The Wrigley

Recently the Society received a letter from San Francisco inquiring if we had any knowledge of the Wrigley Patent Panel Houses. A local group in the United States are working to research and preserve some of these structures still standing there. Designed to be erected by one man, they were supplied in a knock-down kit perhaps similar in principal to the English Manning cottages so popular in the early settlement of this State. Besides supplying copies of pictures and plans of these houses, the letter gave details of a shipment of these structures which left San Francisco in the Wistaria on February 16, 1878.

Little detail of the actual houses being erected here is available as yet, but in the Shipping News of "The Advertiser" of Saturday, June 1, 1878, the listing "Wistaria, barque (Br), 387 tons, Wm Heslop, from San Francisco, Wm Wells agent, Stream", appears. The issue of Monday, June 3, of the same newspaper carried more information under the heading "Miscellaneous Shipping"

"The Wistaria, from San Francisco, had some rough weather on leaving that port, and until reaching the Line it continued very boisterous. She crossed on March 18 in 156 degrees W., and then for a considerable time had calms and light variables. On making the Australian coast bad weather set in and on 12th May an opportunity offered to put into Twofold Bay from the stress of weather. She there replenquished provisions and sea stock of water; and sailed again on the 14th, and had a beating passage to finish up with. Another vessel named the Leon sailed about the same time from California, and on touching at Twofold Bay the Prospector, barque, was also there from stress of weather."

On a later page of the same edition a Preliminary Notice announcing the sale of the entire cargo of the Wistaria from San Francisco comprising Patent Panel Houses, Frame Rustic Houses, Doors, Venetian blinds, Redwood plank and pickets was printed. This notice stated there were 30 frame houses and "the special attention of Land Selectors is particularly called to these First-class Houses". The auction was conducted on Monday, June 10, with a note that "sketches of these first-class houses may be seen at the Mart". A later issue of "The Advertiser" stated that "Ten framed 4-roomed houses of redwood, ex Wistaria, and ten panel ditto brought £125 each, ten panel ditto of 3 rooms fetched £106 each. Doors sold for 11s. 9d. to 16s. 6d."

As research into the purchasers of this cargo could take a considerable time copies from these newspapers will be forwarded to California together with other information gathered to date. Just to demonstrate the quirks of coincidence, our member Margaret Butler, who was present when the letter was received, was able to tell us that an uncle of hers served as Mate on board the Wistaria about that time.

4 – PORTONIAN – June, 2002

CAPTAIN WILLIAM BEGG first went to sea from Arbroath, Scotland, in 1839, in the brig Conqueror. His first visit to Port Adelaide was in 1854 as mate in the brig Gem. He joined the Sebastian as master in 1856 and came to New Zealand. To South Australia again in 1861, and in 1863 joined the clipper Coonatto of the Orient Line. He made several trips to Port Adelaide in her during 1864-65. She was a barque of 633 tons. He joined the clipper ship The Murray, 903 tons, in 1865, which was also an Orient liner. He made several trips to Port Adelaide in her. Leaving London in 1873 for the first time, he settled at the Semaphore in that year; was appointed the first Lloyd’s Surveyor for Port Adelaide in 1874.

Captain Begg was awarded a silver medal by the Italian Government for rescuing the crew of an Italian sailing ship on fire in mid-ocean. On one occasion, during a storm, he had his legs and ribs broken and two steersmen were washed overboard. He later owned steam launches and started the S.A. Tug Company. With Captain Legoe he also started the S.A. Stevedoring Coy., which is still operating in Port Adelaide. He had a large family.

CAPTAIN JOHN BICKERS, 1815-1897, was for many years one of the most picturesque figures in Port Adelaide. He came from London in his brigantine Camilla, 175 tons, with passengers and cargo in 1849. Among the former were Mr John Fletcher, who established the slip at Port Adelaide, and Mr (afterwards Sir) Thomas Elder. The Camilla, a wonderful little brigantine, about the size of Colonel Light’s Rapid, sailed the seven seas for nearly 50 years, and finally (1892) was sailed to Albany, W.A., and converted to a hulk for the Orient Company, who used her as a cargo lighter. She was built at Leith, Scotland, in 1845.

On leaving the sea, Captain Bickers settled at Semaphore, building a comfortable house on the South Esplanade named Camilla. He became an extensive shipowner and traded with China, Japan, Mauritius, Cape Colony, Ceylon, etc. Among the well-known vessels which sailed under his orders were Claymore, 287 tons; brig Phillis, 240 tons; barques Hannah Nicholson, 252 tons, Annie Brown, 160 tons, Empreza, 250 tons, Mary Blair, 311 tons, Jean Pierre, 614 tons, and Southern Belle, 1120 tons.

On the green sloping lawns in front of Camilla House stood his flag-pole and

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the figureheads of Claymore and Hannah Nicholson. From there, too, he would watch through his telescope the departure and arrival of his vessels. He and his wife were actively associated with the Port Adelaide Congregational Church until the time of their decease.

CAPTAIN ALEXANDER FREDERICK BOORD, 1845-1926, better known as Pilot Boord, for he was in the Pilot Service for over 30 years, was born in Adelaide in 1845. He went to sea at an early age, gained his second mate’s Ticket in 1867 and master’s in 1871. He was mate on the ship Bengal which took telegraph material and supplies to the Roper River, Northern Territory, for the Overland Telegraph party, 1872. He also served in the Day Dawn, John Williams, and the steamer Royal Shepherd, and for a time on the survey ship H.M.S. Geranium.

He joined the Pilot Service in 1873, when 28 years of age, and was known as "the pilot with many daughters". After his retirement from pilotage he spent a few years at the Signal Station, Semaphore, and died on July 17, 1926. During his sea experiences he was never shipwrecked, but his vessel was once struck by lightning, when he sustained slight burns, scars from which he carried to the end of his days.

PILOT P. DICKSON, was born at Cockenzie, in Scotland, in 1843. Cockenzie was practically owned in those days by Mr H. F. Cadell, father of Captain Cadell, who was intimately associated with the early navigation of the River Murray. Peter Dickson began his career in 1855 in the small brig Lady Emma, 136 tons, trading up the Baltic Sea and to the West Indies. In 1861 she left London for Port Adelaide, calling en route at Durban and Mauritius. Part of her cargo consisted of engines and boilers for the River Murray steamers Albury and Gundagai, which belonged to Mr H. F. Cadell.

The Lady Emma was sold in Melbourne, and soon after his arrival in South Australia Captain Dickson relinquished sail for steam. For two years he was foremasthand on the ill-fated S.S. Gothenburg, which was wrecked with great loss of life in February,1875, on the Great Barrier Reef. Afterwards he served on the S.S. Coorong, trading between Melbourne and Port Adelaide. He passed as mate in 1865, and in 1867 obtained his master’s ticket. His first command was the brigantine William, trading between Australian ports and New Zealand. He sold this vessel and took charge of the brig Minora (Captain Manuel, owner), trading to Cape Colony, Mauritius and New Zealand.

He later went to the Old Country to purchase the brig Mayflower. A full cargo of dynamite was offering at Antwerp for Melbourne, at a good rate of freight and Captain Dickson decided to take it, but the London underwriters were unwilling to accept the risk. He arranged the insurance in Adelaide, and the Mayflower sailed, arriving safely in Melbourne. There, the authorities viewed the brig and her cargo with some alarm, and Captain Dickson was obliged to anchor in the Bay, some five or six miles below Williamstown, the cargo having to be lightered from there. A portion of that cargo was for delivery at Port Adelaide, and on his arrival there, Captain Dickson found that no restrictions were imposed, and the vessel was allowed to proceed up the Port River to a wharf berth.

[Biographies of other ship’s captains listed on the memorial will appear in later editions of the Portonian. – Ed.]

6 – PORTONIAN – June, 2002

Alberton Oval

The Alberton Oval Bowling and Croquet Club was formed when the Bowling Club was opened in 1903, to be the first suburban bowling club in South Australia. [Another First for the Port – Ed.] The women were welcomed, but not as members, just to organise the food and drinks (non-alcoholic) and the raising of money.

In 1905 a Croquet Club was formed in Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, it was called "Port Central", but it is not known how long this club was in existence. In the meantime Semaphore opened a croquet club in 1904 next to their bowling club.

It has been stated that the wives of well-known business men who were members of the Bowling Club (Mesdames Mitchell, Gibb, and Lowe) used a cleared part of St Georges Square for croquet games, but perhaps this was before 1913. Miss Lowe joined the Alberton Club on October 30, 1924, and Mesdames Gibb and Mitchell’s names appear on a list for July, 1926, but no record of their joining was found.

The Alberton Croquet Club started playing at the bowling club, and the oldest Minute Book is from August, 1920. That Minute Book tells that the Alberton club affiliated with the South Australian Croquet Association in that year, so they must have operated as a club or group prior to 1920.

The Alberton Croquet Club remained at the Bowls Club, using their lawns, until 1950, when two lawns for croquet were laid out on the North-West corner of the Alberton Oval (Brougham Place). From that site, using the Bowling Club room, club members attended to the raising of funds and preparation of food for the men’s Bowling Club members. In exchange the lawns were cut and maintained by the Bowling Club.

Although Mrs O’Dea was elected President in 1922, it was pointed out by Mrs Dixon that it was the rule of the club that the Bowling Club President’s wife was always asked to fulfil that position, so Mrs O’Dea submitted a resignation and Mrs Johns accepted the office

A letter was sent to the Secretary of the Bowling Club in 1923 requesting that the croquet green, which was 11 feet wider at one end than the other, be made a uniform width. In 1924 the Bowling Club gave permission for the Croquet club to use the bowling greens during extensions to their greens, while in May of that year the croquet

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greens were closed for top-dressing and a record of the dimension of the Alberton Croquet green given at 105 feet by 58 feet.

The S.A.C.A. sent a letter to the Alberton club in 1925 stating that the subscription to the State body had been raised from one shilling to two shillings per member to assist in the upkeep of the new city courts, together with a suggestion that the club send a donation. As the members would have little use for the courts it was decided to forego the donation.

A set of balls were purchased from the Company Square club for the sum of £1/10/0 in 1927. It appears that club operated where the tennis courts in the Square are now situated. An Australian victory over the visiting English was also accomplished in that year.

Games played under electric light with Woodville on alternate Thursdays commenced in 1937, and the purchase of a garden seat for ten shillings, with cartage of one shilling and sixpence, was noted. The final payment of £25 for the installation of deep drainage was made in 1941. In 1950 the club moved to their new lawns with the official opening on November 23.

Difficulty arose in 1954 when the greenkeeper took holidays and the lawns looked very neglected. After a complaint by the secretary to the Bowling Club the lawns were cut after a wait of five or six weeks. The practice of the wife of the President of the Bowling Club fulfilling the role of Croquet Club President, as had persisted from early years, was questioned. Club membership was considered a requisite.

The Alberton Croquet Club had to make another move in 1964 to the Seventh Avenue site. Records suggest that the new lawn near the oval was laid from seed, the Council and Bowling Club men seeing to the watering and top-dressing. The other lawn appears to have been lifted from the old site and relaid at Seventh Avenue. On taking over the new area in 1963 a new clubhouse had to be built and this was accomplished through the Port Adelaide Council who undertook a loan on behalf of the Croquet Club in 1965 at a cost of £2,603/4/1. This amount was to be paid back in the form of instalments over a period of 20 years, the first payment of £228/4/1 covering the twelve months ending June 1, 1965. The remaining nineteen annual payments of £125 fell due on that date until the final payment was made in 1984. The clubhouse was begun on September 23, 1963, and was officially opened by the Mayor of Port Adelaide, Mr W. Whicker, on January 15, 1964.

The Bowling Club continued to maintain the croquet lawns until August, 1974, when the Bowling Club President, Mr G. Todd, informed the Croquet Club that they would no longer be able to cut the lawns. They regretted this action as they had been associated with the Croquet Club for a happy 61 years. This was caused by the formation of the Greenkeepers’ Association and their Award which increased the cost of of cutting per rink. As the Croquet Club lawns consisted of approximately 16 rinks this payment was beyond the capacity of the club. The players took over the maintenance of the grounds and the lawns were cut by the Council. The Bowling Club installed lawn lights for night play. The Alberton Croquet Club held its Diamond Jubilee on September 16, 1978, and this would indicate that Alberton became a club in 1918, and started playing on the Bowling Club rinks. (This is in spite of the fact that the Bowling

8 – PORTONIAN – June, 2002

8. Post-war Boom

Portland Estate was somewhat marginalised in 1945 when, after nearly a hundred years, its name was officially abolished and it was given Port Adelaide as its designation. This ruling never penetrated the consciousness of its residents who would always think and speak of the suburb as Portland. Life continued there as previously but without hope of any glorious future; Portland was like a patient on a slow drip.

There was a strong desire to demolish slum dwellings, a depressingly familiar refrain. However an acute post-war housing shortage precluded this as returning servicemen and their families crowded even more densely into run down dwellings: since the homes weren't worth doing up, they continued to deteriorate. The South Australian Housing Trust had been established in the late 1930s to create new low-cost housing.

After a timid beginning in Rosewater and the hiatus of the war years, the Trust’s production was now about to gain momentum, offering the chance of a dignified home to thousands of working class families. Nevertheless it was difficult to relocate Portland people because of their deep attachment to the Estate.

Rotten housing seemed to matter less when football competition resumed at Riverside Oval after a wartime break and more land was purchased to add a rugby field to the oval. At the same time the nearby rubbish dump was also expanding and rats were in plague numbers despite council's determined use of gas rockets in the burrows. At the end of 1947 the dump was closed, ending a traditional land use.

8.1 The Greater Port Adelaide Plan

In 1949 the Harbours Board released an ambitious Greater Port Adelaide Plan which foreshadowed the West Lakes scheme and the establishment of North Haven; it floated ideas on Port improvements, future land use and where opportunities lay. Developers and industrialists pricked up their ears. Until now, manufacturing in Portland had consisted of scattered small enterprises but it was clear that this pocket of old, seedy

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housing stock so close to the Port had potential as a manufacturing and warehouse precinct. Some saw it as ripe for an industrial makeover and there were no hard-and-fast planning laws as yet to restrain them. Messenger Newspapers jumped in. Its operations began adjacent to Commercial Road, Station in 1951 and steady expansion followed with the purchase of nearby cottages and even some roadways.

Gibb & Miller, a heavy engineering firm established in 1913 a few doors south on Commercial Road had done well in wartime defence contracts and ship repairs. Current buoyancy (a contrast to the post-World War I experience) caused them to expand westwards into the Estate’s narrow streets. Here they manufactured and stored, among other products, components of huge cranes required by BHP and the Port Adelaide wharves. The large timber firm A. & E. LeMessurier was also swept into expansion mode. In 1959 it transferred from historic offices in Lipson Street, to new accommodation at 346 Port Road, Portland, where land could be acquired to build huge storage sheds in the future. Other importers of timber products followed, their warehouses a notable feature of the locality today. It was a question of getting away with what you could while planning guidelines were still rubbery.

These intrusions brought rapid changes to the character of Portland. Residents felt besieged by industry and under pressure to sell their properties to the newcomers. Who else would buy them? Houses were vacated and handy corner shops soon disappeared. The hardships of old had eased but recurring industrial disputes meant that employment fluctuated, causing further insecurity. Portlanders were battlers who didn’t expect a lot from life but the disintegration of their community was thoroughly disheartening. The old place was just not the same anymore. Many households gave up the struggle, and, as sorrowful as exiles, moved to Housing Trust areas.

8.2 Anna Moir Rennie

There was one strong swimmer in the tide of disillusion – Mrs Anna Rennie who had been elected by a narrow vote to the Port Council in 1950. In all she served for 19 years, the last five as Mayor – a rare achievement for a woman then. She had lived with her family in Langham Place since the 1920s, she represented Portland or South Ward and was fiercely partisan.

After training as a nurse at the Adelaide Hospital, Anna Rennie embarked on an active life in social and community spheres. During the 1920s and 30s she had campaigned for improvements to the food ration scheme in Port Adelaide. Quite often the Rennie family doubled up in their beds to give temporary accommodation to families who had been evicted or were otherwise stranded. Always an active member of the ALP, Anna directed attention to women’s issues such as equal pay. She raised money to set up and equip the Port Adelaide School Band and assisted Rev. Bill Johnston in establishing the Port Archway facility for alcoholics. In council she promoted significant improvements to local roads and footpaths, the setting up of Elderly Citizens’ Clubs and children’s playgrounds, and the purchase of land to enlarge many parks and ovals.

All this cost a lot of energy and power of persuasion; Mrs Rennie was the first female local councillor in South Australia but the tough men who ran the show at the Port were used to keeping women in their place. Keeping that tradition in mind they

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thwarted many of Rennie’s sound proposals. Undeterred, she began early in her council career to urge the clean-up of the former rubbish dump in Portland where it defiled housing and recreation zones. She was determined that amends should be made to a neighbourhood which had repeatedly accommodated obnoxious facilities; Mrs Rennie ingeniously located niches for amenities that would enhance life there.

One of these was the first Meals on Wheels kitchen just off Langham Place. It began operating in 1954 in a Nissan hut donated by LeMessurier brothers. This realised the dream of Meals founder Miss Doris Taylor who was enthusiastically backed by Mrs Rennie. The latter acted as the first secretary of the organisation. The following year a free pre-school kindergarten run by the Kindergarten Union of South Australia opened at the western end of Wellington Street. Largely financed by furniture retailers David Murray Ltd, the building was a boon to Portland where there were still large families.

A small triangular reserve facing Princes Street had been on the plan of the Estate since its inception but it seems to have had little cosmetic care for 100 years. In a rationalisation of municipal green space after World War II, this pocket park was deemed to serve no useful function. It was sold to the Housing Trust, undoubtedly at Mrs Rennie’s urging because she considered the building of five rental units for the elderly there in 1958 a special triumph.

Such successes were begrudged by some factions in council; small-minded rivals tried to make public life uncomfortable for the interloper. There was quibbling over the mayoral allowance; because she had no car – couldn’t even drive one – they refused to approve a travel allowance. As if taxis and even public transport cost nothing! Mrs Rennie is said to have walked everywhere and thereby kept in close touch with her constituents. Still, she was grateful to Portland neighbours who generously drove her to evening functions in antiquated vehicles.

These were very difficult years for the Port Adelaide Council. There was trouble over the burden of rates, accusations of cliques and cronyism and, the last straw, a call to disband the council. Anna Rennie decided not to seek re-election in 1969. She lived for a further 18 years, an effective worker for the Port always.

9. The Weakening Pulse

The years between 1945 and 1960 had been prosperous for the whole of Australia. Wheat and wool prices, the backbone of the economy, reached unpredicted heights, mining had expanded dramatically, industries were embracing new systems. There was employment for all despite a staggering influx of migrants. But the boom couldn’t be sustained indefinitely and progress itself exacted a price, as Port Adelaide was to learn.

9.1 Changes In Employment and Industry.

Bigger and bigger ships were being built and when these began to deliver containerised cargoes to Port Adelaide, they were accommodated at Outer Harbour. As a result, activities in the inner harbour were reduced, and even there bulk handling of commodities like wheat and barley was looming. Because there was far less work for

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small vessels the number of ketches steadily diminished. In the 1960s only about 17 remained, whereas the fleet had consisted of nearly 100 early in the century.

Shipping upstream of the Jervois Bridge fell away so much the Portland Canal could not pay its way. Infilling of this waterway began in 1954 as a nationwide preference for flexible road transport became entrenched, to the detriment of ketches and railways. It was obvious that modern industry was set to use as little manual labour as possible. As such work was the livelihood of much of the Port’s toilers, and certainly most of Portland’s, the results would prove devastating. Year by year "unskilled" jobs were vanishing in the flour and timber mills, the railway yards and above all, on the wharves. Large enterprises like the Colonial Sugar Refinery, Philips Electrical and GMH were cutting down on worker numbers. Some factories relocated interstate and their support industries duly shrank.

Thus, in the Portland context it was not only the spread of industry and warehousing that reduced resident numbers: lack of jobs was also a factor.

9.2 Societal Repercussions

Changes to society everywhere were profound and rapid, stranding many people in bewilderment. In the confusion some appalling planning decisions were made in the Port Adelaide area. The worst concerned Queenstown. By the late 1960s Myers Stores Ltd were buying and demolishing swathes of houses in this old suburb to make room for a regional shopping centre. It was soon recognised that the site was far too close to both the Port and West Lakes shopping hubs to be viable and the exercise ended in fiasco: the land was resold for housing.

Another questionable decision was the removal of much old housing in central Port Adelaide without any replenishment. The population of the city dropped, schools noted a decline in enrolments, retail activity slowed. It was all so unsettling. Port people resented changes to their lifestyle patterns but they saw nothing wrong with their town. They could overlook empty buildings, preferring to bask in the high street bustle, the old-fashioned shops, even the traffic congestion, while features that hit the outsider’s eye escaped them. To a visitor the place had a worn look, full of rust and grime. It appeared to consist mainly of gaudy shops, halls and warehouses; light engineering works and port services seemed to be the main spheres of action. And there was no denying that the river was seriously polluted; in 1965 its degradation put an end to the popular Port Adelaide swimming carnivals and undermined local swimming clubs. The rest of the district was also run down. Even the once prosperous suburbs of Alberton, Semaphore and Largs Bay were scenes of genteel decay, their fine old villas crying out for care.

9.3 John Smith Morton

In 1969 John Smith Morton was elected to represent South Ward in the Port Adelaide Council. A thoroughgoing Portlander, Jack was born in College Street in 1908 and lived in the suburb for 89 years. His life story could be a template for numerous Port manual labourers of his generation.

He left Port Adelaide Primary School aged 14 to sell newspapers and work as a

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delivery boy. During the Depression he lumped wheat, sewed bags at the plaster works and chopped wood to eke out a living. He married his sweetheart Kit in the gloom of 1932 and got his first real job at a flour mill five years later. During the war Jack was employed at the Holden Woodville car plant then, in 1945, commenced work as a wharfie, soon becoming the leader of his gang. As you would expect, he was a staunch ALP man and an active member of the Waterside Workers’ Federation. Morton’s potential was curtailed by a skimped education yet each stage of his life was an upward step, embraced wholeheartedly.

Jack was admired for his long commitment to the Riverside Football Club and the amateur swimming clubs. Although asthmatic (a condition not improved by his hobby of poultry keeping), he was a competitive swimmer and later a judge at Australian championships for many years.

As a councillor he picked up the Portland baton from Mrs Rennie and carried it for almost two decades, promoting improvements in his ward and the interests of its dwindling residents. He was gratified when a huge drain was constructed in Hack Street in 1972. This eased flood problems in his constituency and was part of a massive overhaul of Port Adelaide's drainage system that took several years to implement.

Another victory for Jack was the building of 15 Housing Trust units for the elderly on land acquired by Council in Langham Place. The project was completed in 1979 after tortuous negotiations during which the residential future of the area was not at all certain. The extension of Grand Junction Road through Portland was a looming threat at the time; Jack Morton spearheaded a loud protest against such an intrusion but in the end the cause was lost.

There were many other disappointments during his 19 years on Council. The gradual decline of the Port’s industrial status was a principal one. Great dismay was felt at the closure of any large employment source such as Walter and Morris Timber Mills in 1981: the loss impacted on so many workers’ lives. Jack Morton’s passion for the welfare of his hometown and his fellow man was tenacious and vocal. It led some to consider him wonderfully mad, nevertheless his death in 1997 caused genuine sadness. The names of both Jack Morton and Anna Rennie are inscribed on the Workers’ Memorial, the equivalent of beatification in Port Adelaide terms.

9.4 Rejuvenating Port Adelaide

In spite of Jack Morton’s efforts and those of the Council as a whole, anxiety mounted in the 1970s, until even the State Government felt compelled to intervene in order to arrest the Port’s decline. In 1975 the Port Adelaide Centre Joint Committee was established to stop the rot. By now it was clear to all that the Port could not be sustained by shipping alone; it needed a new role, perhaps as an official regional centre and also a tourist venue. The task of redemption was to prove arduous and long: devoted souls are still at it 25 years on.

A number of milestones marked the way, for example the building of a new market and opening of the Port Shopping Mall in the early 80s. Unfortunately the new trend for large car parks to surround these low-rise centres meant that the residential core

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of the city was razed. Even the fire station and St Joseph's convent and school were demolished. Official planning appears to have overlooked the fact that there was a lack of local residents to make the market and mall viable. Perhaps the hope was that the Port’s traditional centrality and government services then being set up would attract spending customers to the shops.

As it turned out, neither mall nor market has been a real success and overall rejuvenation is disappointingly slow. Port Adelaide was declared the first State Heritage Area in 1982 but apart from the heritage precinct, the city was now little more than a social welfare dispensary with hotels and a few supermarkets appended. The disappearance of low-cost housing not only dispersed the community, it caused the Port to miss out on multicultural advantages brought by fresh waves of Asian and South American migrants, as well as aboriginal families, groups that have settled in neighbouring Housing Trust areas.

The opening of a large K-mart has increased shopper traffic but because it is separated from the mall and market by Dale Street (which has a very different character), the Port shopping precinct lacks cohesion. A further consequence of the disjointed layout has been the demise of retail activity in St Vincent Street.

9.5 A Zoning Quagmire

A new blueprint for controlled future development in Adelaide was released in 1962 by the South Australian Town Planning Committee. Called the Metropolitan Development Plan, it detailed, among a number of topics, official policy on the reservation of areas for industrial use and noxious trades by means of zoning. Matters of zoning were thus removed from local government jurisdiction and vested in a powerful state authority.

The plan had been drawn up during a period of industrial boom, which was expected to continue indefinitely. On the books Portland, from the railway line to Wellington Street (that is two-thirds of the Estate), was tagged an industrial zone. There was great consternation. Port Adelaide Council challenged the ruling and won a temporary reprieve but official planners subsequently reinstated the label of industrial zone. Residents protested and, backed by the Housing Trust, pointed out that Portland was logically a residential neighbourhood with a well established network of gas, electric, mains water and sewerage infrastructure. Besides, it was small in area with curved streets not much wider than lane ways. Gillman and Wingfield, on the other hand, were also on the Port’s doorstep and were more suitable sites, being far larger and less encumbered.

The Town Planning Committee decision on industrial zoning for Portland is puzzling even now. It was obviously not thought through and in practice was unworkable, as mixed use areas had often proved. There was inertia, to say the least, in the face of local uproar: the Committee proceeded to do nothing concrete, to wait and see. Council support for the residents wobbled when external planning advisers favoured dismissing resident objections. There was a lukewarm desire to please ratepayers but current controversy over Myer’s proposed shopping centre at Queenstown had become a political whirlpool and a further planning debacle had to be avoided.

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Club claimed 61 years’ association in 1974, which would take the date of commencement back to 1913.)

The club was Incorporated in 1986 and, while fees had risen from £1 in 1918 to $140 in 1992, Alberton had survived despite the loss of many of the clubs they had played, such as Semaphore, Grange, Seacliff, Henley, Holden Memorial, St Peters and Marryatville.

As the zoning argument simmered with no definitive pronouncement forthcoming, Portlanders languished in uncertainty while industrial entities moved in confidently and consolidated. Each side believed it was in the right and would be vindicated in the end. But Port Adelaide Council must have quietly rejoiced that commercial interests were doing the dirty work of dispatching substandard housing long considered a blot on the municipal landscape. In the mid-1960s council itself began to purchase and demolish about 25 cottages in Langham Place to enhance the surroundings of Riverside Oval.

Before long trucks laden with timber, steel, fuel, scrap metal and other waste products were thundering along Estate streets far too narrow for them. There was little sympathy for residents who were greatly distressed by not only noise and traffic hazards, but concrete floors that ruptured and iron houses coming apart at the seams. When containers began to arrive at the expanding depots, rats, mice and cockroaches invaded in numbers not seen since the closure of the rubbish tip decades earlier. The situation was intolerable. It was a replay of the old principle that anything unsavoury could be dumped on Portland and the reaction of those who held power and wealth was always the same: a dismissive shrug.

9.6 Grand Junction Road Extension

The zoning question was still being disputed in late 1971 when the Highways Department first made mention of extending Grand Junction Road to join with Bower Road and create a direct route to Lefevre Peninsula. Portland was targeted for bisection and what lay in store was clear: its residential component would wither. Dozens of remaining cottages would be displaced and a wide gateway to the enclave would be opened through which even larger transports could roll with less obstruction. Some of the well-used playing fields at Riverside Oval would also be overrun.

Disgruntled residents, led by Councillor Jack Morton and again supported by Housing Trust officials, mounted a last ditch stand and raised money to engage a solicitor to present their case. The lawyer’s arguments were spirited but the outrage of sporting groups was ferocious. Port Adelaide Council’s voice was somewhat muted because its position was ambivalent. It liked the idea of a heavy duty road to the coast that would relieve congestion in the Port centre without costing ratepayer funds; and although construction was not due to begin for some years, worthwhile compensation for any disruption would be forthcoming. Did the physical and social impacts on a now very small community matter all that much when industry was already entrenched, through the back door, as it were? The old cliches regarding the best interests of the majority were trotted out and Portland was sacrificed.

Eventually roadworks commenced and the project was completed in 1984. As compensation, new rugby and athletics ovals were provided adjacent to the highway, public toilets and a sizeable carpark were added and a cash payment was made to Port Adelaide Council. There would have been far less disruption had the road engineers taken advantage of what broad Wellington Street had to offer. Few houses would have been destroyed and the ovals left undisturbed. It seems that those in authority dared not

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irritate motorists by delivering anything but a perfectly straight extension of Grand Junction Road.

9.7 The Demise of Portland

The upset caused in the Estate by the building of Commercial Road Railway Station 70 years earlier had been bad enough, but construction of an arterial road right through the heart of the suburb was fatal. There was no widespread outcry as there had been in the previous decade when the redevelopment of working class Hackney was proposed. Perhaps it was felt that Portland was already too far gone. It was to go even further in the next few years with the closure of both the kindergarten and the girls’ high school due to falling enrolments. The high school site was taken over by Port Adelaide Primary School. Finally, the playground in Montpelier Square was cleared away in 1994; the site was tidied up to become simply a small park.

Portland could be pronounced dead. It had never been picturesque or ennobling but it was endearing. The surviving remnants on either side of Grand Junction Road still have a certain charm, particularly the southern section. Surprisingly, the original layout of the Estate is clearly discernible despite the traumas it has undergone.

References Dickey & Martin. Building community (Port Adel. Central Mission)

Hutchings & Bunker, With conscious purpose

(Town Planning in South Australia)

E. Lumbers. Centenary history of Port Adelaide

McDougall & Vines. Greater Port Adelaide Heritage Survey 1989

Page & Bryant. Muscle and pluck forever (Fire Brigades)

Y. Potter. Progress, Pubs and piety in Port Adelaide 1836-1915

R. Ritter. Spanning time and tide; bridges of the Port River.

J. Tregenza. LeMessuriers of Port Adelaide.

Mayors’ annual reports

Messenger Newspapers 1971-73

Mudflats to metropolis. Port Adelaide 1836-1986

Portonian Vol. 1/3. Vol. 2/2. Vol. 26/1

Sands and McDougall directories

Interviews Peter and Jack Ashby, Taperoo

Melva DeLaine (daughter of Mr Jack Morton) Port Adelaide

Jim Johnston, Rosewater

Paula Sutcliffe (daughter of Mrs Anna Rennie) Port Adelaide

10.1 Early Schools

As in other settlements throughout the young colony, the schools in Portland tended to be dame schools, that is, small rudimentary establishments often conducted by women. Presumably anyone possessing a passable education could offer a cottage room,

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declare it a school and open for business. The curriculum would necessarily be basic, rarely more than the 3Rs.

By the early 1860s some of the small academies in the Port district were being licensed by the Education Board. Among them was the Port Adelaide Grammar School, a highly respected and successful private enterprise founded in 1862 at the lower end of Grand Junction Road. When the Education Act of 1875 made attendance compulsory, the government ensured that the Grammar School became the Port Adelaide Primary School. In 1878 it was upgraded to the status of model school, that is a place where not only children were educated, but the skills of teaching were demonstrated for the benefit of student teachers. The staff was carefully chosen and standards were high.

The model school's catchment area included Portland and no state primary school was ever built within the Estate. However, at this stage Portland was still frequently isolated by the flooding of Tam O’Shanter Creek so local private schools were preferred for young scholars. A number of small institutions continued to flourish and nearly every child was enrolled somewhere.

It is quite clear that most early settlers saw value in education and were willing to pay modest fees. Even so, there were often Portlanders among those summonsed and fined (no doubt after several cautions) at the Port Adelaide Police Court for their children’s non-attendance at school. Usually the stigma of poverty was the reason for this - unclean clothes, lack of boots, or the humiliation of accepting free books.

In the four decades from 1860 the Portland schools were many and quite varied. Some were short-lived; indeed during the 1880s and 90s, five were listed for just one year while some lasted for only slightly longer periods. A possible explanation was that convention demanded that a schoolmistress retire from teaching when she married.

One of the earliest recorded schools on the Estate was run by William Dallison who had served an apprenticeship under his father at several schools in the Port proper. During the period 1862-68 he ventured out on his own and is listed in the directories as a teacher at his private residence at lot 532 Wellington Street.

A good effort was put in by Miss Mary Louisa Fallu. Her Ladies School had a stylish ring to it. It was located at lots 55/56 Commercial Road: apparently there was a 4-roomed house on each of these blocks, one serving as the school, the other a residence shared by Mary Louisa and her brother, Captain Elias Fallu. The academy operated from 1871-85 but there was a four year break from 1879. Perhaps Miss Fallu went travelling to acquire further culture. She was certainly highly esteemed and not afraid of a challenge. At 40 years of age she retired from teaching to become the fifth wife of the then postmaster at Port Adelaide, Edward William Gray.

Probably the most professionally run of the many Portland schools was that of Miss Sarah Ann Lipscombe in Clare Street, not far from the model school. Miss Lipscombe was one of the pioneer infant teachers of the nineteenth century at the Port. In 1864, aged 33, she applied to the Education Board for a licence and opened a school for juniors with an enrolment of 67 pupils. The venture expanded to become a primary school, peaking in 1870-71 at an average of 123 pupils. Despite such numbers, the Education Board allowed Miss Lipscombe only one subsidised assistant. Her school closed in 1887 after 23 years of service. It had enabled her to support herself and an aged

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invalid mother. She also generously taught Sunday school at St Paul’s Church in the Port for 30 years.

Another consistent establishment was at lots 13/14 which fronted both Clare Street and Commercial Road. This school was run by Caroline and Clara Williams from 1879-90. Their carpenter/shipwright father had settled in Portland Estate in the 1850s and purchased the two allotments. Facing Clare Street he built a shop and dwelling which later served also as an unofficial post office. It seems that Caroline opened a school there in 1879 and Clara joined her as a teacher in 1884.

Two years later it became known that Sarah Lipscombe was about to retire so Mr Williams proceeded to construct a better schoolroom on his Commercial Road frontage. In 1887 Caroline retired but Clara continued to run what was listed as the Portland Hall Day School (not to be confused with the Rechabite hall, Portland, two blocks further south). When Clara ceased teaching in 1890, nearly 40 pupils transferred to state schools.

Education continued at this address, however. During 1891-92 Miss Susan Williams (seemingly no relation to Caroline and Clara) worked as a music teacher. She was followed by Miss Ethel Maude Coates who conducted a private day school at Portland Hall until 1894. She is the last recorded teacher at this location which had been a school for 15 years. The doors closed forever when she left. Sadly, Portland Hall succumbed to progress. The land was absorbed into Station Place when the railway invaded the Estate early in the twentieth century. Today it is part of Messenger Press printing works.

One other Portland school deserves mention for several reasons. One is that it lasted a whole 12 years; another is the involvement of a mother-daughter team, the acceptance of a working married woman indicating a change in society’s attitudes. In 1891 Miss Marion McElligott began a co-educational school in a 3-roomed cottage at lot 262 Liddon Place. Probably Marion resigned to marry because in 1898 the establishment transferred to a 4-roomed wooden house at lot 104 Clare Street: it was now under the direction of her mother, Mrs Maria McElligott. The latter was a competent school and music teacher. She soon dispensed with boy pupils as she preferred to run what she called a Ladies’ School. Her husband Frederick had been a mariner who settled ashore and when he died in 1904 Mrs McElligott closed the school.

The state schools were well in the ascendancy by this time. Improved roads and footpaths made the Port Adelaide Primary School accessible and as free education was offered, the school soon became woefully overcrowded. The only parents strongly opposed to secular education were Catholics and they were steadily setting up their own school system throughout South Australia. The Sisters of St. Joseph had opened a co-educational primary school next to the Catholic Church in Dale Street, Port Adelaide, in 1867. When the Marist Brothers established a boys’ school near Commercial Road railway bridge 30 years later, a convenient amenity was available to the faithful of Portland.

By now the small dame schools that had pioneered elementary education were no longer needed. Their era was over.

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10.2 The Portland Kindergarten

No significant educational event occurred in Portland during the first half of the twentieth century but the deprived condition of the Estate evidently stirred consciences. The 1952-53 Mayor’s annual report announced that in order to assist the establishment of a pre-school by the Kindergarten Union of South Australia, Council had made available a site in Wellington Street, Portland. It was the westernmost section of the median plantation and legally a public road. The land abutted Langham Place to a depth of 200 feet and a width of 60 feet. It was vested in fee simple in the Kindergarten Union which agreed to bear the costs of transfer and road closure.

The new venture opened in 1955 and was an exciting advance for plain old Portland. The kindergarten could accommodate 25 children and was free. A pre-school had been operating in cramped conditions at the Methodist Mission complex in Dale Street, Port Adelaide, for 20 years prior to this time. Ample outdoor space and this brand new brick building would be a vast improvement. The kindergarten cost £7,000, of which £5,000 was donated by David Murray Ltd, a furniture store in Adelaide that had old Port Adelaide connections. This generosity was long remembered in blue collar Portland.

The Kindergarten Union ceased staffing and overseeing pre-schools in 1985 when the Education Department took over the task. The Portland kindergarten continued to function until 1992 by which time many factors were impeding it. The character of the area had changed completely; its population had dwindled as industrial buildings replaced the former crowded residences. In fact there was a lack of children and the kindergarten was operating only part-time. The building was run down and in need of major renovation but this could not be justified in the circumstances. It was described as having "design limitations." Furthermore, it was not close to public transport.

The most fateful factor was community clamour for multifunctional amenities that included play groups, child care and health services. Clearly, the Wellington Street facility was obsolete. It still stands today, vacant and boarded up, a melancholy reminder that Portland once bustled with lively families.

During the 1980s child-parent centres were springing up everywhere. One had been established at nearby Port Adelaide Primary School. Another, Kalaya, was built at 50 Webb Street; this resulted from the determined efforts of Aboriginal parents to provide appropriate pre-school education for their children. From 1975 the centre had been situated at various locations in Alberton including the Alberton Primary School. Acquiring such fine facilities in Webb Street was a satisfying return to Aboriginal home ground.

Somewhat ironically, central Port Adelaide’s pre-school focus shifted back to Dale Street, to a centre managed by the Central Mission where the whole thing had begun in the 1930s. The wheel had turned full circle.

10.3 Port Adelaide Girls’ Technical School

This was a significant education initiative in Portland. In 1946 Port Adelaide Council sold a good piece of land to the Education Department for £625. Bounded by

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Portland Road, Port Road and Webb Street, the site had a rather puzzling record of ownership and a nasty habit of flooding that had caused many past headaches. It had been known in earlier times as No Man's Land and more recently as Alexander Reserve. Now it was to perform an academic role.

Public secondary education had begun in Port Adelaide in 1925 when a central school was opened alongside the primary school on Grand Junction Road. In South Australia the central system was grafted onto the existing elementary organisation in order to provide vocational education for 13 to 16-year-olds. In addition to normal subjects, woodwork, metalwork, dressmaking, millinery, cooking, laundering, shorthand, typing and bookkeeping were offered. Several years’ attendance at a central school could lead to the attainment of the Intermediate and Leaving Certificates.

Imposing a branch of secondary education on the Port primary school site created an unwieldy conglomerate. The elementary division was already so crowded that junior classes had been held in the Portland Rechabite hall for several years. The young scholars were now about to return to a newly built infant school at Junction Road. Scant provision for secondary students had been possible and as a result the central school suffered great disadvantages. Facilities were makeshift and there was just not enough room. The overloaded campus was having to cope with two unforeseen social factors: a post-war population bulge and unprecedented demand for higher vocational education.

It was a case of managing by desperate improvisation. Secondary classes were scattered between the Junction Road site, Alberton Baptist church hall and Rosewater Methodist hall, all very time wasting and exasperating. In 1940 male students were transferred elsewhere so that the school would consist of just the primary section and a girls’ junior technical school. By 1943 the latter had the second-largest enrolment of all technical schools in the state. Bursting point had been reached three years later, prompting the purchase of Alexander Reserve. But nothing was going to happen in a hurry: it was not until 1953 that the first 4 wooden classrooms were built on the land. Girls and teachers still commuted between the old and new school for various classes.

Over the next nine years the Portland site underwent a transformation as several adjoining cottages were bought and demolished to extend the playground. Finally, after much petitioning of department and parliamentary officials, permanent new buildings were opened in 1962. A well-equipped, purpose-built girls’ technical high school was an inducement to pursue and succeed in secondary education. The venture flourished and rich traditions of innovative education (both vocational and academic) were established. A name change to Port Adelaide High School in 1974 meant the enrolment of 20 boys at senior level, a departure from the previous girls-only policy. It was hardly a success as the admission of boys was never more than a trickle; the school’s name eventually reverted to Port Adelaide Girls’ High School.

Unfortunately by the 1980s even female enrolments were declining and a number of rooms were under-used. They were nicely filled in 1984 when Port Adelaide Primary School moved across from its historic home on Grand Junction Road: the latter was now a very busy and noisy highway. An established child-parent centre moved with the primary children to share the campus with the older girls. The whole site was given over to the primary school at the end of 1995 when the girls high school closed.

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References E. Chinner Schoolbells ringing

Dickey & Martin Building community (Port Adel. Central Mission)

C. Murphy Of ships, strikes and summer nights

H. Northey ‘Schooling in Port Adelaide’ 1850-88

Flinders Journal of History and Politics 1987

G. Ross Index of private schools. Port Adelaide District 1841-1910

Council Rate Assessment books

Education Department archives

Kalaya Children’s centre records

Kindergarten Union of S.A. annual reports

Mayors’ annual reports

Port Adelaide Primary School records

Portonion vol 6/1

Sands and McDougall directories

11.1 Three Early Reserves

The original 1850 town plan of Portland Estate provided three strategically placed reserves. The most impressive was Montpelier Square at the centre of the village. Elliptical in shape, the reserve interrupts Gracechurch Street at roughly its central point. Gracechurch Street and the roadway around the square are among the broadest thoroughfares in Portland and yet the allotments facing the "village green," although larger than average in the subdivision, were not regarded at first as a desirable address or quickly snapped up. Even in 1884, the year Portland was annexed to Port Adelaide, only one resident is listed there, and stabling was apparently a favoured land use. The square’s lack of appeal was probably due to its low lying topography and the District Council’s habit of storing roadmaking materials there. There was little choice given that no works depot existed and indeed practically no work force: tenders were called for nearly all municipal undertakings on the Estate prior to annexation.

The hardworking councillors had plenty of problems to contend with before considering niceties such as public parks. Recurrent flooding, the state of the embankments, raising the level of the whole village, getting the rates paid and regulating slaughterhouses, piggeries and stray animals that "injured the footpaths" were constant challenges.

A meeting of ratepayers in July, 1875, resolved that "a fair amount of the rates be expended on the front of the district [Commercial Road?] for improving same and preventing nuisances." From this we get an indication of what their priorities were. At the same time there were residents who yearned for a more amenable environment. The District Council clerk was instructed to write to Dr. Schomburgk, Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, asking for a supply of trees suitable for neighbourhood streets. Some years on, in 1879, when there were still no established parks, a proposal that Montpelier Square be filled in and planted with trees was quashed by the chairman himself. His reason: the embankment was insecure.

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No improvement in the parks department had been made by the time Portland amalgamated with Port Adelaide. The Estate's poverty and lack of sophistication are reflected in an inventory of the District Council's "plant" at this time. On the list we find one wheelbarrow, one pick, one shovel, one plank - all hand tools and quite rudimentary.

What followed annexation was rapid progress by comparison with Portland’s first 35 years. At the time of the momentous move, the Port itself had no recreation ground and the only attractive walk in the district was at Alberton cemetery where beautiful wattles bloomed. The situation was very different in Adelaide, a township by which Port Adelaide liked to measure itself. Colonel Light’s plan lavishly bestowed parklands and squares on the capital city whereas solid ground at the Port was too hard-won to be sacrificed to "unproductive" use. Besides, the purpose of ports worldwide was trade and manufacturing; by nature they were unadorned, work-orientated localities. Shortly however there were protests that the Port’s leading lights should become less engrossed in their business pursuits and make provision for the aesthetic needs of the community. Thus the town Corporation was stung into action by popular demand.

After 1890 the Mayor’s annual reports record consistent attention to planting street trees and making parks. And the Corporation demonstrated its even handedness by establishing "green spaces" in all wards as equally as possible. Given those endless concerns about flooding, embankments and raising the level of the town, it is quite astonishing that there was time (and energy) to devote to beautification, and understandable that it took a long time to achieve. The 1895-96 report declares "Montpelier Square is fenced and planted with trees. [There are] two other reserves triangular in shape, one of which is very useful for stone-breaking, depositing ashes, etc." The useful site was probably Princes Street Reserve, bordered by Princes and Smith Streets with a laneway on the western boundary. No further reference is made to this land. Presumably it continued its useful function as a minor depot as long as road formation require it.

The other triangular park was enclosed by Leslie Place, Smith Street and another nightcart lane. Called Leslie Reserve, it was very small, you need a magnifying glass to spot it on the old plan. In 1910 it was fenced and planted with elms; three trees would surely have shaded it completely! It is interesting that fencing was considered the first essential step in forming a reserve, a notion opposed in modern practice.

Montpelier Square commanded quite a lot of attention, and in time it became a good address by Portland standards; many of the houses that were to face it stood on double blocks of land. The park has undergone a number of facelifts over the decades. In 1912 "old" trees were removed and replaced. By 1928 the square had deteriorated badly and was redeemed by a surprise innovation: a children’s playground, the first in the Port district, was installed and it was felt the park had never looked better. Twenty years later the playground was completely refurbished thanks to the zeal of Councillor T.J. Mildrum and the generosity of the Apex Club of Adelaide. British Tube Mills and the Cyclone Co of Australia also contributed. The novel facility was immensely popular: local children delighted in a variety of slides, swings and merry-go-round. A new drinking fountain increased the appeal of the Apex Club playground.

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With the post-war industrialisation of Portland and an attendant loss of population, the playground was used less and less, and the park became quite neglected. In 1994 Port Adelaide Council allocated funds to clear away the now derelict equipment and broken fountain, converting the reserve into a tidy park in the process. The Port Adelaide Women’s Service Association donated several benches and a new bubble fountain, marking the occasion with a plaque that commemorates the good works of their past members.

At present Montpelier Square is a rather forlorn spot with just the benches, plaque and defunct fountain to recall earlier times. It should still play a role as a midday haven for nearby workers: a refreshment kiosk would be an asset.