From Cape Jarvis the coast line tends to the north along the eastern shore of St. Vincent's Gulf. The scenery, as you turn the point, is extremely diversified. Dark cliffs and small sandy bays, with grassy slopes almost to the water's edge, succeed each other, backed by moderate hills, sparingly covered with trees, and broken into numerous valleys. Thus you pass Yankelilla, Rapid Bay, and Aldingis; but from Brighton the shore becomes low and sandy, and is backed by sand hummocks, that conceal the nearer country from the view, and enable you to see the tops of the Mount Lofty Range at a distance of from eleven to twelve miles.
Port Adelaide, a bar harbour, is about nine miles from Glenelg, and situate on the eastern bank of a large creek, penetrating the mangrove swamp by which the shore of the Gulf is thereabouts fringed. This creek is from ten to eleven miles in length. Its course for about two miles after you cross the bar is nearly east and west, but at that distance it turns to the south, and runs parallel to the coast; and there is an advantage in the direction it thus takes, that would not be apparent to the reader unless explained. It is, that, as the land breeze blows off the shore in the evening, and the sea breeze sets in in the morning vessels can leave the harbour, or run up to it as they are inward or outward bound.
Port Adelaide
The landing-place of the early settlers was too high up the creek, and was not only the cause of great inconvenience to the shipping, but of severe loss in stores and baggage to the settlers; but at the close of the year 1839, Mr. McLaren, the then manager of the South Australian Company commenced and finished a road across the swamp to a section of land belonging to his employers, that was situated much lower down the creek, and on which the present Port now stands. The road, which is two miles in length, cost the Company 12,000 pounds. It has, however, been transferred to the local Government, in exchange for 12,000 acres of land, that were considered equivalent to the sum it cost.
The removal of the Port to this place was undoubtedly a great public benefit; and whatever perspective advantages might have influenced Mr. McLaren on the occasion, he merited all due praise for having undertaken such a work at a time when the Government itself was unable to do so. Both the wharf and the warehouse belonging to the Company are very creditable buildings, as is the Custom House and the line of sheds erected by the Government; but the wharf attached to them is defective, and liable to injury, from the chafing of the tide between the piers, which are not placed so as to prevent its action. Mr. Phillips' iron store is also one of a substantial description; but there was not, when I left the province, another building of any material value at the Port. Numerous wooden houses existed in the shape of inns, stables, etc.; but the best of these were unfortunately burnt down by a fire a few days before I embarked for Europe. Whether it is that a misgiving on the minds of the public as to the permanency of the Port has been the cause of, and prevented the erection of more substantial and better houses at Port Adelaide, it is difficult to say; but any one might have foreseen, that as the colony progressed, and its commerce increased, the Port would necessarily have to be moved to some part of the creek where there was deeper and broader water, for the convenience of the shipping. I felt assured, indeed, that the removal of the Port would take place sooner than was generally supposed. The following extract from the South Australian Gazette of the 4th of December last, will prove that I judged truly:--
"NEW ROAD TO THE NORTH ARM.--This road was commenced last Tuesday week; and at the rate at which the work is progressing, will be completed (except as regards the subsequent metalling and ballasting) within four months from the present time. The line adopted is the one which was proposed by Mr. Lindsay in 1840, as requiring less outlay in the original construction than either of the other lines proposed. Taking Adelaide as the starting point, the course will be either along the present Port Road between Hindmarsh and Bowden as far as section No. 407, thence along the cross track between that section and section No. 419 (preliminary), as far as the southeast corner of Mr. Mildred's section, No. 421; then in a straight line through the last named section and Mr. Gilles's, No. 2072, after leaving which it passes through an opening in the sand-hills, and then winds along the highest ground between the creeks, leaving the South Australian Company's road about a mile on the left, till it joins the main road or street running through section G. at the North Arm; or through North Adelaide and along the road at the back of Bowden, parallel with the main Port Road as far as Mr. Torrens' residence, to the south-east corner of Mr. Mildred's section, thence through that section as before. The soil of the so-termed swamp, or rather marsh, is of the most favourable description for embanking and draining operations, consisting at the part of the line where the work has been commenced, of a good loam for the first spit, and then clay to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, resting upon a stratum composed for the most part of shells of numberless shapes and sizes, which extends to the bottoms of the drains (four feet), being the level of high water at spring tides, and at about the same above the low-water level. The shelly stratum continues below the bottoms of the drains to an uncertain depth. From the commencement of the 'Swamp' to the Great Square or public reserve at the junction of the North Arm with the main channel of the Creek, the distance along the line of road is 4800 yards, or nearly two miles and three-quarters. The breadth of the road between the ditches will be 114 feet, or between three and four times the breadth of the Company's road."
If there is anything more justly a subject of congratulation to the Province than another, it is the commencement of the work thus notified. The road is now, in all probability, finished, and that part of the creek rendered available where these permanent improvements may be made, without the fear of any future change; and when the shores of the North Arm shall be lined by wharfs, and the more elevated portions of Torrens' Island shall be covered with houses, few harbours will be able to boast of more picturesque beauty. There was something dreary in sailing up the creek with its dense and dark mangroves on either side, and no other object visible beyond them save the distant mountains; but the approach to the new Port will not fail to excite those pleasurable feelings in the heart of the stranger which give a colouring to every other object.
The removal of the port to the proposed locality will bring it within three miles of the bar, and will be of incalculable advantage to the shipping, since there will no longer be any delay in their putting to sea. The following letter, addressed by Captain Lipson, the Harbour-master, to the Colonial Secretary, in reference to the improvements that have been effected at the bar, will best explain its present state, and the description of vessels it will admit into the Port.