Books about Port Vincent

Port Vincent : shipping port to pleasure resort Alan Jones (1994)

SA. A Brilliant Blend

Port Vincent, known as the water sport centre of the Yorke Peninsula, is the ideal location for fishing, boating and sailing.

The attractive and peaceful bay provides swimming for families, while spectacular walking trails take you along the cliff top north of the town with stunning views across Gulf St Vincent and new marina. Port Vincent is one of Yorke Peninsula's most popular resorts, with a permanent population of 470, which rises dramatically at peak periods, and during this period the bay is full of boats.

The townsfolk take pride in their beautiful town and in 2004 won the KESAB tidiest town award. The marina has 90 berths and a boat ramp.

Port Vincent not only offers water sports, but a spectacular walk that takes you along the cliff tops to a lookout, past the marina and through a scenic valley. You are also able to see a pioneer well, and rocks that have been dragged from Victor Harbor by a glacier.

Initially called Surveyor's Point, the town of Port Vincent was laid out by an Adelaide Solicitor in 1877. The town, historically like most of the towns on the Yorke Peninsula, is an old port. It was once one of the old landing spots for the ketches going up and down the peninsula.

Captain Matthew Flinders explored the coast of Yorke Peninsula in 1802, naming bays and geographical features; he did not however name Port Vincent bay. Surveyor Robert Cock was commissioned to survey land around the area, he named the township, Port Vincent and called the bay Port St. Vincent. Pastoralists took up sections of land facing the bay and in 1854 some of the land was sold and wheat crops were grown. By 1869 wheat farming began replacing sheep runs, the grain needed to be shipped to Port Adelaide and 1877 the construction of a jetty at Port Vincent began.

Port Vincent differed from other ports on the peninsula coasts in two ways. Firstly the jetty was privately built and owned and secondly it was the only port on the eastern coast to have a wharf. (This was constructed in three stages between 1902 - 1909, and the jetty demolished in 1918). From 1877 -1970, Port Vincent thrived as a port by shipping bagged grain and receiving general supplies. In 1970 a grain silo opened at Port Giles and bagged grain was phased out as bulk handling of grain took over.

Port Vincent was also the homeport of full time and part time fishermen, fishing licences were introduced in 1904. The introduction of Government regulations in the late 1970's saw many changes to the local fishing industry. In 1960 there were 11 full time fishermen fishing from Port Vincent and today there is only one. The end of bagged grain handling could have seen the end of Port Vincent as a town: instead it was the beginning of a new era.

With a magnificent coastline and sheltered bay, Port Vincent became a popular retirement town and holiday destination and continues to grow in popularity today.

District Council of Yorke Peninsula - History of Port Vincent

The point on which Port Vincent stands was originally called "Surveyor's Point"* for it was from here that the Sixteenth Special Survey began in 1839. *Price Centenary Booklet, Page 62.

The township was surveyed in 1839* and the Government Auctioneer at the time, Robert Cock, named the town Port Vincent**. Colonial Architecture in South Australia, Page 32. **Place Names of South Australia.

It is a popular for holiday makers and retired people. It also has a small fishing fleet. The township celebrated its Centenary Year in 1975 and a Time Capsule, to be unearthed on 12th April, 2075, has been buried near the foreshore.

The one hotel in the township, the "Ventnor Hotel" built in 1879, is interesting in that it was originally called the "Port Vincent Hotel." In 1912 it came into possession of the Ponder family who changed the name to Ventnor after the locality from where they came on the Isle of Wight. Eileen Ponder, their daughter, later married Thomas Hardy of South Australian wine fame. One of their four children is Australia's famous yachting Knight, Sir Thomas Hardy*. *"The Sunday Mail," 9th January, 1983.

Farmers are often referred to as "Cockies," e.g. "Wheat Cocky," "Cow Cocky." The name is an abbreviation of "Cockatoo" which was used about 1850 to denote a small farmer who "Just picked up a living like a cockatoo does maize."*

*"The Advertiser," 22nd May, 1982.

Port Vincent, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Thanks to Roger Jenkins for this article.

From coastal grain port to holiday resort

Port Vincent is located approximately half way down the east coast of the Yorke Peninsula, and is about a two hour drive from Adelaide via the national highway 1, then turning off just north of Port Wakefield onto the Copper Coast Highway, then several kilometers along, southwards onto the St.Vincent Highway (formerly known as the 'Coast Road').

Port Vincent can also be easily reached by sailing across the Gulf of St. Vincent from the Adelaide foreshore, a distance of approximately 60 km.

Back in the early days of South Australia, people from the developing city of Adelaide would quite often sail over for a day’s fishing, or general coastal exploration of the Yorke Peninsula. Especially land-holders seeking new pastures for their livestock.

Various South Australian government ventures for the residential sale of town allotments were promoted from about 1852, with three large allotments totaling some 500 acres being taken up for cropping, the majority being on high ground to the west of the town. The first really successful residential land sales occurred in September of 1877, when the fledgling Advertiser newspaper advertised residential allotments for sale in the 'Beautiful Township of Port Vincent'.

During the years from 1852 up to 1877 the only access to the town area, then called 'Surveyor’s Point', was by coastal sailing ketches. Coming close in shore on high tide they sat on the sandy bottom during low tide and farmers with horse and cart went out to each ketch and unloaded the in-coming cargo by hand onto the beach. Sometimes when the ketches could not get in close enough to the beach, small boats were used to unload the cargo. Any out-going cargo to Adelaide was handled in the same manner.

Early in 1877 private enterprise stepped in and decided to construct a jetty and cargo shed at almost the center of the horseshoe-shaped long sweeping bay. The jetty commenced at the high tide mark, almost where the current Deli now is, and running out into the bay for a distance of 120 feet, x 16 feet wide. The cargo shed was constructed at the shore end of the jetty. A tram track was added to the jetty enabling horse-drawn jetty trolleys to be used to collect cargo from incoming ketches and deliver it to the cargo shed where it was stored until collection by various owners. Outgoing cargo was also loaded onto the ketches the same way.

The track was a single track for the first sixty feet, then double-track out to the sea-end of the jetty. Upon completion of the jetty and cargo shed, the Government of the day then decided spend about one thousand pounds on levelling the inland sandhills, and metalling the access track for a distance of 28 chains, (1,848 feet), which greatly increased accessibility to the jetty and general beach area. In doing so they encouraged Adelaide people to gradually move to and construct homes in Port Vincent.

As the surrounding land was all privately owned, the Government could not do any official town surveying. Therefore all the town’s allotments are privately surveyed with varying degrees of accuracy. Allotments vary from quarter acre up to nearly three-quarter acre, with very few being 100% square, which over the ensuing years has led to some very interesting boundary fence lines!

By 1899 the jetty and tram track were showing years of heavy use so it was decided to construct a wharf. This was duly commenced in early 1901 with the low-lying land to the north of the old jetty filled in and the first hundred feet of the new wharf constructed, followed in two more stages until the wharf stretched some 450 feet.

A Government contracted dredge deepened the shipping channel and swinging basin to 1400 feet out to sea. Two pile-mounted channel markers were also erected at the same time. During 1905 the shipping channel was extended to 2000 feet, and another pile-mounted channel marker erected at the beginning of the now-extended channel.

About 1918 the old jetty was removed with all ships using the wharf, which was safer, and much faster too, especially as the grain handling area was directly behind the wharf and easily accessible from the metalled beach road.

Besides the coastal ketches, small Steam Ships such as the SS Ceres and the SS Star of Hope, and later the SS Juno, carried passengers and general cargo on a regular twice-weekly run from Port Adelaide across the Gulf to Port Vincent from the 1880s up to the late 1920s when larger and more modern steamers took over. They supplied the town up to about 1949 when the motor vehicle transport began taking over with the construction of good roads leading up the peninsula and connecting to the National Highway at Port Wakefield. Local roads were all constructed before 1949, but most were not much more than bush tracks designed for horse and cart or horse and wagon use.

It was only after the construction of the wharf and the surrounding grain storage section that Port Vincent finally started to go ahead and become a small town servicing the surrounding farms. The town gained a flour mill, the Hotel, the General store, tearooms, blacksmith, school, church and in 1907 a Bank Agency. In 1910 the Town’s Institute building was commenced on land to the south of the hotel fronting the Beach Road (now called 'Marine Parade') on the corner of Curramulka Street.

During the 1920s three major oil companies opened storage and distribution depots in Port Vincent. From these depots fuels and lubricating oils were distributed throughout the Peninsula from about Arthurton in the north and southwards to the 'Bottom End' of the peninsula. Port Vincent’s wharf, and its closeness to Port Adelaide led the companies to prefer this location over the other peninsula ports. Vacuum Oil Company (Mobil) was the first on the scene, to be followed by British Imperial Oil Company Limited (Shell), then Commonwealth Oil Refinery, (COR.- now called 'BP').

Although Vacuum had the largest depot area and storage section with holding tanks totaling 14,000 gallons, all their products arrived in 44 gallon drums or in four gallon cans. Shell constructed a fuel pipeline from the town wharf, running along under one side of the main street, to the Shell Depot, where the holding tanks were of much larger capacity. There were two 200 000 gallon tanks and two 100 000 gallon tanks and a 30 000 gallon settling tank, plus other smaller 1 000 gallon tanks as well.

Shell initially used a small oil tanker to supply the town from Port Adelaide, but a fuel barge towed by a tugboat was proved to be cheaper and more efficient to operate, and this method was used up to about the mid 1950s. When improvements to the roads and the more practical use of road cartage fuel tankers came to the fore, the Port Vincent Bulk Storage depots were wound down and bulk storage depots were then set up in all of the main Peninsula towns, with fuel then being delivered by a local agent in each locality. All three bulk fuel depots in Port Vincent were closed by 1960.

In the mid 1960s bagged grain handling was also decreasing with bulk handling becoming more prevalent with the opening of the Wallaroo Silos, followed by the Ardrossan Silos, then in 1969 the opening of the first set of concrete silos at Port Giles. This was soon followed by the opening of the Port Giles Bulk-loading Jetty.

All these changes impacted all the smaller coastal ports. Some survived to become popular tourism or retirement towns, keeping all their local businesses. Others simply became a row or two of holiday homes and not much else.

Port Vincent being already relatively well-known for its safe beach and shallow sweeping bay, which is protected by the south-east sand-spit from southerly gales, was one of the lucky coastal towns. Tourism was already developed thanks to the weekly steam ships that plied the Gulf bringing over holiday-makers from Adelaide on a regular basis.

With the sealing of the Coast Road, now named the St Vincent Highway, in the mid-1960s, access to Adelaide and other regions greatly improved as the average drive by car to the city became about two hours, instead of about four hours on the old gravel road. This attracted many more people to drive over, either for a weekend or quite often several weeks. Some stayed at one of the town’s caravan parks, some at various holiday units, and some hiring a rental cottage. Most kept on coming back bringing family and friends along too. Some bought houses, some bought allotments & built their own homes. Others built investment houses and rented them out for permanent rentals or for short-term holiday rentals.

Some came to retire and enjoy the relaxed lifestyle - fishing, boating, swimming, playing golf, bowls, tennis, or simply taking a quiet walk along the beach almost every day.

If anyone from a 100 years ago could visit Port Vincent today, they would find quite a different town. It has grown over the years, from a small township of about 100 permanent residents, to a fixed population of nearly 500 residents, which swells in the summer months to about 2,000 people, especially during the annual Christmas and January school holidays.

There’s a new sub-division at the back of the main town area with approximately 80 new homes, while along the northern foreshore there is now a new marina with allotments for another 60 homes. Many of these have water frontage and their own mooring pontoons. Near the town centre where the old grain stacks used to be is all grassed picnic areas, and two car-parks plus public conveniences. The wharf has been reduced from some 450 feet down to about 100 feet in length with a short fishing jetty added to the northern end. Almost every day in hot or cold weather one can find a local or two fishing off either the wharf or the jetty. During holidays the wharf and jetty are packed with people of all ages having a go at attempting to catch a fish or two,- and sometimes they even catch a blue crab or two as well, without even trying.

In 2003 the Port Vincent Community was awarded the 'Best South Australian Rural Community'. In 2004 Port Vincent was pronounced 'The Tidiest Town in South Australia' and went on to win the Australian Tidiest Town Award for 2004. This was a fitting reward for the many hours the local Tidy Towns group of volunteers spend every year recycling bottles and cans and keeping the town’s beach front and park land neat and tidy. Local primary school children who are taught to take pride in their town also help, and contribute through the School’s Marine Studies Centre and various other local community activities.

During the year groups of students from other schools come to stay at Port Vincent for a week at a time to learn or improve their swimming, sailing and various other aquatic activities organised through the Port Vincent Aquatics Centre.

Today Port Vincent has a modern 7 day IGA supermarket, hardware store, two service stations, a butcher, deli, beach-side kiosk, hotel, coffee shop, hairdresser, chemist, news-agency, real estate office, two churches, primary school, Post Office, various Community clubs and groups including Senior Citizens, sports store with kayaks, bicycles, etc for hire, plumber, several builders, electricians, gardening services, a landscape designer, and a wooden toy maker/ designer.

For the tourist, there’s two caravan parks both with modern self-contained cabins, plus a selection of independently-owned holiday cabins, flats, units and homes for holiday rental, which are crammed to capacity during the peak holiday season over the Christmas New Year period. The Port Vincent annual New Year’s Day Gala happens at this time. The main foreshore section is closed off and becomes a fairground for the day. Craft items are for sale in the institute hall and numerous stalls with items for sale/ display along the street, with music entertainment supplied by a live band. At the completion of the Gala Day there is a fireworks display on the stone breakwater adjacent the foreshore caravan park. The spectacular display lights up the bay and the foreshore area.

Researched by Roger Jenkins, Port Vincent, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.

Historic information sourced from the Port Vincent History Book, and various local tourism information sources.

Copyright © Roger Jenkins, August 2012.

Port Vincent. SA Memory

Beginnings
In 1839 the Adelaide Survey Association organized the surveying of two towns on Yorke Peninsula: Port Vincent and Port Victoria, on opposite sides of the Peninsula. Neither survey resulted in land being taken up, in part because of the economic downturn in South Australia in the early 1840s and also because the quality of the soil and the lack of surface water were disincentives. Initial reports had been exaggerated. However the land was seen as suitable for grazing and a number of large sheep runs were established, including that of Gum Flat Station operated by George Anstey and Thomas Giles, and to the north Stephen Goldsworthy's run which ran from Black Point to Port Vincent Bay.

Then in 1854 three blocks of land facing the bay were sold freehold; 737 acres of land some of which were sown to wheat. This freehold land would later have repercussions for the town of Port Vincent. From 1869 surveying of the Peninsula began as farmers cried out for land. Grazing leaseholds were gradually resumed as Hundreds were proclaimed and towns surveyed.

The port
The earlier sale of freehold land meant that a government survey for a town could not be made at Port Vincent, yet this was declared by many as the best and safest port on the east coast of the Peninsula. To farmers in Curramulka, Port Vincent was the obvious port for their wheat. Ketches used Surveyor's Point, the spit at the southern end of the bay, and then in February 1877 the matter of better landing facilities was taken up privately by Mr Luke Cullen. He erected a jetty 120 feet long, north of Surveyor's Point with 10 feet of water at high tide. A cargo store was built adjacent to the jetty. Hand trucks ran along a railway line from the store to the end of the jetty. Steamers became regular visitors to Port Vincent, still little more than a jetty and grain store.

Charges on a private jetty were necessarily dearer than on government jetties, as the government could afford to subsidise costs for providing an essential service. A private jetty was required to make a profit or at least break even for its owner. The jetty owners also operated the flour mills the wheat was shipped to, and created a monopoly. The farmers who exported through Port Vincent were not getting as high a price for their wheat as those who shipped through Stansbury or Port Julia. As a result they began to agitate for the Government to buy the jetty: the government demurred until finally the lease on the jetty expired in May 1884 and it became the property of the Government. They re-leased for a further seven years, but laid down strict guidelines of operation including that the rates charged be the standard government rates. In 1889 the Government placed the jetties and wharves in the hands of the District Councils. By 1898 when the lease expired on Port Vincent jetty, the District Council of Minlaton (which included Port Vincent) decided it would operate the jetty and harbour itself. In addition they built a new storage shed for goods awaiting shipment. In 1898 Joseph Parsons built another grain store adjacent to the hotel; this however was not near the tramway and necessitated double handling. Council also acquired a stacking area between the road and the beach. Port Vincent now had the same facilities and operated under the same toll structure as all other government ports.

In the early 20th century the wharf was constructed and replaced the jetty: the idea was initially opposed by the Marine Board but Council went ahead anyway. Over a seven year period from 1902-1909 300 feet of wharf was erected. The dredged material from a basin in front of the piling was dumped behind this to form a wharf. Steamers preferred the wharf over the jetty. Loading and unloading was more direct at the wharf, and as the jetty was used less the crane was relocated to the wharf. Then in 1914 the Government resumed control of all country jetties including Port Vincent's wharf. The jetty was demolished in 1918, leaving only the inner 40 feet to be used by fishermen.

The steamer service had finished by 1949, and bulk loading facilities began operating from Ardrossan in 1953. Part of the wharf and the remains of the jetty were demolished in 1956. Bulk handling of grain began from Port Giles in 1970: the wharf area was reduced to 120 feet. Port Vincent's day as a major shipping outlet on the Peninsula was over. A stone seawall was built to replace the demolished wharf. The stacking area for grain was eventually re-developed as a foreshore recreational area.

With no road transport until the 1920s the steamer service was the port's only link to Adelaide: mail, passengers, general cargo, grain and livestock passed through it. For example in 1919, 3827 tons of wheat, 2708 tons of barley and over 5000 sheep were shipped from the port, together other livestock and 706 tons of general cargo. In the same year 919 tons of superphosphate and over 2100 tons of general cargo were delivered to the port. In 1944, 13100 tons of wheat, 4509 tons of barley and 6406 sheep were exported and 460 tons of superphosphate, 750,000 gallons of bulk and cased fuel and oil were received. The last shipment of barley (5851 tons) was made in 1968 and the last shipment of 50,500 gallons of oil received into the port was made in 1957.

With the closing of the port the town lost many opportunities for employment. Many wondered whether Port Vincent would survive. But the 1960s saw a new phase in the town's development: in addition to a holiday resort it gradually became a retirement haven, as city people ceased work and decided on a change of lifestyle. New homes were built; the town grew instead of dwindling or dying.

The town
As the land was privately owned the Government could not a survey a town: private enterprise stepped forward again, and again Luke Cullen was the instigator. He employed a licenced surveyor to lay out a township of 101 allotments between the government road and the spit. The survey was registered and the blocks advertised for sale in September 1877. Allotment 1 was larger than any others and was intended for a hotel: this was under construction by November that year.

A general store also opened in November 1877, but this closed in August 1882 and another was not opened until the early 20th century. A Post Office opened in 1878, but the telegraph was not connected to the town until 1907, many years after other Peninsula towns. At the turn of the century there were still very few buildings in Port Vincent: the hub of the town and its reason for being was the jetty and the grain store.

It was not until the early 20th century that the town itself began to develop. William Harris and his wife Maria arrived in 1903: he was the new jetty toll collector, but also opened a general store, tea rooms and blacksmithy. Another business in direct competition with the Harris's was opened by Sam Sweeney in 1908. One year later the store was taken over by Arthur Sparrow when Sweeney left the business. Sparrow did not however operate the blacksmith's business. A flour mill operated briefly from 1909. The Institute was built in 1910 and became the main venue for dances, concerts and picture shows, and the library. It has been extended three times. An agency of the Bank of Adelaide was opened in Port Vincent in 1906; the Commercial Bank operated a part-time agency from 1909, but this closed in 1930.

In 1911 land along the foreshore and on the northern side of the main road was subdivided into building blocks: not all of these sold immediately, and none of the foreshore blocks were built on until the 1920s.

Electricity in Port Vincent was supplied from 1927 through the garage run initially by Leonard Levick and later by Alfred Perry. The Electricity Trust of South Australia took over in 1953. Until 1959 residents had obtained their water from wells or collected rainwater in large storage tanks. In that year they were finally connected to the reticulated water supply through Minlaton.

Industries
Lime kilns were operated from 1908 to 1929 by Millers Lime Ltd. The kilns were built on the north road out of the town. Limestone in the paddocks was a common and ongoing problem for the farmers and kilns operated at several places on the Peninsula. A full kiln could produce up to 450 bags of lime. A processing plant for hydrated lime was built in 1963 south of Port Vincent but only operated for 10 years.

Fishing was for many years a commercial activity in the town. While many fishermen were part-time with other seasonal work there were full time fishermen as well. They were suppliers not just to the local market, but sent fish across the Gulf to Adelaide, either taking it across themselves in their cutters, or sending it across by steamer. Later in the 1950s Raptis and Sons appointed a buyer and the fish were stored in his chiller before being transported to Adelaide. SAFCOL also had a buyer in the town from about 1966. Whiting was a mainstay of the fishing, but in season snapper could be caught from the Orontes Bank halfway across the Gulf, until a decline in the stocks in the 1970s. The restrictions on licences from 1977 have seen this industry almost disappear from Port Vincent.

The district inland from the coast is concerned chiefly with the growing of barley, although wheat is also still grown. Central Yorke Peninsula claims to produce the finest barley in the world due to the gulfs on each side which create cooler conditions and allow the crops to mature more slowly. This is enhanced by the low nitrogen content of the soil which suits malting barley.

Leisure
A recreation ground was acquired for the town when in 1923 Percival Germein sub-divided some of his land for building allotments and allowed a seven acre space for an oval. Adjoining this were some pre-existing tennis courts. Tree plantings were added around part of the perimeter and some additional blocks were added to the area in 1946 which have allowed for further sporting facilities. As a privately surveyed town, Port Vincent always lacked the belt of parklands of other Peninsula towns, and Germein's act in making this land available allowed the town a central area for all its sports. Bowling greens and basketball courts have been added. Another landowner gave some land for a golf course.

Sailing in the sheltered bay at Port Vincent was a popular activity but the first sailing club was not formed until the summer of 1934-35. A marina has now been built to the north of the town and a walking trail along the cliff top behind features native vegetation and splendid views of the bay.

State Library of South Australia - B 4611

[General description] View along the main street of Port Vincent showing business premises on either side. On the left two men chat outside the Ventnor Hotel with a Buick parked outside. Its plate number is 14562, first registered to G.J. Pickett of Largs Bay in 1922. On the right a group of cars are parked in front of F.E. Sanders' General Store. [On back of photograph] 'Port Vincent / Jan. 1928 / reproduced in "Chronicle" for Jan. 28, 1928.'

State Library of South Australia - PRG 280/1/7/372 The main street at Port Vincent

State Library of South Australia - B 4612

[General description] The tide is out in this panoramic view of the township of Port Vincent showing the sweep of the bay. Scrub in the foreground gives way to cleared land with its neat houses and gardens. [On back of photograph] 'Port Vincent / Jan. 1928 / Reproduced in "Chronicle" for Jan. 28, 1928.'

State Library of South Australia - PRG 280/1/37/366

Two young women tying up their boat at Port Vincent jetty, South Australia. The building in the background is the Ventnor Hotel, which is still there

State Library of South Australia - B 17943 - Port Vincent 1910

State Library of South Australia - PRG 1373/39/79 - Port Vincent 1937.

A house at Port Vincent with two cars, four men and one woman standing in front of it in a staggered pose. From L-R: ?, ?, Lennie Chester, Hewgill Hamilton, and John Moreland.

State Library of South Australia - PRG 1638/5/73

State Library of South Australia - B 32256 - "Juno" at wharf at Port Vincent 1920

State Library of South Australia - B 12701 - Port Vincent 1920

State Library of South Australia - B 17941 - Port Vincent 1900

State Library of South Australia - B 54346 - PORT VINCENT: A home belonging to the "Parsons"

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 13 January 1923, page 23

POET VINCENT. A HOLIDAY PILGRIMAGE.

(By a Visitor.)

Year after year the pilgrimage to Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, and Port Noarlunga, is made by tired and jaded business folk anxious to get away from the turmoil of the city in search of rest and, quiet in the country and the invigorating freshness of the sea. All roads then seem to lead to the south. So it has been for a generation or more. There are a growing number who now turn their eyes to the west, and little wonder! When one has paid a chance visit to any of the charming bays and harbors across the gulf they are likely to be equally astounded at their erstwhile lack of knowledge of the geography of their own State, as they will be charmed with the realisation of the fact that here, within 30 miles of their city, homes, abounds every possible feature that goes to make for an ideal holiday resort.

An easy trip of a mere three or four hours on a neat and trim seaworthy steamer, a good wholesome meal served in an airy saloon, a roomy deck on which to exercise, and one is barely out of sight of the mainland before the cliffs and beaches of the opposite shore are in full view. In another hour holiday seeker and his baggage are snugly housed in a wellkept, bright, clean hotel at the water's edge, where one may tumble out of his cosy bed and in ten strides be bathing in the clear, refreshing water of the sea, enjoy a delightful breakfast of whiting, fresh from the morning catch, appertising bacon and eggs from the farm, or a tender steak. Then he is off for the day with the hand line or rod, with the certainty of good sport with whiting, snook, and other fish which are to be had in plenty within easy reach of the wharf.

Half an hour's sail, or ten minutes by motor boat, suffices to put one on the spot. Squid and coakles for bait are easily obtained. For those who prefer to go farther a-sea, there are big whiting and snapper to be caught, both willing and quick in biting. Rarely, if ever, does a party return without a decent catch. Then for the man with the gun there is plenty of sport with rabbits, hares, foxes and birds. Lovers of coursing will find the district the home of the greyhound, pedigreed dogs, with sportive owners always ready to take a run out with any visitor who appreciates the exercise.

The bay Port Vincent is a natural harbor, with shingly beach and a safe mooring-place for any kind of craft. The surrounding country is undulating and full of rural interest to the city worker. On the farms the password would appear to be, ''Is the kettle boiling?'' and one is always assured of a hearty welcome and a meal on any farm in the neighborhood. The roads are excellent for motoring, and good hotels abound in the district. The Ventnor, at Vincent, is leased by Mr. Jack Heffernan and his sister, and although they have been barely a year in possession, their house has already earned the reputation of one of the best on the Peninsula. The table at the Ventor would be hard to beat anywhere in the country, or, for that matter, in the city.

One of the best sports amongst the fishermen at Port Vincent is Mr. Alf Lockwood, whose neat cutter is usually availnble for visitors. He can accommodate a fishing party of four or five, and is always ready, for a very reasonable charge, to put to sea and cater for the enjoyment of bis party. Amongst the privately-owned craft of Vincent is Mr. McPharlyn's neat motor boat, in which the squire of the village makes his early morning visit to the whiting ground, usually accompanied by a friend or two. There are other delightful bays and harbors such as Port Julia, Pine Point, and Ardrossan to the north, with Rocky Point and Stansbury to the south but for easy, access, good bathing, boating and sheer enjoyment, Port Vincent holds the palm.

Accommodation outside of the hotel is confined to one or two well-kept boarding houses. There is a splendid opening at this charming seaside spot for the enterprising person who has the foresight to build and conduct an up-to-date wellkept residential hotel on any site facing the beach. Judging by the number of families who visited this port during the Christmas holidays, its popularity is evidently great amongst the residents in the neighborhood. Between 50 and 60 motor cars were parked alone the sea front on New Year's Day.

It is only 30 miles to Port Vincent. For a real loaf and an enjoyable holiday. Port Vincent is most alluring.

Port Vincent, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

From coastal grain port to holiday resort.

Researched by Roger Jenkins, Port Vincent, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.

Port Vincent is located approximately half way down the east coast of the Yorke Peninsula, and is about a two hour drive from Adelaide via the national highway 1, then turning off just north of Port Wakefield onto the Copper Coast Highway, then several kilometers along, southwards onto the St.Vincent Highway (formerly known as the 'Coast Road').

Port Vincent can also be easily reached by sailing across the Gulf of St. Vincent from the Adelaide foreshore, a distance of approximately 60 km.

Back in the early days of South Australia, people from the developing city of Adelaide would quite often sail over for a day’s fishing, or general coastal exploration of the Yorke Peninsula. Especially land-holders seeking new pastures for their livestock.

Various South Australian government ventures for the residential sale of town allotments were promoted from about 1852, with three large allotments totaling some 500 acres being taken up for cropping, the majority being on high ground to the west of the town. The first really successful residential land sales occurred in September of 1877, when the fledgling Advertiser newspaper advertised residential allotments for sale in the 'Beautiful Township of Port Vincent'.

During the years from 1852 up to 1877 the only access to the town area, then called 'Surveyor’s Point', was by coastal sailing ketches. Coming close in shore on high tide they sat on the sandy bottom during low tide and farmers with horse and cart went out to each ketch and unloaded the in-coming cargo by hand onto the beach. Sometimes when the ketches could not get in close enough to the beach, small boats were used to unload the cargo. Any out-going cargo to Adelaide was handled in the same manner.

Early in 1877 private enterprise stepped in and decided to construct a jetty and cargo shed at almost the center of the horseshoe-shaped long sweeping bay. The jetty commenced at the high tide mark, almost where the current Deli now is, and running out into the bay for a distance of 120 feet, x 16 feet wide. The cargo shed was constructed at the shore end of the jetty. A tram track was added to the jetty enabling horse-drawn jetty trolleys to be used to collect cargo from incoming ketches and deliver it to the cargo shed where it was stored until collection by various owners. Outgoing cargo was also loaded onto the ketches the same way.

The track was a single track for the first sixty feet, then double-track out to the sea-end of the jetty. Upon completion of the jetty and cargo shed, the Government of the day then decided spend about one thousand pounds on levelling the inland sandhills, and metalling the access track for a distance of 28 chains, (1,848 feet), which greatly increased accessibility to the jetty and general beach area. In doing so they encouraged Adelaide people to gradually move to and construct homes in Port Vincent.

As the surrounding land was all privately owned, the Government could not do any official town surveying. Therefore all the town’s allotments are privately surveyed with varying degrees of accuracy. Allotments vary from quarter acre up to nearly three-quarter acre, with very few being 100% square, which over the ensuing years has led to some very interesting boundary fence lines!

By 1899 the jetty and tram track were showing years of heavy use so it was decided to construct a wharf. This was duly commenced in early 1901 with the low-lying land to the north of the old jetty filled in and the first hundred feet of the new wharf constructed, followed in two more stages until the wharf stretched some 450 feet.

A Government contracted dredge deepened the shipping channel and swinging basin to 1400 feet out to sea. Two pile-mounted channel markers were also erected at the same time. During 1905 the shipping channel was extended to 2000 feet, and another pile-mounted channel marker erected at the beginning of the now-extended channel.

About 1918 the old jetty was removed with all ships using the wharf, which was safer, and much faster too, especially as the grain handling area was directly behind the wharf and easily accessible from the metalled beach road.

Besides the coastal ketches, small Steam Ships such as the SS Ceres and the SS Star of Hope, and later the SS Juno, carried passengers and general cargo on a regular twice-weekly run from Port Adelaide across the Gulf to Port Vincent from the 1880s up to the late 1920s when larger and more modern steamers took over. They supplied the town up to about 1949 when the motor vehicle transport began taking over with the construction of good roads leading up the peninsula and connecting to the National Highway at Port Wakefield. Local roads were all constructed before 1949, but most were not much more than bush tracks designed for horse and cart or horse and wagon use.

It was only after the construction of the wharf and the surrounding grain storage section that Port Vincent finally started to go ahead and become a small town servicing the surrounding farms. The town gained a flour mill, the Hotel, the General store, tearooms, blacksmith, school, church and in 1907 a Bank Agency. In 1910 the Town’s Institute building was commenced on land to the south of the hotel fronting the Beach Road (now called 'Marine Parade') on the corner of Curramulka Street.

During the 1920s three major oil companies opened storage and distribution depots in Port Vincent. From these depots fuels and lubricating oils were distributed throughout the Peninsula from about Arthurton in the north and southwards to the 'Bottom End' of the peninsula. Port Vincent’s wharf, and its closeness to Port Adelaide led the companies to prefer this location over the other peninsula ports. Vacuum Oil Company (Mobil) was the first on the scene, to be followed by British Imperial Oil Company Limited (Shell), then Commonwealth Oil Refinery, (COR.- now called 'BP').

Although Vacuum had the largest depot area and storage section with holding tanks totaling 14,000 gallons, all their products arrived in 44 gallon drums or in four gallon cans. Shell constructed a fuel pipeline from the town wharf, running along under one side of the main street, to the Shell Depot, where the holding tanks were of much larger capacity. There were two 200 000 gallon tanks and two 100 000 gallon tanks and a 30 000 gallon settling tank, plus other smaller 1 000 gallon tanks as well.

Shell initially used a small oil tanker to supply the town from Port Adelaide, but a fuel barge towed by a tugboat was proved to be cheaper and more efficient to operate, and this method was used up to about the mid 1950s. When improvements to the roads and the more practical use of road cartage fuel tankers came to the fore, the Port Vincent Bulk Storage depots were wound down and bulk storage depots were then set up in all of the main Peninsula towns, with fuel then being delivered by a local agent in each locality. All three bulk fuel depots in Port Vincent were closed by 1960.

In the mid 1960s bagged grain handling was also decreasing with bulk handling becoming more prevalent with the opening of the Wallaroo Silos, followed by the Ardrossan Silos, then in 1969 the opening of the first set of concrete silos at Port Giles. This was soon followed by the opening of the Port Giles Bulk-loading Jetty.

All these changes impacted all the smaller coastal ports. Some survived to become popular tourism or retirement towns, keeping all their local businesses. Others simply became a row or two of holiday homes and not much else.

Port Vincent being already relatively well-known for its safe beach and shallow sweeping bay, which is protected by the south-east sand-spit from southerly gales, was one of the lucky coastal towns. Tourism was already developed thanks to the weekly steam ships that plied the Gulf bringing over holiday-makers from Adelaide on a regular basis.

With the sealing of the Coast Road, now named the St Vincent Highway, in the mid-1960s, access to Adelaide and other regions greatly improved as the average drive by car to the city became about two hours, instead of about four hours on the old gravel road. This attracted many more people to drive over, either for a weekend or quite often several weeks. Some stayed at one of the town’s caravan parks, some at various holiday units, and some hiring a rental cottage. Most kept on coming back bringing family and friends along too. Some bought houses, some bought allotments & built their own homes. Others built investment houses and rented them out for permanent rentals or for short-term holiday rentals.

Some came to retire and enjoy the relaxed lifestyle - fishing, boating, swimming, playing golf, bowls, tennis, or simply taking a quiet walk along the beach almost every day.

IF anyone from a 100 years ago could visit Port Vincent today, they would find quite a different town. It has grown over the years, from a small township of about 100 permanent residents, to a fixed population of nearly 500 residents, which swells in the summer months to about 2,000 people, especially during the annual Christmas and January school holidays.

There’s a new sub-division at the back of the main town area with approximately 80 new homes, while along the northern foreshore there is now a new marina with allotments for another 60 homes. Many of these have water frontage and their own mooring pontoons. Near the town centre where the old grain stacks used to be is all grassed picnic areas, and two car-parks plus public conveniences. The wharf has been reduced from some 450 feet down to about 100 feet in length with a short fishing jetty added to the northern end. Almost every day in hot or cold weather one can find a local or two fishing off either the wharf or the jetty. During holidays the wharf and jetty are packed with people of all ages having a go at attempting to catch a fish or two,- and sometimes they even catch a blue crab or two as well, without even trying.

In 2003 the Port Vincent Community was awarded the 'Best South Australian Rural Community'. In 2004 Port Vincent was pronounced 'The Tidiest Town in South Australia' and went on to win the Australian Tidiest Town Award for 2004. This was a fitting reward for the many hours the local Tidy Towns group of volunteers spend every year recycling bottles and cans and keeping the town’s beach front and park land neat and tidy. Local primary school children who are taught to take pride in their town also help, and contribute through the School’s Marine Studies Centre and various other local community activities.

During the year groups of students from other schools come to stay at Port Vincent for a week at a time to learn or improve their swimming, sailing and various other aquatic activities organised through the Port Vincent Aquatics Centre.

Today Port Vincent has a modern 7 day IGA supermarket, hardware store, two service stations, a butcher, deli, beach-side kiosk, hotel, coffee shop, hairdresser, chemist, news-agency, real estate office, two churches, primary school, Post Office, various Community clubs and groups including Senior Citizens, sports store with kayaks, bicycles, etc for hire, plumber, several builders, electricians, gardening services and a landscape designer, a wooden toy maker/ designer.

For the tourist, there’s two caravan parks both with modern self-contained cabins, plus a selection of independently-owned holiday cabins, flats, units and homes for holiday rental, which are crammed to capacity during the peak holiday season over the Christmas New Year period. The Port Vincent annual New Year’s Day Gala happens at this time. The main foreshore section is closed off and becomes a fairground for the day. Craft items are for sale in the institute hall and numerous stalls with items for sale/ display along the street, with music entertainment supplied by a live band. At the completion of the Gala Day there is a fireworks display on the stone breakwater adjacent the foreshore caravan park. The spectacular display lights up the bay and the foreshore area.

Researched by Roger Jenkins, Port Vincent, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.

Historic information sourced from the Port Vincent History Book, and various local tourism information sources.

Copyright © Roger Jenkins, August 2012.

GA1265 - State Records of South Australia

Port Vincent Primary School Date Range: 1896 - ct Inventory of Series Description

Port Vincent is a small coastal town on the eastern Yorke Peninsula, some 187 kilometres from Adelaide. Port Vincent school was established in an old farmhouse in 1896. In 1897, the school had 14 students. The school moved to a new two classroom building in 1914. Enrolment numbers rose to 48 in 1916, with the school averaging 35 - 40 students during the 1930's and 40's. On average, the school currently (2006) has a student body of 25.

In 1994, a Resource Centre was established which houses a well stocked library and superb Marine Studies Centre which receives many visitors each week from all over the State.

The school is co-sited with the Port Vincent Aquatic Centre. Joint programs, including the running of the Marine Studies Centre, benefit both organisations. The school has achieved outstanding success in environmental education programs integrating this subject across the curriculum and has received national and state recognition for its achievements in Landcare, KESAB and Coast Care.

Port Vincent Primary is a P21 school and is a feeder school of Minlaton District School.

Contents Date Range Series Date Range Number of Units Public Access Series Id Series Title

1896 - 1998 1896 - 1998 1 Part Open GRS/8746 Admission registers - Port Vincent School
1897 - 1969 1897 - 1969 1 Part Open GRS/8744 Inspector`s registers - Port Vincent School
1942 - 1947 1942 - 1955 1 Restricted GRS/8747 School journals - Port Vincent school
1946 - 1950 1946 - 1950 1 Open GRS/8745 Welfare club minutes - Port Vincent school