As I wrote at ‘Price’s Jetty’ at Wallaroo, the second jetty to be built at Wallaroo, SA was commenced in April 1880. Two divers died working on the building of the jetty. It was completed in August 1881.
Initially 488m long, the jetty was extended a couple of times, making its total length 855m, although it was very convoluted (twisted).
(Photo courtesy of Neil Cormack, the National trust of SA's Wallaroo branch,
and Doug & Mara Seton)
The jetty became known as ‘Price’s Jetty’ because there was a café and residence belonging to the Price family near the entrance to the jetty.
According to the RAA’s “Mid North and Yorke Peninsula” (1990) by Stewart Nicol, J. Murray Lindsay’s autobiography had stated “The four weeks we spent lying alongside the wooden jetty loading wheat for home were four weeks of pleasure, during which we enjoyed that family hospitality for which, in the days of sail, Australians were famed throughout the British Merchant Service …. Many were the invitations for us boys to visit homes ashore. It was Mrs Price and her family who kept the store at the end of the jetty whose invitations were most joyfully accepted: Mrs Price will never be forgotten by the hundreds of boys who she mothered during their stay in port – having them for tea in their own home, taking them for billy tea picnics to Kadina and Moonta, and on Sundays to the little church on top of the hill, even nursing them when they were sick.”
Nicol himself wrote, “Mrs Price’s home and ‘store’ (it was actually a café), built around 1880, can still be seen on the waterfront, though the jetty has now gone. When the railway (which extended down the jetty) was changed from narrow guage to broad guage in 1927, yet another jetty had to be built – the one you see today.”
“Yorke Peninsula …. A Resident’s Views” by Allan Parsons features this panoramic photo showing both jetties: -
(Source: “Yorke Peninsula …. A Resident’s Views” by Allan Parsons)
Dorothy Fyfe said that a ship cut the jetty in half in the early 1960s, leaving a gap in it. The outer end of the damaged jetty was then demolished about 1964-65. The rest of the jetty was demolished in 1974 (not 1973. It was still standing in January 1974).
Dorothy Fyfe was assisting Doug Seton and his dive buddies to find some lost copper ingots at the site (in the ‘Copper Triangle’) in 1974. Her letter to Doug explained that coastal steamers berthed at the jetty pre-1923 had loaded thousands of copper ingots and some of these had been lost during loading.
Dorothy sent this ‘coloured’ black & white photo of the jetty to Doug: -
This photo can also be seen at https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1177089620451343&set=a.247037393456575
Dorothy also drew up this 1973 map of the jetty for the team: -
(Drawing courtesy of Doug & Mara Seton)
According to the Yorke Peninsula Country Times of February 6, 1974, Doug, Brian Marfleet and Paul Lunn found two copper ingots at the site over the Australia Day long weekend. The jetty was still standing at the time. The two ingots were cleaned and placed in the local museum.
This photo from the newspaper shows people from the Wallaroo National Trust holding the copper ingots and a block of sulphur: -
(Source: The Yorke Peninsula Country Times of February 6, 1974)
The dive team had also found the block of sulphur which had been “shipped to Wallaroo between 1880 and 1923 for use in the local smelters”. They also found several old bottles, crockery and knives.
One of the copper ingots “was identified as being smelted in the late 1800’s whilst the other, bearing the inscription WALLAROO on one side, was processed in the early 1900’s.
Both were smelted at the old Wallaroo plant and were lost over-board during loading operations.”
Both ingots were described as being “in excellent condition, despite a period of some 80 years in salt water.”
A local diver called Geoff Chamberlain had found a copper ingot at the jetty sometime earlier. That ingot was displayed at the Moonta Mines Museum.
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