Developing trade and port histories: Port Adelaide - Flinders Ports

• Beginnings
• Further development--governance
• Wharves, bridges and slipways
• Changes in governance
• Twentieth century developments
• Flinders Ports

Flinders Ports

Between 1966 and 2001 the South Australian Harbors Board underwent a number of changes:  the Department of Marine and Harbors, later Ports Corp until in October 2001 the government again surrendered its ownership of the dock facilities to a private consortium, Flinders Ports.

Flinders Ports has continued improving the port facilities at Port Adelaide and each of the other six ports it controls. These are: Thevenard, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Port Giles, Klein Point and Wallaroo. Container facilities at Port Adelaide continue to grow. In 2005 the Port of Adelaide was named Premier Port - Port of the Year - in the Lloyds List DCN Australian Shipping and Transport Awards.  This award directly reflects Flinders Ports' commitment to port facility expansion, port technology, environmental management and innovation in port project financing.

In March 2007 channel deepening at Outer Harbor was completed and a larger class of ship was able to use the Outer Harbor facilities. The first ship to do so was the ANL Warringa, 53,600 tonne, which arrived 2 March. The $45 million cost of the dredging was carried jointly by Flinders Ports and the South Australian government and more than 3 million tonnes of sand, clay and weed was removed from the channel. This is now 14.2 metres deep.

The Port of Adelaide moved 9.969 million tonnes of cargo in 2005/06, with half of that imported or exported directly with overseas markets.

Further reading:

Couper-Smartt, John Port Adelaide:  tales from a "Commodious Harbour".  Port Adelaide, Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum Inc., 2003.

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

Ritter, Ron Spanning time and tide:  the bridges of the Port Adelaide River.  Para Vista, SA; RC Ritter, 1996

Ritter, Ron  Triumph, tragedy and Port Adelaide edited by Errol Chinner.  Para Vista, SA:  Ronald C. Ritter, 2005

'It's Outer Harbor's biggest visitor yet', The Advertiser, 3 March 2007, p. 22

Websites:

Flinders Ports 

Port River Expressway