Port River
The Port River is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European settlement of South Australia in 1836, when Colonel Light selected the site to use as a port. Before colonisation, the Port River region and the estuary area were known as Yerta Bulti by the Kaurna people, and used extensively as a source of food and plant materials to fashion artefacts used in daily life.
The Port River dolphins are a popular tourist attraction.
Geography
The Port River is the western branch of the largest tidal estuary on the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent. The whole estuarine area, sometimes called the Port River estuary, includes Barker Inlet, Torrens Island, Garden Island, and to a greater or lesser extent touches the suburbs of St Kilda, Bolivar, Dry Creek, Port Adelaide, New Port, and, Taperoo, Osborne and Outer Harbor.Sections of the river bank are variously developed for shipping, industrial and increasingly, residential use. The rich ecosystem of the river, which includes mangroves, seagrass, waterbirds, and abundant marine life, has been historically impacted by industrialisation and associated pollution. In the 21st century, reductions in pollution loads have allowed for environmental recovery aided by several restoration programs.
The estuary includes several overlapping protected areas, including the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary and the Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area, a number of ships' graveyards and other places of heritage interest.
There are three road bridges and two railway bridges over the river. Its southern end abuts the West Lakes recreational body of water.
Naming
Before British colonisation of South Australia, the Kaurna people called the Port River region and estuary Yerta Bulti, meaning "land of sleep or death", while the Port Adelaide location was known as Yartapuulti. The river is now officially known as the Port Adelaide River, while the name Port River is described in official sources as "a local variant."History
Pre-colonial
Prior to the 1836 British colonisation of South Australia, the river was a shallow and narrow tidal creek winding between mangrove swamps. At this time, it was inhabited by the Kaurna people, who occupied the land from Cape Jervis in the south up the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, to Crystal Brook in the north, west to the Mount Lofty Ranges, across to Gulf Saint Vincent, including the Adelaide Plains and city of Adelaide.The Kaurna people made use of the natural resources; for example, they used to trap and spear fish, lobsters and birds, and also gathered bird's eggs, black river mussels, periwinkle, river crawfish, clams, native mud oysters and blue swimmer crabs. However, they did not kill the black swans, as this was forbidden. The reeds, blue flax lily and rushes were used for weaving baskets and nets – the latter used for not only fish, but game such as kangaroo and emu. Dolphins were known as yambo.
At that time, a large sand dune known as the Gillman Dunal system stretched inland across the southern part of the area, where the people camped for years even after European settlement.
The Lartelare Park, situated just north of the current Jervois Bridge on the western bank, in the suburb of New Port, was established in 2009 to commemorate the site of a Kaurna campsite which existed there for thousands of years until 1858, when it was relocated further south to the mouth of the Jervois Creek, where there was an oyster bed well known to both Kaurna and colonists. Numerous shell middens and tools were discovered during construction of the park. Jervois Creek was later filled in, and the current bridge was constructed over the oyster bed.
After 1834
The river was officially "discovered" in 1834 by Captain John Jones, after an 1831 sighting by Captain Collet Barker. The initial landing place in Adelaide, chosen by Colonel William Light in late November 1836, was south of the current port and is now part of West Lakes. It had such poor conditions that for many years it was also known as "Port Misery", later becoming known as the Old Port. In 1837 a harbour was declared when harbourmaster Captain Thomas Lipson took up residence on the shore of the then named port creek with the first migrants landing in the same year, onto the river bank lined with mangroves, until a canal was cut through them to a higher location in the sand dunes. A wharf was built at what is now the corner of the Old Port Road and Frederick Road, at Royal Park/Queenstown.The McLaren Wharf was built in 1839, and the port was opened at its current location in October 1840.
Port Adelaide became a hub for the oyster trade, owing to the abundance of native mud oysters and other shellfish in the river. Aquaculture took place from the late 1850s to the 1910s around Jervois Bridge, and oysters were also shipped to the port from the Spencer Gulf.
Owing to the shallow depth of the river, a new harbour was authorised for construction at Outer Harbor in 1902, and completed in 1908. This new harbour allowed the larger steamships that were then arriving at Adelaide to dock, with smaller steam vessels and sailboats able to use the old port facilities.
The river was first bridged in 1859 by the Port Bridge a wooden footbridge, which allowed people to move onto the Lefevre Peninsula.
Course and features
Before European settlement of Adelaide's western suburbs and the construction of various flood mitigation channels and levees, the Port River formed one of the outlets of the River Torrens. The Torrens used to flow north-west into the Port River, until sediment accumulated upstream built up, blocking the channels and forming a large area of marshland known as "the Reedbeds" across some of the present western suburbs. In 1937 a channel known as the Breakout Creek was constructed to take the Torrens westwards to the sea.The Port River is the western branch of the largest tidal estuary on the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent. It extends inland through the historic Inner Harbour of Port Adelaide, to the constructed salt-water West Lakes in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide. The lower reaches of the Port River flow between the Lefevre Peninsula, and the Section Banks and Torrens Island, and form the sea entrance to the port facilities of Adelaide.
Section Banks is artificial island made of seashell-grit, clay and sand, around long, created partly by natural processes but also by manmade construction, at the northern end of the Outer Harbor breakwater. It provides a nesting and breeding area for seabirds, and is known as Bird Island.
The Port River estuary connects to the Barker Inlet to the east via the North Arm to the south of Garden Island and Angas Inlet to its north. Light Passage lies between Pelican Point and Torrens Island.
Bridges
In 1878 the original Jervois Bridge opened, replacing the 1859 footbridge. It incorporated a swing bridge mechanism to allow ships to pass, but it fell into disrepair after the Birkenhead Bridge, which was the first bascule bridge in Australia, was opened in the 1940s. In 1966, the new Jervois Bridge opened, a steel bridge built a little way upstream of the original one.In the 2000s, the Port River Expressway was constructed, with the road bridge across the Port River opening on 3 August 2008, named the Tom 'Diver' Derrick Bridge. The Expressway links Hanson Road, South Road and the Salisbury Highway with the port. A railway bridge was constructed as part of the project.
Today the river is crossed by Mary MacKillop opening rail bridge, the Expressway bridge, the Birkenhead Bridge, the Jervois Bridge, and a railway bridge carrying the Outer Harbor railway line. Bower Road crosses the southern extremity of the river, with West Lakes on the other side.
Shipping and industrial use
The banks of the river are largely industrialised and have some of Adelaide's wharves, bulk cargo and container handling facilities. Large ship transport vessels use the river's main channel. Port Adelaide is a tidal port, with several shipping berths along the length of the estuary, from the western side of the Lefevre Peninsula, along Outer Harbor, Osborne, to its innermost berths at Inner Harbour.The shipping channel has been dredged at various instances since the establishment of Port Adelaide to accommodate larger vessels. Dredging occurred most recently between June and September 2019. That dredging widened the basin and deepened the channel in order to accommodate Post-Panamax container ships and larger cruise ships to benefit the tourism industry.
ASC has its construction and maintenance facility and dock at Osborne.
There is a heritage-listed former Quarantine Station on Torrens Island and a small timber jetty adjacent to it.
Torrens Island Power Station and the Pelican Point Power Station, draw seawater from the Port River for cooling purposes and return it at an elevated temperature.
The worst environmental disaster to occur in South Australian marine waters was the St Kilda salt fields brine spill, which killed of hectares of mangroves, samphires and other vegetation. As of 2022, elevated salinity levels in the estuary near the salt fields remain problematic.
Recreational use and attractions
There are some remnant mangroves in places along the estuary. One of its main attractions other than transport is the Port River dolphins, which are the only wild dolphins in the world that live within a city. The Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary includes all of the Port River estuary and includes a stretch of the sea northwards past St Kilda.A fishing fleet operates out of the North Arm, which also has a speed boat club. Recreational boating marinas are located in the Angas Inlet and on the Lefevre Peninsula.
The Port Adelaide Rowing Club, established around 1877, and was situated at Inner Harbour until 1957, when it moved to Largs North. and the river was formerly a frequent venue for the Intervarsity eights race.
After water pollution levels were shown to have improved in December 2016, the annual "Long Swim" recommenced in the Inner Harbour, after a hiatus of some years.