Sketch of Port Adelaide looking across the harbour and a number of moored vessels and buildings in the background. There are two men net fishing from a small rowboat in the foreground.

Adelaide's port was initially higher up the Port River, south of the present Jervois Bridge. Dubbed Port Misery because disembarking passengers had to struggle through mangrove swamp and over sandhills before commencing the trek to Adelaide, the site was quickly abandoned and in May 1839 work began on the 'New Port' some distance downstream, and the site of the present Inner Harbor. The South Australian Company quickly built the first wharf, McLaren Wharf, and began construction of the road to Adelaide. Port Adelaide continued to expand. Passengers no longer disembarked into a mangrove swamp.

Alexander Charles Kelly was born at Leith, Scotland in 1811. He was awarded a medical degree by Edinburgh University in 1832. Kelly acted as a surgeon on the East India Company's ships in 1833. He emigrated to South Australia aboard the Baboo in 1840 and began a medical practice at Port Adelaide. A year later, he was appointed assistant surgeon at Adelaide Hospital.

Beadon, G Notes referring to an early exploration of the swamp of Fife Angus Port Adelaide : Printed at the News, 1881

Pitt, G. Index to pioneers arriving in South Australia from overseas ports, July 1836 to December 1845 Archives Department, 1935

The Flinders history of South Australia. Social history edited by Eric Richards. Netley, S. Aust. : Wakefield Press, 1986

Lock-Weir, Tracey Visions of Adelaide, 1836-1886 Adelaide : Art Gallery of South Australia, 2005

Mudflats to metropolis: Port Adelaide 1836-1986 [Port Adelaide, S. Aust.: B. & T. Publishers, 1986]

Parsons, Ronald Port Misery and the new port (early Port Adelaide) Lobethal, S. Aust. : R.H. Parsons, 1997

Samuels, Brian History and heritage in the Port Centre and inner harbour: notes for a walk around the Port Centre for the Historical Society of South Australia, 22 October 2000 [Adelaide : Heritage South Australia?, 2000]

Flinders Ports: Port Facilties: Port AdelaidePort Adelaide

SA Memory, The Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Port Adelaide

Treasures of the State Library of South Australia: South Australia illustrated by George French Angas

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition: Search for George French Angas

Pictures Catalogue National Library of Australia

PictureAustralia