Port Adelaide, looking towards the Copper Company's Wharf from Jervois Bridge which is seen under construction on the extreme right.

The English and Australian Copper Company built a smelter on the river bank in 1861. It stood on the river bank and produced copper ingots from ore mined at Burra. This was more efficient than shipping the ore overseas to Wales for smelting. As coal had to be imported from Newcastle in New South Wales, it was anticipated that hundreds of ships would arrive in Port Adelaide, bringing in coal and ore and loading copper ingots. This led to the erectin of wharves at the bend in the river and adjacent to the Jervois Bridge.

The Copper Company's chimney dominated the local skyline. Slag from the smelters was broken into chunks which were used as part of the landfill process in Port Adelaide. Photograph B 13 provides another view of the smelting works from the corner of St Vincent and Mundy Streets.

The smelter operated until 1912. Final traces of it disappeared when the roll on/roll off loading facility for the Kangaroo Island ferry was built on the site.

English & Australian Copper Company

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

Parsons, Ronald, Southern passages: a maritime history of South Australia Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1986

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

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