Port Adelaide Plaza. In January 2020 the first instance of a house to selling for $1 million in the suburb of Port Adelaide was recorded. In 2020, the first residents moved in to new townhomes constructed as part of Starfish's Dock One development. Once completed, Dock One will comprise approximately 650 new homes. In 2020 the Port Adelaide Pirates Soccer Club moved to their new home on the Peninsula after $9.2 million in investments for the Taperoo sports complex. In 2021 the Newmarket Hotel in Port Adelaide was purchased for $4 million. == Heritage buildings ==