Port Adelaide

Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the city of Adelaide. Port Adelaide played an important role in the formative decades of Adelaide and South Australia, with the port being early Adelaide's main supply and information link to the rest of the world. Its Kaurna name, although not officially adopted as a dual name, is Yartapuulti. History Prior to European settlement Port Adelaide was covered with mangrove swamps and tidal mud flats, and lay next to a narrow creek. At this time, it was inhabited by the Kaurna people, who occupied the Adelaide Plains, the Barossa Valley, the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and northwards past Snowtown. The Kaurna people called the Port Adelaide area ‘Yartapuulti’, and the whole estuarine area of the Port River. The entrance to this creek, the Port River, was first reported by Europeans in 1831. It was explored by Europeans when Captain Henry Jones entered in 1834. The creek's main channel was then fed by numerous smaller creeks, and was deep. The navigable channel was narrow and the creek soon faded into swamps and sandhills. At low tide the channel was surrounded by mudbanks. Dry and solid land ended near present-day Alberton.