Ship loading at Ardrossan jetty.

Ardrossan jetty was built in 1877 and extended several years later. The ketch Lulu loading bagged grain at the jetty was built in 1878 in Port Fairy, Victoria. By 1921 she was owned in South Australia by R. Ritch of Port Adelaide, who later went into partnership with Captain Tom Garnaut. Lulu was 43 tons and distinguished by an ugly 'cut off' square stern. Her sailing abilities however were attested by the fact that she at one time held the record time for a passage across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. Lulu was broken up in 1937.

Ardrossan was proclaimed in 1873, and in addition to its grain exports was noted for the development and manufacture of the stump jump plough which was also exported. As Ardrossan was never connected to the state's rail network, its port facilities were vital to the development of the town and the nearby region.

The building of the bulk handling and storage facilities at Ardrossan were the first in the state and would ultimately lead to the demise of other smaller ports on Yorke Peninsula. When BHP built a jetty two kilometres to the south of this one in 1951 which incorporated bulk loading facilities for dolomite and grain, the old jetty became the town's fishing jetty.

Gillespie, James, Traders under sail: the cutters, ketches and schooners of South Australia Largs Bay, S. Aust.: J. Gillespie, 1994

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

ABB Grain: Port of Ardrossan then go to About what we do then Maritime Services

Yorke Peninsula history and heritage: historic ports: Ardrossan

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