Glenelg Jetty and foreshore, showing Pier Hotel and Town Hall. It was first proposed to build a jetty at Glenelg in 1839; some initial work was done on the erection of some warehousing for the project but this ceased shortly after. Nothing further eventuated until 1850 when the idea of a jetty was again raised by a Glenelg Jetty Committee. It was proposed essentially as a 'pleasure pier', but it was another three years or so before anything happened when money was placed on the government estimates for the jetty.

The first suggested location for this was opposite the end of what is now Anzac Highway but it was decided it was too near the outlet of the Patawalonga Creek. It was decided to build it some distance to the south opposite Moseley Square. It would be a screw pile jetty, the first to be constructed in South Australia. Work began 29 August 1857 and the jetty was opened 25 April 1859, the delay caused by a cargo of iron work for it being lost overboard in a shipping accident.

While the jetty had been built primarily as a pleasure pier, between 1874 and 1888 the P & O mail boats had moored off shore and landed the mail and passengers at Glenelg, rather than move around to Port Adelaide. After 1888 the mail ships used the facilities at Largs Bay until Outer Harbor was opened in 1908.

In 1907 a pavilion was added at the end of the jetty and in 1929 an aquarium was built between the pavilion and the shore end. When the 1948 storm struck and destroyed the jetty these two buildings were all that remained. Isolated from the shore as they were they were shortly afterwards demolished.

A replacement jetty was built in 1969. For a few years from 1994 to 1997 a superfast, passenger-only ferry service operated from Glenelg jetty to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island.

Collins, Neville C. The jetties of South Australia: past and present Woodside, S.A.: Neville Collins, 2005

Historic Glenelg: birthplace of South Australia 1855-1979 [compiled on the authority of the Glenelg City Council by the following sub-committee: ... ; Max Milne, editor] [Glenelg, S. Aust.: City Council, 1980]

Whitelock, Derek. Down the Bay!: a history and appreciation of Glenelg, Brighton and Holdfast Bay Brighton, S. Aust.: City of Holdfast Bay, 2001

Glenelg, South Australia Scroll down and select The Jetty