Large stacks and truckloads of bagged wheat waiting to be shipped from a wharf at Port Wakefield

Port Wakefield was established to assist the transport of copper ore from Burra: the ore was transported by bullock dray from the copper mines to Port Adelaide, a long journey over unmade roads. The discovery of a port at the head of St Vincent Gulf meant that this journey could be halved with the ore being loaded onto ketches or barges for further shipment down the gulf.

When the railway was built from Adelaide to Kapunda in 1860 Port Wakefield was no longer involved in the copper trade. However it found a new lease of life in the shipment of wheat and wool from the port. At one time Port Wakefield was the busiest port in the state outside of Port Adelaide. 300,000 bags of wheat were shipped through the port in 1909. As the surrounding countryside was opened up for development and agriculture its importance grew. The laying of a horse tramway in 1870 opened the potential of the inland, and was successful in bringing produce into Port Wakefield for trans-shipment.

The line was extended five years later to Blyth Plains, and a little later the tramway was modified to accommodate locomotives. Wheat flowed into Port Wakefield for trans-shipment. When the railway was opened from Port Wakefield to Kadina in 1878, wheat was freighted directed to the deep water port of Wallaroo. From here the wheat could go direct to ports in Europe or elsewhere in Australia without the need to be transferred from the ketches to large vessels at Port Adelaide.

Donovan, P. F. Port Wakefield and district, a history: commemorating a century of local government [Port Wakefield, S. Aust.]: Port Wakefield District Council, 1978

Clarke, David H. Wheat handling in Australia [Melbourne], 1919

Historical notes relating to the wheat industry in South Australia [Melbourne?: Australian Wheat Board], 1976