Close view of part of McLaren wharf at Port Adelaide showing its wooden construction.

McLaren Wharf was built in 1840 by the South Australian Company, and was the first wharf built in the New Port, which was downstream from the original landing place to the south of the present Jervois Bridge. It stood at what is now the end of Commercial Road, and the Company also built a large warehouse behind it to hold the goods off-loaded from ships. In 1856 The Company dredged a creek to the east of their wharf and the Company Basin was opened the following year, providing additional wharfage.

In 1913 the South Australian Harbors Board was created and given power over state owned wharves; it was also given authorisation to begin the acquisition of privately owned wharves, if necessary using compulsory purchase. As the Board acquired these wharves it began to discover that a number of them were in a poor state of repair and that a major re-building program would be necessary. It was also essential that the channel and berths be deepened.

McLaren Wharf which had always jutted further into the river than the adjacent wharfs was brought into alignment with them during the rebuilding in 1935.

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

Couper-Smartt, John Port Adelaide: tales from a "commodious harbour" Port Adelaide: Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum, 2003

Sutherland, George The South Australian Company: a study in colonisation London; New York: Longmans, Green, 1898

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. Wooden Walls and Iron Sides August 2004-