Watercolour depiction of the jetty at Port Noarlunga. Signed 'J.H.A' in the left bottom corner, with the date '1855' in the bottom right corner. The painting is finely detailed and contains a wealth of information. The jetty extends from an escarpment, on top of which is a man with a horse and wagon; on the jetty itself are four men, a dog and a number of parcels and bundles at the end. Beyond the jetty is a ship at anchor (the ship has been identified as the 'Yatala' by shipping historian A.D. Edwardes), with a row boat and a small boat under sail nearby; a line of rocks is shown beyond the ship and two other vessels are depicted in the far distance. In the foreground are two men launching a small boat into the waves; another man is walking towards the escarpment with two dead birds in his hand and a rifle over his shoulder, with his dog running ahead; a ladder is also lying on the ground.

The jetty was built in 1855 some 30 metres to the south of the current jetty which was built in 1921, several years after the original was destroyed in a storm.

Port Noarlunga was the port for the local area including the township of Noarlunga upstream on the River Onkaparinga. Produce, chiefly wheat and flour, was brought downstream by barge, and then carted across the sandhills by horse-drawn railcars to the jetty for shipment to Port Adelaide and direct to overseas markets. Port Noarlunga was past its peak as a port by the 1870s and when the Willunga trainline was completed in 1915 the small ports along the Fleurieu Peninsula languished as it became more economical to rail the produce to Port Adelaide.

Yatala (Ship)

Towler, David J. A fortunate locality: a history of Noarlunga and district Adelaide: Peacock Publications for the City of Noarlunga, 1986

Colwell, Max The history of the Noarlunga district [Christies Beach, S.A.]: District Council of Noarlunga, 1972

Collins, Neville C The jetties of South Australia: past and present Woodside, S.A.: Neville Collins, 2005

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

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