Pine Point was one of the many small ports which were used during the grain harvest for the transport of the grain. The ketch once fully loaded would probably have sailed directly back across the gulf to Port Adelaide and transhipped the cargo there, or have sailed along the peninsula to one of the larger ports such as Ardrossan or Edithburgh and offloaded to a larger ship.

Before bulk handling facilities were built during the late 1950s and 1960s at the larger ports, transport by ketches, loaded at the small ports was the usual means of transport for the harvest. The bags would be laboriously man-handled on to wagons or trucks, driven to the harbour and then man-handled into the ketches hold. On arriving at its destination the ketch hands would then off load the bags, sometimes with the benefit of a small sling which carried 4-5 bages at a time, or else laboriously a bag at a time on their own backs.

The installation of bulk handling facilities and improved road transport meant that the harvest could be driven directly to the silos and loaded into the ships' holds by conveyor belt.

Yorke Peninsula: History and Heritage. Historic ports. Scroll down to Pine Point